Admission Chances

<p>I am a rising senior in an International Baccalaureate program in Florida. I would appreciate your opinions on my chance of acceptance at Swarthmore.</p>

<p>I've taken 5 A.P. classes with scores of 3 or 4 on all tests.<br>
ACT: 32
SAT II: US History-710, Literature-680, Biology-M-680
Unweighted GPA-3.9, Weighted GPA-4.7</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities:</p>

<p>4 years varsity cross country-made it to state championship twice
National Honor Society-Junior Secretary, Co-President-Senior Year
300+ Hours of Community Service (much of it Habitat for Humanity)
Mission Trip to Jamaica
Double Bass lessons-2 yrs.
Independent Scientific research at local hospital with former county Medical Examiner</p>

<p>I appreciate your input!</p>

<p>Not enough info to really give you much guidance. Lots of factors could enter into it. For example, male or female? White, Latino, Asian, Af-Am? Legacy? First generation college?</p>

<p>You GPA suggests a pretty high class rank. That would be a real plus for Swarthmore, but it can only really be interpreted in the context of your particular school. Any sense of where your rank fall at your school? Where do kids from your school go to college? Is it an affluent suburban school? Or a very diverse urban magnet?</p>

<p>Is cross-country or track something you plan to do in college? If so, you should contact the athletic department at Swarthmore. It could be plus, but under Div III rules, you have to make the first contact.</p>

<p>The mission trip to Jamaica sounds interesting. Is there a story there?</p>

<p>I am a white male and my school is an urban public school in a lower class neighborhood with a magnet I.B. program. I am ranked 14 out of 330. On my missions trip to Jamaica I helped out in orphanages and my team built a dormitory for future groups to stay in to help out at an orphanage. Many kids from my school attend Tulane, Brown, Emory, and Vanderbilt, as well as U of Miami and U of Virginia. A Few attend Stanford, Harvard, and U Penn. I do intend to run cross country in college, and possibly track. I am not a legacy nor a first generation college graduate.</p>

<p>Thanks for the reply. Any comments or opinions are appreciated.</p>

<p>SolidSpecial:</p>

<p>Thanks for the additional info. I would say that Swarthmore is a legitimate target for you. I don't see anything that makes me say, "Oh, yeah....piece of cake", but I also don't see anything that screams "no chance".</p>

<p>Class rank is good in rigorous high school. Test scores are good enough to make the cut, but not good enough to knock 'em dead. Varsity track could be a plus and with state championship experience, you should definitely contact the coaches. You've got several activities to work with on the application.</p>

<p>The key to getting into Swarthmore is to present a clear identity on your application and, specifically, making it easy for the adcoms to picture you adding to the campus tapestry in some interesting way. The "Why Swarthmore?" essay is particularly important because the school seems to do a good job of identifying kids who fit the somewhat unique campus culture.</p>

<p>The reason I asked about the Jamaica mission is to see if there is potential "bullet point" there. For example, would it make sense to combine the orphanage building there with your Habitat for Humanity construction into a unified interest? Does this, for example, related at all you your academic interests? Or, could you somehow tie any of this to your experience in what is probably a very diverse high school experience?</p>

<p>Or, is there a way to tie your medical examiner internships into a package with an academic or career interest? Maybe there's some kind of witty "CSI Miami" essay there?</p>

<p>See what I'm getting at? If you can take a list of interests and start distilling them down into one or a few key points that jump off the page in your application, you create an identity that is easier for the adcoms to get their arms around and, therefore, easier to admit.</p>

<p>Your chances for success at Swarthmore depend on your ability to put together an identity on the application and on your willingness to really get to know the school so you can do a bang-up "Why Swat?" essay.</p>

<p>Thanks for the feedback interresteddad. I appreciate it. Any further comments are welcome as well.</p>

<p>I think you have a good chance at Swarthmore. However, let me just remind you that no matter how good your credentials are, you just can't know what it is the admissions office is looking for. for example, i also took 5 APs in HS, i was in the national honor society for three years, soccer team, i did tons of community service activities, graduated 15 in a graduating class of about 700, i would say around a 3.6 gpa (unweighted) and good sat 2 scores. however, i didn't do too well in the SATs. I didn't think i was going to get into Swarthmore and i did (im going to be a sophomore next year). What i think really got me in was my why Swarthmore essay. I think that the admissions office wants to know that it will accept individuals who really want to be at Swarthmore and who have a love for learning, helping others and still being fun individuals. My advice to you is make sure your Why Swat? essay lets them know that you are truly interested in joining that Swat community and why (small class sizes, beautiful campus, friendly people, etc.) Good luck.</p>

<p>brwnidgrl, it's great that other swatties are participating in this forum! Otherwise, the summer is when us parents (who don't know as much with the exception of Interesteddad) are left to field all the questions....</p>

<p>:)</p>