Chance me for Whitman [Syracuse University] ED

Colleges and Universities A-Z Syracuse University
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I haven’t submitted my application, please tell me anything that I am change

Demographics: Gender, race/ethnicity, state, type of school, and hooks (URM, first generation, legacy, athlete, etc.) Male, Black (Nigerian), Maryland (ew), Semi competitional Private school, URM. I need Fin-Aid. Upper Middle Class (90k)

**Intended Major(s):**Accounting

ACT/SAT/SAT II: Sat 1300 650 English 650 Math

UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0W. My school doesn’t do ranking or UW GPA.

Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc

AP World-3, Lang-3, Currently doing Calc AB and AP lit. (sending scores in)

Took pre-calc at a community college.

I have taken 6 honors classes and 2 more during my senior year.

Also taken an accounting class if that means anything

Award:

Weak ik ik

Principal’s list award 11x. Principal’s list means you need above 3.8 (Our school does quarters)

Dean’s List 1x. Dean’s list means you need above a 3.5

My School’s Gentlemen award

HTML School Awards

Local engineering competitions

Extracurriculars: Include leadership & summer activities

(3 Years) President of the Black Student Union. BSU is a place to talk about issues in the black community and we also do school events and club trips.

(3 Years) President of the Engineering club. We do Mechanical, Electrical, robotics, and some coding. Won a few local competitions.

(3 Years) Vice President of the Social Justice Club. Advocate for progressiveness in the local area. We have protests, regularly help out the homeless, and club trips.

(4 Years) Varsity Track.

(2 Years) Owner of a Business Blog. Small following through.

(Summer 2021) An internship where I worked at various businesses

(Oct. 2021-Now) Worked virtually with a startup podcast and help upload videos.

(Summer 2022) Worked a home U-Haul virtual Job. I was in sales and reservations

Essays/LORs/Other: Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.

Essay-About how I kept my life together during junior year. Spreading myself too thin and how I got through it. I use a lot of metaphors in it *May change, please tell me if it is a good to prompt or not* 6/10

LORs-One from a counselor, not really good because they don’t know me well enough. 4/10

Accounting teacher, I had a good relationship with him. 7/10

AP World Teacher, I had a great relationship with him and he gave me a glowing recommendation. 11/10

My ECs are mostly 2-3 years due to covid affecting my freshman year.

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Don’t worry about awards. Most have like you which as you note don’t have much behind them. In other words, they are given to all based on what you accomplished. What you’ve done EC wise is impactful - for example you ran track, we’re a great teammate I assume. You were 3 year President of BSU. That’s far more impactful than an award.

Submit your test. You are smack in the middle range wise and only 38% submitted. So you’re even better.

I suspect your school uses an unweighted, not a weighted gpa. In other words, you have straight As. Is this correct ? Weighted means they give more for Honors and or AP. So you could be above a 4.0.

I suspect you’ll be admitted but I worry about cost. SU does not meet need nor have great merit. Honestly I suspect you’d get in RD to Whitman. IF you have any cost concerns I would not go ED.

Good luck.

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I can’t chance you, but you have good achievements, congrats.

What math class do you have this year?

You say your family income is $90k, but what is the budget for college per year? Please run the Syracuse net price calculator BEFORE you apply ED. The idea is to not apply anywhere that is unlikely to be affordable. Net Price Calculator

The NPC may not be accurate if your parents are divorced, own real estate beyond a primary home, or own a business…are any of these the case for you?

Lastly, I know it’s late, but Syracuse wants two LoRs from core subject teachers…and accounting is not in a core subject area. Do you have another teacher you can ask?

Can I submit a letter of recommendation from someone other than academic teacher?

Your two academic recommenders must be teachers from your core academic subjects. You may submit an additional recommendation from someone such as an art/music teacher, coach or work supervisor if you feel this person would be able to provide additional insight to your academic abilities and personal character.

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Good catch on LORs.

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thank you so much! I will get to the other LOR pronto!

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I’m confused. The thread title says Whitman, but it’s tagged for Syracuse. Which school are you thinking about EDing to?

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I was too until I saw accounting. The b school at SU is the Whitman School of Management.

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Thanks! Learning something new every day. Does Whitman have separate entrance requirements than regular SU? If so, how does it compare?

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That I don’t know. Admissions processes. If anything it wouldn’t be higher - I don’t think.

