Do I Make the Academic Cutoff for Yale, Duke, and Vanderbilt?Answered
Hey, I'm a Black, Muslim male who goes to a small public charter STEM-Based school just outside of Houston, TX that offers 15 APs and 6 Dual Credit courses. My dad is a doctor who makes 6 figures consistently yet is an immigrant to this country. I have a 1480 SAT and plan to major in Medical Anthropolgy/Global Health/Health and Society/History of Science. In 9th grade, even though my school offered honors and APs, I couldn't take any because my school required us to have a specific PSAT score to take those courses, which I didn't have. In 10th grade, when I received the necessary PSAT score, I took 4 Honors classes and 1 AP, and received a 5 on the AP exam; my GPA went up significantly. In 11th grade, I planned to take 3 Honors classes and 3 APs. However, due to schedule conflicts (I found out about this in August when I went back to school), I was only able to take 2 APs and 2 Honors. And even though I continued to make all As and I received 5s on both AP exams (AP Lang and APUSH) my weighted GPA went down. During this time, however, I still wanted to academically challenge myself. I couldn't take other APs because my school required us to complete a month-long summer assignment for each AP class we wanted to take. And I couldn't do Dual Credit with local colleges because the deadline passed. So, I decided to take 4 Coursera courses in Biology and Chemistry courses created by Stanford and Johns Hopkins University during 11th grade. (I didn't know you could take AP exams without taking the course) In senior year, I'm now taking 3 APs (AP Cal AB, AP Lit, and AP Bio) and 2 dual credit courses (Dual Government/Economics and Dual Anatomy and Physiology), and my cumulative weighted GPA so far is a 4.46, and even though I'm top 20%, my rank isn't that high. However, by December 2022, I expect it to jump to a 4.5 and be top 17% with my senior grades. (Just to add, every single morning, I spend an hour during religious classes based on the Quran and spend an additional 90 minutes each week reciting Quran to a teacher). I received the National African American Recognition Program Award and AP Scholar award and advanced to HOSA state competitions in 2020. (Most of my extracurricular activities center around religious activities like interfaith, community service, medical-related activities, and journalism activities) With all of this, do you believe I make the academic cutoff for Duke, Vanderbilt, and Yale?
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4 answers
Hey, another fellow Muslim here!!
I am also interested in the same schools as you, so I can try to do my best to help. Your weighted GPA is actually really impressive and so are your extracurriculars. Your awards are really good as well and that is something that you should definitely mention on your application! your AP exam scores are really great and with your situation about the AP classes, it's alright, as for selective colleges there isn't a magic number necessarily as long as it doesn't hurt your grades or stop you from doing extracurriculars. You seemed to have tried your best throughout your time in high school which is good as well. With your GPA and academics, you have a great chance of getting into Yale ( average weighted GPA- 4.13), Duke ( average weighted 4.3), and Vanderbilt (unweighted average GPA- 3.8). Overall, keep going and get a good score on the SAT or ACT and stay on top of your classes and go ahead and keep challenging yourself.
I found these articles that should help you with getting into Yale, Duke, and Vanderbilt as well (the last one talks about AP classes):
https://www.campusreel.org/how-to-get-into-college/yale-university-admissions-requirements-and-gpa
https://www.campusreel.org/how-to-get-into-college/duke-university-admissions-requirements-and-gpa
https://www.collegeconfidential.com/colleges/vanderbilt-university/admissions/
https://blog.prepscholar.com/how-many-ap-classes-should-you-take
Also if you don't mind mentioning what you do exactly in your journaling activities as well, that would be appreciated
Hopefully, this helps!
So recapping your profile
Black Male Muslim, not low income, not first generation applicant, 4.0UWGPA,4.5WGPA, 6 APS (3) 5s, religious ECs, class rank 17%, 1480 SAT, STEM major, Texas domicile. 4 Coursera classes.
I think you make the academic threshold for all these schools based on being Black and Muslim. I do not think you are a compelling applicant for Regular Decision for any of these schools. Why? I think you are light on your course rigor because 6 APS is on the low end of the scale for these schools. You mentioned your school offers 15 APs and you only took 40% of them. I think most admits at these 3 schools have between 8-11 APS.
I don't see any strong leadership roles like President of the Student Body, or Team Captain of a Varsity or Club Sport, no significant leadership in your cities like being a Board Member or Student Rep on the School District DEIA committee. The awards and honors are light. AP Scholar is not really that significant for taking 3 APs. And ranking 17% is not impressive when most admits like 90% at these schools are in the top 10% of their graduating class. Lastly, Coursera classes are not that impressive compared to taking real college courses which many admits at these schools do. I don't see any independent research, internships, published articles, or serious intellectual vitality.
My recommendation is to apply ED or SCREA to Yale and see what happens. Do not assume you are going to get into any of these schools. I think you are a strong waitlist candidate or deferral candidate for Early applications to these schools.
I would re-evaluate your college list and maybe consider these schools as great choices as well.
Cornell, Dartmouth, JHU, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, CMC, Colby, Bowdoin, Tufts, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Emory, Georgetown, Rice, Boston U., Tulane, UVA, UNC, UMichigan, Colgate, Hamilton, Vassar, Bates, USC, NYU
Safeties - UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UT Austin, Baylor, Villanova, UMiami,
What is your unweighted GPA?
Just above, you got a detailed answer. Your grades and impressive extracurricular activities should help you get in. However, you seem to be a strong waitlist or deferral candidate for early applications to these schools. You have listed many of your achievements, and I recommend that you mention this when submitting documents. The next step would be choosing a college admission essay writing service. You can use https://edusson.com/admission-essay-writing-service which provides a top-rated custom admission writing service by professionals. This will help you focus on other aspects, such as school location and security. I mentioned the last one because you emphasized that you are a Muslim. Good luck to you.
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