<p>I know there are a lot of these and they’re annoying, but I’d really appreciate getting a general gist of my chances. I’m a junior and I want to apply EDI next year. Thanks! (:</p>
<p>SAT: 2150
GPA: My school doesn’t give us our GPA, so I have no idea. But my grades (IB) are:
5 in Higher Chem, 6 in Higher Bio (most likely a 7 next semester), 7 in Higher History, 6 in Standard Language & Literature, 6 in Standard Math, and 6 in Standard SPanish
(Will the 5 in Chem really hold me back? I’m going to work really hard to improve that next semester)
Extracurriculars: President of the Fight for Endangered Wildlife, Help End Pet Abuse, and Chess clubs, Co-Captain of Varsity soccer and travel soccer (one of the best teams in NYE), and volunteer at a dinner program for homeless people in NYC. I’m starting an ASL club at my school next year, too. (I also play guitar and piano)
Recs: From my HL Bio and History teachers, should be very good (especially from history). Also, my marine biology summer program director promised to write me a rec</p>
<p>I’m a good writer so my essays/personal statements should be pretty good (it also doesn’t hurt that my dad’s an novelist by profession). Also, I’ve been passionate about marine biology since I was 6 and I’m really going to stress that throughout the interview, since Bowdoin looks for well rounded kids with particular passions.</p>
<p>As discussed on other threads, the odds of anyone making it into Bowdoin ED1 without an athletic or legacy hook are extremely low - if you’re academically qualified, odds are you’ll just be deferred to RD. Although there are no stats to prove it, I’d say your odds as a non-hooked applicant are no better ED1 than RD - Bowdoin claims as much during orientation sessions, and I’m inclined to believe them.</p>
<p>If you truly are a good soccer player, you might up your chances by seeing if the soccer team is interested in you. That will make all the difference, not improved grades in an already strong academic portfolio.</p>
<p>You can offer that as a conjecture based on anecdote, MrMom, but in the absence of any kind of comprehensive data, the conclusion you made is unfounded.</p>
<p>I only have our HS data to go by, but the number of non-athlete, non-legacy students admitted to both elite national and liberal arts colleges is exceedingly small, and those who are admitted generally have incredible test scores, course work, and/or ECs. Virtually no one is making it into these schools ED with “ordinary” stats short of a hook, and some of those hooks are making it with shockingly low stats and coursework.</p>
<p>No school admissions office is going to admit to it, but I did hear directly from another NESCAC school who did confirm it accidentally. I was recently at an alumni event where a senior alumni relations person (the people who get alumni to donate) was talking to a student thinking of applying ED next year. They wanted to know what sport the student played - the student replied that they didn’t play a sport. The alumni relations person lowered her voice and said “You know that ED is really mostly for athletes, don’t you?”</p>
<p>Not saying you can’t get in ED unhooked, just saying that it’s not the bump they would like you to believe. I’m not sure I’ll go through the exercise with Kid2, but we probably will, just with a lot more realistic expectations. That, and Kid2, who will have the test scores and coursework, is now looking for an obscure sport to master up to D3 level in the next few years.</p>
<p>As I said, you are simply not correct – try looking at the FB pages for admitted HS seniors for any NESCAC school and you will see many accepted students who clearly are not athletes. There are only something like 70 athletic tips per NESCAC so you would only be talking about one-third of early decision admittees if every single tip were admitted through the ED process (which is not the case). And whispered anecdotes do not constitute evidence . . </p>
<p>All the tips are not admitted ED, but I’d be willing to bet the vast majority are, otherwise you wouldn’t hear stories of athletes who didn’t apply ED suddenly finding their tip disappearing, which is very, very common. And by the time you add in all the legacies and developmentals, I’d say a good 50%, if not more, of the ED class at any given elite school is hooked. Those unhooked students who got in are almost always going to be very strong candidates, I really doubt that many marginal candidates slip by just because they’ve declared their love for the school.</p>
<p>In short, I’ve completely turned around my view of ED, having been through the process and seeing the results - it’s not completely unworthwhile, but it has little to no advantage over RD, unless you’re hooked. If you’re unhooked and got in, you were probably going to get in anyway. To tell ourselves anything else is just giving ourselves false hope.</p>
<p>And for the record, anecdote or not, when someone from inside the school not involved in admissions thinks ED is primarily for athletes (and legacies), it probably is, solid evidence or no.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies! I actually hope the athlete thing is true in my case, since the coach called me and invited me up to campus. Does it really make a huge difference?</p>
<p>Add in the legacies, development cases and other special cases and the number start to shift…</p>
<p>I know the plural of anecdote is not data, but of the 4 kids who applied ED to my son’s NESCAC school from his high school, 3 were admitted early- 2 legacies and a recruited athlete. The one student who was deferred had much better stats than any of the other three but was unhooked. His weighted GPA was a full 1/2 point higher and his SATs more than 100 points higher than at least two of the kids who were admitted early. He was later admitted RD.</p>
<p>Isn’t that the case with a large number of ED admits? Applicants with lower stats apply ED…hoping to counterbalance lower stats with demonstrated interest of throwing their eggs in one basket? Honestly, I have no problem acknowledging the fact that many ED admits are athletes and legacies. It makes perfect sense that these two particular demographics have a very vested interested in a school and would apply early. I do have a major issue with the notion that these early admits are chronically lesser quality students. Does it ever happen? Absolutely. But with a student athlete population at Bowdoin of at least 40% I can assure you that their athletes more than carry their academic weight. </p>