Chance me for Amherst College and Bowdoin

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Background:

From Arizona
Go to Arizona School for the Arts (a liberal arts school, a few kids a year go to top 10s, I’m in the top 10 percent at least)
White
Middle Upper Class
Live in rural area
Young for my age group
Both parents are British
Dual citizenship

Academics:

Academic GPA: 4.0/4.5
Arts GPA: 3.6/4.0
SAT: 1320
AP’s: AP Calc, AP Literature, AP United States History (so far)
Honors: Algebra 2 and Pre-Calc (school typically only offers honors to 11th graders but I got it my Freshman year)
Kumon Honor Roll 9 years straight
Kumon Gold Award
Arts Seal of Excellence

Clubs:

FBLA/Business Club: President and Creator, some adversity. Volunteer and learning stuff.
STF: Treasurer, goal to raise 300 dollars to send one woman in India to college
MUN: Chairing a committee, was China and the USA in the General Assembly. Distinguished delegate for the US.
Mu Alpa Theta: Currently running for president. Was in music video for Mathematical Minutes competition.
F4FW/Nothing But Nets: Raised 15,000 dollars to build well in South Sudan. After goal was completed, we went with my idea for a Nothing But Nets club.
NHS: Volenteer Stuff and Fashion Show. Part of the marketing committee.
Mentor Program- Mentored incoming Freshman for 2 years so far
Ambassador Program- Represented the school at events and gave tours of the school to parents.

Volenteer Activities:

  1. Hundreds of hours of community theater
  2. About 100 hours of tutoring at my school
  3. Around 50 hours tutoring kids at kumon
  4. 25 hours of Ambassador Work
  5. 10-20 hours of making sandwiches at local church for the underprivileged

Arts Involvment:

  1. Danced since 5th grade in Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Horton Technique, and Tap
  2. Newsies at PT (paid)
  3. WSS at PT (paid)
  4. 42nd Street at SMTC (paid)
  5. National Dance Honors Society
  6. Teach dance 5 hours a week
  7. Raised 10,000 dollars for the arts individually at an event (event raised 200,000 in total)
  8. Performed for Elderly through theater group
  9. Has played piano for almost 10 years

Hobbies:
Tennis Player (4.0-4.5 rating)
Piano
Python Programming applied to Finance
Reader of Nonfiction:

  1. The Black Swan
  2. Physics from Finance
  3. Econophysics and Financial Economics: An Emerging Dialogue
  4. Economics for Dummies
  5. 60 second economics
  6. Thinking of Complexity
  7. Complex Systems
  8. Science of Interstellar
  9. The Wealth of Nations
    Stock Investing
    Ping Pong

Other things:
3 Time National Champion in Gymnastics (level 5, 7, 9)
Second place at Nationals (level 10)
Team Captain at Olympic Training Center (Wasn’t in high school, but my last level 10 tournament was)
Intern for HSGP, public policy
ASU Barrett Summer Scholars
Secular Coalition of AZ
I know a bunch of celebrities:

  1. Debbie Boone (daughter of Pat Boone)
  2. Charles Saugnecy (Bways Urinetown)
  3. Eloise Kropp (I have her number :slight_smile: Spielbergs West Side Story)
  4. Patti Colombo (Choreography of Peter Pan on Broadway)
  5. James Kinney (on Broadway 3 times)

LOR:
College Counselor who has helped me through mental health stuff and has seen me grow a lot throughout the years.

History Teacher: He’s like that Uncle to me. We have debates all the time about politics and philosophy.

Dance Teachers: They think I have inspired other male dancers at the studio.

Essays:
For Bowdoin- One essay on how going to the Olympic training center made be become a person i dislike and how I’ve tried to become more collaborative than competitive throughout the years. The other essay is on how Bowdoin’s culture can help facilitate this growth.

For Amherst:
An essay similar to my first Bowdoin Essay. For the supplement, I want to write about complexity theory and nonlinear mathematics as insight to the working for social systems.

2

Unless you get recruited for tennis, your chances at both of these schools are probably around 10%. They’re a reach for almost everyone. Not saying you don’t a chance. Give it a shot, but have a backup plan.

3

What if I’m not submitting my SAT for Bowdoin? I thought I had good enough ECs and hooks to get into Bowdoin. I’m a theater kid and a male dancer which you don’t see a lot of ?

4

I have seen students with great references and nothing but A’s get rejected by Bowdoin, and students with nearly half B’s in the same classes get accepted by Bowdoin. I do think that it is worth applying if you can afford it. It is not a safety.

I do not know precisely how to interpret “Academic GPA: 4.0/4.5”.

If you are not okay with being full pay then you should run the NPC for both schools.

5

What is your unweighted GPA, core courses only?

Amherst and Bowdoin are both reaches for you, as they are for any unhooked applicant. Note there are many male theater students who dance, it is not a hook.

Bowdoin’s Class of 2024 acceptance rate was 8.3%, Amherst’s 11.8%. Unhooked applicants have lower acceptance rates than the overall.

Being a recruited athlete at any school would significantly increase your odds of admission.

So do apply, but make sure that you also apply to a handful of target schools and at least one affordable safety.

6

My unweighted GPA is 4.0 and my unweighted is 4.5 is what I meant. Sorry if that was confusing. Would being an athlete at the Olympic training center help my admissions?

7

Got it on the GPA.

That is a nice EC, but not a hook if you aren’t a recruited athlete.

You have achieved a great deal in HS! But the reality is that colleges like Amherst and Bowdoin are reaches for all unhooked candidates. I encourage you to apply, but make sure your college list is balanced with a handful of match/target schools and at least one affordable safety.

