Likelihood of being accepted into an Ivy?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi everyone. I’m hoping to apply to an Ivy, and I was wondering if I have any shot of being accepted. I’d like to apply to Yale, Dartmouth, and Columbia, as well as other top schools such as Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, and Duke. I’m currently finishing up my second semester of my Junior year of high school. I live in rural Minnesota; my town has a population of 2343 people. My graduating class will have around 50 people, and because of this, we have no IB classes or AP classes. I’ve taken all the advanced classes that my school offers, which are all for college credit. For my senior year, I’m planning to take classes from a local college so I can take more advanced classes. I will still be considered a high school senior. Here are a list of my accomplishments, classes, and extracurriculars. Please be honest with me on my chances; I don’t want to get my hopes up about being admitted when I don’t stand a chance.

My ACT score is a 33, but I’m going to retake it to try and improve my score. I know that my score is low for an Ivy, so I’m going to try and improve. I’m taking the SAT subject tests in Literature and Biology- Molecular this summer.

Freshman Classes - GPA: 4.0
*U.S. History
*Geometry (skipped Freshman math)
*Freshman English
*Chemistry/Physics
*Choir
*Spanish I
*Principles of Engineering (This class is meant for Juniors and Seniors, but I took it as a Freshman- received 3 credits to the University of Minnesota for this class)

Sophomore Classes - GPA: 4.0
*World History
*Sophomore English
*Spanish II
*Choir
*Algebra II (class meant for Juniors)
*Physical Education/ Health (required for all sophomores)
*Sophomore Biology

Junior Classes - GPA: 4.0 (as of right now, though I doubt anything will change in the last few months)
*Computer Integrated Manufacturing (College class - 3 credits to the University of Minnesota)
*U.S. Government
*Human Anatomy
*Spanish III
*Advanced Biology (College class - 5 college credits)
*Public Speaking/ American Literature
*Pre-Calculus (Meant for seniors- college class for 5 college credits)

Extracurriculars
I’ve played piano for 13 years, and I have two jobs with it (I’ll get to my work experience later). I also have sang for 2 years. I’m involved in the One Act play, as well as my school’s Drama department (I run spotlights). I’ve shown horses competitively for 6 years, and this takes a lot of my time. I have to drive 3 hours round trip to ride my horse 3 days a week.I have a horse show almost every weekend in the summer. Most of my shows are in Texas and Oklahoma, which is a huge time commitment for me. I have won many awards doing this, which I will also get to later. I’m involved in my school’s mentoring program, called Big Rebel Little Rebel. This program deals with kids who don’t have the best home lives, and wants to introduce a positive role model into their life. I’m a member of the National Honor Society, and I was inducted as a sophomore (which is a big deal at our school, since most members aren’t inducted until their Junior or Senior years). I’ve been a class officer my 9th, 10th, and 11th grade years of high school. I was the president of my Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior class. I’m also involved in my school’s Mock Trial team. Perhaps my biggest extracurricular (in my opinion, anyway) is that I have two prosperous YouTube channels. I have over 1000 subscribers on my two channels, and have been making videos on YouTube for 4 years. Each video that I make takes approximately 3-4 hours a piece. My channels are ChaoticCouture and 16512read. I’m very passionate about my YouTube work, and I’ve been able to partner with book publishing companies to promote books.

Work Experience
*I’m currently a piano teacher for 8 students. I’ve been doing this since September, and plan to expand to 16 students in June.
*I play the piano and the organ at a local church every other Sunday
*I live on a farm, and I help my family raise pigs. This is very hard work, and we have over 5000 pigs every six months. I do everything, from cleaning feeders to giving injections. Whenever I have a break from school or have time in my summer breaks (even on my birthday, my parents don’t believe in free time :)) I’m in the barns. I have had to load pigs and unload pigs in 90 degree weather. I’ve had to give vaccinations to our pigs almost every summer, which is really difficult. You have to vaccinate the whole barn in one day, and you have to section out groups of 25 pigs at a time to vaccinate. I could really go on about helping with the pigs for awhile, but I think that you probably get the idea. :slight_smile:

Leadership
*9th grade class officer
*10th grade class officer
*11th grade class officer
*9th grade class president
*10th grade class president
*11th grade class president
*National Honor Society member
*Member of my school’s mentoring program for three years
*Member of the Minnesota Junior Paint Horse Club
*Member of the Iowa Junior Paint Horse Club
*Member of the Minnesota Pinto Youth Horse Club

