Mostly curious about Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, and Hamilton.
GPA Weighted: 102.4
Unweighted: 92.3
Class Rank: 11 out of 150
SAT 1 Composite: 1680
ACT Composite: 25
(WILL NOT BE SUBMITTING TO TEST OPTIONAL COLLEGES)
Hooks: First Gen College Student, Attended/took a class at Colby College and received a letter of Rec from my professor. Taking 3 out of 5 AP courses online and was basically the test pilot for my high school.
EC: Varsity Cheering 9-12, a variety of language and writing clubs, NHD participant 11,12, and have written 2 full length novels.
The question is whether your test scores are correct or your grades or rank are correct. Bates and Bowdoin have decades of experience figuring this out.
I think an A- minus average without submitting a 30 plus ACT makes the outcome negative in all likelihood.
You would have been a good applicant for St. Michael’s and St. Anselm, and even Clark.
Of course and that position has been validated. However, you must demonstrate via your transcript and rigor of the curriculum you took that your test score is an anomaly. It isn’t a free lunch. Even though you won’t be submitting your score they know it wasn’t competitive.
By not submitting the ACT score you shift the burden of proof to your transcript.
So the question is whether your transcript is the right story or not. And whether it can carry you. Let’s hope, you seem like a nice kid.
@ScaredNJDad Well, thanks. I wonder, I switched schools twice in highschool, one of my high schools was a competitiveish Northeastern public high school and I maintained the same grades there as I have now in a rural school setting. Do you think that is beneficial to my application or doesn’t really add much?
I really don’t know. All the schools you mentioned have acceptance rates below to well below 20% after ED1, worse for girls in a lot of cases. Bates did release RD figures last year and the acceptance rate was 17.8% with average ACT of 32. I’m sure some test optionals got in RD but the acceptance rate has to be much lower. It could be lower still this year.
@ScaredNJDad I’m a girl. I applied ED1 to Colby, and was rejected despite already going through an initial application process to attend classes there. (Shows how selective colleges can be) I moved my application to ED2 for Bates. I had a nice interview it lasted about an hour and ten minutes, I am taking 5 AP classes and got a great grade in my Colby class, I took two AP classes last year, and then in past years I took all honors. Sorry for the rush of stats, I just wish I could get in. I do not think it helps that I live in-state.
@ScaredNJDad Oh, I’m already sitting on a nearly full scholarship to a small business school, as well have received awesome other merit scholarships to three other schools. It’s just not what I wanted. Not what I dreamed about. Thank you for everything.
The uncommon Colby academic experience and long, presumably interactive, interview at Bates may be aspects in your favor (the latter only at Bates of course). Your chances at Hamilton will depend partly on what scores you submitted there. For Colby, I think you said elsewhere that you had submitted your SAT I / ACT, so that could be an obstacle in terms of overcoming the deferral. Bowdoin will review your application in much the same way that Bates will.
I think all the listed schools are high reaches. I hope you have a safety or two on your list? My daughter’s stats were much higher and she was waitlisted at both Colby and Bates (didn’t apply to Hamilton or Bowdoin as we felt they were high reaches for a SAT of 2170/UW GPA of 4.2, IB diploma student. Being a white girl from the NE makes things even that much more difficult. Good luck!
With those test scores you have zero chance at the non-test-optional schools. At the test optional ones, your are a longshot at best. But… here’s the question: if you were to get accepted and enroll how well are you going to do in college where most of your classmates have nearly ten ACT points on you?
Bowdoin has been known to accept at a level of a 3.3 GPA/1650 SAT. The OP did well in high school and has already performed well in a college course. She has no clear reason to be intimidated by the academics at all of these schools.
@merc81@soze@NEPatsGirl Thank you merc81. I have taken 7/8 AP Courses, and the rest are all honors and I’ve done extremely well. I have worked and received great grades in my Colby courses. I am not really seeing how a standardized test is going to determine that my peers will do better than me. Hence, the reasoning behind the test optional policies.
@merc81@soze@NEPatsGirl Also, to reassure everyone, I have a near full tuition scholarship at a small business school and have also been accepted with great merit aid to 3 other institutions. Hope that is good enough for you.
“That most certainly would have been a hooked applicant.” (#18)
If granted, then what are the implications of this? It was being suggested that the OP, with a 92 UW GPA (W: 102), is not qualified to succeed at some of the colleges on her list. Would students with special talents who are accepted into Bowdoin, but who may not be as prepared as the OP academically, be similarly expected to not succeed in their classes?