3.9/32 ACT-- school options?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At a Sidwell or Cathedral or GDS or Potomac, this kid is probably competitive (not likely for a <10% acceptance rate but possible) for any school in the country. At a less elite private, you should probably look more in the 20-40% acceptance range, which includes NYU, BC, and SLACs that aren't AW.

Elite is the most overused stupid word. We just learned the past few days that elite=fraud

[Anonymous]

The question was where are your kids with these stats getting in. I can do research; I know the websites. Was just curious where other similar kids are looking at. We get some conflicting information about chances at various places so was just wondering. 3.9 UW, 32 ACT?

[Anonymous]

There are so many other factors. I'd look at the stats directly on school websites (outside sides can be outdated, even BigFutures) or in Common Data Sets, and look school by school.

Very very roughly, top-10 national universities with a 32 will be super-reaches (not impossible, but pretty unlikely, without even getting to the low acceptance rates). For the rest of the top-50, there will be a continuum from reasonable reach to high match to match. Check the most recent scores, as there are schools in the 20-40-ish range where the 25th percentile used to be 31 and may have moved up to 32. Where the range is 31-34, I'd put a 32 at high match to reasonable reach, considering the 3.9 gpa should pass muster, and depending on the acceptance rate (when the rate is under 30%, I'd probably have to say reach). For safeties, I'd look down the national university rankings to somewhere well beyond top-50, probably the back quarter or so of the top-100.

[Anonymous]

*outside sites

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are so many other factors. I'd look at the stats directly on school websites (outside sides can be outdated, even BigFutures) or in Common Data Sets, and look school by school.

Very very roughly, top-10 national universities with a 32 will be super-reaches (not impossible, but pretty unlikely, without even getting to the low acceptance rates). For the rest of the top-50, there will be a continuum from reasonable reach to high match to match. Check the most recent scores, as there are schools in the 20-40-ish range where the 25th percentile used to be 31 and may have moved up to 32. Where the range is 31-34, I'd put a 32 at high match to reasonable reach, considering the 3.9 gpa should pass muster, and depending on the acceptance rate (when the rate is under 30%, I'd probably have to say reach). For safeties, I'd look down the national university rankings to somewhere well beyond top-50, probably the back quarter or so of the top-100.

I don't think so. I would say Tulane is a low Reach/ High match and they have a range of 30-33. A 31-34 for enrolled students would put you in Emory, Tufts, Gtown territory. Do you think those are matches?

[Anonymous]

so hard to tell from all the sites etc how much the ACT will be weighted vs lots of other things. Will the 32 ACT mean that he is at the low end of what they look at even if he has good grades, good classes, good ECs?

Tufts, BU, URochester--are these all complete reaches? what others could be targets/safeties-- in Northeast.

[Anonymous]

Emory, Tufts, and Georgetown are high reaches for this kid. With a 34, I’d call it a reach.

URochester and BU could be considered reaches, but the business and engineering schools are more difficult to gain admission to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At a Sidwell or Cathedral or GDS or Potomac, this kid is probably competitive (not likely for a <10% acceptance rate but possible) for any school in the country. At a less elite private, you should probably look more in the 20-40% acceptance range, which includes NYU, BC, and SLACs that aren't AW.

NYU is not in the 20-40 acceptance range. 2018 was 18% and this year had more than 84,000 applicants so the acceptance rate will go down significantly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:so hard to tell from all the sites etc how much the ACT will be weighted vs lots of other things. Will the 32 ACT mean that he is at the low end of what they look at even if he has good grades, good classes, good ECs?

Tufts, BU, URochester--are these all complete reaches? what others could be targets/safeties-- in Northeast.

1) Your high school really matters. The college counselor can tell you the stats for students from your school who were admitted to these any any colleges.

2) You can also search for the Common Cata Aet for every college on their websites. There is an admission section where tell you things about who enrolled including the range of test scores for the students on the middle 50% (so now the lowest 25^ or the highest.

You want your kid to be well above the 75% mark to be a possible match. But at a school with an overall admission rate below 20%, know that being in the top quarter isn’t a guarantee.

2) Big safety schools would be SUNY Binghamton, UMass, U Vermont etc. Not a safety but look at Brandeis too.

[Anonymous]

1) Matches: You should get into places like Holy Cross, Dickinson, BU, Bucknell, Lafayette, Villanova, Lehigh

2) Reaches: but likely to get in to one of these if the rest of application is good: BC, NYU, Tufts, Rochester, Northeastern, lower-ranked NESCACS

3) High Reaches: Any top 25 school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are so many other factors. I'd look at the stats directly on school websites (outside sides can be outdated, even BigFutures) or in Common Data Sets, and look school by school.

Very very roughly, top-10 national universities with a 32 will be super-reaches (not impossible, but pretty unlikely, without even getting to the low acceptance rates). For the rest of the top-50, there will be a continuum from reasonable reach to high match to match. Check the most recent scores, as there are schools in the 20-40-ish range where the 25th percentile used to be 31 and may have moved up to 32. Where the range is 31-34, I'd put a 32 at high match to reasonable reach, considering the 3.9 gpa should pass muster, and depending on the acceptance rate (when the rate is under 30%, I'd probably have to say reach). For safeties, I'd look down the national university rankings to somewhere well beyond top-50, probably the back quarter or so of the top-100.

I don't think so. I would say Tulane is a low Reach/ High match and they have a range of 30-33. A 31-34 for enrolled students would put you in Emory, Tufts, Gtown territory. Do you think those are matches?

No, of course they are reaches, but reasonable ones, not virtually impossible (which is why I wrote "high match to reasonable reach"). If the student had a lower GPA, it might be a different story. A while back when I was looking at stats, I was amazed at the number of schools that, at that time, had an enrolled student middle 50 of 31-34, although the acceptance rates of the schools vary quite a bit, as do the SAT ranges and their rankings.

Someone mentioned asking the college counselor. OP, if your high school has Naviance, you might have access to scattergrams, which can be useful, albeit imperfect information.

[Anonymous]

So flip these stats: 3.6 GPA, 34 or 35 ACT, for student at Sidwell/Cathedral/GDS. Are the safeties/matches/reaches roughly the same?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) Matches: You should get into places like Holy Cross, Dickinson, BU, Bucknell, Lafayette, Villanova, Lehigh

2) Reaches: but likely to get in to one of these if the rest of application is good: BC, NYU, Tufts, Rochester, Northeastern, lower-ranked NESCACS

3) High Reaches: Any top 25 school

Move Rochester to the first list (its easier to get into than many the pp listed)
Then pick one on the first list to apply as full pay ED, and you should be golden.

[Anonymous]

what about Brandeis, NYU, Wesleyan?

[Anonymous]

Particularly if you are looking at slacs and are full pay you will get into a lot of good schools. My 30 act 3.7 GPA boy has gotten into umass, Skidmore Dickinson and others in NE. Umass is a good safety to use because they have good EA. Kids from privates with in that range tend to end up at schools like Vasser, Colgate, bates, and similar. Also good bet for PA schools like Lafayette and Lehigh. There are really tons of schools that would be available at those stats.