<p>"Can't Vassar be a safety (90% safe not 100% safe) for some applicants? Looking at the scattergrams for our highschool 100% of kids with unweighted averages over 97 and 100% of SAT scores over 1450 got in last year. I'd consider Vassar pretty darn safe for the top kids in our school."</p>
<p>YMMV, however I know a student with over 1500+ SATs, from a selective private school, who was not accepted at Vassar.</p>
<p>That's why it's 90% not 100% :)</p>
<p>A teacher offered to write me an extra recommendation on finding out that I was deferred (to be used for other colleges, not Yale). Should send in her letter to schools like Harvard, Williams, etc.? Their websites only mention additional supplementary letters from OUTSIDE school; they don't even talk about a third teacher recommendation.</p>
<p>Is a supplementary rec. that is purely academic (I had her last year, but only once, though had a great experience in her class) appropriate, or redundant? I know Yale doesn't like excess information. Browsing the old threads, I couldn't find any regarding a supplementary TEACHER rec. Though some did say "the thicker the file, the thicker the applicant." :eek:</p>
<p>I am not sure sending in more recommendations etc etc etc is really worth it at this point. As other posters on this thread have said put aside Yale for a while and focus on your other applications. You are a very impressive candidate. Good Luck</p>
<p>Does it REALLY add anything? What do you want to emphasize? Would a recommendation from an EC accomplish more? Think about what your strongest "message" or "profile" is. Recommendations are a major tool for presenting that.</p>
<p>There are two circumstances that come to mind where I might go with this recommendation.
If you have reason to believe that one of your original recommendations was not as strong as this teacher's would be or was otherwise problematic, by all means consider going with a recommendation from this teacher as a substitute teacher recommendation -- then you still would be talking about only having two teacher recommendations.
The other situation would be where you have some information that you want to get to the committee but it is something that is best coming from someone other than you, or you need someone to echo, emphasize, or expand upon something you are saying in your part of your application. If you can be candid with this teacher, he or she may be just the person to help you out by writing for you. Then you need to decide whether what this person will write is important enough to merit submitting a third letter. It's a balancing act, in other words.</p>
<p>I also know top students who have not gotten into Vassar. Especially girls. It's much easier for boys.</p>
<p>I agree with janineny in my definition of a safety. Only one is needed. But I would have one -- and it should not be a selective private. </p>
<p>As for spelling errors -- yes, it is possible that glaring spelling errors could have contributed to the deferral. I had one small spelling error in a writing sample once, and didn't get the job.</p>
<p>Sorry to butt in on thykingdomcome's thread, but these postings came up when I did a search.</p>
<p>Two questions: 1. I had a long-term sub last year who could probably write me a great recommendation. We hit it off; she's super sharp; and she told me after she left (met up with her in local libe.) that it made a huge difference to her that I kind of took a leadership role with other kids in welcoming her, treating her respectfully, letting her know what was really expected by reg. teacher, etc. (She took over for a VERY popular math teacher, having cancer treatment, and class was all set to compare her to him, and all set to resent her and give her a hard time.) I honestly hadn't done any of that deliberately, but, you know, the church upbringing kicks in...</p>
<p>I can still contact the sub. But she isn't on any faculty anywhere right now, and I had her for less than half the year. Would a recommendation from her seem like I am really, really desperate?</p>
<ol>
<li> About safeties: I am kind of like thykingdomcome (but not deferred from Yale, so not her competition, THANK GOD!!!!), applying to same sorts of schools RD. But I do NOT want to go to a real safety (state U. in the midwest / sucks). I figure that even an 80% chance at a better school works as a safety if I apply to two OTHER schools with 75-80% chances of acceptance. In other words, I wouldn't have just a single school that is a "safety," but my safety would be the aggregate percentage chance of being accepted by AT LEAST ONE of the three good-chance schools. Maybe more accurately, I would be counting on the very small (numerical) percentage chance of being REJECTED by all three (four?) low-match-y schools simultaneously. (Does that make sense?)</li>
