Lowest Score Possible for Elite School Applicant with no hooks

MYOS1634
Sat, 18 May 2019 09:46:37 +0000

Apply but remember your odds are incredibly low in any case.
The major you apply for (Humanities v. Stem) will matter.
Your job right now isn’t to prep manically in the hopes of getting 740 on the math section.
Your job right now is to talk with your parents wrt budget, run the NPCs with them on your state Flagship as well as one of HYPSM. Then, identify two affordable safeties you’d enjoy attending. This is hard, because it means stripping your dream schools of prestige and identifying what exactly attracts you to them. These criteria in turn should be how you identify “fit” colleges. These would have a 30-45% acceptable rate, be affordable, and match your preferences wrt fit. Anything with an acceptance rate below 30% is a reach and should be looked into only after you’ve found safeties and fit schools.
Finding the ‘fit’ criteria and the affordable safeties takes a long time but is essential since many students aiming for highly selective colleges end up going to their safeties and, sometimes if lucky, their fit schools. These schools should be the ones where you show interest and visit because no one likes to be a second or third choice, so they need to make sure you’ll come.