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SAT's 1500 (710 verbal 790 math)
Sat II's (Taking in october) Physics,US Hist, MathIIC
Class rank 4 of 235
Gpa 5.17 (or something close)

EC:4 years tennis (2JV 2Varsity 3captain) Ohio Council of Teacher's mathmatics exam (some high result i don't remember). Mock trial (junior year only) Key club.
[I saw too many people fudging there National Honor Society forms so I decided not to join.]

I come from a VERY rural Appalachian college town (yes trailer parks and all) but I'm the son of two doctors, and not poor. It seems to me that I haven't been very involved in extracurriculars but I'm a stellar student. All my teachers love me. Our podunk little town doesn't offer nearly as many clubs as the preps schools that other posters come from. (Math National Honor Society, I could be in that within two blinks if we had one!) Will this hurt me?

I'm applying to four to six schools.
OhioU, Villanova, Notre Dame (my dad went there), and either Harvard, Princeton, or Yale.

Yale sent me a booklet/application and the other two didn't. Do you think that means they're interested in me or are they just trying to lower their acceptance rate? Do I even have a reasonable chance at these schools? Will my geographical location fill some quota helping my chances? Do I have an advantage at Yale because they sent me a booklet? How does being from a poor public high school compare to lets say the most competitive private high school in Connecticut? Finally, Harvard has early action, Yale has early descision, and Princeton has early descision and forbids applying to other schools early action. Should I apply to Harvard? I'm leaning away from Yale because of New Haven (wow it's almost as dirty as home!) but if I have an advantage because of the booklet it might be better to apply early descision...

Sorry for the barrage of questions, but I'd like to hear other people's responses.

(My sixth sense tells me that if I do apply to these schools early action/descision I will be deferred/denied and then waiting-list/denied.)

By ben7787 on Saturday, September 21, 2002 - 11:25 pm: Edit

yea i got stuff from harvard and yale but no princeton or standford. whats up?

By kevin on Sunday, September 22, 2002 - 12:03 am: Edit

gregon I've gotten the same thing from yale. It comes with thier application if we're talking about the same booklet. At the same time I've gotten one from harvard and MIT but I dont' think I'm qualified enough to deal with the competition at any of these schools. I'm guessing that its your high SATs that they are looking at when they send you the applicatoin but I don't think it means anything at all because I got one from like 5 other colleges that I have no chance at.

this is not to say that I don't think you can get into yale..its probably worth a shot, but my advice would be to apply to the school that you want to go to the most rather than the one that you think you have the best chance at because they are all very very tough and if they really wanted you you would have recieved a recruitment letter by now.

By Gregon on Sunday, September 22, 2002 - 08:01 am: Edit

I got letters from Duke, Dartmouth, Yale, MIT, CALTECH and others.

After the info session was over at Yale, my mom went up to the presenter and asked him why we got the application/booklet. He said that they buy the SAT scores and only send out a few hundred a year. My guess is that they think I'm poor and that I wouldn't apply for fear of financial reasons.

(I think the colleges scam us by buying the scores and then making us pay money to send them.)

By Gregon on Sunday, September 22, 2002 - 08:11 pm: Edit

Anyone guess what my chances would be?
I LOVE percentages!

My guess would be the acceptance rates listed at US news and world report.

The first time I took the sat I got a 1350 which wouldn't have been all that bad had it not been for the huge gap between my math and verbal (600V 750M). After retaking, I got a 1500 and the mail stopped coming. A letter from duke, and some other schools showed up. Then they stopped.

My dad is an alumnus and a donor (nothing gigantic though) of Notre Dame. After I got the 1350 we both thought I had a chance at getting in. Now we both are confident in my ability to get in. What do you think? Are we being foolish, it IS the 19th ranked school in the nation after all. GO IRISH! I am catholic but did not attend a private school. Villanova is that a good enough safety, I was quite pleased with it and would be more than happy to go there if all the other schools failed. Should I be even safer and continue with my original plan of applying to OU? (Ohio University will accept ANY applicant of my town if they have an 810 and a 2.5 GPA)

By Gregon on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 - 11:20 am: Edit

bump

By Gregon on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 08:55 pm: Edit

bump, I feel like I'm playing volleball

By Father Ted on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 08:10 am: Edit

Chances are good at ND, the bump in SAT score puts you above 75% of 2002 admits- legacy status helps as 25% of admits are reserved for a domer legacy, such as yourself. Villanova is a good safety, but you might look across town at Ben Franklin's Penn, Cornell, Columbia, and do apply to Princeton and Harvard. Apply EA to ND!
GO IRISH!

By barb on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 12:19 pm: Edit

Don't go to Ohio U.