Penn, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Duke and Yale

Applying to College
1

<p>What are my chances of getting accepted into the Penn, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Duke and Yale?</p>

<p>I only took the ACT and received a 32, with a high of 35 in Math.<br>
I’m tied for first in my class with two others in a class of 173.
My unweighted GPA is 4.0 and my school only has one AP class, although I have received several A’s in classes taken at the local university.
I attended the Duke TIP program one summer and took a college finance class this past summer.
I’m from a small town in Missouri.
I have middle of the road ECs (captain of CC team, 3yrs. Student Council, FBLA, Organized and led Hurricane Katrina Victim Relief Campaign, Various Religious Activites, tutoring, etc.)
I have not taken the SAT.</p>

<p>I figure I have a decent chance at Cornell and Vanderbilt, while Penn and Duke are reaches. And, Yale is slim to none. I applied as a business major at Penn and Cornell and as a math major at the other schools. However, I’m just guessing.</p>

2

<p>You look good. In terms of test scores (32 ACT=1420 SAT), I think your analysis looks good. A person needs to be at the middle of the 50% SAT range for the school to be a reasonable reach and towards the top for the school to be a match. You have a problem in that Cornell, Penn, Duke and Yale are all very popular schools for people to apply to, and so they have very low %-accepted numbers (Cornell=29%, Penn=21%, Duke=23%, and Yale=13%). Vandy is a less popular destination and comes in at 46%. Also, Cornell has a slightly higher 50% SAT range. Besides which, no ivy is a match school for anyone. Because of this, the only school I think you can really feel reasonably safe about is Vanderbilt. Your analysis looks good, though, and being a rural valedictorian will help you alot. I think it might be good for you to have a total safety on your list.</p>

<p>If you want another college, you could still apply to Emory which is similar to Vandy in some ways but not others. Emory is in Atlanta while Vandy is in Nashville. Emory doesn’t have sports teams and has a lot of students from the Northeast.</p>

<p>Do you have a financial safety?</p>