Chance Me Please! (Yale REA and more)

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hi all! I am really new to CC but I am really excited to join this community! I would love to get “chanced” for my admissions. I will provide my application info (background, stats, ECs, etc.) here and then list off the schools I am applying (or have already applied) to.

Background: I go to a pretty small high school (700-800 students) in Maine. I am white, economically privileged, and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. I will apply and have already applied with interests in the music/performing arts and education studies/political science fields.

Stats:

This is where I think my application is the weakest (particularly SAT). While my stats are pretty good, they are not in the typical “Ivy League student” range.

SAT: 1440 (720 / 720)
GPA: 4.0 Unweighted (Straight A’s), ~102.5/100 Weighted (my school does weird weighting)
Class Rank: Top 10% (my school only does decile ranking, so this is the best rank you can get)
Honors/APs: I basically took the hardest course load offered to me at my school. I took Honors or AP options for all my core classes (with the exception of doing regular physics senior year), and will finish schools with 6 APs (which is considered a bunch for my school).

Extracurriculars

I think this is one of the stronger parts of my application. There are some unique positions so I will try concisely explain them.

Dance:
I have danced in my dance studio for 6 years, and trained in numerous styles (contemporary, hip hop, ballet, jazz, latin ballroom, and Bollywood). My dance teacher just recently made a principle dancer group made up of six dancer to take on more advanced choreography and training, and I was one of them!

I think one thing that make me stand out in the applicant pool is my acceptance to the AMDA High School Summer Conservatory for performing arts. They are super selective, I was one among 20 students selected from an international applicant pool, and I got to train for 2 weeks in NYC with performers on Broadway and AMDA faculty. It was really awesome!

Chorus:
Since a young age, I have had a background in choir, since my mother is a choral director. I sang in my school’s large choir for 4 years and the select choir for 3 years. I was the recipient of the 2019 Most Outstanding Ensemble Member for the select group.

I also was accepted into and sang in a number of Honors choirs throughout high school. I sang in Maine’s District Choir from 9-11 grade (auditioning for 12) and All State Choir for 10-11 grade (auditioning for 12). In 11th grade, I got accepted into the ACDA All-Eastern Musical Theatre Honors Choir, which consisted of high school and college students from 11 states.

Theater:
I participated in all of my school’s fall musicals (which are pretty well recognized at our state level). I got a lead 10th grade and a supporting lead 11th grade (unfortunately our 12th grade musical got cancelled because of COVID).

I also hold a state position called “State Thespian Officer” for the Maine Educational Theatre Association. We basically strive to improve high school accessibility to the performing arts for Maine high schoolers by helping to organize and run state-wide theatre events and using social media.

Community Engagement:
I think one thing that might stand out in my application is my work with the Maine Department of Education. I was selected by the Maine DoE leadership to service as a student representative and advisor. We got to discuss policy with the Commissioner and other awesome leadership and we initiated the implementation of a Diversity and Inclusivity training for Maine teacher recertification (something really important to me being a member go the LGBTQ+ community). Our main goals were to promote equity among students of all racial and economic backgrounds and raise mental health awareness and acceptance in our schools.

I also worked with my school district’s anti-racism action group which included our superintendent and schools administrators, teachers, and students.

I am also currently the president of my school’s NHS (elected by club), which has been really interested given COVID! 70+ service hours.

Other Activities:
I started a poetry project inspired by COVID-19. I reached out to people and asked them about one thing that they are grateful for during this time. I really wanted to emphasize the important of gratitude within my local community. Currently, I am taking their stories and turning them into works of poetry. I hope to sell these books and give all proceeds to local organizations providing COVID relief.

I also am a certified Reiki master! Kind of a weird thing, but I have always been inspired by the philosophy and history of Reiki, and so I studied it throughout high school and now I can teach and practice it!

Other Stuff

Essays: I think my essays are pretty good, but nothing jaw-dropping. I feel that my CommonApp is pretty simple, but really captures who I am and how I got there through showing rather than telling. My supplements focus more on why my activities were really important to me and their impacts on my life.

LoRs:
I am pretty confident in my letters of rec. I had my 9-10th grade English teacher and 11th grade APUSH teacher write mine.

My writing skills really evolved with my English teacher, and I grew from sort of the underdog to a leader within the class who helped other students, I I think her essay will be strong.

My APUSH teacher is my favorite teacher EVER, and I think she liked me. Plus, when I shared to her that I was applying to Yale, she mentioned that the last LoR she wrote got her student into Yale, and she promised to do her best to get me in!

I unfortunately never made a super strong connection with my counselor, but I feel like I was able to convey my passion and personality to her through my interview with her.

I also got my dance teacher to write me a LoR. We absolutely adore each other, and she actually shared her LoR with me. It was like 5 pages long (doubt my reader is going to read most of it LOL), but it was one of the most powerful pieces of writing I have ever seen!