Volunteer Work
*Feed My Starving Children volunteer
*I play piano at local nursing homes in my area. I’ve been doing this since I was six, and it’s something that’s really close to my heart.
*Member of my school’s mentoring program for three years
*Volunteer at my school’s blood drive
*Loaves and Fishes volunteer
*Ditch Cleaning volunteer for my local 4-H

Awards I’ve Won
*Three time winner of the Helen Wipplinger Piano Scholarship
*Tenth place in English Equitation at the AJPHA Youth World Show
*8th place in Showmanship at the AJPHA Youth World Show
*Wells Lions Essay winner - 9th Grade
*Wells Lions Essay second place - 11th Grade
*Minnesota Twins Essay Runner Up
*Reserve champion English showmanship at the Color Breed Congress
*Minnesota Pinto Highpoint Novice Youth
*Minnesota Pinto Reserve Highpoint Youth 13 and Under
*Top Ten Youth in the Nation for the Pinto Horse Association
*I’ve received Register of Merits for English Equitation, Horsemanship, English Pleasure, Hunter Under Saddle, Showmanship, and English Showmanship for the Pinto Horse Association of America
*I’ve received Novice Register of Merits for Western Pleasure, Showmanship, and Horsemanship for the American Paint Horse Association
*I’ve received Youth Register of Merits for Showmanship and Horsemanship for the American Paint Horse Association
*5th place in Western pleasure at the AJPHA Youth World Show
*3rd place in Horsemanship at the Color Breed Congress
*Various highpoint awards for Minnesota Paint Horse, Iowa Paint Horse, and Minnesota Pinto
*Youth Champion Award for the Pinto Horse Association of America
(There, hopefully, will be more by the end of the summer)

I’m blanking on anything else that I should mention at the moment. If there is anything else that you think that I should mention on an application that would make me look better to potential colleges, please let me know. I know I’m not involved in as many extracurriculars and volunteer work as I should, but I’m doing more volunteer work this summer. Please don’t sugar coat it with me. If I’m not good enough to get into an Ivy or one of the top colleges I’m hoping for, tell me, so I can adjust my plans. Thanks in advance for everything!

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SAT or ACT scores? Kind of hard to chance without them.

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Just added them. Completely blanked on that.

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@usualhopeful is right- scores are needed. That being said, you have interesting ECs and the raising pigs story could turn into an interesting essay.

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@usualhopeful and @artie1 I just added my ACT scores, but I plan on retaking. I got a 33, and I know that’s low for an Ivy or a top school.

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It is low for an Ivy, but I’ll give you the “talk” that happens a lot on CC: An Ivy League education isn’t a magic bullet, and it is extremely hard to get into these schools even with near perfect SAT or ACT scores. There are many quality colleges and universities to apply to, so make sure you have academic (and if needed, financial) safety schools. Try a few Ivies but add in middle range colleges and also some safeties.

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Realistically, expect to be shut out of super-selective schools, like most applicants. Be sure to start your list with affordable safeties that you would be happy to attend.

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33’s a bit low for that tier, but at Ivies and similar the 25th percentile is generally between 30 and 32, so it certainly gives you a chance.
Work hard on your essays and you should have a shot at any of these places. I only skimmed a lot of your OP (there’s only so much information needed to say “yes you have a chance” or "no this is unrealistic), but I did notice that you’ll need to figure out which of those horse-related awards are most important and select them. There’s something like 120 characters on the common app to describe an activity and only a few spaces for awards. To start with, don’t include anything before high school.

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Things you don’t need to worry about:

=>APs: if they aren’t offered, they aren’t offered
=> ECs / Volunteer work: it’s not a race for the most- it’s about what you’ve done with what you have done. That usually means commitment over time, increasing levels of responsibility or anything else that show growth, leadership, etc. Fewer / stronger > more / general

Things you do need to worry about:

=> $$- esp with a farm it can be hard to figure out what schools will actually cost your family. Have you had a serious talk about money with your parents?

=> Building your list: maybe it’s b/c the annual wave of anguished ‘I didn’t get into a single school that I like/can afford’ posts has just washed over CC, but please start from the bottom up: identify some schools that you are very sure you can get into (eg, you are in the top 25% stats-wise), that you can afford and that you would be happy enough to go to. I know, the top end is much more fun, but not only can the safeties end up being crucial, but the work that you do to identify them helps you with figuring out what really is important to you. Start by working on what you want from your college experience- location, social life, academic style, subject areas, etc. As you look at possible schools you will find your thinking sharpening.