</ol>
<p>Besides, I think a gap year (even if I have to apply to a different set of good RD schools next fall) is waaaayyyyy better than going to a school I would hate for four years.</p>
<p>Thykingdomcome -- send me your essay if you want; I am sure you're a good speller overall, but I LIVE for spelling! (Don't read posts too closely; they don't count like "real" writing.)</p>
<p>Thanks, parents!</p>
<p>To the OP,
I noticed in another thread you'd listed your intended major as Literature. With your ECs and interests, why didn't you list Classics? That may increase your chances at certain schools when you can back it up with NLE and JCL awards.</p>
<p>Oh, for the common app I put Literature + Classics, and for the Yale supplement which only allows one intended major my guidance counselor said I should put literature since grade-wise I was stronger in that area. Sounds like a mistake, huh? Also, my parents thought classics might actually hurt me since it's obscure, but after many months of CC I see that clearly that is not the case.</p>
<p>Bringing this thread back to life, for newer, better, foreward-looking reasons!</p>
<p>Would any parent like to critique my essay for me? My friends have already read it. I think it will be my common app essay, so it's pretty important to me.</p>
<p>My main concern is the word length and whether it shows enough about me, since it's also about another person who had an enormous effect on me. It's over 500 and I'd mainly like to hear if it's wordy or boring.</p>
<p>Thanks again to all the parents who helped me finalize a college list.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My main concern is the word length and whether it shows enough about me, since it's also about another person who had an enormous effect on me.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>There aren't any reasons why an essay of 700 words could not say the same thing in 500 words. The difference being that the shorter essay does it in a much better way! It is amazing what powerful editing can accomplish. </p>
<p>While I am quite certain you do know this, the essay should be about one person: YOU. You must have your reasons for having chosen to talk about another person, but if you have to delete parts of sentences, the obvious choice should anything that is not about you. The adcoms do not care a bit about the other person --regardless how wonderful and influential he or she might have been. The adcoms WANT to admit one subject of the essay, and that person is you! </p>
<p>Edit mercilessly!</p>
<p>Okay. I've decided to make this into a semi-journal documenting my college process. Hopefully it will help next year's applicants and give a fuller picture of acceptance/deferrals/rejections and deciding and other craziness than just stat threads.</p>
<p>So on 12/29, I sent out the Princeton app using paper, also using their application, since I felt doing both allowed me more space. The professor I worked with on my summer research job sent in a supplementary rec for me, as a few parents on this forum had suggested.</p>
<p>12/01, I sent out my last application, it was to Amherst. Thanks Marite for reviewing my essays!</p>
<p>The final college list for me was: Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, Harvard, Princeton, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Middlebury, Skidmore. I know that many parents believe I am taking a risk with this rather unsafe list; I acknowledge that I am. My parents and decided it will be okay for them if I take a gap year, so I have that as worst-case.</p>
<p>12/05, Updated Yale with a new award. Guidance counselor called and said she got some information from admissions, but is not allowed to tell me (?!).</p>
<p>12/05 Eeeek, sent in a friend's peer evaluation. College of her choice said lateness on my part would have no impact on her application. Phew.</p>
<p>12/05 Also recorded video of me skiing, as was suggested. I highly doubt I'm going to use it, but it doesn't hurt to have the tape around.</p>
<p>Currently working on coca-cola semifinalist application, which apparently is now due six days later than I thought.</p>
<p>Over and out!</p>
<p>In my opinion you will get into 7-8 of the 10 (10 including Yale).
I think the only things that hurt you with Yale the first round is demographics (Asian American) and the discrepancy between your Sat I and Subject Tests.
Look forward to some wonderful schools fighting for you!
