Chance in Tufts?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm a female Asian from a competitive school in the suburbs of Chicago.</p>

<p>I took the ACT two times, the highest score being 29 (I have one more chance to retake the ACT before ED deadline).</p>

<p>I am involved in my school's new Human Rights Club (we just raised one grand in our first benefit concert). I used to be part of the school's Habitat For Humanity before it was cancelled. I will be volunteering abroad this summer to help out the poor in Guatemala and have participated in the National Student Leadership Conference in Washington DC, Maryland.</p>

<p>I have a trophy and two medals from a Karate tournament (I think it was state).</p>

<p>I have a GPA of 4.1 (weighted, don't know uw) and I have a string of As and Bs. I've taken several honors/ap courses.</p>

<p>I plan on taking the AP USH, AP Calc BC, and AP Stats tests during senior year (I'm a junior now). I guess this won't matter until after apps are done. I have taken the AP Psych test but haven't gotten the results yet.</p>

<p>So...be honest. What are my chances at Tufts? Should I retake the ACT? What are they specifically looking for (or are really anal about)? Should I include more volunteering hours/extracurricular activites?</p>

2

<p>What's your class rank?</p>

<p>You have no hooks so upping your ACT to 30 and over would at least help.</p>

3

<p>Be aware that Tufts typically takes the "Ivy Rejects"- kids who are qualified enough to get into Ivy league schools, but didn't. Tufts also has a huge writing component to their application, which weeds out kids who don't have excellent intellectual curiosity and experiences.</p>

4

<p>What would you consider a "hook"? A friend of mine wrote about how he survived a car accident and learned to walk again during his junior year for his essay. Would that be considered a "hook"?
I have some traumatic experiences I was planning on writing for the apps essay, but I don't know if that would be a hook or not. (I've also moved around all over the world...would that be a hook?)</p>

<p>P.S. My uncle's the president of Shanghai University. I know you can't get letters of recommendation from family, but is there a way to take advantage of that connection?</p>