<p>School GPA out of 4.5 (A+ - 4.5, A= 4, B= 3.5 and so on)
Unweighted- 3.93
Weighted- 4.29</p>
<p>4 honors freshman year
4 honors sophomore year
5 honors and an AP jr year
4 APs and two honors senior year</p>
<p>31.25 ACT score</p>
<p>Captain of the Wrestling team (varsity all four years)
2 time Varsity soccer player (JV and freshman player also)
Played premiere soccer, tennis, and ran track</p>
<p>Won a total of four academic awards that the school gave out</p>
<p>Jobs
Soccer/baseball/wrestling ref.
Starting a tutoring business
Landscaping for a friends father</p>
<p>Community Service
ASP
National Honors Society</p>
<p>So what are my chances?! I am from Connecticut btw.</p>
<p>Dear cpauls27 : As you go through the chance-me threads here on College Confidential’s Boston College forum, you will find many students such as yourself listing many of the same criteria. Ask yourself this question : if you look at anyone we have reviewed and offered a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, what makes your application different or unique as to really differentiate it from the others? Why does an admission’s staffer look at your application and say “this kid breathes BC”?</p>
<p>Let’s look at the numbers. First, there is no such thing as an ACT score of 31.25 … clearly you have averaged the four parts in some way and your composite score is a 31. This number cracks the second quartile of BC’s class (30/31/32). Your GPA does present somewhat of a problem. If scaled back to a 4.0 system, you are in the 3.6 range unweighted which is typically not top 10%. The good news is that your weighted GPA looks to be a strong “A” which might be a top score in your particular high school.</p>
<p>Academically, we see five AP exams (four in the senior year) and little track record to know if you are a “3” AP student … or a “1” or a “5”. For CSOM and CAS, you will be competing with students who have eight or more APs (and some less), but five in total is an average number.</p>
<p>You are a three season athlete in high school and won some awards for a variety of programs. No music or art background is listed - not a major showstopper, just that others will have those components along with their sports.</p>
<p>Now, the tough message : there are literally thousands of CSOM applications that look exactly the same as your submission … yes, thousands. Your community service is vague so it is hard to see where that has made a difference. You seem to have held some part time jobs but it is difficult to tell much more about these.</p>
<p>Now, let’s take it down a notch : your board scores, your background, your work ethic, and your course curriculum are certainly capable of acceptance into the BC community. But you are about the midpoint for a CSOM applicant. This means you could go thumbs-up or thumbs-down (waitlist or rejection) at the end of the day. Visit BC - see how you can add value to the campus. Offer those thoughts and that passion in your essay to the school. While we will not see the essay here on CC, please give it some concentrated thought as it might make all the difference in the world.</p>
<p>Scottj’s reply was very well written, has a lot of truth to it, and offers a good balanced perspective. My vote would be for you to adopt the broad open-mind approach it speaks to.</p>
<p>Um, scottj is probably one of the MOST helpful members in the BC forum. He gives analytical and realistic review to our “chance me!!!@33!!!” threads.</p>
<p>scottj is very helpful. He devotes a lot of his own time to these chance threads on the BC forums and gives a lot of helpful insight to each applicant. I respect him for this, and it is terrible of yelloworangeman to go about bashing him like that. </p>
<p>How about you make legitimate replies to chance me threads, yelloworangeman, instead of just saying “you are in”?</p>
<p>Dear yelloworangeman, jpm50, mose2014, and letsgo2college : Michael Himes, one of the true treasures in Boston College academia, likes to frame conversations in the first year as an expanding circle of interesting conversation partners talking about a range of engaging subjects (paraphrased). With this ethic in mind, the commentary provided attempts to be balanced, fair, but most importantly - realistic. </p>
<p>In today’s world of thumbs-up/thumbs-down instant gratification decisions, sometimes taking time in discourse, even virtually over College Confidential’s written message boards, can provide deeper and more meaningful conversation than hundreds of passing discussions. </p>
<p>To those who appreciate my input and have offered support, I say thank you of the most sincere form.</p>
<p>I suggest you go through your transcript and recalculate your GPA on a 4.0 scale,( A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1; drop any adds for “+” grades). For weighted GPA add an additional 1 point to any AP class, e.g. a “B” in AP History would count as a 4.0 not a 3.0. This is a more typical way to calculate GPA. Once you’ve done that please update your post.</p>
<p>Using scottj’s recalculations, I agree that your profile is average at best. Your ACT is about the mid-point for BC as is a 3.6 UW GPA. Add in the fact that CSOM is the most difficult school to get into at BC and I think you can see why scottj and I are “nervous” about your chances.</p>
<p>I have always found Scottj’s input to CC to be well thought out and helpful, he’s given you the framework for a solid plan of attack. I suggest you follow his advice to increase your chances at BC or any college for that matter. </p>
<p>Good Luck.</p>
<p>P.S Of course, while scottj’s analysis was spot on, it is hard to argue with the razor sharp wit and insight of criticism like…