<p>I'm interested in applying to Brown Early Decision with a prospective joint concentration in Economics - Computer Science.</p>
<p>** Race: **Asian-American</p>
<p>** SAT's: ** 2340 (800 Math, 800 Writing, 740 Critical Reading) </p>
<p>** SAT 2's: ** 720 (Chemistry), 750+ (Math 2c, I took it in June) </p>
<p>** Unweighted GPA: ** ~3.7</p>
<p>** Weighted GPA: ** ~4.2</p>
<p>** Rank: ** Top 10%</p>
<h1>APs: 2 Junior Year, 4 Senior Year</h1>
<p>** Awards: **</p>
<p>State Chemistry Award (2nd Place)
National Merit Commended Scholar</p>
<p>** ECs: **</p>
<p>* Clubs *: </p>
<p>Math Team (President)
Politics Club (President)
Academic Decathlon
Science League
Chemistry Olympics
National Honor Society
Environmental Club </p>
<p>* Outside School *</p>
<p>Summer Internship with an official in NJ State Government (will get an excellent Rec from him) </p>
<p>Columbia University High School Summer Program</p>
<p>Strong candidate. Do something exceptional before you submit your app, have a great essay, and great recs.</p>
<p>Your SAT I score and your extracurricular activities are impressive. (esp interning at the state government.)</p>
<p>Just improve your Chemistry SAT II test, which shouldn’t be a difficult task, considering that you won a state-chemistry competition.</p>
<p>Chance me!
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1157856-college-chance-me.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1157856-college-chance-me.html</a></p>
<p>Your GPA is low and you don’t have many awards, but you do have an ok shot.</p>
<p>A girl from my school with lower stats less ECs got in, so I would say you have a good chance, if not in ED, than RD.</p>
<p>Agree with born2dance in that your GPA might hurt you, but if you’ve taken a rigorous schedule throughout high school, which it appears you have (6 AP classes), then it’ll be less of a problem. Not saying it won’t be a problem, but less of one. You never know with admissions officers.</p>
<p>SAT score is awesome and should mitigate some of the effects of low GPA. Extracurriculars look fine, though you’ll want to have at least one community service activity you can put on there, other than NHS. Unless the internship counts as community service.</p>
<p>In any case, political internships are always good - I have to admit I’m kind of jealous of that opportunity. Write a passionate essay about that, and tie it in to your larger aspirations. Overall, you look like a solid candidate with as good a shot as any.</p>
<p>Thanks guys. I forgot to mention that I have several hundred volunteer hours at a hospital and my GPA/Transcript has an upward trend.</p>
<p>Okay, in that case I take back what I said about community service. At first I wanted to assume that you had just neglected to include that information, but I’ve learned the hard way to avoid assuming things about other people. </p>
<p>How much of an upward trend are we talking about? What were your grades like in freshman/sophomore years?</p>
<p>I was only in two honors classes freshman year. I was in 4 honors classes sophomore year. I’m in 3 honors and 2 APs this year and will be in 4 APs and 1 honors next year. </p>
<p>I’ve generally had like 2 B’s/B+s per year though.</p>
<p>So by “upward trend”, are you referring more to the difficulty of the courses than the grades in those courses?</p>
<p>Pretty much. I mean, from Freshman Year to Senior Year I have gone from only two honors to the hardest schedule available. </p>
<p>:/</p>
<p>Well, to be honest, I’m not always sure what people are talking about when they refer to an upward trend. In your situation, I guess taking harder classes may be considered an upward trend even if the grades themselves don’t increase much. It’s definitely something they’ll take into account when reviewing your app, but it probably won’t make them completely forget about your GPA.</p>
<p>upward trend refers to an upward trend in your grades, so going from straight Cs to As and Bs and then straight As. Something like that.</p>
<p>Ah well, I guess it isn’t very much of an upward trend.</p>
<p>Brown considers <em>very</em> importantly your fit for the school. Why do you want to go to Brown? Why ED? After accounting for recruited athletes, the admit rates for ED and RD are roughly the same, so I’d advise against it just for the sake of increasing your chances.</p>
<p>Your SATs are great, and I think your GPA should be okay (i.e. if you don’t get it, it won’t be because of your GPA). Your extracurriculars seem good, albeit ordinary. The chemistry award sounds fairly awesome, although you’re not majoring in chemistry. Anyway, you seem well-rounded and I’d say you’re a decently competitive applicant.</p>
<p>The one thing I don’t get is why Brown? You seem like a math-science kinda person, which is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Brown. That could just be me stereotyping though.</p>
<p>I’ve heard good things about Brown’s Computer Science program. I also love the school’s open curriculum and the general atmosphere of the school. The students there seem genuinely happy. We all have those schools… the ones that we have dreamed about going to for a long time and would give anything to attend. Brown’s mine. </p>
<p>I guess my interest in Brown has to do with the fact that I am more well-rounded instead of lopsided. While most of my interests do lie within the fields of computer science and mathematics, I am also extremely interested in things such as cognitive science, philosophy, economics, and political science. I feel that Brown’s curriculum, being as open as it is, will allow me to study the wide variety of topics I find so interesting.</p>
<p>I’m in a similar boat as you, because my GPA also lags behind the rest of my application.
Really, I would say that you are in the territory of Brown Early Decision being a low-reach school.
Your GPA certainly won’t stand out, but I don’t think that it will solely kill your chances. Your SAT I’s are absolutely killer, and I would actually go as for as to tell you to retake both of those SAT II’s. This is because you clearly could improve your Chem score to an 800, and the Math IIc is pretty easy to ace given sufficient preparation.
What you need to do to secure a very strong shot at becoming a Brunian is to develop some hooks. You are president of two clubs, and that’s great, but that can’t be a hook. Your chem efforts at the competition are on the way there, but a few national honors would really engage the adcoms. Depending on what you did/will do during your NJ Gov. internship, that could also turn into a hook.</p>
<p>Please use some time from summer break to chance me back! <a href=“http://www.■■■■■■/ChanceMe[/url]”>www.■■■■■■/ChanceMe</a></p>