Advice needed on my stats vs. college list. thanks

Parents Forum
1

<p>I know y'all are probably tired of these chance threads but I'd really, really appreciate some advice/feedback on what you think about my list of colleges:</p>

<p>Female; ny resident; us/Israel dual citizenship
GPA 3.32uw (im guessing, but im not really sure bc my school doesn't release the uw) 3.9 weighted, top 30% (im guessing, but my school doesn't rank)
A and B averages
SAT: 560cr, 640m, 710w (12essay)
SATII: 690m1, 620m2
Full International Baccalaureate Candidate
Senior courses: IB History of the Americas, IB World Literature, IB Physics, IB Spanish, IB Theory of Knowledge, AP Statistics, AP Psychology, Government</p>

<p>*my school was rated the 4th public high school in the nation by newsweek. most demanding/rigorous course schedule.</p>

<p>*Essays: Excellent
*Recs: Guidance rec was excellent (called me the "renaissance girl'), teacher A Excellent, teacher B Great, 1 extra recommendation from the prof. at columbia that I interned for this summer.. the rec was AMAZING.</p>

<p>*not asking for any financial aid</p>

<p>*also sent in a supplemental portfolio displaying unique one of a kind fashions that I've designed and created as a result of my international travels. also included photography that I've done, seveeral newspaper articles, and scientific abstract.</p>

<p>*Extras:</p>

<p>Activities and Organizations:
-CEO of Fashion Design Company that I founded (2005-present)
-Intern at Swiss Consulting Group (New York, NY)
-Meszaros International Center for Entrepreneurship classes at university of buffalo
-Advanced Acting for Film Class (2002-2006)
-In 2005, Co-created a 30 minute television pilot that was pitched in LA. It was picked up, however, I decided not to re-located to LA, in pursuit of continuing my high school education.</p>

<p>Leadership in School:
-Editor of School literary magazine. (2007-2008)
Helicon (3hrs/wk, 2004-Present)
-President of Junior Class of 2008 (2006-2007)
-Vice President Senior Class of 2008(2007-2008)
Student Government (2 hrs/wk, 2006-Present)
-Secretary of Student Council (2006-2007)
-Vice President of Student Council(2007-2008)
Student Council (2 hrs/wk, 2000-Present)
-Vice President of Multicultural Club (2006-2008)
Multicultural Club (2 hrs/wk, 2000-Present)
-Math tutor (1.5 hrs/wk, 2006-Present)
Tutors children in advance mathematics
-Junior 8 Summit Competition (4 hrs/wk, 2007)
Justice League Representative in International Competition</p>

<p>Leadership in the Community and Volunteer Work:
-Coats for Kids (150+hrs/yr, 2000-Present)
Co-Founded organization to provide over 500 warm winter coats, hats, scarf’s, gloves, and boots each year to the poorest Hispanic Community of Buffalo.
-Roswell Park Cancer Institute (150+hrs, 2004-Present) (I've been volunteering a lot here ever since I was diagnosed with cancer when I was 12. I'm fine now though. I just try to give back to the pediatric cancer community as much as I can)
• Raised $3,000+ by hosting a Charity Fashion Show featuring my dress creations; Spends time with Pediatric cancer patients.
• PaintBox Project at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (50+hrs, 2004-Present)
Designed and donated artwork that was reproduced by PaintBox Project and sold as corporate holiday cards and products that yielded thousands of dollars in revenue for the Institute; Assists young cancer patients in expressing their ideas in art form.
-Jewish Philanthropic Organization (4 hrs/wk, 2004-Present)
Teen Tzedakah; Student Board of Directors who allocate money to various non-for-profit organizations in the Buffalo area</p>

<p>Honors and Awards:
-Scientific Abstract Awarded Finalist
At the World congress of Biological Psychiatry in Vienna, Austria.The only presenter without a doctorate.“The Association of Adolescent’s Height and Weight with Stress and School Achievement” Sponsored by University at Buffalo’s Biobehavioral Program.
-Roswell Park Cancer Institute Above and Beyond Award
For outstanding dedication and lasting contribution to Carly's Club for Kids and Cancer Research in Western New York
-Western New York Hispanic Society Award for Community Service
For outstanding dedication to the Hispanic Society of Western New York
-Swarthmore Book Award
For academic passion and outstanding leadership
-Various Published Poetry and Photography (2000-Present)</p>

