Hey all - I applied ED to Brown but as the chances for admission there are slim for everyone, I’m now looking at my chances at my next 3 favorite schools in the RD pool (Barnard, Tufts, Northwestern.) Let me know what you all think!
Gender: F
Ethnicity: White
State: WA
Income Bracket: High, not seeking FA
GPA: 3.98 UW / school doesn’t weight
Class Rank: small school, doesn’t rank but definitely top 10% out of 40
ACT: 33 C first sitting (31M 36R 36E 28S w/34 on essay)
SAT I: 2240 superscore (800W 750CR 690M, all my schools superscore)
SAT II: Waiting on scores from November subj tests in Spanish and Lit, should be alright
Senior Year Courses: School doesn’t offer AP’s but Advanced Calc, Advanced Bio, 2 history classes, lit, electives
Junior Year Courses: Calc, Bio, Advanced Spanish Lit, US history, lit, electives
5’s on AP Lang & AP Spanish Lang and 4 on AP Spanish Lit even though my school doesn’t offer AP’s
I don’t know much about the ivies, but I can tell you about Tufts. One of my friends, he was an international with an SAT of 2200, perfect GPA’s and subject tests. He had a very strong EC resume as well. But he was put on the waitlist and later accepted with a half tuition award.
Hope that helps
Good lick with Brown ED.
Fingers crossed
@mjrube94 My one worry about ED2 is that I’m not sure I want to make the effort to apply to all my other schools and never know if I could have gotten into them… especially if I get deferred at Brown I’m not sure I would want to eliminate all chances of ever getting in.
I’m kind of biased towards it, @ffina23. I’m a double legacy, quadruple if you count aunts and uncles, hextuple(?) if you count friends’ siblings and Bio teachers. It has gorgeous architecture (and I mean BEAUTIFUL) and a really, really good IR program, though.
@awesomepolyglot hmmm… I looked it up and it only has 2,000 students. Are you an alum/current student or in high school? If you have any more info on it from a personal standpoint I would love to hear it.
I’m in high school. I know 5 people who have graduated, and my friends’ brother is a junior (?). All 5 graduates that I interact with on a regular basis (just remembered that I know 2 more, lol) loved it and would definitely do it again. I think 4 of the 5 majored in IR. I’ve only visited a few times, but it is beautiful and it has a pretty good camaraderie among most of the alumni. In addition, I’ve heard about a really great professor for IR, but I’m not sure if he’s there anymore, sorry.
@ruetherford What exactly do you think makes Barnard a reach? My ACT score is above their 75th percentiles, so would it be my EC’s/GPA that make it a tough one?
We are scary similar! I’m a prospective international relations major myself, newspaper editor, class gov. etc and Barnard is my top choice. Obviously, Brown is a reach for everyone, but Northeastern seems like a safety school, if not a low, low match for you. I’d say you’re solidly in the Barnard range, and if you can rock your interview and essay, you’ll have a great chance. As far as superstore, I’m pretty sure Barnard doesn’t superscore, or at least they “ask for all your scores” (which to be honest, they said that they only look at the top, but I’m naturally suspicious!). I don’t know much about Tufts, but you seem above and beyond the Northeastern students I know, and about at level for Barnard. That being said, your lack of APs, while it probably won’t hurt your admissions, I’ve heard it will make your foundational year(s) at Barnard living hell, but if you get in, I’m sure that’s the furthest thing from your mind. Also, hindsight being 20/20, it might have been a good idea to apply ED to Barnard if you have the financial resources, because they seem to put a heavy emphasis on that.
Hahaha thank you @strivingforanivy! The similarities are pretty strange… and I actually mean Northwestern as in the school in Chicago, not Northeastern in Boston (I visited Northeastern and found it didn’t have as much of a campus feel as I would have liked.) We’ll see about the West Coast thing, I’d like to think it might help but it also means I have 0 connections with anyone east coast-related anywhere. Thanks for the detailed chance & good luck w/ your senior year!!
Nevertheless, you’re probably comparable with him (though he has some “real world” political experience [he worked on Elizabeth Warren’s campaign and a few local elections] for his poll sci major)
In my opinion, you seem like an amazing applicant! I’m sure you’ll do very well wherever you go, and good luck with Brown. I don’t know too much about Northwestern, but I spent the summer at Barnard, and they definitely superscore. I asked an admissions officer about the no-AP classes thing, because my school has a similar system. She assured me that Barnard cannot penalize you for your school’s policies, and not taking classes which were not an option should not count against you. (That was a major relief for me, so I wanted to tell you!) I know that Tufts and Barnard (two of the schools on my list as well) place extreme emphasis on the writing supplement, but with your time spent on your school newspaper I’m sure you write very well. Tufts actually has an amazing admissions website with all kinds of advice on the application, if that helps. Good luck!!
