Chance me please?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>So first of all I'd like to thank you in advance for any help you can give me. Before I list my information, I believe a little background information (which I hope to convey in my essays) is needed. I a, a junior in a small public school in central Mass. and I hope to go to schools like Drexel, Northeastern, WPI, or RPI. I am nervous about my chances of admission due to the fact I have a low GPA (should be around 3.3/3.4 weighted at the end of this year). I don't know the most (for lack of a better term) not-whiney way of saying this, but these grades are not representative of my academic abilities.My low gpa can be attributed to my terrible freshman year. I was attending one of the best private high schools in Mass. and I was in all honors classes. (The highest available to freshman. Also GPA here was un-weigted). The spring before my freshman year my dad (a single father) went into the hospital and was diagnosed with a plethora of medical conditions. His condition never got better and a lot of responsibility was put on me in our family. Because of this my grades really suffered my freshman year. His condition continued to get worse throughout my freshman year, and into my sophomore year, and by that point I was taking care of him completely. I however was able to turn my grades around to nearly all A's and a few B's in my sophomore year. (These were non honors classes) I had finnaly began to adjust to the emotional and physical burdens at home. However on the first day of my junior year my father passed away and I was forced to move 2 hours away to a small public school in the middle of nowhere. I moved form a school with every AP under the sun and 1500 kids, to one with 300 high schoolers. At my new school I am getting straight A's in APUSH and AP Language, as well has the rest of my classes being honors (preap). I have also been taking classes at my community college. I know this was a lot of information, but I think it was extremely pertinent to my application. Thanks for putting up with it...
** BASIC INFO **
[ul]
[<em>]Name: Alex
[</em>]GPA: 3.3/3.4
[li]SAT Scores: 2130 (SAT), 750 (Math level 2 SAT 2), 760 (Chem SAT)[/li][/ul]
** Courses taken **


[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Algebra 2 Honors (Fresh.)
[</em>]Mandarin Chinese  Honors 
[<em>]English 1 Honors
[</em>]Bio Honors
[<em>]Religion
[</em>]World History 1 Honors
[<em>] Theater
[</em>]Chem (Soph.)
[<em>]Geometry Honors
[</em>]Java Programming Honors
[<em>] English 2
[</em>] World History 2
[<em>]Mandarin Chinese 2
[</em>] Religion 2
[<em>] Physics Honors (Junior)
[</em>] APUSH
[<em>]Precalc Honors
[</em>]AP Language and Composition
[<em>]The rest of my junior year classes are worthless
[</em>]Stats (Nights class at community college. Not associated with the High school)
[<em>]Java
[</em>]Data Structures
[<em>]C++
[/ul]

** Extra-Curricular (all bolded are at the new school) ** 


 [ul]
[</em>] Model United Nations National x 2 years (Political debates. Foreign policy)
[<em>] Improvisational Comedy Club x 2 year
[</em>]Culinary Club x 2 years
[<em>]Chess Club x 2 years
[</em>]Mock Trial team x 2 years
**
[<em>] Varsity Football
[</em>] Student council
**
[<em>]Large amount of community service [/ul]

** Awards/Recognition ** 


[ul]
[</em>]Assistant Under Secretary General for Model UN (Leadership position for underclassmen to help run conferences)
[<em>]National Conference Delegate for Model UN
[</em>]Elected Junior class treasurer at new school
[li]All-Academic team in the tri-county football league[/li]

[/ul]</p>

<p>Thanks to anyone who reads this. The schools that I am applying to are Umass Amherst. BU, WPI, RPI, Northeastern, Drexel, and maybe Cornell as an extreme extreme reach. I wish to graduate with at least a B.S. in Computer Science</p>

2

<p>bump…Anyone out there?</p>

3

<p>UMass Amherst: Low match
WPI: Match
RPI: Match
NEU: Match
BU: Match
Drexel: Safety
Cornell: Reach</p>

4

<p>Give Cornell a go for sure because they are rather holistic in their application process and you are a competitive applicant.</p>

5

<p>Thanks a ton. Are you sure Umass is a low match? I am an instate student and I’ve seen kids get accepted with way less then me. Im really excited that my #1 (NEU) was a match</p>

6

<p>You should be fine!! good luck with other applications</p>

7

<p>Thanks :PIm debating whether or not I should apply to tuft</p>

8

<p>The in-staters that got into UMass Amherst with way less than you may have applied to UMass as a match, a high match or as a reach.</p>

<p>NEU is a little SAT-heavy, hence the match.</p>

9

<p>Thanks for the clarification. I was confused for some reason on what low-match ment. When I posted that I thought it meant that it wasn’t a good match. I just reread the thread and realized that I was wrong. How would I line up for Tufts?</p>

10

<p>Yeah i think youll be fine with all schools. even if you have a lower than desired gpa, the rest of your application seems fantastic to me. Along with your SAT, which will fill in the gpa gap, if that makes sense.</p>

<p>chance me back?</p>

11

<p>Thanks. Do you think I might match for tufts?</p>

12

<p>Tufts and Cornell are HUGE reaches, despite their holistic admissions processes. Take a look at their admissions info in their Common Data Sets.
UMass Amherst admissions vary a little depending on which college with the Univ. you are applying to. Engineering is harder to get into than the others, but I believe CS is in the College of Natural Sciences? Even so, look at their admissions data and don’t assume it is a safety. It is a match probably. You should consider UMass Lowell as a safety, it also has a good CS program. Also, since your SAT scores are good you might get a merit scholarship there.
What kinds of schools are you most interested in? WPI/RPI are very different than BU for example since they are STEM schools, so the campus vibe is a little “nerdier”. Your GPA is a little low for WPI/RPI but within the ballpark so definitely worth applying to. You could also consider CS in a liberal arts college which would open lots more possibilities, such as Brandeis, Stonehill, etc. Depends on what you are looking for and finances too.
Drexel is probably a safety though I haven’t looked at their stats recently. How about RIT as another safety?</p>

13

<p>I grew up practically living on the WPI campus (because everyone in my family has gone there). My #1 is NEU, then WPI, and then Drexel I think. (This is assuming I dont get into a reach school). I wasn’t to big of a fan of BU. I definitely prefer a nerider campus.</p>

14

<p>Tufts: Reach</p>

<p>NEU might be a high match…</p>