Asian male applying Dartmouth ED!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
1

<p>Applying to top schools, but GPA is weak and I'm Asian! I had sort of an unconventional high school career (switched from a 'gifted' private school after 10th grade to a nationally ranked public high school, right into an extremely difficult junior year) and play that sort of 'atypical Asian' - I'm not math/science oriented at all. There is an advantage there, as sort of a 'different' Asian kid (the whole application is kind of weird-looking) but I think my GPA is weak for most of these schools and that's going to hurt. Clearly, I really, really want to pull Dartmouth. This was crossposted in the Chances forum but I wanted more opinions - if I didn't think I could get in, I wouldn't be applying.</p>

<p>Thoughts? Advice, comments, anything! Thank you for chancing!</p>

<p>School Type: Public, competitive - 1st in state of Ohio, 69th Newsweek, 50th US News
Location: Ohio (Midwest)
Race/Gender: Chinese-American male (first-gen, born in Australia)
Prospective Major: Journalism, econ, history, political science
Unweighted GPA: 3.77 (one C freshman year, a semester C junior year)
Weighted GPA: 4.18/4.54
Class rank: 27 of 172</p>

<p>Applications:
* ED: Dartmouth College
* EA: U Chicago
* RD: Brown, Columbia, Emory, Wesleyan, Georgetown, Yale, Vanderbilt, Swarthmore, USC</p>

<p>Testing
* SAT I: 2280 (750M, 800CR, 730W/10 Essay)
* SAT II: 750 Lit, 800 US History, 790 World History
* ACT: 30
* AP Exams: 5 (World History, US History, European History, Human Geography), 4
(Microeconomics, Macroeconomics), taking Bio, English Lit, US Gov and Stats</p>

<p>Extracurricular Info
* Student Government (9-10, 12): Representative grades 9 & 12. Student Body President grade 10. Ineligible for election grade 11 (new student.)
* Film Club (9-10, 12): Founder and curator at both schools, founded club at new school grade 12.
* Tutoring (11-12): Tutored middle school kids after school.
* Drama (8-10): Student theatre and improvisational comedy grades 8-10.
* Fencing (8-10): Team captain grade 10.
* Newspaper (8, 11-12): I know, I know! But I was a editor and staff writer for the HS paper in grade 8. Staff writer grade 11-12.
* School literary magazine (11-12): Staff Writer grades 11-12.</p>

<p>Employment</p>

<pre><code> * No employment.
</code></pre>

<p>Awards
* Nancy Mullane Memorial Essay (11): awarded to best English essay written by a high school junior (School award)
* National Honor Society (11-12)
* National French Exam (French III), 18th in state (11)
* AP Scholar with Distinction (11)
* National Merit Commended (11)</p>

<p>Summer Programs</p>

<pre><code> * CTD @ Northwestern - Creative Writing Honors, 2007
* TiP @ Chapman - Reel Filmmaking, 2008
* Summer Honors Institute @ University of Cincinnati - Law, Language and Society
* Summer@Brown - International Financial Markets & Investments
</code></pre>

<p>Essays/Recs</p>

<pre><code>* My Chicago short response is individualistic and talks about Gabriele D'Annunzio and David Bowie, haven't yet written specific essay. Common App essay is about food and cooking and how it reflects culture (East/West, individualism vs. collectivism, etc.) Recs should be strong - APUSH teacher, English teacher and my former fencing coach.
</code></pre>

2

<p>I think your problem is not your GPA but your class rank. You are well out of the top 10%. Is the rank based on a weighted gpa? Is it based on one year of grades only, or does it take your grades at the other school into account? Is the rank official and will it be released?</p>

<p>Other than that, you look like an interesting candidate to me.</p>

3

<p>Are you allowed to apply Dartmouth ED and Chicago EA? I would check because I don’t think you can… Anyway, I would say you have a really decent chance, good luck!</p>

