Princeton Competitiveness

Colleges & Universities Princeton University
1

The counselor at my school don’t really tell students if they are competitive or not, they just do the paper work and stuff (nothing on them, they’re busy). Nevertheless, I would like to know if I am competitive.

Stats:
31 ACT (which is like a 1420-1440 new SAT)
3.82 Unweighted GPA 4.34 Weighted
62/712-Top 8% of my class
7 AP courses over junior and senior year, 4s and 5s on the AP tests
SAT 2s: 700 Bio, 600 Math 2, 490 Latin (Hope this is is counter balanced by the fact that I’ve had all A’s in my Latin classes, and got a gold medal on my National Latin Exam, which is the highest score)

Extracurriculars:
President of School Cultural Club- We do volunteering at refugee centers, put on cultural shows, host guest speakers, etc.

NSLI-Y Arabic Alumni- Went on a State Dept. Scholarship to Study Arabic in Morocco over the summer. It is very selective, I am intermediate level one in Arabic a result.

Council on American-Islamic Relations intern- As governmental Affairs Intern, I get statements from politicians (national and local), arrange conferences, create voter guides, and register Muslims to vote. **I’m not Muslim

Varsity Football and Track- Good, but not recruit-able

Model UN-Pretty Self explanatory

Boy’s Council Mentor- Mentor of disadvantaged sixth grade boys at Woodland Elementary. My job was to teach leadership skills, and help the kids with school.

Catholic Charities of Southwestern Ohio Volunteer- I helped relocate refugees in the Cincinnati area. I stocked homes with goods, using my Arabic skills to make the refugees feel at home.

I work as a sales associate at Old Navy

Other Stuff:
Hooks: URM (Black), Quadruplet
Essay: Excellent-Writing about being a quadruplet led to me discovering my passion for International Relations
Recs: Good to Excellent.

I plan to major in International Relations or International Political Economy with a minor in Arabic. I am not applying to Princeton early, because I can apply early to Georgetown, UChicago, University of Michigan, and The Ohio State University all at the same time. But, I’d prefer to go to Princeton out of all of those.

2

PTon is simply insanely competitive. You’re viable --although I would recommend retaking ACT to increase if possible.

3

I’d also retake the Math 2 SAT2 (and not submit the Latin SAT2). A 700+ score gets you in range.

4

Lol too late for that. I stupidly do the free score report thing, so my scores we sent before my knowledge of them, so Princeton has that 490 from the June testing date. But, wait they only require two subject tests, and only consider your two best ones.

5

@psywar

6

being a quadruplet URM is certainly interesting. Try to bump your ACT a couple points and take another subject test so you don’t have to send the 600. Good academic rigor and class rank

7

Bump

8

Thing is, one can check the info the school offers. The mid 50% of ACT scores for enrolled is 32-35. They don’t show the ACT admit stats, but you can cross check their SAT admit info. If 31 is about a 2030 (old SAT, the info P is showing for the class of 2020,) that’s a 4.2% admit rate.

The 3.82 includes a number of non-A grades, eh? It will matter what courses those were, especially if related to your IR/econ interest. P shows that gpa at the bottom of a range with a 5.5% accepted rate. Since you’re on the cusp, the next lower group shows 3.3% admitted. At this point, we don’t know how many of those were athletes or other special cases.

NSLI-Y and the internship are good, possibly very good. As an IR major, you really should be giving them a humanities Sat 2, other than Latin, to give them an idea of that strength. For some form of econ, they may want a higher math Sat 2. And I’m not sure whether the quad/IR thing might be as effective unless you included bits about Morocco, whipped up some interest.

So my answer: eyes wide open. They may love your involvement in international affairs. or they may have other choices. I’m actually not discouraging you from applying, you’ve done some interesting things. I do think you’d be an interesting match. Just know you are on a cusp. And go back and be sure the essay includes the right highlights. And read everything you can on their site, to be informed. Good luck, keep us posted.

Adding: your ACT subscores can matter more than composite, for a tippy top.

9

Thanks for the feedback @lookingforward . My essays totally highlight my IR interest and nsliy experiences. My common app essay is about how being a quad forced me to find my own identity, which I based upon international relations and arabic (and how this led to my nsliy scholarship). And my supplemental essay is about using my Arabic skills one day to aid marginalized Afro-Arabs (Black Arabs) in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt among other places (racism is rampant in the Middle East). Also more interested in IR than econ, but those B grades were explicitly in science/math courses (I got 2 Bs in Honors Chemistry, and one in Honors Algebra 2 in sophomore year (YIKES)). But I’m still 10% of my class, so I hope they just realize my school is competitive.