Chance Me for Barnard, Wellesley, Fordham, Pomona, etc...

Hi everyone! I’m currently a junior at an IB high school in Florida. Here are the colleges I plan on applying to in the fall:
Barnard College, Fordham University, Sarah Lawrence College, Wellesley College, Florida State University, University of Southern Florida, Pomona College, and McGill University in Montreal.

Here are my rough stats:
SAT: 1350 - 760 RW, 590 Math. *taking it a 2nd time in June to up my math score, and also doing the essay so I will update this again once those scores come out!
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0 so far): 3.2 (it’s very low, I know, but keep in mind I’m in IB, and I’ve had careless teachers that I plan on talking about)
Weighted GPA (so far): 5.0 expected to be higher
AP: European History (4), Human Geography (4), US History (4)
IB scores: n/a, take exams next May
Senior Year Course Load: IB SL Biology, TOK, Math Studies, HL Art, HL History, HL English, SL Spanish

Extracurriculars:

  • President of my school’s chapter of Students Demand Action (10, 11, 12)
  • Digital Media Coordinator for my city’s chapter of March For Our Lives (11, 12)
  • Wrote a full-length novel, planning to self-publish it this summer (9-12)
  • Acting and improv classes at my city’s conservatory (10, 11)
  • International Thespians Society (11, 12)
  • National Honor Society (11, 12)
  • Key Club (10, 11, 12)

Volunteer/Community service:

  • volunteered at a local theatre for all of 11th grade (80 hours), hopefully will do it again in senior year
  • have been volunteering at a low-income elementary school in my city every summer since 8th grade, where we help kids with their reading and math skills and keep them out of trouble
  • loads of other volunteer activities, not as prominent as the 2 above, but I love volunteering and have been doing so since middle school and really love helping people

Summer Activities:

  • attended the ACLU Summer Institute in 2018
  • attending Running Start’s Young Women’s Political Leadership Program this summer

I’m a white, straight, cisgender female. I go to a public IB high school in Florida, and there are about 80 kids in my graduating class including me. My greatest strength is English and writing, it always has been. I think the fact that I wrote a novel and am planning on self-publishing it speaks great volumes to this (I didn’t write it for the sole purpose of looking good on college apps - I’ve always been a writer and avid reader and wanted to write one!)

Thanks in advance if anyone decides to read this and respond!! My stats aren’t the best but I think my extracurriculars and essays will show that I’m a hard-worker and a good student beyond school smarts.

You have a great list of reach schools (exception USF and maybe SLC), and as long as you can afford these schools and if you can get an early answer from USF, and it’s a good solid likely school for you, great. SLC, with a good show of interest , would be a good EA choice too

Maybe match up some of you choices with a more likely similar school, like you have with Barnard and SLC. Wellesley and Simmons would work; Pomona and Pitzer (and or Scripps) Fordham and St John’s.

Thank you! USF is only on my list because everyone from my school gets in there and I thought it’d be good to have one 99% guaranteed acceptance. I was looking into Pitzer and Scripps, but wasn’t sure because I think I’d prefer to stick to the East Coast (so maybe I’ll look at Pitzer or Scripps in place of Pomona). Thanks again!

Your SAT math score needs to come way up to be competitive at the reach schools on your list. I would rethink your list if that score doesn’t improve.

I agree, I’m studying a lot to bring it up for the June test - the math section my peers and I received for this particular SAT test was particularly difficult, most of us scored fairly low on it. Hopefully the one in June will be more passable. Thank you for the advice!

I can’t figure out how to edit this post so I thought it’d be worth noting that I’m also planning on taking the SAT Subject Test for Literature in August, and plan on upping my math score to in the low 600s with more practice.

@gilliangrace A safety is meaningless if it’s there just so you can have an acceptance, if it is not a college which you would be happy to attend, being accepted only to that college will feel no different than having no acceptances at all.

You seem to be interested mostly in liberal arts colleges, so find a liberal arts college that you like as a safety.

Since you do new have your new SAT scores and GPA, it is difficult to chance you, based on what you think you may get. Wait for chances until you have your newer ones. However, I can already tell you that Pomona is a reach for anybody.

