<p>Curriculum: 12 AP/Honors in High School career (Pretty hard curriculum - Im not going to say it was the hardest)</p>
<p>ECs
Volunteer at Senior Citizen center 3 times a week
Organize and Manage a team for the Brain Cancer (Race for Hope) Walk - raises about 2000 dollars a year
DECA business club - placed 1st at regional and state competition
Total community service hours - 1000 - 2000 hours
FBLA
NHS
Interact - basically a community service club
Varsity Debate Champion - Won championship one year
Ultimate Frisbee
Future Educators of America
Volunteer work at Topps Soccer on and off (Helps kids with disabilities play sports)</p>
<p>Your SAT and GPA are a bit low, I’d really work on getting them up if possible. Take an SAT class over the summer, my friend did and he said it really helped him.</p>
<p>If you are applying for CSOM (judging from the business club EC), you will want to raise your GPA this upcoming semester and will need to raise your SAT by around 75-100.</p>
<p>Dear Sidthekidc87 : Rather than talking about test scores (1950 below average, 2100 competitive) and GPA (3.6, not typically a Top 10% performance which represents 80% of BC’s accepted class), let’s discuss your whole profile in the context of a college applicant competing for a spot.</p>
<p>I am not getting much a sense of school (campus) spirit in your profile. No sports, no arts/music - now these might not be your “thing”, but how have you been involved in your High School? Engagement there is a leading indicator of how involved you will be at Boston College. Right now, it is not reading as if you are really part of the school community. This might be presentation, but it was something that was noticed.</p>
<p>With 1000-2000 hours of community service listed, that gap is huge - nearly 6 months of full time, 40 hours per week of work. Seems to me that a young person at sixteen or seventeen years of age would have a much narrower range specified. This therefore comes across as a flag to the reader as to whether this datapoint is “real” and actually thought through. How did these hours that you have generously contributed to a cause mattered to the recipients or community as a whole?</p>
<p>Regarding your AP curriculum, twelve exams is pretty near the top end - now, we would want to know that these were in the core (English, History, Calculus, Sciences, Language) more than the lesser exams. If you are missing the core course AP work, the quality index on those twelve courses will drop.</p>
<p>Right now, this profile is feeling weak. To be more specific, it feels like you would be back on College Confidential in eight months complaining that someone with a 2010 was accepted while your 2100 was put on the waitlist. Too much feels like boiler plate applicant material right now.</p>
<p>Dear itry : Yes, a 3.5 could hurt an applicant regardless of SAT scores. Remember that 83% of the entering class was Top 10% of their High School GPAs. To put even more rigor to that number, 97% of the entering class is Top 25%. Think of it another way : if you are NOT in the Top 25%, you have a 3% chance at acceptance. At Boston College, your GPA and class rigor typically weigh more in the application process than the Board scores.</p>
<p>I am not involved in my school at all - no time. My grandmother has alzheimers and 3 days a week I volunteer at her senior home from 3 - 7. The other 2 school days I go visit her until her dinner time, since I am one of the few people she remembers. So yes, there is a huge gap between the community service hours, because I dont feel like calculating what 12 community service hours a week at a senior citizen home for 2 years + at least is.</p>
<p>And when im not volunteering there, Im doing stuff for the brain cancer foundation. My dad passed from brain cancer 2 years ago, so for 2 years I raise money selling stuff on Ebay, organizing garage sales, lemonade stands, walks, etc. Then theres the walk which is 3 months of intense community service - setting up stands, organizing a team, making flyers, making t shirts, etc. </p>
<p>So yes, my hours are “real.” Theres just so many of them, and I still have another year of doing these two things. So rather than going back to time logs since 2009 I just put a rough estimate. Its most likely more than 2000 hours.</p>
<p>And how did these events contribute to the community as a whole? Well alzheimers patients are generally more responsive to teenagers, since they are more healthy, energetic, and often times better looking than older people (in an alzheimer’s patients’ mind). So I make those people happy and their families happy. </p>
<p>I understand im not an impressive applicant, but don’t question the legitimacy and influence my community service activities have.</p>
<p>If youd like an exact number, Id be sure to calculate it for you…</p>
<p>Dear Sidthekidc87 : You have become an impressive applicant.</p>
<p>Perhaps you have not seen some of our other chance-me reviews? I do not comment on all chance-me threads - only those that have specific elements that might pique my interest and might have lessons for others. I will always challenge the applicant, not perform an ego-stroke to convince one that the work is done. In your case, your hours count showed that something much more important had to be taking place in your life and no where did this come through in your profile.</p>
<p>Yours is a clear indication as to why the essay is so critically important in explaining and framing your application. There is material here that just must be shared to properly align the prism through which your application is seen.</p>
<p>While addressing the minor point of counting hours, you have explained to our readers why you belong at Boston College. You embody “Men and Women for Others”. You get it - numbers do not show that. Display this passion in your essay.</p>
<p>In closing, please do not take offense. Jesuit education will indeed challenge your thinking, force you to intelligently defend your position, and improve your communication and conversation skills. I would like to think our last 24 hours has done more to show you that you fit at Boston College than you might be previously believed.</p>