If you want suggestions of schools that fit what you are looking for (do you prefer an LAC?, geography, major, etc.), as well as your budget, posters can help you identify match and safety options. Identifying the reaches is the easy part!

8

Your ECs are ridiculously good, and these schools going test optional for next year will definetly help you. You have a solid shot unless you rub them the wrong way with your essays

9

Are you finished with gymnastics ?

Any desire to teach gymnastics ?

SAT is a bit low.

Interesting profile. I think that Arizona residency might help somewhat.

Why Bowdoin ?

Why Amherst College ?

10

I stopped gymnastics when I started high school because I disliked what the kids were doing to win. They were killing themselves to more and more dangerous things. When I was Captain at the Olympic training center, the coaches would wake us up and make us train at 1 in the morning because in foreign countries we would have to perform under pressure. A lot of kids got hurt and they started breaking down. However, my break down happened years after and still to this day. In my opinion, I have become someone I shouldn’t have become. I am so competitive and I want to win and be the best at everything. It has caused some serious mental health issues for me. I think its contributed to my test taking anxiety but most importantly my ability to make friends and be happy. I used to step on 3 and 2 to become number 1. I’ve tried to share my passions and bring everyone up to my level rather than accelerating myself beyond others. Bowdoin is my dream school. Why Bowdoin? Because Bowdon and other liberal arts schools prize themselves on being collaborative. Although I am not perfect, Bowdoins values align to who I want to become.

11

I’m hoping to use my competitive nature to get recruited by Bowdoin for tennis. I am not yet rated by UTR but I play as well as the other players. I’m just far less experienced but significantly more athletic from what I’ve seen of them. The gymnastics and dancing have really made me physically fit. Their team is incredible though, so I may not be recruited.

I also already teach gymnastics :slight_smile:

12

My daughter is a recruited athlete (volleyball). She sent the volleyball coach at Bowdoin a link to her recruiting profile and the coach immediately reached out to her. She had an interview within a week with the coach. If you haven’t reached out to the tennis coach or coach has not contacted you, it’s unlikely you will get recruited on a hope and a prayer. If you are an elite athlete, that is part of the process. The spring tournaments are canceled due Covid 19 so athletes, who want to play in college send an intro with film or videos to coaches.

13

Without playing a sport for Bowdoin or Amherst, you probably don’t have that much of a chance for either of these schools. Both of them are obviously top LAC, so they’re reaches for the majority of applicants.

Try to get your SAT up, although that might be hard with all of the recent cancellations. Your volunteering is quite impressive, but your ec’s don’t really count for much without any awards to back them up, and given your limited space for ec’s on the Common App, you’ll probably have to pick and choose which to include and which to remove.

Just making sure that you are aware, knowing celebrities probably isn’t something you’d want to mention on your application.

14

I am already in contact with the coach! He said to meet him if I’m ever on campus so I’m hopefully doing explore Bowdoin at some point

15

All the LACs have gone test optional due to covid anyway. I don’t see how awards contribute to volunteer work and being a genuine help to society besides just putting a label on it. Being in AZ, there isn’t a lot for that anyway.

16

Yeah getting in contact with the coach is always a good thing to do. When I was referring to awards, I meant in the context of your extracurriculars outside of volunteering. So the stuff like piano, ping pong, and python, would pop out a lot more on your application if you had some awards to go along with them.

Good luck with your application!

17

Graduate of Amherst College tennis here. You NEED to have played USTA tournaments heavily in order to get recruited. Make a recruiting video etc…if you’re trying to get noticed based off of UTR, it has to be >11. There are some guys on both of those teams that are lower, but they either got in on their own then the coach let them walk on, or they had some other connection (legacy etc.). Both of those programs are in the top 10 in the country D3, and almost all the people who actually play for them were in the top 100/200 of players in the country for their class. Hope that helps a bit.

18

Hey AdRichardson! For reference, I’m a member of the Bowdoin Class of '24. I applied to Bowdoin for many of the same reasons that you wrote about, most importantly the tight-knit community with wonderfully kind people, top academic reputation, and location in beautiful coastal Maine. I had a 3.6 uw GPA and a 1500 on my SAT. Coming from a prestigious private school in New York, I think my stats were relatively competitive but not the best.

(PLEASE remember that I’m not an expect and speaking solely from personal opinion) I think the Bowdoin admissions officers are really intentional about the people they choose to make up the very small class of 500. This means they pay attention to the applicant’s letters of recommendations, perceived character (through essays), as well as interviews and the optional video response. Personally, your gymnastics story is really interesting and thought provoking, and I think if you include it in your application, you can really stand out as an applicant. Although admission into Bowdoin is incredibly selective, if you love the school (just as I do), then you owe it to yourself to apply.

In addition to your unique story and gymnastic accomplishments, I think your profile as an applicant from Arizona will definitely boost your application, as Bowdoin probably gets few applications from your region. Although Bowdoin is test option (and has been for the past fifty years), it could help to improve your SAT score, but given the current situation, I’m sure it’s not a big deal.

If you have any questions about the process, I am willing to help and am rooting for your success. I know that gymnastics is an incredibly difficult sport that requires a lot of perseverance and dedication, so I applaud you for your accomplishments, and I’m sure that wherever you go, you’ll carry that hard-working mentality.

19

At Bowdoin, they say that their admissions criteria is “half heart half grades.” You seem very kind and supportive and I very much appreciate your response!

20

I think you have a shot and should apply to both. I think you should look at other LAcs including those that are not as hard to get into but still very good schools. There are a lot of other schools where students are collaborative.

Good luck!