African-American Class of 2014 Thread

Student Lounge African-American Students
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<p>Hello all you amazing juniors!! I was over on the Yale acceptance page and thought that I would post this for all of you. Not that I want to discourage you, just that I want every single one of you to be very successful when you put together your college list. Work on your essays this summer. Make sure your voice shines through. </p>

<p>Decision: Rejected</p>

<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 730/790/780/9 (2300)
ACT: Didn’t take
SAT II: Biology M (750), Math IIC (800)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.94
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 22/345
AP (place score in parenthesis): World History (3), Biology (5), BC Calc (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): Didn’t take
Senior Year Course Load: 4 APs and rest Honors (except for mandatory Economics)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Just Academic (AP Scholar, Award from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, National Merit, National Achievement)
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Color Guard, National Honor Society, Orchestra, Best Buddies, French Club
Job/Work Experience: None
Volunteer/Community service: A <em>lot</em> of volunteer work with my church (Teaching Sunday School, Bible Clubs, Vacation Bible School, etc.)
Summer Activities: Color Guard, Independent orchestras, Bible Clubs
Essays: Meh, I’m not a very good writer…
Teacher Recommendation: Hopefully good, but I don’t know…
Counselor Rec: Should be good, my counselor is very nice.
Additional Rec: None
Interview: Never got asked…
Other
State (if domestic applicant): PA
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: African-American
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 90k-ish
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, Child of immigrants
Reflection
Strengths: Definitely academics, SAT scores, and hooks
Weaknesses: Weak ECs, No interview, General naivety about the admissions process and how to market myself…
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Nothing on my application stood out, I guess…
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected: MIT, Brown; Deferred to Rejected: Harvard, Accepted: Johns Hopkins, Boston University, Duke, University of Richmond, Northeastern University, George Washington University
General Comments: </p>

<p>I wasn’t so much disappointed with not getting into Yale as I was being shut out of all the Ivies… I keep cycling between being angry that other, “less-qualified” people got in and being depressed and thinking that I got rejected because I wasn’t good enough. </p>

<p>But if I was being honest with myself, I know that as much as I wanted to be good enough to get into Yale, I would have been really overwhelmed and probably not very happy there. As much as I loved its Cognitive Science program… :’( Alas, it was not meant to be. </p>

<p>My advice to underclassmen reading these posts is EDUCATE YOURSELVES. I made the mistake of not thinking about college until the summer of my junior year and believing my parents (who are immigrants and know nothing about American colleges now that I think about it) when they said my grades could get me into college, no problem. Learn how to write an essay. Practice interviews… Don’t blow off PSATs or SATs. Start thinking about what you want to do for a career and make an effort to try those fields out in high school (Take language courses if you’re interested in language, intern at a hospital if you want to pursue medicine).</p>

<p>Congrats to everyone who got in. Rejection is compelling me to be awesome wherever I end up :P</p>

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<p>@Joiedv - I’m not sure you were shut out of the Ivies. You don’t appear to have applied to all of them. If Ivy is the goal, a student should apply to all of them. You have many excellent choices though. Congrats!</p>

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<p>@madaboutx - I wasn’t shut out of the Ivies. I am posting as a parent. My son was accepted at Yale, the only Ivy to which he applied. I definitely am NOT saying don’t apply. Hopefully, that isn’t the message that I am conveying. I think that kids should apply to all the schools that are a fit for them and definitely apply to reach schools. What I am trying to convey is please don’t drink the kool aid about the fact that you are a shoo-in at an Ivy just because you are an URM. You need to make sure that your application is as polished as every other applicant who submits an application URM or not. I wouldn’t want any of the kids who come to this thread to be in the same position as afraid and her daughter at this time next year. The fact that the kids are out here doing research means that they are trying to be as informed as possible about the entire application process. I think being informed means having as much information as possible about possible outcomes.</p>

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<p>I get it. It sounded like someone was taking it really hard.</p>

<p>There are no shoo-ins that’s for sure.</p>

<p>I know we spent the most time considering the second tier schools and safeties to ensure that a disappointment wouldn’t be a total loss but that we would be happy with any school on the list.</p>

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<p>You parents are so awesome! You guys are on here wiht you kids trying to help them get into college. My dad asked me why was I at the University of Chicago because I can’t afford it and I need to work instead of college. Funny for a lot of personal reasons one is that I havn’t talked to him in months and he says that to me. :)</p>

