Decision: Accepted - ED
This is my first (and hopefully last) CC post!
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): N/A
ACT (breakdown): English: 34 Math: 29 Reading: 32 Science: 34 English and Writing Combined: 31
SAT II: N/a
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): Weighted 4.04, I tried to calculate my UW on my own once and it was like a 3.87
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (5) Physics 1 (3)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Spanish 4, Contemporary Issues, AP Psych, AP Lit, AP Gov, and AB calc
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): N/A
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
- Attorney and Witness (with awards) on competitive Mock Trial team (10-12th grade) (Communications Director and Captain)
- co-Chapter Organizer and co-Chapter founder for the only Philadelphia community chapter of the Harry Potter Alliance (9th-12th grade)
- member of school’s literary magazine (10th-12th grade)
- humor columnist for school’s newspaper (12th grade)
- Also I did a couple little silly clubs freshman year.
Job/Work Experience: See summer work
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer on Saturdays at a food cupboard, probably +175 hours by the time I graduate? Idk
Summer Activities: Interned in an office at Drexel University one summer
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Eh I mean I don’t know, I feel like people aren’t going to tell you your essays are bad, and clearly they were good enough for me to get in. I just tried to write all of them like creative writing pieces. My mom teaches english as a second language and part of her job is to help people get into college so I had her read my stuff. She thought my common app didn’t answer the prompt well enough… My essay was about walking to the subway on my way to school in the morning. Of my supplements, I’m probably proudest of my “Why Barnard” in which I wrote about Beautiful, Bold, Barnard women and Zora Neale Hurston and my love of historical women in general. My woman in history that I chose to talk to was Jane Addams which was to show my interest in Urban Studies. And for majored in unafraid I just went for a casual piece about riding an amusement park ride with my sister. But I tried to show that I would do scary things for her? I don’t know, my English teacher who went to Barnard didn’t seem to like it…
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: Probably really good. My 11th grade English teacher wrote the rec and she is a really good writer who is also known for her recommendations. AND SHE WENT TO BARNARD. She also probably explained that my English 3 class was supposed to be MG and taught using the MG curriculum except the MG program got cut in my district due to lack of funding.
Teacher Rec #2: I wasn’t expecting it to be great, but as someone who is interested in American Studies I thought my APUSH teacher would be a good person to have. He has written recs for people who get into really good schools and he read my best friend her rec (whoops) and it was good.
Counselor Rec: I got a new counselor this year so I didn’t know her until like September. I tried to visit as much I could though. Also, I’m pretty sure counselor recs are just generic things about the school.
Additional Rec:
Interview: I hope my interview went well? It just felt like a conversation which I think is good. My tip is to prepare so that talking about what they are going to ask is easy for you but honestly the questions asked are like the questions every adult asks about your school, and just general small talk. I am sure there is something about you that makes you who you are and makes you a beautiful, bold, Barnard woman, but might not have a place for it on the app. Try to bring it up in your interview, this is where you become a fully developed person! So like, I talked about how my friends and I watched a rerun of one of the presidential debates at our slumber party, and then talked about gentrification and public education funding. In my thank you note I referenced the fact that I tried to find an NPR article she had mentioned and I don’t know, it just seemed like we meshed and I would fit in at Barnard. The one thing I really feel like I messed up on, was all the questions I prepared were for a student, about like what it was like to be a Barnard student, and my interviewer was an admissions officer so my mind kind of blanked and I asked a Columbia related question which they say you shouldn’t do. However, when I went to an info session, an admissions officer said the interview only really matters when they’re on the fence about you.
Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Urban Studies/American Studies/Anthropology
State (if domestic applicant): Pennsylvania
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Large, Urban, Public, Magnet
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: >100,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):
Reflection:
Strengths:
Weaknesses: Not as many APs as some before my senior year, but if you take classes you care about it should just generally make up for it! Also I only had one summer activity because I was away before.
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I think a lot of women look at Barnard as a backdoor into Columbia/Ivys and Barnard knows that, that’s probably why there ED and deferred acceptance rates are significantly higher than the RD rate. So if you show a lot of interest it definitely helps. I’m lucky in that I’m close enough to visit twice and interview on campus. I also sent them an email shortly before the application deadlines asking some questions but things like that just show interest. Also show interest in your field if you can. I am interested in Urban Studies so I wrote two essays on it and talked about it in my interview.
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: I didn’t apply anywhere else because I didn’t feel like paying the cost of sending my scores in case I got into Barnard
General Comments: It’s important to realize this is all a crap shoot. I know from reading previous threads that applicants who were stronger than me in the past got deferred because no one knows what goes through the admissions officer’s head at that moment. If you don’t get in ED you may still get in deferred. And if you get rejected, Barnard is one of a plethora of amazing schools. Like, it may be your number 1 but that doesn’t mean your number 2 and 3 aren’t close second and thirds.
I don’t think obsessing over stats will help anyone.