Best of luck!</p>
<p>Thykingdomcome, when I was a kid many decades ago, I let a lot of things get under my skin. When I was about 14, I was in the Boy Scouts. There was an event called the klondike, in which scouts towed a heavy wooden sled through a woods and stopped at various stations to learn things. The morning of the Klondike, my father asked me what I wanted to take along to eat, and I said a sandwich. He asked if I wanted white bread of whole wheat. I said white. While I was getting dressed, he made my lunch.</p>
<p>It was a particularly cold and snowy day, and only 4 of us showed up from my troop. So we had a really rough time towing that damn sled around the course. When we stopped for lunch, I discovered that my sandwich was on...whole wheat.</p>
<p>When I got home that evening, my father asked how it went. I told him it was brutally cold and only 4 guys showed up, and that to add insult to injury, my sandwich was on the wrong bread. My father just looked at me and said the words that changed my life: "Yeah, you don't always get what you want."</p>
<p>He had been born to immigrant parents during World War I. His father was bar owner when Prohibition hit. A decade later came the Great Depression. A few years later, the Johnstown Flood wiped out his city. Then he was drafted into World War II, and was an infantry officer in Europe. He came back to the US after the war and opened up a restaurant in Detroit with his brothers...which was soon taken over by gangsters, so they lost everything. Then complications from a war injury put him in a Veterans hospital. So he knew a little bit about things not going exactly how he wanted them to go.</p>
<p>12/05, Updated Yale with a new award.</p>
<p>What is that award?</p>
<p>if you're applying to wellesley and mt holyoke and you like northampton, why not apply to smith? your stats seem to indicate you'd be a strong candidate, and the classics department is small but good (in my admittedly limited experience of taking 1 year of Latin--with the best prof I had in all 4 years of college--and being friends with a classics major). Being able to take classes at the other 5 colleges (including UMass, which has intensive summer programs and one of the best-regarded programs for training high school Latin teachers) really increases the number of classes available to you. And I found that it was a lot easier to live in the town you like and commute to class than to live out in the boonies (and mt. holyoke IS...other than the college bookstore, there's not even a place to buy toothpaste within walking distance!) and travel for nightlife. </p>
<p>Anyway, feel free to PM me about Smith or other stuff. I was deferred and later rejected from an Ivy League school when I was applying, and sometimes I think I should write that dean of admission a thank-you note. I didn't know it at the time (in fact I cried for days), but I was much better suited to where I ended up.</p>
<p>To thykingdomecome, Regarding your final college list, my D is a first-year student in one of the LAC's you listed. Keep us posted on your progress, and should that LAC is still on your list comes decision time, my D can answer questions or help you during your visit. Your list does include good safeties and matches. I trust your parents are also happy with it. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Water: I'd rather not say in case it reveals my identity.</p>
<p>Stacy and Padad: thank you both!</p>
<p>1/10/07: Sent out Coca Cola scholarship application through priority mail. Oh boy.</p>
<p>Coming up: Interviews, will post details about questions asked soon.</p>
<p>if the fact that other students in your class also got deferred and that is getting you down, just remember that there are thousands of other ED applicants who got deferred with you. The HYP's are really like a lottery and have little to do with your qualifications as a top student.</p>
<p>The list of RD applications is a good one and any of these colleges will be fortunate to accept you into their Class of 2011. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>1/13/2007:</p>
<p>Just back from my Harvard interview. At my interviewer's house, wore nice dress pants with a nice yellow shirt. My interviewer seemed displeased that I had even dressed up just a little bit! Maybe because it was at his house?</p>
<p>Anyway, he started out by telling me how his family was connected to Harvard in every single way. Then asked me to "tell me about you."</p>
<ol>
<li>Tell me about yourself</li>
<li>How did you spend your summer?</li>
<li>I don't need to ask you why you want to go to Harvard or how you found out about Harvard. But tell me, how much do you REALLY know about Harvard?</li>
<li>What do you and Harvard have in common?</li>
<li>Bush's Iraq speech, let's discuss it.</li>
<li>Tell me something you succeeded in and you were especially proud of.</li>
<li>Tell me about a recent failure and what you learned.</li>
<li>How does your family background influence your values?</li>
<li>Why classics? If you couldn't take classics, what would you take?</li>
<li>What sports, activities, etc. would you continue or try out at Harvard?</li>
<li>Did you apply anywhere early? Where else are you applying?</li>
<li>Harvard is considering getting rid of its core curriculum. How do you feel about that?</li>
<li>Are there any professors you would especially like to work with, or whose courses interested you?</li>
</ol>
<p>Then he let me ask him some questions. I mostly asked generic ones that I had prepared, since he was really old and couldn't accurately speak about the undergrad experience.
1. Does Harvard have a mascot?
2. I was going to ask him about the core curriculum thing, but he turned the tables on me.
3. How do you feel your Harvard undergrad education has helped you develop your career (something along those lines)
4. Some other chitchat I can't remember.</p>
<p>I brought everything I had, and I recommend everyone bring materials. Even if your interviewer doesn't care for them, ask them politely at the end if they want to see your stuff. My interviewer took my essays, my artwork slides, my transcript, and then requested copies of my school newspaper, my SAT scores, my AP scores. Woah. I'm glad I went prepared.</p>
<p>I will also post this in the Harvard and the College Interview forums.</p>
<p>More to come next weekend.</p>