Chance me for Vassar?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vassar College
1

<p>I'm a high school junior and I visited the campus this past weekend... needless to say I'm a little in love.</p>

<p>I'm a white female from NJ, probably not applying for much financial aid.</p>

<p>I want to major in Women's/Gender/Sexuality Studies (it has different names at every school I can't keep track). I've been very passionate about equal rights for years and I think that will come across in my application.</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA of 3.86, weighted is about 4.7.</p>

<p>Ranked 45th out of about 750 (top 6% or 7%)</p>

<p>ACT composite score of 31. Superscored is a 32, and I know Vassar superscores.</p>

<p>I took the SAT as well but my score doesn't even compare with my ACT score so I won't be submitting it.</p>

<p>Freshman Year courses:
English I Honors A
Algebra I Honors B+
World History A
Integrated Science A
Spanish I A+
Personal Finance/Civics A+
Speech and Drama I A+
Gym/Health A+</p>

<p>Sophomore Year courses:
English II Honors A
Geometry Honors B
US History I Honors A
Biology Honors A
Spanish II A+
Social Groups and Law A+
TV Production I A
Gym/Health A+</p>

<p>Junior Year courses:
English III A
Algebra II Honors A-
US History II Honors A+
Chemistry Honors A+
Spanish III A
TV Production II A
Sociology A+
Gym/Health A+</p>

<p>Senior year I'm planning to take: AP Literature, AP European History, AP Art History, Physics Honors, Pre-Calc Honors, Concious of Man (academically-based elective that counts as a history course); and hopefully I'll get into my school's Peer Leadership program, but if not then I'm planning to take Psychology (maybe AP, not sure).</p>

<p>ECs: President of the Gay-Straight Alliance at my school, volunteer at my local Pride Center, Rotary Interact (lots of community service hours with them for many different things), Red Cross, Club Hope, Class Council, History NHS, Science NHS, English NHS, guitar lessons outside of school since before freshman year, community service at various places (pride center, hospital, old age home, etc) and with various clubs listed above. I babysit neighborhood kids, take care of my baby cousin quiet often and for a generous amount of time, tutor my younger sister occasionally, write poetry in my spare time and run my own poetry blog, go on yearly trips all over the US, and some other things I can't think of right now.</p>

<p>Honors: Nothing huge, but I've made the academic high honor/honor roll every marking period since freshman year. I'm also in the 3 NHSs listed above.</p>

<p>I should get very good recommendations from certain teachers that I've established a more personal teacher-student relationship with (my History/Sociology teacher, the teacher that's the adviser of the Gay-Straight Alliance, my Algebra teacher, guitar teacher, etc)</p>

<p>My essay should also be pretty damn good. I feel extremely confident with my writing and that's definitely my strongest point academically. I also have a plethora of topics I could easily write about.</p>

<p>So how am I doing? What do you think?</p>

2

<p>You are a good candidate who would be much better with higher test scores. There’s some really good advice for tests on cc - I’d check it out, spend some time studying and make yourself into a very strong candidate. If you want some guidance feel free to PM me.</p>

3

<p>@CHD2013‌ correct me if I’m wrong, but I do believe that a 32 falls into the middle/high middle 50% for Vassar. I also don’t feel like I could get it up much higher. The only area where my score suffered was in math (27), and even if I were to get it up to a 30, my composite would still come out to a 32.25, which rounds down to a 32.</p>

4

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<p>That’s true, but you will be competing against many applicants with more high profile awards and ECs plus others with hooks - recruited athletes, URM, legacies, etc. You’d certainly be safer if you can get your test scores into the upper quartile. I’m guessing its possible if you have the time to devote to studying the “CC Way”.</p>

5

<p>Tara, does your school offer AP Algebra, Chemistry, Biology, US history, etc? In other words, have you taken the most difficult curriculum offered?</p>

6

<p>@CrewDad‌ I guess you could say I’ve taken a very difficult course load, but maybe not the most difficult. As for the specific AP classes you mentioned, AP US is offered, AP chem and bio are as well, however you have to take regular/honors chem or bio before taking the AP course. I could have taken AP bio this year but bio is probably my least favorite subject on earth. I won’t have the opportunity to take Ap chem until next year. Also, our AP cscience classes are double periods, which is why I didn’t opt to take them, because my interests are more in history and English and I wanted to be able to take the higher level courses in those classes. My school does not offer any AP math classes except for Calc and Stats, which are not possible for me (and many, many other students) to take because I would have had to complete Algebra I before high school which was not possible for me at my middle school.</p>