Hello, I am a senior from New Jersey, I am, female, and Asian naturalized immigrant. I will be 17 when I graduate this June.
Major: Literature/ Political Science (Possible dual majors in Literature and Political Science)
GPA: 3.75 unweighted (Messed up Freshman year but pulled myself together)
4.11 weighted
SAT: 1580
Extracurriculars:
(LEADERSHIP) Mock Trial - (Selection based - 4 years)
(LEADERSHIP) Model UN - 4 years
(LEADERSHIP) JSA - 4 years
School Newspaper (Editor) - 3 years
Battle of the books - 4 years (My team has been first place on the state level for 2 years in a row, and 2nd for 2 years in a row)
Quiz Bowl - 4 years
(LEADERSHIP) Literary Magazine - 4 years
Ice Hockey Team - 4 years
I have a start-up that is a website that runs a virtual book club, with people from all over the world, and also conducts a book swap, and holds used-book sales, where I ship books all over the world.
I have done (selection-only) courses in poetry, and creative writing, at fine arts highschool (4 years)
I have attended summer writing workshops in various colleges.
I have 3 first drafts lined up for a book series.
My paintings received a Gold Medal in Scholastic’s yearly competitions.
I go to India every summer and hold a summer camp where I tutor kids in English.
I’ve taken 13 AP courses, 9 of them I had 5’s and 4 of them I had 4’s.
I’ve been told by a lot of people that my essays are very “ballsy,” and clever, and one of the best they have read, by various teachers.
LOR’s: Really good ones from my 9th and 11th grade English teacher, and Art teacher, rest are alright.
Colleges I’m applying to:
Princeton
Yale - ED
Brown
Duke
Emory
NYU
University of Michigan
Columbia
UChicago
WashU
Yeah that’s what I meant, I typed this whole thing a month ago and forgot to update sorry. I backed out and didn;t apply SCEA, so now I guess I have to apply normally.
You seem like a strong applicant, but that is a challenging list. Would you please share very specific information about your courses and grades since Freshman year? Without that, I am shooting in the dark.
With 13 AP courses completed (with exams), the OP’s level of academic rigor appears self-evident. She may want to state the number of AP courses she is taking this year, however.
Yeah I’ve applied to a couple safeties and match schools, these were just the reaches. And budget doesn’t matter as much because I qualify for FA at most schools and I have a 10k/year scholarship from scholastic.
Not for me to give “likelihood of admissions” on that list. Need to see how the grades and classes match up and understand the correlation between weighted and unweighted.
Also again, I just want to clarify that the AP scores are predictions so far I have six 5’s and two 4’s. I am taking 5 more this year and these are just what I believe (confidently) that I will get.
Regarding budget and FA, make sure you run each school’s net price calculator to get a COA estimate. You may have variable results in the list of schools above, as some meet full need and some don’t. They all use different formulas to calculate what a family can pay. They will all include $10K scholarship in their FA package, as none of these schools stack scholarships (said differently, they will decrease the aid they give you by $10K). Here is NYU’s NPC (NYU does not meet full need for all students) Estimate Your Cost
Note that NPCs may not be accurate if your parents are divorced, own a business, or own real estate in addition to a primary home.
Let us know if the NPCs for these schools are affordable.
without additional information @Mwfan1921 is right-on. But maybe, there will be something more that will make Michigan (a test loving institution) less of a reach. Emory, NYU and Wash U also have an outside chance of being a bit less of a reach.
Yeah, although while doing that I forgot to name the summer workshops I have been to and they were the Sewanee, and Emory programs for writing. And thank you!