Chance me please?=]

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Maryland - College Park
1

<p>White female from NJ
Competitive public high school -- about 250 in my graduating class (my school doesn't rank)
I want to study communication with a concentration in public relations, but I applied undecided. Would it be difficult to transfer?
I'm in the thick of acceptances on the Naviance scatterplot.
I applied before the priority deadline.</p>

<p>Frosh & Soph year I had all A's & B's and a few honors courses.
Junior and Senior year: 2 APs (Tests: English Lang 5, US History 4), honors French, four Syracuse University Project Advance classes (Forensics, Psych, Sociology, and English), selected for NJ Teen PEP program (basically sex ed but we educate the community about issues and help the freshmen adjust to the high school)</p>

<p>I had a serious concussion before my junior year and as a result my grades plummeted and I have maybe five Cs on my junior year transcript.</p>

<p>My hooks are really my personality and resilience, and community service involvement.</p>

<p>At the end of the year I will have taken a total of 6 years of language -- 3 Honors french and Italian I - III (only levels offered in my school currently as it's a new program)</p>

<p>GPA - 3.4
SAT I: CR-680, M-630, W-700
SAT II: English Lit-670, US History-600
ACT: 27 </p>

<p>Extracurriculars: Girl Scout since second grade (pursuing Gold Award and I have my silver award), sent shipments of Girl Scout cookies to Iraq as an independent service proj, field hockey, lacrosse (soph yr only -- couldn't continue because of aforementioned concussion), track (jr year), Marching Band for 3 years, Interact club 10 11 12, Global Connections club 11&12, Italian National Honor Society (12 -- first year of this honor society in my school), 4 years volunteering at the hospital, tons of miscellaneous community service, and I have a part time job as a hostess at a local restaurant (15 hours per week), nominated for and attended the National Student Leadership Conference (Mastering Leadership) at the University of Maryland, and I'm a team leader for a CCD group</p>

<p>Teacher recs: great
Counselor rec: also great (explains concussion predicament in detail)
Essays: pretty good. writing is one of my strengths.</p>

2

<p>Unfortunately, legacy does not really play into it a lot, unless the folks donate $$$$. Remember, NJ has been the OOS for many for decades, there are alot of NJ legacies.</p>

<p>Your hook by the way if anything would be GS Gold since it would be equivalent to an Eagle Scout. Hooks are something incredibly unique that the avg student does not have. Publishing a book is a hook. Vice President for the NJ Council for NHS is a hook (not your hs chapter, but the state), Coca Cola scholarship finalist is a hook. A hook is something they place in their stats to use as selling/bragging points. Applying as an International student from Yemen would be more of a hook. </p>

<p>I think for undecided you have a shot, but I would say no to the Merrill school. </p>

<p>If the C’s can be explained away due to a medical issue, and that was the reason you have them, then you should be in without a doubt, since you seem to carry a rigorous course load.</p>

<p>The problem and I will keep stating this, is that UMDCP has stated they want to quadruple their international and national make-up, while they have gone from 30% OOS to 25% OOS in the next 4 yrs. That means there will be less spots available, and NJ/NY being two that they have a strong name recognition with compared to TX or CA will take the hit, they will become increasingly more competitive. UMDCP has gone from being ranked as “selective” to “more selective”. As our economy does not rebound, high quality students IS will accept for financial reason, and then their stats for gpas, SATs will increase, which will increase their image as not a “safety”. They are in a positive upward trend and that makes the difference.</p>