Chance Me, Please! Emory, UNC-Chapel Hill, Johns Hopkins

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>=General Background Info=</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Race: Hispanic
Grade: Rising Senior</p>

<p>==Stats/Scores==</p>

<p>GPA (cumulative, unweighted): 3.67
Class Rank (haven't been told what I'm ranked, I'm just assuming this is where I am): Top 10-25% in class of ~200 (I go to a very competitive high school in Florida)</p>

<p>NOTE: Commas separate different times taken.</p>

<p>SAT Overall: 1750, 1740 (1780 Superscore)
SAT Math: 620, 600
SAT Writing: 590, 620
SAT Reading: 540, 520 (YIKES!)
SAT w/ Essay: 8, 8</p>

<p>ACT Composite: 26
ACT Math: 30
ACT English: 28
ACT Science: 24
ACT Reading: 20 (TERRIBLE!)
ACT w/ Essay: 10</p>

<p>NOTE: I plan on submitting the ACT, I'm done with the SAT. The next few times I take the ACT, I plan on raising my score to a 27 or 28. The reason I plan this one or two point gain is due to the fact that I neither studied nor practiced for any of these (which shows).</p>

<p>==Course Rigor==</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
English 1
Spanish 1
Global Studies
Biology
Algebra 1 Honors</p>

<p>(1 Honors class out of a possible 2 Honors classes taken)</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Chemistry Honors
English 2
Spanish 2
World History Honors
Geometry Honors</p>

<p>(3 Honors classes out of a possible 3 Honors and 1 AP class taken)</p>

<p>Junior Year:
Physics Honors
English 3 Honors
Spanish 3 Honors
US History Honors
Algebra 2/Trig Honors</p>

<p>(5 Honors classes out of a possible 3 Honors and 2 AP classes taken [assuming you know if AP is offered, the Honors level of that same course offered])</p>

<p>Senior Year:
AP Chemistry
Honors Anatomy (AP Chemistry and Honors Anatomy are my two required elective choices I chose out of AP Chem, Honors Anatomy, Marine Bio, AP Physics, Honors European History, and AP Spanish 4)
English 4 Honors
American Econ/Gov Honors
Calculus Honors</p>

<p>==EC's==</p>

<p>-National Honor Society for 2 years
-Lacrosse for 4 years
-Mu Alpha Theta for 1 year
-Key Club for 2 years
-250+ hours of community service (mainly working with children with learning disabilities or poor education and feeding the homeless/hungry in and around my community)
-Taught myself two programming languages (Python and VB.net, both a little bit short of intermediate levels [currently in the process of trying to learn Obj-C for development of iOS applications])</p>

<p>==Recommendation Letters==</p>

<p>Don't have them yet but I expect them to be good.</p>

<p>==Essays==</p>

<p>Haven't written them but I'm sure they will be between decent and excellent.</p>

<p>==Final Words==</p>

<p>I know my tests scores in Reading and in general are terrible and probably nowhere near where they need to be as well as my EC's being a little bit week but I do have these schools as reach schools and I'd simply like to know my chances of getting in anyways. Like I said earlier, I will be retaking the ACT at least two more times and plan on getting a 27 or 28 (higher would be even better) so hopefully that will boost up my chances. I know Johns Hopkins requires SAT Subject Tests and although I don't have them, I do plan on taking them and hope to score well.</p>

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<p>Willing to chance back! Any feedback is helpful. Also, I plan on applying ED to Emory and UNC Chapel Hill as UNC’s ED is non-binding. Please help me out!</p>

3

<p>I hate to say it, but your chances look dim at all three. Being a hispanic male helps, but to get into those schools you need MUCH higher test grades and a higher class rank percentage (and GPA I guess…). However, your EC’s look pretty good. Depending on your essays and recs you may have a shot, but I just wouldn’t get your hopes up if your scores don’t go up</p>

4

<p>^what he said. I recently took a Yale admissions course, and the advisor said that colleges add 200 points to your SAT score if you’re a URM. However, I’m not sure if that’s really going to help you anyways. All the colleges you’ve listed are pretty competitive. Why don’t you take the PR book for SAT and try studying for it? Take it one more time before admissions, you might score better. Or if you feel the ACT is easier, try studying for that. Best of luck!</p>

5

<p>Yeah, I kind of figured my chances would be slim, that’s why I have those three schools as my reach schools. I’m not quite sure what a URM is so if you could clarify that for me that would be great! Thanks for chancing me!</p>

6

<p>You have a good chance for Oxford @ Emory though! That means that after 2 years at their Oxford campus, you get to transfer to the main campus.</p>

7

<p>@Rolando4-- Yes, I’ve been looking into that school a lot more now and I’m really happy to know that Emory has a feeder school which accepts people with slightly lower grades than Emory would hope for. However, I’ve been trying to find lots of information on them and I can’t really seem to come through with much other than about 4,000 students apply, 2,000 are accepted, and about 1,000 enroll. It’d be nice to know if the cost is the same or less than Emory and if the campus looks relatively the same. I absolutely LOVED the Emory campus so if the Oxford campus looks similar, I’ll happily make an effort to get into Oxford as well.</p>

8

<p>Putting aside affirmative action for the moment, it is very very very hard to get into a top 25 school.</p>

<p>No harm in trying though.</p>

<p>Even being a URM, I think Emory and Hopkins are very big reaches.</p>

<p>Perhaps set your sights a bit lower, such as a Tulane, a Boston University, a George Washington University, or a University of Miami, although those are not that easy to get into either.</p>

9

<p>URM - under-represented minority. You fall into that category. </p>

<p>Could you also chance me back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/1365441-do-i-have-shot-ed-if-i-increase-my-test-scores.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/1365441-do-i-have-shot-ed-if-i-increase-my-test-scores.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

10

<p>Thanks for all the help guys. Chixtwix, I chanced you on your thread (PS- You look a lot better in your standing than I do).</p>

<p>I understand these are reaches and I probably have a 10-20% chance of getting into those three (maybe even less) but these are schools I would passionately LOVE to go to. Then again, my mids are schools I’d also like to go to but these are ones I would be 100% happy at (Oxford included).</p>

<p>Thanks again for chancing me guys!</p>