4

<p>Consolation, I’m not sure, but I believe the rank is based on a weighted GPA. It IS based on all four years of high school, but my rank is hurt because all of my classes were considered ‘honors’ at my old school and most of them are not at my old school - the counselor compared my transcript to my current school’s course offerings and adjusted accordingly. My old school had no AP classes, for one, so other students at my new school have an advantage there (though I self-studied for AP Euro and World and scored 5s.) I’m hoping my counselor will address some of this in his recommendation letter.</p>

<p>Sirensong, I couldn’t find any wording on Dartmouth’s website that said I couldn’t apply ED AND EA somewhere else, just that I could only have one ED choice. I called just to double-check, and they said it was cool - thank you for the heads-up, I nearly made that mistake with Georgetown EA!</p>

5

<p>Definitely an interesting candidate and I’m sure any of the schools you apply to will love the atypical asianess XD</p>

<p>That being said, you do have a good shot at all those schools. The Ivies will be a bit of a reach, but ED to Dartmouth will help.</p>

<p>One question about your Common App essay: you do talk about yourself correct? The way you described it makes it seem like you’re writing an English paper or something.</p>

6

<p>Yeah - I relate how a nation/culture’s food and philosophy are closely related (collectivism vs. individualism being the big one, East/West dichotomy) and relate that to my own difficulties with my parents and growing up Asian in the US and all that. There isn’t a huge emphasis on the ‘growing up Asian’ or being Asian part in the essay, but it’s pretty evident.</p>

7

<p>My advice: view “Eat Drink Man Woman” and “Babette’s Feast” before finalizing your essay. :D</p>

8

<p>Hey blue<em>star</em>cadet, as another “atypical asian” I know how it feels and how it is like to perceive the world through a lens that spans two continents. Though I do not feel like I have the qualifications to say whether or not you will get in, I do want to make sure that, for UChicago, you ask for a rec from a math/science teacher as well. Good luck!</p>

9

<p>Thank you, hollow! I’m asking my econ/history teacher for a rec, and my English teacher for another.</p>

10

<p>Hollow is saying that it is better to have one rec from math/science and one rec from social science/humanities. I think that is pretty standard, especially at some schools. I got one from my chem teacher and one from my english teacher.</p>

11

<p>No, Hollow is actually pointing out that the U of C, unlike most schools, actually REQUIRES a rec from an English/social science teacher and a science/math teacher. Not only will they not accept two science/math or two English/soc sci, they will not accept a foreign language teacher as one of the two. S was using a science and a language teacher for other schools, and had to request a third from an English teacher for the U of C. (You can send an FL teacher rec as a third to the U of C, though.)</p>

<p>That said, it is probably always a good idea to show strength across multiple fields for a place like D, if you can.</p>

12

<p>I got an old science teacher to write a rec - thanks for the heads up! We called Chicago and econ can’t really be fudged into ‘science’, so a chem teacher it was.</p>

13

<p>Oh, a revision - my current GPA (3.77 UW, 4.18 W) and class rank (top 15%, narrowly) are based on grades from freshman to junior year. Senior year grades are not included in that figure, but should boost them (currently As in everything.)</p>

14

<p>I think you have a pretty good shot! How highly does Dartmouth view GPA?</p>

15

<p>speechie92, I think pretty highly. My GPA is definitely weak, I was not the most dedicated student (coasted too much) and definitely had to learn quickly once I switched schools, on a pretty steep slope. I’m going to be banking hard on recs and my essay.</p>

16

<p>10charbump</p>

17

<p>I just found out that I (barely) am in the top tenth percentile of my class. How much do you think this would affect my chances?</p>

18

<p>I think it helps. It would be even better if our school didn’t rank, but you have no control over that. </p>

<p>So, did you watch Eat Drink Man Woman and Babette’s Feast? :D</p>

19

<p>Consolation, they’re in the Netflix queue! It’ll be too late to watch them before I send out my ED app today, but I’m confident in my essay. At any rate, I don’t think I can tune it anymore without falling asleep. :D</p>

20

<p>bump bump bump</p>