Also, in what do you wish to major?

I would be fine to attend USF! and FSU is another safety which I absolutely love and would be happy with if I didn’t get in anywhere else. Thanks for the advice about the sat and gpa, i know it’s a little hard to determine since it’s not my full information.
I want to major in English or creative writing and minor in political science.

I recommend adding Smith & Mt Holyoke college to your list

McGill admits Americans strictly by UW GPA and SAT/ACT score and there are published minima that vary by program for Arts it is:
B+ average in grades 10, 11 and 12;
B+ in each English;
ACT 28 or​
SAT I: EB Read & Writing 700, Math 640
SAT IIs: 650 in each subject

With your current stats it would be out of reach.

If you talk about this on your applications it will likely contribute to your denial at most colleges. Never blame your teachers for low grades.

I don’t plan on blaming the teachers - I just want to express how I worked hard in Algebra II and already am not very good at math and the teacher’s lack of care led to a lot of students receiving low semester grades. But I’ll rethink putting that on there, thank you for bringing that to my attention.

HI Gillian. Congratulations on all your hard work. Folks who aren’t familiar with IB don’t fully appreciate how difficult it is to complete, so don’t feel the need to apologize for less-than-perfect grades. My daughter is an IB student, also in Florida, and the work is mind-boggling, and roughly a third of her class has dropped out by now because they couldn’t handle the workload (like you she’s also a junior). Obviously, a lot will depend on what your math SAT score will end up at–you’ll get there.

So I’m going to post some info I’ve provided to other IB students in the past which may help. The IB program is universally considered the gold standard for rigor and many, many schools have a clear preference for students that earn the IB diploma. Roughly ten years ago a self-reported study was performed by IBO that reveals some really amazing data about the admission rates for IB students vs all applicants for about 150 different colleges and universities. It’s pretty much disappeared from the web, but I stumbled on it here: https://www.rjuhsd.us/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&ModuleInstanceID=13340&ViewID=7b97f7ed-8e5e-4120-848f-a8b4987d588f&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=16706&PageID=7234. Click the link, and it is the middle document on the following page.

It is astonishing just how much of a preference many schools give (gave) to IB diploma candidates. The caveat, of course, (besides being self-reported data), is that as far as I can tell this study was performed ten years ago (you can tell by the overall admission rates among the Ivies) and there’s no guarantee that some of these schools still give a preference, or that the preference is the same as it was. There hasn’t been another such study since, as far as I can tell.

Still, my recommendation is to peruse this list and see whether the schools you’re interested in you showed a preference. It’s also a good resource to find other schools to consider that are in your range score-wise that love (or loved, I guess) IB students.

Also–if you love to write, have you considered also submitting short stories to lit journals? There’s one in particular I know of that focuses on Florida writers, accepts work from teens, and even awards prize money. Publishes once a year, in March, but the submission period is now open and they will announce their acceptance decisions in September. If you pm me I can give you some more info if you’d like.

Good luck!

@gilliangrace: You wrote: “I’m a white, straight, cisgender female.” What does this mean ?

I added that in to let everyone know there’s nothing that will make me stand out from a demographic standpoint.

@RayManta Thank you so much! Your comment was incredibly helpful. Good luck to your daughter too - I know how stressful it can be on my parents, so I imagine it’s similar for you. I haven’t considered submitting anything to lit journals, hopefully it isn’t too late for that because that could be a great thing to add and I might enjoy it. I will definitely look some up and check them out. Thank you again!!

Based on the comment that I referenced above & your interest in writing, my impression is that Sarah Lawrence College is the school for you.

If you would like to reinforce a few of your current choices, or consider additional options, you can read these articles which pertain to your interest in creative writing:

http://contently.net/2014/11/06/resources/10-best-colleges-creative-writers/

http://flavorwire.com/409437/the-25-most-literary-colleges-in-america

bump

Would New College of Florida be suitable?

@ucbalumnus I have considered it several times, however it’s a little too small of a school for me to stay in state for. If I were to go to a school that small I’d want it to be out of state if that makes sense.