<p>Travel Experience:
-Has traveled to over 35 countries on 5 different continents
-Exchange Student: Artes de Mexico: Queretaro, Mexico (Summer, 2005)
-BBYO: International Leadership Seminar, Israel (Summer 2007)
A 3 week leadership program in which I was immersed in the teachings of Judaism and the current Arab-Israeli conflict. Participants were students who showed outstanding leadership in their community.</p>

<p>*looking to major in entrepreneurial studies and design</p>

<p>*applying:
Barnard College (my dream school, i'd do anything to go here)
Brown University (5 year duel degree program brown/risd)
Rhode Island School of Design (5 year duel degree program brown/risd)
Georgetown University
New York University
Sarah Lawrence College
Wellesley College
Boston College
Swarthmore College
Vassar College
UCLA/Berkeley
Fordham University
Northeastern University
University at Buffalo Honors College</p>

2

<p>Don't bother with UCLA, the OOS tuition will be as high as private, and the under grad art programs are not well regarded for good reason. If you are looking at Calif. I'd go for Stanford.</p>

3

<p>Sounds like a good reason but it's too late for Stanford. Deadlines passed. But, what do you think about my CHANCES for this list?</p>

4

<p>Your EC's are phenomenal, but I think your GPA may be a problem at the more selective schools. I am assuming you are looking at a business major, design minor (fashion?) I'm more familiar with CA schools, so can't really give a lot of insight to most of your choices. If you were a design major with business minor, the quality of your portfolio would have a stronger impact on your chances and could overcome any academic weakness at schools that require portfolio. At the end of the day, you will be accepted at the schools where you belong. You seem to have a good range of schools on your list.</p>

5

<p>Eskimo, I've seen your many posts and many answers. I like other parents do not want to "chance" you, but I think you're getting bad advice.</p>

<p>The one piece of hard data we have is that Columbia rejected you outright. This means they did not override your GPA and SATs because of your ECs. It seems to be mostly a myth kids today believe that schools often do this, but the facts show they most often do not. You get a good read from your ED/EA schools in most cases.</p>

<p>You are female from NY with well below average class rank and SAT at many of your schools, thats a lot to overcome with ECs! More likely at Barnard than Brown though.</p>

<p>If you have not sent out all applications I would play down travel and wealth. This is advice given to many well off kids by expensive college counselors.</p>

6

<p>I think your list is heavy on reaches. Have you considered Goucher? I believe their deadline is Feb 1 and I think it's a good match for you.</p>

7

<p>No one can really say what your chances are with certainty without seeing your complete application including your excellent essays and recommendations, or sitting in on the admisssions committee meetings when your application is reviewed, but I agree with 2collegewego: your list is heavy on reaches.</p>

<p>Just curious, but which schools on your list, besides the Brown/RISD program offer both entrepreneurial studies and design as majors? I thought I was pretty familiar with the majors at most of the colleges on your list, but I don't recall any of them offering that particular combination.</p>

8

<p>Why are you asking? Your applications are in, no one here can tell you, and you'll find out soon enough. You have alot of accomplishments that speak for themselves, you don't need affirmation from anyone here. Get a grip.</p>

9

<p>Some very good design schools are still accepting applications.</p>

10

<p>You could try to apply to WUSTL. They have an Art school with fashion design major, business school with undergrad business major, and there is an entrepreneurial scholarship you could apply for. Your stats are low for many schools on your list (WUSTL included), but at a school like WUSTL you can play up your strength. (I am not sure why you'd even apply to Swarthmore...)</p>

11

<p>I agree with Drb: Why keep fishing for opinions, when all they do is make you more nervous and anxious? You have made your choices, the ONLY opinions that matter now are those of the admissions committees at the schools you have chosen. Good luck!</p>

12

<p>Well, she cold still apply to a few schools with Jan 15 deadline if everyone tells her that her list is unreasonable...</p>

13

<p>I'll give you an honest quick-read appraisal. I thought, why all these ECs when she should have been working on getting better grades? Not that your grades are awful, but your grades need to be stellar in light of your scores, at the schools you have chosen to apply to.</p>

<p>That may be too harsh but you still have time to find some other schools. At some of them it may be to your advantage to be the full-paying rich kid by the way, it's not always a bad thing.</p>

