<p>Decision: Accepted</p>
<p>Stats:
SAT (CR/M/W): 690/640/670
SAT IIs: Spanish: 770 U.S. history: 640
GPA: 3.698
Rank: top 3%
Rigor of course load: extremely rigorous
Other stats (AP, IB, etc.): IB</p>
<p>Subjective:
Essays: I wasn’t a big fan of either essay, but they were well-written
ECs: Mayor of local youth council, church choir leader, dance assistant instructor, FBLA 2nd place district winner, cross country runner
Teacher Recs: I had one from my English teacher and another from my ToK/AP Govn’t. My English teacher’s was nothing special, she showed it to me. But my ToK teacher did tell me that he spent a lot of time on mine and that it should help out (my absolute favorite teacher ever)
Counselor Rec: We have a new counselor and she hardly knows me so I doubt it was anything too spectacular
Hook (if any):</p>
<p>Location/Person:
State or Country: FL
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: F</p>
<p>Other Factors: I created a non-profit organization, and have been EXTREMELY involved in my community
General Comments: Honestly, I am proof that numbers are not all that matter. However, if you don’t have the test scores or GPA, you better have something pretty damn great to distinguish you from the rest of the bunch. In my case, I am almost certain that it was my service project. I co-founded a non-profit organization that helps fight human-trafficking and raised a total of 30,000 dollars. Also, I attended DivOH and showed tons of interest. I always e-mailed the admission fellow I met at the Amherst presentation at my school and it was clear that I was very interested in the school. My essays were nothing spectacular, but they definitely showed that I was a thinker and that I was committed to my academics/passions (my main essay was about my project and the supplement was the “stereotyped beliefs pave the way for self-fulfilling prophecies” or whatever. I spoke about my hatred for math for the major part of my life but how my attitude eventually changed and I saw it’s HUGE impact on every other discipline/subject.
Honestly, after this, I truly believe that if you want anything badly enough it can happen for you, despite the odds. My SAT scores were completely mediocre and my GPA was decent, but somehow or another I was able to get across my uniqueness and the pros of having me at Amherst. So, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise, you definitely can get in to your dream school without the numbers, it’s just much much harder (and you may have to free a village of slaves) haha.
BTW, the purpose of my project was not to get into college (or at least not totally anyways). Do what you love, and do it well; colleges will see it. </p>
<p>OH AND BTW, they requested my first quarter grades which were less than fantastic (that is a euphemism) I had B’s across the board, my only A’s were in my elective classes. I was actually positive that it would take me out of the running, but apparently God had other plans for me. </p>
<p>Anyways, good luck to all of you! Hope you were all as fortunate as I was.</p>