IB courses: english SL/HL, math SL, history HL, philosophy SL/HL, environmental science SL, french SL
AP courses: US History, World History and Human Geo (got fours on all),
rest of my courses are honors for the exception of PE
Major Concern: I took a french high school course in 8th grade and failed it horribly. Its also the first class that shows up on my transcript.
Awards
My team second place in a hackathon freshman year, it had something to do with coming up with solutions to food scarcity in our city, and had our plan proposed to local organizations.
Finalist for poet laureate last three years of hs
Extracurriculars
Varsity track- 3 years
Ran a fan page on instagram for about 5 years, gained over 10000 followers cumulative, over 100k outreach and had the offical artist account follow as well. I also used the account to talk about international situations and promoted gofundmes etc… I was also mentioned in some small international magazines and in a students research paper. I closed the page last summer due to school conflicts.
Attended TASS-AOS 2022, not sure how this fits in but it has peaked my interest in public health. Supposedly it’s prestigious but I havent heard much about it other than word of mouth.
Tutored kids in math since freshman year. First two years was online on discord (I left the server and forgot to ask for volunteering hours confirmation), and last year was in person at my school.
secretary of 3 clubs
Involvement in my dad’s small non-profit (about voting access and involvement in the community, health issues, etc…) that he created with his friends for around 3 years and helped support events and attended meetings. I am a Youth Leader.
I currently have 2 jobs (contributing to my family business and as a server)
Essays/LORs/Other
I will be spending a lot of time on my essays and have help from Matriculate.
I asked my economics teacher for a LOC last year and wrote a strong one that helped me get into TASS, so I’m going to assume this one is going to be as strong. 9/10
My math teacher: I had her for two years and she has acknowledged my participation in class and outside of her class. I would say 8/10
Will ask one of my supervisors from a place I volunteered at for a rec, she is also a family friend. maybe 7/10
Cost Constraints / Budget
I will definitely need full financial aid
Schools
These are the ones i ranked through questbridge:
Stanford University
Duke University
Brown University
Swarthmore College (will attend fly-in and ED if don’t become a finalist)
Yale University
Dartmouth College
Amherst College
Williams College
Pomona College
Emory University
Washington and Lee University (attended fly-in)
Other schools are UNC, Haverford (will attend fly-in), Bates & Bowdoin. I have targets and safeties but i’m wondering about my chances at either of these schools, especially swarthmore! If I have another ED opportunity should I use it on Haverford or do i have a solid chance at higher ranked schools? Sorry if i’m being a bit delusional!
Congratulations on your achievements. I can’t chance you, but if your EFC/SAI is near zero, I expect you will be competitive in the QB match (not knowing significant pieces of your app like the essays and LoRs).
Have you run the NPCs of the schools on your list and they look affordable?
Do you have at least one affordable safety school?
is this grade in your GPA? Did you redo that class freshman year of HS?
Where does your recruiting stand? Did you have academic pre-reads with each of those schools?
Thanks! The grade is not factored in my GPA. I have taken French 2 times (junior year and this past summer) and passed with A’s. And I am taking IB French this year.
I have an official offer letter from Haverford and the coach said that she will support my application if I apply through ED. I had pre-reads from Bates and Haverford, and both have said I am a competitive applicant but I am not sure if my grade made a difference.
OP would have to talk with the Haverford coach to see if their support would still be available in ED2 or RD.
Of course OP should only do this if Haverford is their top choice at the ED1 or 2 point…which it doesn’t seem like that’s the case since OP didn’t even rank Haverford.
I had only ranked schools I felt okay with going to or that my parents would allow me to go to. I regret my decision not to rank Haverford, but it’s my second choice after Swarthmore. Does EDI or II make a difference at either school?
Why Swarthmore over Haverford - how do you see each and how is Swarthmore a better fit?
(I don’t think ED1/2makes a difference but because at Haverford you’re supported by the coach it means you’d have a guaranteed 4-year full ride if you apply ED and the coach may have an opinion as to whether ED2 is okay. Haverford and Swarthmore are quite different in terms of vibe. So, I’m wondering whether Haverford would be a good fit or if you forgot it somehow?)
I’m not understanding this comment. Coach support at a D3 has nothing to do with a full ride. However, a coach can help with admission, but the full ride would have to come from non-athletic sources such as the financial aid office or Questbridge. Is the EFC at Haverford $0?
Haverford is a generous meet need college, so that a low income applicant who is admitted would have a full ride (or full ride +, depending on need). That would apply at Swarthmore, too. The difficulty is in getting in.
However, with coach support, that difficulty is erased at Haverford. So, either Haverford is seriously being considered and in that case I would apply ED if QB falls through (since applying ED is a condition set by the coach for supporting the application) or OP really likes Swarthmorre better and is willing to take a gamble to the point she’d rather not take a guaranteed full ride and risk ending up at a more costly or potentially unaffordable university in case she gets into a higher-ranked favorite.
Because OP applied to QB though, she gives up the opportunity to apply ED1 anywhere. So, Haverford ED1 isn’t an option.
Earlier in the thread I said if OP became a QB finalist, and is unmatched, they might be able to still apply ED 1 to Haverford. But, I have since learned that is only an option for those who ranked Haverford (which OP did not).
ED2 could still be an option at Haverford if OP doesn’t match thru QB. OP would have to ask the coach if their support would still be there for ED2.
For OP, I hope that you have told the Haverford coach that you applied to QB and that you won’t be taking their ED1 offer. If you haven’t done that, you should.
QB does not provide any financial aid. Only the QB partner schools do, and often at a more generous level than for a non-QB admit.
Thanks for the explanation! I highly doubt I will become a finalist so that’s I was was asking EDI or II was better for either school. But because of the track offer, I will be applying EDI to Haverford then EDII to Swarthmore if I don’t end up a finalist. If I do become a finalist and don’t match, I’ll EDII to Haverford. Do I have everything correct? It seems like I’m making this more complicated than it is
