Which School Should I Apply for Early DecisionAnswered
I am looking to apply early decision for one of my top schools. I am white (middle eastern), and black, and currently have a 1210 SAT, though I haven't prepped at all and am taking it seriously this june, and I also have a 3.75 unweighed GPA with a lot of APs and Honors Courses and ECs.I am a junior. I wanted to know which schools have the highest increased admissions chance for early deicsion- my top schools are University of Chicago, Georgetown, UVA, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Yale, and Columbia. I plan on applying as a Econ Major and Phil Major. Is there any way to figure out which schools would give me the highest increased chances if I applied early decision?
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2 answers
Hi @thanksno, as you are aware, college acceptances rates are plummeting and this also means ED rates as well. Intuitively, I would say that in order of difficulty your list would look like Harvard (7.9%), UChicago (unpublished but around 10%), Columbia (10.3%), Yale (10.9%), Georgetown (12%), Brown (14.6%), Dartmouth (20.1%), UVA (25%)
Your 1210 and 3.75 GPA do not make you an ideal candidate for any of these schools. Even the least difficult one to get into ED which is UVA typically has UWGPA of 3.90+ and Middle SAT of 1400-1550 extrapolated from the Class of 2025 statistics. If you can grind this summer and up your SAT by 200 points, then I would apply to UVA. The other schools will require a 1500+ score at a minimum I feel. Even Georgetown's middle is now 1500-1560.
I have 2 practical suggestions,
1. Go back to the drawing board and curate a new list of schools that you would be happy to attend. Do some thorough research on their ED statistics rates and pick schools whose avg. SAT middle range is between 1150 and 1350. Also pick schools where the average GPA is between 3.7-3.8. (some off the top of my head suggestions would be Skidmore College, Trinity College, Villanova University, (Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, if you are female), Connecticut College, Clark University, Franklin & Marshall, Muhlenberg College, Union College.
2. If you come from a low income background (less than $70K family income), I would apply to Questbridge and try to get into the college match program. You are still on the low side for such a program but you have time to improve your SAT scores and maybe get your GPA up a little bit. The deadline has already passed for the QB College Prep Scholars program which is open to Juniors.
As a mixed race person of color, you do have a hook however I do not think the bump it gives you puts you in the running for any of the Ivys or Elites early decision or early action.
Maybe this is not exactly the answer you are looking for but I think other experts, if they weigh in on this question would come to a similar conclusion.
Good luck.
I studied at the University of California and can definitely recommend it.
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Hi yeah those were just my reach schools haha that I planned to trim down, I have some targets and more safetys like American Uni, Georgewashington, etc.