I’m a junior right now, pretty anxious, and my dream schools are all liberal arts colleges so far.
Pomona is my ultimate dream school, but I know Pomona is a crapshoot so I was wondering what my chances would be for other liberal arts colleges like Swarthmore, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Bowdoin, Wellesley, etc.
School: Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Ethnicity: Korean
Financial aid: Yes
Hook: none… only one of my parents went to college?? lol nah idk
SAT1: 1520
SAT2: Math 790 Biology 790 Chemistry (?)
Unweighted GPA: Probably around 3.6-3.7
Weighted GPA: 4.07 sadly
Rank: school doesn’t rank
AP: Biology (5), Chemistry (?), US History(?), AB Calc(?) [senior year] Chinese, Literature, Government, BC Calc,
Major Awards:
Regional Award 10th and 11th grade
2017 Intel Grand Prize Nominee (Regional), First Place (Regional), 3rd place in biomedical and health services at Intel State
ECS:
Varsity Letter: Lacrosse Manager (11, 12)
Publication in “Biosensors and Biotechnology”
Published a book with a group of students about the Hallyu Korean wave
American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (8, 9, 10), had to stop because it required me to play at school
Baltimore Inner City Mission (9, 10, 11) volunteer with low income children from inner city Baltimore
Give Chance organization volunteer (10, 11)
4 publications in TOSOW journal (non-profit community service organization)
Summer Job at Modern Image (paper company), Lord & Taylor inventory, and Dog bathing groomer store, worked at parent’s deli occasionally during the summer of (7, 8, 9, 10)
Mind Body Medicine Officer
Humanitarian Aid for North Korea Officer
attended science conventions (ACS convention 2016, TechConnect World Innovations Conference and Expo 2015, ACS Convention 2017)
Recs:
Counselor: Generic, not close at all
APUSH: Probably great, he considers me his favorite and most unique student apparently
Extra: either
Honestly, I don’t know if my EC’s are good enough and I definitely know my GPA is only average at my school… I’m confident about writing my college
I accidentally posted without finishing yikes. Anyways my additional recs are likely really good because one would be from my volunteer director who has know me forever, and my research instructor I have pained through with my science project all four years of high school.
If there’s any more information that would be necessary for a better assessment please tell me?
I guess my school has formed my opinion on that. Not a lot of people at my school apply to liberal arts and there’s a lot more information on Swarthmore than Pomona… Also most around me and the forums as well just give me the vibe that you don’t know with Pomona. This may be overshot but like the Stanford of liberal arts???
Like Stanford, Pomona rejects more applicants with “perfect” stats than it accepts, but I’m guessing the same is true for Swat and the others you list wouldn’t be far behind - if at all. There’s a “secret sauce” involved with just about all of the schools in that realm regarding what the adcoms are looking for, and while that shouldn’t dissuade you from applying to them, anybody should also be looking for other less selective (but no less quality) colleges to balance their list.
Mudd isn’t going to be any easier to get into, although being female may help. I would say that you will be considered at all those schools. But Pomona, Mudd, and Swat are all reaches. Bowdoin & Wellesley are low reaches. Haverford is a match. You need to add some more matches and a couple of safeties.
Personally, I’d be careful assuming that Haverford is a match. It’s another reach, although it is not as reachy as Pomona. In the past two years I know great students who were rejected from Haverford (one even applied ED) - one is going to Bowdoin and the other is starting Tufts in the fall. My point here is that, at this level of selectivity, it’s hard to predict which college will accept a particular student. The great applicants that I know were all admitted to selective colleges they applied to, but they were not accepted by all of them. I think you stand a decent chance of being accepted by some of these colleges. Just make sure that you have a good safety and some easier “matches” when you finalize your list. Based on the colleges you list, have you considered applying to Bryn Mawr, Scripps, Bates and Colby?
I also forgot to add…
Gender: Female
National Merit Scholar Semifinalist… (for now?)
Siemens* Regionals is what I meant
Another question I have is, I have a pretty low GPA so I was wondering if my extra curriculars made up for them at all? Especially for schools that are known to be more academically (GPA) focused. Most students from my school take 6 to 7 APs by junior year, but that would have been too difficult for me so I feel like I’m falling behind academically comparatively.
