My chances for these schools? (Dartmouth, GU, JHU, Cornell, UVA, UMD, GWU, W&M, American)

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi everyone, I’m interested in applying to the list of colleges below and would like some input on the chances of getting accepted into any of them. As I come from a place in the Midwest where no one at my school applies to competitive schools, it would be greatly appreciated if you could include information on whether a school should be a fit, reach, or safety school for me as I find the activity hard to gage myself. Regardless of the university I end up attending, I am planning on majoring in international relations/affairs (or government if applicable) with hopefully another minor(s)/major(s) in one or more foreign languages.

Colleges listed in rough order of preference:

Dartmouth College (probably applying ED)
Georgetown University
Johns Hopkins University
Cornell University
University of Virginia
University of Maryland - College Park
George Washington University
College of William and Mary
American University

Basic Background Stats:

Race: White and Asian (maybe qualify as being Pacific Islander but not sure)
Geography: Small city in Wisconsin
Family Educational Background: Both parents possess graduate degrees

Testing:

ACT Composite: 32 (34 Science, 34 English, 34 Reading, 27 Math)
SAT Subject Scores: 760 Chinese, 760 Spanish, 800 US History
AP Scores Planning to Report: 5 Chinese Language, 5 Spanish Language, 5 US History
Class Rank: 7 out of roughly 215

Grades and Course Load:

GPA Weighted: 4.112 (school does not have unweighted GPA but calculating it myself it came out to about a 3.89)
AP Courses Taken: AP World History, AP Chinese Language, AP Spanish Language, AP United States History, AP Biology, AP English Literature (on my transcript for next year I am taking AP French Language, AP Economics (macro+micro), AP English Language, AP Calculus BC)
Extra Info: I have taken classes in four foreign languages (Chinese, Spanish, French, and German) throughout high school and maxed out the Chinese and Spanish departments and am on track to max out the French department

Extracurriculars:
Recipient and participant in the National Security Language Initiative for Youth program (a highly competitive State Department scholarship/study abroad program awarded to high school students to study critical languages abroad, I went to China to study Chinese)
International Club President
Selected and was a participant in Badger Boys State (Wisconsin’s version of the Boys State government/leadership program run by the American Legion)
Academic Decathlon Team Captain
Model United Nations
NHS Club Member
Forensics Club
French Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society

Any input given would be amazing as I truly am pretty ignorant when it comes to what exactly these schools might be looking for in a international relations/government or language major. Any sort of advice, suggestions, or comments would be immensely appreciated!!!

2

The last 5 schools on your list will be no problem for you! Your scores and profile are both amazing- and I think that those Ivy’s and more competitive schools on your list are definitely a possibility, especially if you write a bomb essay!!! Best of luck :slight_smile:

3

Thank you so much!!! Good luck to you as well!!!

4

@reinian18
Dartmouth College (probably applying ED)- Reach
Georgetown University-Reach/High Reach
Johns Hopkins University- High Reach
Cornell University- Reach
University of Virginia- High Match/ Reach
University of Maryland - College Park- Safety
George Washington University- Low Match
College of William and Mary- Match
American University- Low Match

Retake the ACT for the best chance at your top choices.

5

your chances at the last five schools are incredibly high. i would be shocked if you didn’t get in. the first four are luck of the draw… i think if you apply ED, it would definitely help. the tough part is choosing one that is going to give you the best chance at acceptance. good luck!

6

Dartmouth - high reach. Avg ACT was 33 last cycle and yield was HUGE. I suspect acceptance rate will go down this year as a result. That said, ED is the way to go to really stand a chance.

I disagree that American is a low match. Your stats are way above average for American and it is very much into protecting its yield. I believe you will be waitlisted there.

7

OOS for Virginia makes it a reach.

8

Are both UVA and UMD-College Park substantially harder to get in as an out of state student?

9

UVa definitely is.

10

Does anyone have an idea how hard it will be to get into University of Maryland College Park or College of William and Mary for an out of state student?

11

Fairly hard, but probably not as hard as UVA. UMD has a quota of 70% in-state students, so competition is more fierce for OOS spots. W&M’s OOS acceptance rate was 31% for the Class of 2020 as opposed to 45% for in-state.

I think you have a chance for both of these, but I would categorize them as matches or reaches, not safeties.

American and George Washington are safeties for your scores, but be careful of yield protection as @baxter mentions. You need a more reliable safety. I would suggest applying to University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the subsidaries.

You should also think about financial aid. UVA meets full need for accepted students regardless of residency, but most other publics do not. Could you afford to be full pay at William and Mary or UMD?

12

Virginia’s SCHEV site has stats for in-state and out of state students and they are pretty similar for UVA and W&M (and higher than in-state, but in-state stats are pretty high as well). Maryland will likely be a bit easier, but is getting progressively more selective.