Somebody else on CC recently used the real estate analogy: you never start by looking at the ‘dream house’ b/c then everything else looks pale in comparison. Look at the starter homes first! Once you have a couple of safeties identified, move up to targets / reaches

=> review your list again and sort through what you like about them- which will help you to find other schools with similar characteristics. Is it the Core curriculum you like about Columbia, or it’s NYC setting- or just that it’s famous? Is it the sports and frats or the southern location of Duke that you are drawn to- or is it just that it’s famous? Do you want to keep riding in college? if so, maybe Rice should be on your list. And so on.

In my experience the (undergrads) that I know who are happy at JHU were not drawn to Duke- and vice-versa. and so on. Both n i c h e and u n i g o have an ‘if you like this, you might like these’ sidebar (I don’t always agree with their suggestions, but it’s a place to start- as is CC, where there are a bunch of regular posters who between them know a lot about an amazing number of colleges).

=> Don’t be afraid to make and remake your list as your thinking sharpens: one of my Ds had a “definite” list- including an ED choice around this time junior year- and in fall of senior year applied to an entirely different list.

And so back to your original question- from here you look like a credible candidate: you have the grades and course rigor, your ACT isn’t a deal breaker (though it wouldn’t hurt if it bumped up a tiny bit on the second go), you have plenty of school leadership and general ECs, and 2-3 really strong ECs. Your recs will presumably be strong, so what it comes down to now is just 2 things: your essays and honing your list, which will both take a lot of work this summer!

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Did I miss this: what major? And what activities related to that major?

And don’t assume about financial aid. You can run the Net Price Calculators (NPC) that every college has, but it will be thrown off by a family business.

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@collegemom3717 Thanks for going into such detail and responding so quickly. I’ve talked to my parents quite a bit about how much it will cost for college, and they have a bit saved for me. They know that it won’t cover all of my costs for tuition and lodging and books and the such, and I will have to take out student loans, but they’ve agreed to try and help me make whatever work. It also helps that my brother isn’t planning to go to a four-year college, though I wish that he would.

As for my safeties, I am definitely planning on applying to Baylor University and TCU. I’m going to visit them next weekend, but Baylor was my dream school for a really long time. I looked at the ivy league and other top schools for reaches, because I know the likelihood of getting in is very low. Some of the schools I listed were my parent’s choices for me, such as Duke. My main reach schools are Dartmouth, Yale, and Johns Hopkins. Each of them have all my majors. I wish Dartmouth was in a larger city, like Yale and Johns Hopkins are. Coming from a small town, one of the big factors for colleges for me is the big city atmosphere. However, I love that Dartmouth offers a degree in genetics, which is something that I’ve always wanted.

I’ve been doing a lot of sorting through my list the past few days after receiving my ACT scores. While it would be nice to go to a prestigious Ivy, what I want most of all is the chance pursue my dream majors, meet new people, and be myself. With a graduating class of 50, there isn’t a whole lot of diversity. I also would like a bigger city atmosphere, though Hanover, New Hampshire doesn’t have a big population, but like I said, I would sacrifice for that genetics degree. As for riding in college, my parents and I have talked that over, and we aren’t sure about riding in college. Baylor and TCU each offer equestrian teams, so if I decide to ride in college, I can try out for one of the teams.

Thanks again for all of your input. I really appreciate it!

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Isn’t this a chance me thread?

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@usualhopeful Thanks for responding so quickly. I’m hoping that I can raise my ACT to a 35 or so on my second attempt. How long do you recommend working on essays for? If I worked on them all summer, would that be sufficient time?

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@artie1 I’m hoping I can increase my ACT score on my second try. I’m planning to apply to Baylor University, TCU, and Boston University, in addition to a few ivy reach schools.

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@Lindagaf Sorry, I’m new to CC and saw college admissions, and thought that this is where this went.

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@lookingforward I’m thinking I’d like a major in genetics, or some type of biology, with a premed emphasis. I’d also like to minor in film, because of my YouTubing. My parents always told me that I should pursue activities that interest me, and living in such a small community, there aren’t any clubs for science or genetics. We’re pretty isolated where I live.

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@ucbalumnus Ok. I’m planning to apply to Baylor University, TCU, and Boston University with a few schools from the Ivy League as reach schools.

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Thanks for all the help everyone!

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You sound great…but when I read about everything you’re doing, it makes me want to go take a nap.
(meaning that it sounds like you have too few hours in the day…when do you sleep?)

Look, find a way to streamline this…to show a true path…and strip away all of the stuff…

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@SouthernHope Finding time to sleep is challenging!