Chance me for CSOM?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston College
1

Hi im an Australian student. I’m currently in year 11 at a good private school.

I’ve travelled to 4 nationals and 1 pan pacific games and spent 3 weeks in Europe on a training camp for water polo. I also play in a womens water polo competition. Ranking highly in all comps.

I have had lots of work experience at my dad’s finance company and at a stock broking/venture capitalist firm. I have gotten straight A’s all through high school and although my school doesn’t offer AP or honours classes my classes are some of the hardest offered.

I do Mock trials (for 2 years) which is organised by the Law society of Western Australia. Ive played water polo for school for fours years and got an honours for it. I am apart of the st vincent de paul society at school and have done about 60 hours of community service at a childcare place and at a soup kitchen.

I also was chosen and will be travelling to Canberra for a national science forum at the Australian national university. Only 300 people in the country were chosen. Next year I will be picking up many co-curriculars such as, volleyball, soccer and some service groups.

I haven’t taken the SAT’s yet but my expected score is around 2000.
I will also be sitting my ATAR which is an Australian ranking score and my expected ATAR is around 97-98 which means I’m in the top 2-3% of people in my year in Australia.

Just wondering what my chances for CSOM would be. My family is quite well off so I wouldn’t need financial aid i don’t know if this makes a difference.
Thanks :slight_smile:

2

Dear olivia1999 : Yours is a very interesting profile and it illustrates the international appeal that schools such as Boston College maintain. Let’s discuss some of the elements in your presented profile.

As your research might have shown, Boston College accepts over 85% of its freshman class from the Top 10% of their individual High School classes. Therefore, your ATAR ranking of Top 3% certainly fits the academic model, but without visibility into your curriculum, it is difficult to assert that we are comparing equals. Boston College seeks four years of High School performance in English, social studies, language, mathematics, and science usually culminating in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate performances. If your school does not provide access to these advanced courses, you will need to demonstrate that your High School courses were at least comparable to college level work. This is where your transcript and your High School’s curriculum will be critical.

Consider mathematics for example. If you took four years of High School mathematics covering Algebra (Grade 9), Geometry (Grade 10), Trigonometry/Algebra II (Grade 11), and Pre-Calculus or Statistics (Grade 12), that would look highly inferior to a student with a program such as Algebra (Grade 8), Geometry (Grade 9), Algebra II (Grade 10), Pre-Calculus (Grade 11), and Calculus AB or Calculus BC (Grade 12).

Similar discussions follow for science where Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and at least one Advanced AP course, potentially more, are the standard against which profiles are measured.

On what criteria would you expect a 2000 on the SAT I exam? Have you taken a PSAT to get a representative sample or is this based on sample SAT exams you are taking in a course or at home? The Boston College mid-50% of the accepted class ranges from 1950-2100+ which means that a 2000 would be roughly a midpoint to third quartile performance.

Your finance background would be interesting in a CSOM application if you can properly identify why it makes you a highly desirable candidate and what your background adds to the Boston College community.

On the water polo front, this is clearly offered at a club level at the university; in other words, this is not considered an NCAA Division I sport at Boston College. So, while you can find solid competition should you want to continue in the sport, it will not be on a US national championship level. You can investigate more be going to the following site :

http://www.bc.edu/offices/rec/club-sports/directory.html

However, the biggest question remaining is “Why BC?”. Why did you choose to investigate Boston College and why would you make the community stronger? Are you aligned with the principles of Jesuit Education (not from the religion perspective, but rather a spirit of questioning and learning)? Are you comfortable with the Boston area here in the States?

So while there are many questions to be answered, your profile intrigues this reader. What other cohort universities are you considering?