Chance Me Please??

Applying to College
1

<p>PLEASE chance me? Or general advice would be nice too
I just finished my junior year and I was wondering about my chances to get into schools such as Emory, UMD(Honors), William and Mary, UVA, Berkeley, Brandeis</p>

<p>Stats:
SAT: 2200 (Math - 750, Reading-650, Writing-800)
Weighted GPA: 4.3
Unweighted GPA: 3.5
While my GPA may seem low, it is mainly because I did not put as much effort in as I should have freshman and sophomore year. In those years, my GPA was 3.14 and 3.22. Junior year I got a 4.0 and I hear that's the year the colleges look at the most. Plus, I think I may write an essay about how getting bad grades previously has helped me improve myself as a person, which may help colleges overlook my previous bad grades. I have also taken a very rigorous course load; I took nearly all honors and APs. My schedule is:
Freshman year:
1. Honors English 9
2. Honors Chem
3. Honors Bio
4. Honors Algebra 2(took geometry and algebra 1 in middle school)
5. Honors US history
6. Honors Spanish 3 (Spanish 1 and 2 in middle school)
7. PE</p>

<p>Sophomore year:
1. AP Government
2. AP Physics B
3. Ap Environmental
4. Honors English 10
5. Honors Spanish 4
6. Honors pre-calc
7. Technology education</p>

<p>Junior year:
1. AP Lang
2. AP World
3. AP Psych
4. AP Calc AB
5. Honors Programming
6. Honors Experimental Design Class
7. Latin 1 (Earned a silver medal on the Latin National Exam)</p>

<p>Senior year:
1, 2. Double period UMD class
3. AP Programming
4. AP Art History
5. AP Lit
6. Honors Forensics
7. Statistics and mathematical modeling</p>

<p>County doesn't rank so I don't know what my rank is. But, I think my school ranks pretty high in the country. I think that ill be an AP Scholar with Distinction once I get my AP results back.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: Former boy scout, member of school varsity tennis team, played basketball on rec team for 8 years, played rec soccer for 2 on advanced team, often play chess, used to compete in chess competitions, took Russian at Russian school for 3 years, did tae kwon do for 4 years, member of school chess club, environmental club, started own snow shoveling business over the winter.
Ethnicity: White</p>

<p>Essays will be good(hopefully); I consider myself to be a pretty good writer and will do them over the summer as to have plenty of time. I think my recs will also be pretty good...</p>

<p>If you could just chance me at the schools I listed at the top or just provide general feedback on what I could do to better my app that would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>ECs are impressive but relatively standard. Snow shoveling business seems to be the highlight. If you can highlight that and maybe do something else exceptional before you submit your application, that should be helpful. Or get involved doing oor starting something that your passionate about and describe how you’re getting it going. Definitely try to get straight A’s this year.</p>

<p>I don’t know how the UMD honors program works, but that should be a safety (Minnesota right?)</p>

<p>Do you happen to be in state for UVa? If so, should be a low match. If not, should be a mid-high match.</p>

<p>William and Mary is probably a match.</p>

<p>Brandeis should be a low-mid match.</p>

<p>Emory is probably a low-mid reach.</p>

<p>As far as your application:
“Essays will be good(hopefully); I consider myself to be a pretty good writer and will do them over the summer as to have plenty of time. I think my recs will also be pretty good…” </p>

<p>I don’t think you can go in with the mindset that your essay will hopefully be good. Make it thoughtfully describe your chosen topic while showing who you are as a person. Topic doesn’t have to be unique, but it has to be written in a unique and thoughtful way to distinguish it. And it goes without saying it should be thoroughly proofread by multiple poeple.</p>

<p>For teacher recs, give your teachers more info about yourself so they can write a more informative and personal letter (if they dont already ask, some do). Keep in touch with them and try to further establish your relationship with those you intend to ask.</p>

<p>I’m sure you’re aware you need a couple safeties (Minnesota non-honors I think should be, again I don’t know how the Honors works)</p>

<p>I honestly think it wouldn’t hurt to add a couple more mid and high reaches. You’re a great candidate (if maybe a little weak on the ECs).</p>

<p>It’s probably good to highlight a motif/theme in your application to demonstrate a passion in addition to your wellroundednes (i dont know if thats a word !) </p>

<p>For example Harvard’s website says they like both well rounded and well lopsided people, a quote I remember from when I applied.</p>

<p>For your SAT, I had trouble with reading too, and my score was extremely similar to yours. I did manage to get it up to a 690 though, maybe retake it and try to break 700? I think that definitely, at least psychologically, appears better than 600~.</p>

<p>Also, if you can manage to do well on 3 subject tests, that would probably be helpful (in your area of study maybe?).</p>

<p>And obviously report your AP scores if you do well.</p>

<p>Hope that helped, I’m confident if you work on your application a lot and do everything you can to improve in these last six months or so, you have an excellent shot at every school you listed in addition to others!</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the input, UMD is Maryland, but close enough I guess, haha. Im in state for Maryland, which is good. Your post definitely, I appreciate the advice.</p>

4

<p>Any more input??? Anything is appreciated</p>

5

<p>Solid SAT scores, and congratulations on improving your GPA. Make sure to keep it up, as colleges also look at the first semester of your senior year.</p>

<p>William and Mary is a match.</p>

<p>If you want to aim higher, for instance, Berkeley, do more extracurricular activities and take the SAT Subject tests.</p>

<p>Do something productive this summer, such as an internship, volunteering, classes at a local college, or university-sponsored summer programs.</p>

<p>Chance me please!
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1157856-college-chance-me.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1157856-college-chance-me.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Everything will be tough with the 3.5, but I think UMD and Brandeis are pretty realistic. The others will depend on if the adcoms can look past the bad fresh and soph years and see your SAT score and EC’s.</p>