Performing Arts Supplement: I sent a last minute dance supplement to Yale, but I kind of regret it. I don’t think it is as strong as it could have been if I spent more time on it, but I plan on actually doing a singing supplement for my other schools, to help expand on that talent.

Well, that was really long! Sorry! Here are my schools:

Reach:
Amherst (13%)
Bates (14%)
Bowdoin (10%)
Brown (8%)
Colby (13%)
Harvard (5%)
Middlebury (17%) - My brother went there so that might help
Williams (13%)
Yale (REA - 14%)

Target:
Conn College (38%)
Oberlin (36%)
Vassar (25%)

Safety:
Sarah Lawrence (56%)
Ithaca College (69%)
University of Southern Maine (85%) - Already got in with Honors Program invite and President’s Scholarship (~50% tuition)

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Any chance you will still adjust your list? Some of your current choices don’t seem to match your interests particularly well, while others that would, such as, say, Wesleyan, Skidmore and Kenyon, are conspicuously absent.

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I feel pretty solid about my list, but I am willing to somewhat adjust it! I mainly went off what I saw off the website, and the “vibe” I got from visiting campuses, looking at college review websites and videos, and talking with current students and alumni. All three of the schools you listed were on my list before, and I actually really didn’t like Wesleyan (especially when I visited the campus), and Skidmore and Kenyon didn’t particularly stand out to me. But then again, willing to be convinced otherwise!

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If you are confident in your current list based on your research, then I hope you do keep it mostly as it appears here. You might like the creative atmosphere of a school like Kenyon, as well as its opportunities in dance and theatre, but if you have already found what you like, then you need not look much further than an additional school or two. As another idea, research Hamilton, particularly with respect to its outstanding theatre facilities and overall academic balance.

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Great! Thanks for taking the time to respond, I appreciate the advice! :slight_smile:

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If you would like a resource for further research, look into IPEDS. For example, you can view the recent numbers of recently graduated Visual and Performing Arts “first majors,” as seen in the link below.

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Bowdoin&s=all&id=161004#programs

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I’m quite sure that you will get into all your targets and safeties. I also think that you will get into Middlebury, if your brother is/was full pay there. They’ll know that your brother was full pay, so even though they’re supposedly need-blind, they know that you are likely to be a full pay, and you’re certainly qualified, so they’ll take you. The rest of the reaches, I cannot say. But I think that under the circumstances, what with Covid messing up everyone’s extracurriculars and standardized test opportunities, you’ve amassed a wonderful record. Straight A’s in all the hardest courses. A ton of extracurricular activities, with high achievement. The only reason I don’t think that you’ll get into too many of your reaches is that your SAT isn’t very high, and your extracurriculars show regional achievement, but not national/international achievement (I see that AMDA is expensive - 5K for 3 weeks - but I cannot tell how tough it is to get into their summer program). On the other hand, you’re from Maine, which offers a bit of geographical diversity. It’s clear that you will be a contributor on campus.

You’ll be able to study political science everywhere. If you’re thinking of becoming an educator (history teacher? Musical theater teacher?), you need to go to a school that offers education degrees/certification, alongside your other interests, or you would probably need to do another year or two after college to get certified. It’s very competitive to get a job as a high school history or performing arts teacher. If you want to participate in musical theater, but are not a musical theater luminary who really IS headed to Broadway, then I think you are smart to choose schools which don’t have musical theater programs. You can have a great time doing all the shows, singing ensembles, dance ensembles at a school that doesn’t have majors in those areas, because you’ll be one of the best there. If you go to a school that has theater/dance/vocal/musical theater majors, how are you going to get into the shows and ensembles? Can you compete with the people who are laser-focused on Broadway?

I think you will do very well wherever you wind up, because of how well you’ve done in high school.

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Thanks for all the advice! I appreciate the feedback. In terms of AMDA, I am pretty sure it is around a 4% acceptance rate (I am pretty sure I heard the director say 127 out of 3,300 applicants were accepted into the entire conservatory). I didn’t mention it because I was certain and didn’t want to accidentally lie, but did state that out of an international app pool, I was one of ~20 selected to attend). I agree that most of my contributions are at the state-level, not national/international. I think my strength in my activities comes from the strong impact and the unique qualities of the EC’s I have at that level.

And thanks for the advice for colleges, I will definitely consider everything you said!

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And I agree about my SAT is definitely weaker… I was SO frustrated by my performance in the actual tests (if I superscored my practice tests, I would have a 1560). The reason I finally decided to send my 1440 to all schools is I don’t think they will be AS emphasized this year (given their test-optional policies), it is actually very high for my school (our average is around 1100), and I wanted to show schools that I am SOMEWHAT competent in standardized testing (I didn’t want to leave them wondering from my lack of a score). I would really be truly happy if I got into ONE of my high reaches (Yale, Brown, Harvard, Bowdoin, Williams, or Amherst) - that’s why I cast a wide net!

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