A little voice in my head saying BC, BC! chance please?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Boston College
1

<p>Chance please?</p>

<p>Generic:
Race: Hispanic/Latino, African-American (explained later on)
Grade: Class of 2010
State: New York
School: Not-competitive high school on Long Island, usually average 2-3 ivies a year, and for some reason every other valedictorian ends up going to Harvard.
First-generation college student
Fluent in 2 languages, proficient in Italian.</p>

<p>Academic:
Class Rank: have not found out yet, hopefully top 10%
GPA UW: 94/100
GPA W: 98/100
SAT I: 550 CR, 660 M, 690 W, 1900 T
SAT IIs: 690 Spanish, 690 American, 530 Literature(wouldn’t be sent)
APs: 10th- Euro
11th- American, English Language, Environmental Science
12th- Gov, English Literature, Statistics, Spanish Language</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
3 year Cross-Country member (3 year varsity, 2 year team captain)
3 year Basketball member (1 year varsity)
4 year Lacrosse member (JV Captain, pulled up to Varsity sophomore year)
2 year member of S.A.L.T. aka Student Athlete Leadership Team (needed to have been recommended by 2 varsity coaches while I was completely unaware, attend workshops at Adelphi University 3 times a year and then relay lessons learned to middle school students)
4 year DECA Member (Dream-team selection 10th grade, 3 time Regional competitor, 2 time regional finalist [top 4, top 3] in Sport & Entertainment Merchandising, top-10 finalist at State Competition 10th grade, Public Relations officer 11th grade and Chapter Historian 12th grade)
4 year Class Office Elected Official (Vice-President freshmen year, President 10th-12th grade)
2 year member of Select Chorale (audition-only, recipient of Unsung Hero Award 11th grade, first ever Baritone section leader 12th grade. Performed at Carnegie Hall and Citifield to name a few)
4 year member of Instrumental Music (2 year member of Concert Band, 2 year member of Wind Ensemble. Inaugural Student Pep-band Director at all home football games)
2 year member of National Honor Society (elected Secretary for 12th grade, juniors not allowed to run for office)
2 year member of Inaugural Principal’s Advisory Committee (was one of 8 students chosen school-wide by the principal to meet once a month and discuss ways to foster better communication between student body and administration, as well as better the environment of GCHS as a whole)</p>

<p>Volunteering:
Helped coordinate walk at a local park to raise money for Autism Speaks, raised approximately $500
Worked as a Counselor In Training at local Boys & Girls Club approx. 200 hours of service
I Paint homes in Guatemala whenever I visit family. Most recently (7/08) I went alone to spend time with my grandparents and I painted 3 homes of EXTREMELY underprivileged families. Also brought a suitcase completely separate of my belongings that had clothes and sneakers my younger brother and I had outgrown that I gave out to the village children.
When in Guatemala, I also teach english in local schools. My cousin is a teacher of 8 and 9 year olds, and when I make the trip I coordinate with her and her school to arrive 2x a week to help teach the children english (my cousin learned in Belize, but she likes my natural “American” accent and correct way of pronouncing words).</p>

<p>Other:
My mom was born and raised in Guatemala, and my father born and raised in Egypt. I am a first generation college student, first ever in my family actually.</p>

<p>Chances? I haven’t really paid much attention to BC but for some reason I can’t seem to look away. Yes my SAT isn’t awesome, but I have yet to take it a 2nd time. I’d really appreciate any help/advice on how to better my application and chances of getting in. thanks!</p>

2

<p>Dear aramada : The first item to recognize in your profile is that your SAT critical reading score at 550 will attract negative attention as it is far into the bottom quartile (perhaps near the bottom) in the acceptance range. Your overall three-way score of 1900 is impacted by your CR number so discussing that element in more depth only repeats the argument. You have to take a proactive course of action to raise this number either through an SAT critical reading preparation course or consideration of an alternative attack plan by using the ACT. Given that your SAT II Literature grade is sitting at 530, it would seem that increasing your critical reading score by any substantive amount would be a a stretch goal, so taking a Fall 2009 edition of the ACT might be more to your liking.</p>

<p>Regarding your grades, you present a strong picture although given your AP curriculum, we might have expected a bit more from your weighted average which is typically 10-15% higher than the unweighted for highly successful AP candidates. This is not an overall negative on your profile, but rather an area of competition where other candidates might excel.</p>

<p>In your AP profile, you show no sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) and we personally prefer to see an AP Calculus curriculum over AP Stats as the Calculus curriculum maintains a higher level of mathematical rigor.</p>

<p>Your extra curriculars and volunteerism are quite strong. Do you have any honor societies to add at a subject level? You demonstrate backgrounds in music, sports, school events, and a number of outside interests.</p>

<p>With a great deal of Long Island experience, please message us (or private message me) on your current school district as we might be able to get an early read on your application if you are interested.</p>

<p>Overall, you are an interesting candidate with an SAT flaw that needs to be addressed in the first half of senior year. Good luck with our suggested stategies and please keep us up to date. You appear to be someone who might be extremely interesting to have as part of the BC community.</p>

3

<p>wow, thank you for that. i appreciate everything you said and without a doubt will be working hard to make my application an even stronger one</p>

4

<p>I would like to add my two words, if I may…Firstly you do need a higher CR reading score hopefully 600 or better, if possible try to go for extra one on one tutoring to boost your CR score…if not study/prepare very hard it will make a difference.</p>

<p>secondly, as far as your AP’s go I think they are fine as long as your scores are mostly 4 and 5"s…My DD is a jr at BC and got accepted with 5 AP’s ( 2 english and 2 soc studies all 5’s and the 3 on spanish in her sr year)…she never took advanced math all honor classes elsewhere ( she got a 550 on her original math SAT sec but with study a few private tutoring sessions was able to get it up to 600 ( her CR and WR were 720 I believe)</p>

<p>Finally what school are you applying to??? Carroll the business school is the hardest to get into…</p>

<p>Good luck !!!</p>

5

<p>thank you for your help. so far I have one 4, but I am really hoping to make the most of my senior year AP’s. In terms of what school I would be applying to, I think i would apply to the College of Arts and Sciences for Political Science maybe with an environmental studies minor or something along those lines? I’m almost positive I won’t be applying to Carroll</p>