My concern for OP is at $90k income, can they afford it. I would ensure b4 applying ED. I suspect this student gets in RD but should show demonstrated interest.

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@Swegkilla, has your family run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) at Syracuse? If not, they need to do that before going any further. If they have run the NPC, is the price a number they are willing and able to pay for four years? For many families, their Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) is not affordable. If the EFC is not affordable for your family, do not ED there.

Out of curiosity, what is it that you like about Syracuse and its accounting program?

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I like Whitman because of its oppertunities, connections, smaller classes and the building is nice. They rank pretty good to (even though rankings don’t matter that much).

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Syracuse offers an optional interview for applicants. I think the interviews are a good way to show interest and see if the school is a good fit for you. ​Personal Admissions Interviews - Syracuse.edu

My D was accepted to Whitman. We were impressed with the university and Whitman. The weather is pretty brutal though - snow and gray skies in April. Still, many students are happy there and they have good business connections in NYC.

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I will be doing one of those. I know Syracuse is big on demonstrated interest. I have been to many webinars and emailed my local admission rep and the school of business.

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The only things you have left to address is your budget, and running Syracuse’s NPC with your parents. Please do that and let us know the NPC result.

https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/syr

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Is it true that ED gives out more Fin. Aid than RD?

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No one will ever know. However, most believe that it’s the other way - merit comes in RD, not ED. Now, there have been chains for SU that show people got during both.

But if you were a business (which is what a college is) and you had a limited budget and you wanted to use it to attract customers (students), would you spend it on people that promise to come if you’re willing to have them (ED) or who have the choice to spend money at your business or another (RD).

In other words, if you are accepted ED, they have zero reason to give you money - they’ve already got you bound. So why would you?

If you apply RD and you might be considering Maryland, Miami of Ohio, Delaware, etc., you might be more prone to choose one - because they are a better deal financially than SU.

So the common thinking is, the merit money comes in RD - but several have shared they got merit ED. I have a theory, right or wrong, that schools give out a little money ED so that word spreads that yes, you can get it…sort of marketing on their behalf in order to secure more ED apps (which are gold for a college).

But while we’ll never see the numbers, I imagine both the percentage of kids receiving and the $$ amounts are far higher on an overall basis in RD than ED - and for most any college. That’s my belief, anyway.

Once a student EDs, the college has no reason to spend on them when they can use their budget to attract someone else instead.

Back to your GPA - you said it’s a 4.0 weighted but I don’t believe schools use “just weighted” but rather only unweighted. The easy way to know is - do you have straight As??

If so, and you likely wouldn’t be interested, but if your family is on a budget, it would open up myriad of opportunities financially for you. One other thing ED restricts is - your ability to look at competing offers - which would be important - only if budget is a concern to yourself and your family (i.e. you could go to school for $25K a year instead of $60K or $70K, etc).

Good luck

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I would RD but Syracuse tends to reject people who are very qualified during that time. Does Syracuse tend to give more money to people who ask for more after being given their initial financial aid package?

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I respectfully disagree.

Syracuse has a yield per the CDS of 16%. This means 16% of everyone they accepted attends.

This includes early decision - so in reality, less than 16% of kids they accept attend.

And a school like SU probably doesn’t have a huge ED contingent like a top ranked school would - i.e. Ivies, etc.

So they had to admit almost 24K people just to get 3800.

So I think your assessment is off. Now, in order to improve that #, they might reject kids who never attended a session, never opened an email, etc. But you said you’ve demonstrated interest. On top of that, you are a URM.

So I think your beliefs are far off. Of course, I’m not an AO but the data shows your fears are far off.

As for, will they negotiate? I’d leave that to others to answer. Of course, if you don’t ask, you can’t get. Whether they negotiate or will study a special circumstance under appeal, I don’t know.

But if you’re asking the question, you’re not a good candidate for ED, unless you run the net price calculator and you’re able to pay what it says.

You still haven’t answered my question on your unweighted GPA. When you say you have a 4.0 and your school only gives weighted (which doesn’t make sense), the easiest way to know is - have you ever gotten a B or are you straight As (in High School).

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I did email my school, they said the GPAs are only weighted. They do not do unweighted gpas.

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You have to calculate you unweighted GPA on your own…. on a 4.0 scale where any A is worth 4 points, any B 3 pts and so on. Add that up and divide by the number of courses you included in the numerator. Do this for core courses only….Eng, SS, FL, Sci, Math.

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