Chance Me for Boston College Transfer Fall 2018

Hi everyone! I’d really like to know my potential chances to get into Boston College as a transfer (sophomore) for the fall eof 2018.

Statistics

I was accepted Regular Decision my senior year.

High School:

I graduated with a cumulative weighted GPA of 96.35. My weighted average for senior year as 99, and my weighted average for junior year was 95. Unweighted averages were 93 for junior year and 96 for senior year. Throughout all of high school I took honors, high honors, and AP-level courses.

Senior Year Coursework (final grades for the year:
AP English (received a 5 on the AP Lit exam and on the AP Language exam): 94
AP U.S. Government (received a 4 on the AP exam): 94
Honors Humanities: 99
Honors Environmental Studies: 97
Pre-calculus: 91
Theater Studies: 99 (only a semester course)
Religious Education (mine was a private Christian institute): 97

(I’ll omit courses from my previous three years, as well as grades from junior year, as I’m not sure how important those are. If they hold a lot of relevance I can post them later.)

Extracurriulars:

-Bowling Team JV member (and Most Improved Player) (11, 12)
-Editor of School Literary magazine (11, 12)
-School Newspaper (9-12)
-Diversity Club officer (10-12)
-Theater (10-12)
-Debate Team (9-11)
-Gaelic Club Member (later President) (10-12)
-Asian Cultural Society (9-12)
-Girl Scouts (Kindergarten-12)

Awards/Special Honors:

-Published in school literary magazine 24 times in two years (11, 12)
-Published in county literary novel as a junior in high school (11)
-Most Improved Player award for Bowling (12)
-Honor Roll (9-12)
-Principal’s List (9-12)
-AP Scholar (12)
-National Hispanic Scholar (11/12)
-Scholastic Art and Writing Awards winner in my Region-at-Large (I received 9 silver keys and six honorable mentions) (12)

Outside of school, I also volunteered quite a bit, including on a political campaign (I later became a paid intern for a short while before it ended), and I edited papers for kids in my area (academic and recreational) as well as online. I also took music lessons for most of high school.

S.A.T./A.C.T. (I took the OLD SAT and NEW SAT):

Math: 500 (first attempt, old), 550 (second attempt, old), 610 (third attempt, new)
Writing: 740 (first attempt, old), 760 (second attempt, old); Essay was a 10 on both old exams and 19 on the new.
Reading: 710 (first attempt, old, and third attempt, new), 720 (second attempt, old)

S.A.T. II’s (Not required, I know, but I’m still proud of two of them)

History: 610
Literature: 710
(I also took one in math that scored rather low so I’m keeping that to myself)

College:

University: Colgate University

Courses:

Computer Science (a 100-level course)
English (a 200-level course)
Legacies of the Ancient World (a CORE required course, level 100)
Acting (a 200-level course)

I’m currently debating whether to drop computer science, as it’s unrelated to my major, and despite my efforts I still struggle (I have another post about whether I should withdraw and deal with a W on my transcript, or try to scrape by with a B- while maintaining A’s in my other courses).

Goal GPA: Presuming I maintain an A in my other courses, I’m aiming for a 3.7 (unless I drop computer science, then it may be higher) by the end of the school year.

Extracurriculars

-Member of the Bowling Club
-Member of the Soccer Club
-Member of the College Republicans Club
-On staff for school newspaper, the school joke paper, and the school literary magazine
-Am apart of the Catholic Community on campus
-Community service through Random Acts of Kindness and Animal Volunteering clubs
-Will soon become part of another political campaign, unpaid volunteer work

I still provide editing services to individuals from my high school and area (it’s a long distance dealing).

Special Achievements

-I am in the process of publishing a chapbook of poetry, and am about halfway finished with my first novel. As an aspiring author and a devoted creative writer, I feel that this is an extremely important accomplishment of mine.

I’m also a Creative Writing major (so English w/ Creative Writing as far as BC goes).

Possible Hooks:

-I am a Hispanic female
-I am coming from Colgate, which (according to some people I have talked to) can sort of be looked at as a hook. It doesn’t guarantee my chances, but if I can do well at a university as prestigious as 'Gate, it will look good for me as a student.
-I took courses at Boston College one summer for several weeks, and earned credit (again, not going to guarantee anything, but it can’t hurt to have not only attended the institution, but to also have done well in its courses as a high school student and to have received credit).
-I am applying for financial aid, but it is not a pressing matter. I would still attend BC if given the chance–while money would be extremely beneficial, I would definitely still go even if they gave me little to no aid.

I don’t know how well, if at all, these “hooks” would work for me, but I just thought I would mention them

So…I think I’ve covered everything. If there’s anything else that I should mention that could better reflect my chances as a student, please let me know. I’m just really curious as to how

Coming from experience as a transfer you probably have an average shot. I would say that if you drop a class while only taking four classes to begin with, that will look bad. Also assuming colgate is like other schools, add drop has ended so you’ll end up with a “withdraw” on your transcripts which can look really badly (they’ll assume you were failing). Then if you’re only taking three classes that is a fairly light course load so they will expect a lot more from you. The other thing to note is that the transfer acceptance rate is usually around 1/3 of the high school acceptance rate, and last year it was extremely low even for transfers. In addition to this, the freshman class is over enrolled, so this would have a direct effect on the transfers that they let in. If the freshman class were to over enroll again it would be even more difficult, as transfers are at the mercy of these conditions since decisions aren’t released until June. I would definitely recommend applying, but either outcome of the decision would not be overly surprising. I had the same exact sats and my college gpa was higher with the same extent of extracurriculars and I got waitlisted and then accepted. HTH

Sorry, what does HTH mean?

Also, thanks for the honesty. Frankly, I consulted BC about the withdrawal, as from what I know Colgate has “withdraw passing” or “withdraw failing” when the W is labeled on the transcript (at least that’s what some students told me). I wasn’t failing, but I explained to an admissions director over the phone my predicament, that the class had a negative impact on my GPA and it was in my best interest to withdraw while I still had a passing mark. She said so long as I made mention of that on my application, and did not leave a W without explanation on my transcript, BC would look at it differently (in her words, they appreciate transparency from students, so while she did not say it would explicitly help me overall, she suggested it would look better than leaving a W for them to guess at).

I’m really hoping to get into BC. Colgate apparently has a reputation for “grade deflation” and for being a rather difficult school overall–I’m not sure if that would help me, as I’m doing my best so far in my other three classes, and am aiming for a 3.7 at least GPA (all A’s in the other classes). I also had quite good essays, which I think helped me in my application last year, so I’m hoping it’ll do the same this time around. Tell me, would you mind sharing some more details about your experience as a transfer student, so I have an idea of what to expect? I’d really appreciate it.

Thanks so much!

@transferapp1997

Oh, I’m also a first-generation college student. From what I’ve seen on various threads on here and other places, that seems to be a hook, so I thought I would mention it.

Anyone else?