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<p>Just keep going and don’t be so hard on your pop.</p>

<p>People sometimes just don’t know what they don’t know. That’s bad when what you do know is all you want to know. But it’s a human thing, you’ll see it in people all your life. Think of DaVinci’s dad when he told him he wanted to fly. Or, of Mozart’s dad when he was playing piano at 3 yo when he probably wanted a boy to help work the farm.</p>

<p>Sometimes it’s hard to see far into the future. It’s hard to see how a sacrifice today may turn into a secure future 10-20 years from now for many people. Just keep going. Let nothing stop you and remember to help those that need it when you make it big.</p>

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<p>Great advice yo! Sorine-I know what you mean. My own sister said that she’d laugh at me in my face if I don’t get into Notre Dame…</p>

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<p>After reading some result threads, I’m feeling relieved about some schools.</p>

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<p>hey africans, i have a great site for you, it shows many Tv chanells and much more
So, must chek,
[Serving</a> the African Diaspora](<a href=“WordPress › Error”>http://www.ghanalive.tv/)</p>

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<p>I like how this thread replaced my original thread, but I’ll post my college list anyway.</p>

<p>Reaches:
Harvard (SCEA)
Yale
UPenn
Stanford</p>

<p>Matches:
Emory
Mercer</p>

<p>Safeties:
UGA (EA)
GSU (EA)</p>

<p>My top choice is Harvard. I visited it in the 8th grade and loved it. Visited UPenn too, but don’t remember it well. Yale’s architecture reminds me of Harry Potter. I just added Stanford because I take any online program that only selected 25 people in the whole country.</p>

<p>Since I’m a GA resident, I have in-state schools. Emory is a maybe, but it’s main campus is beautiful and has some lovely students. I haven’t visited Mercer, but will next week when I attend a competition for a $20,000 scholarship, which I hope I get because I’m missing my ACT test on Saturday. Plus it gives out great schoalrships if I plan to attend. It is my top in state school to go to period. University of GA is my top public school, I like how it has a big student population to make friends, and hope to be in the Honor Program if I’m accepted and attend. Georgia State is alright, so it is a back up, but the Honors Program seems good.</p>

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<p>hey all! im african too (my parents are cameroonian)</p>

<p>junior year SUCKS lol
looking forward to senior year!</p>

<p>trying to go to georgetown or cornell</p>

<p>looking to pursue int’l relations in the context of public policy, women’s studies, public health, (and some chinese).</p>

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<p>ayeeee! I love makossa btw :slight_smile: and that’s good. I like international relations, that’s why Georgetown is one of my top choices as well! I’m Nigerian</p>

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<p>yeah georgetown is awesome, tufts has a really good IR program i hear!
i have to visit georgetown to see whether or not its too urban for me though…the access is incredible (i live near here anyways) but i think it may be tooooo accessible for me.</p>

<p>did anyone do amazing on sat and wanna tell me HOW DOES ONE GET 800 ON MATH AND CR!</p>

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<p>I’m practicing right now for the subject test. But from what I have done praticing is do the math. My Biology teacher is doing that for our ACT test and found a way to get a 29 on the science section if you do things his way so I hope I have been scoring higher doing it his way. After doing the Math practice a lot get the Baroon’s books they are amazing since they are always harding then the actual test and my M2 book teaches you things you need to know so it’s extremely helpful.</p>

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<p>Also on a sad note I didn’t get accepted into the mites program or this IB summer thing in Chicago :(</p>

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<p>Hello Juniors…</p>

<p>Time to rock and Roll… Common Application Essay Prompts are out. Good Luck.</p>

<p>[Common</a> Application Releases New Essay Prompts - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/common-application-releases-new-essay-prompts/]Common”>Common Application Releases New Essay Prompts - The New York Times)</p>

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<p>^ I already started my essay. :)</p>

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<p>I’m so sorry Sorine!!
And yeah, I need to get on it!</p>

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<p>Hey don’t fell sorry, I’m going to use this as an oppurtunity to do research at a local college maybe UofC since they are so awesome in Physics.</p>

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<p>Yay!! You’re so optimistic,loveee it! I’m rooting for you</p>