14

<p>I'm not familiar with RISD or Fordham's selectivity.</p>

<p>I agree with MomoFour.</p>

<p>Additionally, my take is that you are smart but not really smart. Why do I say this? Your SAT's are way below the midpoint at selective colleges. OK... maybe you make up for this in the classroom by studying very hard, get up at 4am and study for two hours before getting off to school, etc. But that doesn't appear to be the case as you are not top 10% or even top 20% in your class. The schools you list pretty much take top 10% unless the scores are over 750 on each part.</p>

<p>You are creative, smart, energetic, self starter. In other words, you are an entrepreneur more than a scholar. Go with your entrepreneurial strengths. That does not require a Top 50 school in terms of selectivity... or even Top 100. Find a program with above average students who exhibit great street smarts, creativity and enery, as you do.</p>

15

<p>I second the advice to consider applying to some fashion-industry-oriented schools, say Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design in NYC, and Philadelphia University's Engineering and Textile College in Philadelphia. All of these have deadlines that haven't passed, and all of them offer the possibility of combining real, practical art education with business education focused on the fashion industry.</p>

<p>The good news is that you are clearly a motivated self-starter and an overachiever. I think you will succeed on your own merits, and on the strength of your work; you don't need a label that says "Barnard" or "Vassar" to get where you want to go. The bad news is that your SATs and grades are really a huge hump to get over at most of the schools to which you have applied. Not at all of them, to be sure, but I'm not certain why some of the others are even on your list. </p>

<p>Do you have a chance? Sure -- you have an extraordinary resume, even allowing for a little puffery. Without that resume, you wouldn't have a chance; with it, you have a lottery ticket, but not much better. I hope one of the more selective schools takes a chance on you, but it's not very likely that all of them will. You should be prepared for a lot of rejection -- but you seem strong enough to take it.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, I think you could really flourish at a high-quality design school, and I'm a little sad that the only one you've applied to is the RISD/Brown program, which is still a big reach. You have a few weeks. Why not check out some of the other schools? The students there aren't dumb at all (at least not the ones I've met); like you, they are focused, plugged-in, highly creative achievers, and they are making real contacts in the industries where they want to make their careers. That sounds more like you than Vassar or Georgetown, or UB for that matter.</p>

16

<p>Eskimo, </p>

<p>Did you grow up speaking another language? I was just wondering. If so, you might want to address that in an essay. It may be taken into consideration in light of your lower CR score.</p>

17

<p>Eski, I meant to post here, but mistakenly wrote on your Fordham thread instead. Sorry for the duplication, but I am reposting because I hope that someone can advise if there's still time for you to take the ACT and to direct you toward a list of colleges still taking applications.</p>

<p>I work in the fashion industry and agree with JHS that you'll be successful no matter where you go to school. I don't necessarily agree that you'd be better off at a design school, though, as it seems that your direction is more toward merchandising or management rather than design per se. In that case I would think that a liberal arts degree plus continued industry involvement would be the best route for you.</p>

<p>My opinion for what it's worth (not much at this point )
Forget about Swarthmore, Brown, the RISD/Brown dual program, Wellesley & Berkeley.</p>

<p>You should be in at SLC, Fordham, Northeastern & Buffalo (although I don't know about entry to the honors program).</p>

<p>Barnard, NYU, Georgetown, BC, Vassar are hard to call. Barnard is especially quirky in admissions. Your ECs will count there as will your essays and recommendations. From what you've told us about your goals I can't imagine that you would find what you're looking for at Georgetown or BC anyway.</p>

<p>Usually at this time of year a thread pops up on this board listing schools that are still taking applications. Ask for that and see if any appeal. </p>

<p>Is it too late to take the ACT and submit it as a supplement? </p>

<p>Good luck and let us know how you do.</p>

18

<p>anyone else out there?</p>

19

<p>btw, applied to parsons too. </p>

<p>anyone else out there? </p>

<p>I'd reeeeeally appreciate it, thank you :) esp. positive feedback.. because, at this point, im inconfident about getting in ANYWHERE. maybe just ub.. but that's everyone's backup. anyone with any POSITIVE feedback? it would mean a lot to me at this point.</p>

20

<p>Eskimo --</p>

<p>I don't think it matters a whit where you go to school. You have an entrepreneurial spirit and you'll make your way regardless. You have already started to make your mark on the world!</p>

<p>That said, I have no idea how your stats will play in the crap shoot of admissions. Make sure you've got some good safeties - find some with late deadlines if you don't - and relax! You've got a lot going for you and test scores and grades are not all that predictive of life success.</p>