BC Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston College
1

<p>Hi guys. I’m a hopeful for BC RD for the fall semester of 2013.</p>

<p>My sat is 2090 superscored(total of 4 tests taken, 1 as junior 3x as senior, I have heard that taking it 4x is bad…hope that wont matter too much) </p>

<p>My act is 31 which I got on the second try - which is 97th percentile, and is a higher percentile then my sat. I also got 11/12 writing which apparently is really good.</p>

<p>Aside from my test scores…my GPA is rather odd. As a freshmen, I did terribly, and had to redo several classes, so I have some failed classes and overall a whole mish mash of grades as a freshmen. As a sophomore, I had all a’s and b’s and a single high c in Spanish. As a junior, I had all a’s and a single b, in precalculus. </p>

<p>As a senior, I have had all a’s for both quarters of the first semester, including midterm exams. I have one 93 but most of my a’s are 97 - 100. </p>

<p>My overall GPA is 3.41 unweighted, not including this semester, which should bring it to around 3.5, which is low, but my hope is that my upward trend, which if graphed would practically be an exponential curve, will demonstrate that i’ve matured and work hard.</p>

<p>Additionally, I am a first generation student, and I am Hispanic. I’m not sure how much that helps but surely that couldn’t hurt? </p>

<p>As for any talent ‘hooks’, I believe my writing would qualify? I competed in an essay competition for my school and did well (93 / 100), and I got accepted to an all expense paid journalism workshop for 3 weeks at the University of Miami, where I was published in a newspaper, and I have published stuff at my school.</p>

<p>I’m not trying to brag but assume that my essay is good… I put about 10 hours into writing it and had both my teacher and my best friend edit it several times. I wrote it especially for BC and did not reuse or recycle anything.</p>

<p>I am in several honor societies and clubs, and confounded a programming club which I am vice president for. I am president of my school’s division of National Forensic League, vice president of Math Club and secretary for Business Honor Society. For NFL, I have participated in student congress, and I did my extracurricular essay about my trip to Georgetown Unviersity’s NAIMUN student congress. </p>

<p>Sorry for the long post… wanted to give enough details for a fair assessment.</p>

<p>Chance me for BC please? Thank you and have a lovely weekend (i’m off school since last midterm was today)</p>

2

<p>Dear nicolasspb94 : Your scholastic profile will suffer from one major issue - you failed classes in High School forcing you to repeat courses. Forget about the implication of grades for a moment - this implies that there are subjects across the main five areas (English, History, Science, Mathematics, Language) where you will be one year behind most students and probably did not get to AP Course Work in those areas. This will be an incredibly tough hurdle to overcome.</p>

<p>Your Board Scores are nice however strictly speaking they are fifty points over the Boston College midpoint - therefore second quartile. The problem is that you are quoting your SAT as a 2090 superscored which means that the scores on an individual test will be lower.</p>

<p>Your GPA at 3.41 will not be a Top 10% Performance and could be outside of your school’s Top 25%. If this latter statistic is the case, your chances for acceptance shrink to 1-in-25 (4% acceptance rate).</p>

<p>Overcoming these data points with your activities, leadership, and honor societies will be difficult. Your profile does not include sports activities however if we included your journalism background into the “arts” for a moment, how would that help your case for acceptance? Why would that be a unique element in your profile to help you shine above others?</p>

<p>In closing, you have a very nice positive trend in your academics - however, only two years of your four are really at the expected GPA and the likelihood is that these grades were not earned in the top classes offered at your High School. </p>

<p>Our feeling is that Boston College will be a major stretch school for you and you should also be selecting some other target universities which are commensurate with your academic performance as a whole to be safe. Good luck with your application and we hope that your essay helps you clearly express your case for acceptance!</p>

3

<p>I appreciate you taking the time for your sobering, and realistic, assessment of my chances at BC. I’ve known it was a reach school and I applied to 8 school’s in total, so I should be okay even if I don’t get into BC. Thanks again</p>