Hi! I’m currently a high school senior and AU is my top school — I’m planning on applying Early Decision 1 to double major in Journalism and Political Science.
Here are my academic stats:
• Attend a fairly small (950 students) regional public high school
• GPA (weighted 5.0 scale) — 4.2 (B+/A- average in honors/AP classes)
• My school only reports weighted GPAs but if I had to guess I’d say my unweighted is somewhere in the 3.5 territory; my transcript is mainly A’s and B’s (two C+’s: one in Algebra I which I took in eighth grade but still appears on my high school transcript, and one in precalc first semester). The rest of my math grades have been low B’s — it is by far my weakest subject.
• SAT — 1360
• ACT — 32 (perfect scores on the reading & grammar sections) (still waiting to hear back about essay section score)
• AP classes & exam scores — AP Euro (4), APUSH (5), AP English Lang & Comp (5), AP Psych (5); currently taking AP Stats, AP Gov, and AP English Lit & Comp
• My school doesn’t report class rank but my guidance counselor told me I’m somewhere in the top 20% (that was at the beginning of my junior year — my weighted GPA has increased a full .1 point since then, I’m not sure if that had any bearing on my rank but I figured it was worth mentioning)
Here are my ECs/other important info:
Within my school —
• I’ve done Model UN, Mock Trial, and our peer mentoring group since my sophomore year.
• Also my sophomore year, I founded and became a co-president of our school’s Activism Club — we formed in the wake of the Parkland tragedy (without a political affiliation) to educate our community on activism and connect everyone with opportunities for advocacy/community service. The club has done pretty well — we’ve been invited to present at some statewide speaking engagements and are well-received in our community.
• NHS member
• Was selected as the school representative for my state’s 2018 HOBY leadership seminar (so I’m a HOBY alum)
• Organizer of my school’s Principal’s Advisory
Outside of school —
• Last year I interned for my congressman through both the fall and spring sessions (I was kept on for an additional session because his staff thought I was good at the work; I have a letter of rec confirming that but I know from an info session that AU only reads one teacher & one guidance counselor so unfortunately I can’t send that).
• Was personally invited to serve as the Youth Chair (as the first person to fill the new position) on my town’s Democratic Town Committee
• Volunteer hours with local DTC campaigns
• I just started a program at my local elementary school where I mentor fifth & sixth graders on how to be activists for causes they care about
I did a campus tour/info session at AU over the summer and emailed my admissions rep a couple of days later to introduce myself. I’ve been in contact with him; I have an interview next month and am attending a regional info session the same weekend. I’ve heard that demonstrating interest is a huge component of an AU application.
Letters of rec will be from my guidance counselor and either my AP Lang/Lit or APUSH teacher — still deciding which to send.
I know my grades aren’t stellar but I hope that other aspects of my application might be enough to get me accepted, especially ED; AU is my dream school and I’ve been working hard to make that clear to the admissions office. My guidance counselor feels confident in my chances based on prior students from my school who have been accepted but I’m really interested in hearing some perspective from here.
Thanks so much!