Chance an Asian male for Dartmouth, U of Chicago, Wesleyan, Georgetown...

Chance Me / Match Me!
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.</p>

<p>Thoughts? Advice, comments, anything! Thank you for chanceing!</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: Unsure, but there were several Bs and two Cs grades 9-11
Weighted GPA: 4.18/4.54
Class rank: 27 of 172</p>

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

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

<p>Extracurricular Info
[ul]Student Government (9-10, 12): Representative grades 9 & 12. Student Body President grade 10. Ineligible for election grade 11 (new student.)[/ul]
[ul]Film Club (9-10, 12): Founder and curator at both schools, founded club at new school grade 12.[/ul]
[ul]Tutoring (11-12): Tutored middle school kids after school.[/ul]
[ul]Drama (8-10): Student theatre and improvisational comedy grades 8-10.[/ul]
[ul]Fencing (8-10): Team captain grade 10.[/ul]
[ul]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.[/ul]
[ul]School literary magazine (11-12): Staff Writer grades 11-12.[/ul]</p>

<p>Employment
[ul]No employment. That's what I'm putting, because I got fired.**[/ul]</p>

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

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

<p>Essays/Recs
[ul]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.[/ul]</p>

2

<p>You should try, it doesn’t seem totally unrealistic or you to get into Dartmouth. I used to go to Walnut, I know they were #1 in the state lat year.</p>

3

<p>Oh, chance me plz: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/784996-updated-list-same-kid-promise-ill-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/784996-updated-list-same-kid-promise-ill-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Honestly? Not being in the top 10% makes Dartmouth unrealistic and I would not waste the ED application.</p>

5

<p>“Unweighted GPA: Unsure, but there were several Bs and two Cs grades 9-11”
better go back and look because if the C’s were in 10th or 11th grade, then forget about D, B Col, Chi,Y, S. There are too many AA applicants to those schools with great scores, higher rank and no C’s. You need to find some true safeties.</p>

6

<p>menloparkmom, the Cs were in French I freshman year and Honors Pre-Calc junior year. Are you so sure the grades will completely outweigh everything else? I feel my essay is very, very strong (but I also haven’t sent my kids to college.)</p>

7

<p>An essay can not revive the dead. There’s no nicer way to say it. </p>

<p>At schools where only a few percent were not in the top 10% of their class, you won’t be among those few without a hook. And Cs will put you out of the running at far lesser schools.</p>

8

<p>Bumpity bump</p>

9

<p>I think you should look at some safety schools…there isn’t one on your list, really.</p>

10

<p>vbplayer, seriously? I thought those test scores were pretty strong for Wesleyan, Vanderbilt and Swarthmore.</p>

11

<p>Wesleyan, maybe. Swarthmore and Vanderbilt, not really. There’s thousands of applicants applying to those schools with those scores and better. I wouldn’t consider any school on your list a school you are without-a-doubt in to.</p>

12

<p>I’d agree with that - none of them are absolute safeties (that’s what I have Ohio State and USC for) but I feel like I have pretty strong chances at those three. Additionally, I went and calculated my unweighted GPA (I know, they all have their own methods) and it’s around 3.77.</p>

13

<p>It’s not about GPA, it’s about rank. This make Swat, Wes and Vandy far from safeties. A high SAT score will not make up for low rank. Unless you love Ohio state, consider some real safeties.</p>

14

<p>Extenuating circumstances? I transferred into a top 50 school from a tiny (40 people, K-12) school - in addition to that, my current school refuses to accept high school courses for credit I took in the eighth grade at my old school. Would the extenuating circumstances box on Common App help resolve some of that?</p>

15

<p>For insight, look at the common data sets or College Board to see how few that were not in the top 10% get into these schools. Then factor in the hooked candidates who can have lower stats. It’s very, very unlikely to be unhooked and get into these schools when your rank isn’t where it needs to be.</p>

<p>Lots of kids transfer schools, they get sick, lose parents and friends and have all sorts of circumstances. Still, less than 10% not in the top decile get in.</p>

16

<p>USC?? as a safety?
USC is not a safety anymore. Not with a 24% acceptance rate.</p>

17

<p>USC is a safety if you’re not applying for financial aid</p>

18

<p>^^ wrong! Where on earth did you get that idea? USC has lots of $$ for FA and merit scholarships. As a Trojan parent who has seen this U completely change in the last 6 years, believe me, it is no safety for any but the absolute tip-top HYPS level students.Take a look at last years USC decisions thread. There were lots of kids with your stats who were rejected.</p>

19

<p>If that’s the case (and you’ve got a Trojan, so you’re probably in the right here), USC has a negative reputation to shake. My mother worked there in the past though, which is a small advantage (but not as much as being, say, a multi-million dollar donor or an illustrious alumnus.)</p>

20

<p>You guys are honest but incredibly harsh to blue<em>star</em>cadet.</p>