<p>If the interview is not very significant, ED does not change much, summer programs don’t help, what besides numbers and stats helps you gain admission into Dartmouth?</p>
<p>Any one?
I really want to know Because Dartmouth is my number one and I want to know what I can do besides improve my stats.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone on this board can answer your question, because we’re not admissions officers.
My guess is that:
I’d say there’s two ways to improve your chances:
- Do really well at everything. Ace your interview, write a good essay, have excellent grades (4.0), have amazing SAT’s (2380+), be active with extracurriculars, esp. during the summer (e.g. through programs). And also, have a really good friend recommendation. </p>
<ol>
<li>Do well at everything (high grades, extracurriculars), but be exceptional in one area. E.g. be a nationally ranked athlete or Olympic medalist (no joke), or do research and be the first place finalist in the Intel talent search or westing house, or publish a book (not hard) but one that’s worth publishing (hard), be a debater with lots of national awards, etc. Or a combination of the above.</li>
</ol>
<p>Early Decision actually does help. Possibly a lot.</p>
<p>Although at my school, not too many students got in ED this year (5 vs 11 last year), most students with my stats or slightly better (I got in ED) were waitlisted or flat-out rejected in the RD round.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, I didn’t really have a hook, wasn’t a legacy, athlete or URM and didn’t have great ECs.</p>
<p>getting off CC helps</p>
<p>i agree with dckloud; there is no way for any of us to tell you what to do, because we are not admissions reps. tiny things help your app, like geography or gender or even what your intended major is. it’s impossible for anyone else to know what goes on behind the admissions doors.</p>
<p>It must be said that to a certain extent, there is a large ammount of randomness- not luck- involved with Ivy League Admissions. First of all, I would tend to disagree that applying Early Decision is to a “normal” applicant’s advantage (white, middle class, east coast). Early decision is the time when Ivy League colleges pick and choose who they need- lower class, URM, legacy, athletes. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE HIGHER ACCEPTANCE RATE EARLY DECISION- for a normal applicant, applying early to the Ivys is not an advantage. </p>
<p>Consider my own application- I applied ED to Penn, and was deferred, and eventually denied. A friend of mine applied ED to Columbia, was deferred, and eventually denied. Both of us received likely letters for Dartmouth! Another friend of mine was accepted at Harvard, waitlisted at Dartmouth. </p>
<p>I believe that it is very important to not sell yourself short in any way during the process; the last thing you want to feel like on April 1st, D Day (decision day), is that you wish you had tried harder in high school. Good luck!</p>
<p>does publishing a novel really help?</p>
<p>if you win plitzer’s</p>
<p>I agree with dckloud’s advice in general, but I was [neither</a> amazing at everything nor nationally ranked in anything in particular](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=302463"]neither”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=302463), and I was accepted as an international student with significant financial aid (Dartmouth is not need-blind for international students). I did write a very good essay and submitted a visual arts portfolio, but I don’t know if either of those things were what got me in. It’s really impossible to predict.</p>
<p>I was neither a URM nor an international champion at anything. My academics helped a lot, I guess, but I was a lil worried bout my extracurriculars. I’m very interested in films, but I’ve never won any award, or filmed anything. But that doesn’t mean I’m just another Star Trek fan; I’m a fervent writer of reviews and I’ve produced a number of scripts. I showed that in my essay; I showed how passionate I am. And I got in.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I wasn’t perfect at everything, or nationally recognized in anything either. </p>
<p>What I said was just an idea of the type of student Dartmouth will nearly always accept, and what Jack77 should strive to be if he wanted to improve his chances.</p>