GPA: 3.8
ACT: 29, with a 34 on writing and a 24 in math (awkward)
AP’s: AP English Lit, AP English Lang, AP Biology, APUSH
Honors Classes: Honors English I, Honors English II, Honors Algebra and Elementary Functions, Honors Chemistry, Honors Spanish III, Spanish IV (not offered in honors but considered an advanced course at my school)
Extracurriculars: Member of Varsity Field Hockey Team for 4 years, Captain for 2,
Member of Varsity Lacrosse Team for 2 years, Member of Cross Country Team for 1 year, President of Random Acts of Kindness Club, President of Environmental Club, Internship at Environmental Protection Agency, UVA Young Writer’s Workship Alumni (2013), Editor of the Lit Mag and the Newspaper for my school, Has acted in 3 school plays/musicals, plays ukulele, does slam poetry
I am not Jewish but my Grandfather’s cousin is Albert Einstein and he founded Brandeis. As this has been a large influence on my life, I wrote my common app essay on it. Do you think that will help my chances?
Well, that’s not correct about Einstein – read up on the subject if you like, it’s too long a topic for here.
As to if that will help you, the fact about your relationship will not, but a well-written essay on any topic will.
Your GPA is “fair” (is it weighted or unweighted).
Your ACT is below the line, given that Brandeis is test-optional I would recommend not submitting that score. You should only submit scores to a test-optional school if the scores are well above their typical admitted applicant.
Then you haven’t read much.
Like I said it’s a long and complex story but basically Einstein was approached by the founders of Brandeis to endorse and/or put his name on the university and he initially agreed. Almost immediately afterwards they had a disagreement and Einstein had his name removed from the project and his involvement ended.
To say he had much to do with the founding of Brandeis or to describe him as one of the “founders” is a pretty big stretch. But it doesn’t matter much since like I said, your distant relationship to him will not be a factor in any case.
You are completely incorrect in saying you should only submit scores well above the average. I’m not sure of the exact numbers, so I’ll make some up…
Let’s assume Brandeis has a 25-75 of 31-33. You are basically saying you should only submit a 34+, which isn’t true. If that were the case, I’d recommend submitting anything 30+, and even a 29 would be okay. If you don’t submit, they’d assume it was much worse.
@jamesjunkers That’s not what I’m saying at all. If Brandeis had a 25-75 of 31-33, let’s assume that their 50% number is 32. I would then say only submit a 32+. Why would you submit a score that clearly puts you in the bottom half of their applicants?
@sjillian15, @jamesjunkers:
Consider the following:
Brandeis only went test-optional very recently.
Assume for the purposes of discussion that prior to going test-optional their average ACT score for all applicants was a 30 and for admitted applicants it was a 32.
Clearly, by going test-optional it will have a much larger effect on the lower-end scores than the higher ones as the lower scoring applicants will be far more likely to not submit. To take an extreme example, I would think most 25's would not submit while all 36's would.
Due to #3 above, once the school goes test-optional the average score for all applicants will go up and likely for admitted applicants as well. Let's say they go up to 32 and 34 in this example.
When considering whether to submit or not, an important consideration is as follows: What are most applicants with my score going to do? Let's say you have a 30, if it turns out that most applicants with a 30 or less are not submitting, by submitting your 30 you are now right at the bottom of the submitted range, while before you would have been right in the middle. Big difference.
@soze, you bring up some good points and hope my fellow Brandeis Class of 2019 people are great! I don’t want to further hijack @phoebebain97’s thread but do want to wish her the best of luck in the college app process.