...any guidance?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Barnard College
1

<p>Hi fellow Barnard hopefuls— I’m applying RD and I was just wondering if anyone could estimate my chances. I LOVE the school and I hope I stand a chance!</p>

<p>White female from Oregon, born in NY, pretty good public school
GPA 3.98 (only one B in first semester chemistry), school doesn’t weight, top 4% of class (and I can guarantee that I’ve taken a harder courseload than the other 3%)
ACT 32 (35R 31M 30E 30S 32Com E/W, 12 essay) (definitely using ACT)
SAT II’s Spanish (730) French (680), took Math IC a week ago, probably 700-ish (may not submit)</p>

<p>Will have taken 9 out of 12 offered AP courses, both Honors courses
Also 3 out of the 4 college classes offered at my school through Portland State University (2nd year Spanish, 2nd year French, World Lit/Writing 121)
One class at PSU (2nd year German)</p>

<p>EC’s:
Theater (4 yrs)
Cello (3 yrs, first cellist in orchestra)
Choir (3 yrs)
We The People competition (Constitution Team)
High-Five Challenge (basically the Oregon version of Teen Jeopardy)
NHS
MUN
Rec league soccer
Lots of volunteer work
One main summer job at a photography studio</p>

<p>Three school awards for outstanding achievement in Foreign Language and Art History.
-I’ll probably have a good counselor recommendation and 2-3 excellent teacher ones
-My essay is quite strong (about my experience in a Waldorf school 1-8th grade, why I’m attracted to languages)</p>

<p>TRAVEL EXPERIENCE
-Two month-long exchanges in Mexico that I paid for myself
-One summer spent working in Europe
-One community service trip to Baja
-Hook: I was selected as one of twelve US students to receive a full State Department scholarship to spend this summer in Egypt studying Arabic.</p>

<p>Besides English, I also speak Spanish, French, German, and Arabic at varying levels
I know I don’t have perfect test scores (far from) and amazing EC’s, minority status, etc. but my real passion is for languages and cultures; probably a linguistics major, made this very clear in my common app short answer</p>

<p>Be honest with me… thank you all and good luck!</p>

2

<p>Barnard parent here --- No one really can predict your "chances", so it would be nice if you (and others), would stop looking at it that way. With your stats you are clearly in the running, which means your chances are as good as anyone else within a competitive process where more qualified applicants are turned away than admitted. </p>

<p>However, I do think that between your musical ability and interest in language study that you sound like the kind of student Barnard likes to have. I think you should definitely write about your experiences this past summer in Egypt and any interest you may have in continuing studying of Arabic. I do think that is the thing that will stand out about your application.</p>

<p>But research the school first. Barnard does not offer a linguistics major; neither does Columbia. Saying you are interested in that won't keep you out (my daughter wrote that she was interested in studying psycholinguistics) -- but it does tell me that you have a little more you need to learn about Barnard. There are some linguistics courses offered, though not many -- in fact my freshman daughter is taking introductory linguistics right now at Columbia. But I still think its worthwhile for a prospective student to check available majors before applying, to avoid disappointment later on. ;)</p>

3

<p>Ditto Calmom. Chances are just that, chances, not a guarantee, but your chances are pretty good, IF you're really interested in Barnard. The admissions people will sense it. You look like you would be a good fit. Check it out some more.</p>

4

<p>Just a note,
you are not able to choose which particular SAT scores you would liek to send.
The collegeboard sends a collective summary of all of your scores, even if you were not present on teh test day and did not take the test.</p>

5

<p>Just to let you know,
I've talked to Barnard about linguistics and they don't offer it anymore.
You have to ask the board to allow you to create it as a major and you have to scout courses and ask professors to support you. The few kids that do major in it finished most of their credits during their study abroad year in a university that does offer linguistics courses and the rest of the major was completed in pseudo-linguistic courses.
I'm interested in linguistics/languages as well...so we'll see what happens.</p>