<p>Stats:
-African American Male
-In state at a competitive high school
-Freshman Year GPA: 3.5
-Sophomore Year GPA: 3.5
-Junior Year GPA: 3.8
-SAT: 1810...I know U of Rochester no longer requires the SAT to be submitted, but I'm going to retake the test anyway because it seems like it's still strongly recommended.</p>
<p>Ten AP courses taken by the end of senior year:
AP World History
AP US History
AP US Government and Politics
AP English Lang & Comp
AP Macroeconomics
AP Microeconomics
AP English Lit & Comp
AP Environmental Science
AP European History
AP Calculus AB</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Student Ambassador
National Honor Society
African American Leadership League
Copy editor for newspaper (junior year)
Student Improvement Team (President-senior year)
Literary Magazine staff</p>
<p>Hooks I guess would be URM? I'm in a single parent home because my father passed away a few months ago, but that's probably not a hook. Thanks!</p>
<p>I don’t know about your chances but if you are really interested in UR you should arrange an interview.</p>
<p>You seem like a strong candidate. Demonstrating interest with an interview either on-campus or when rep are making their fall tour, as well as campus visit are important as well as having a strong well-written essay.
My d’s essay was memorable enough that admission rep mentioned it when she met d who was helping out as a senior for junior college night event sponsored by several school districts and had sung the National Anthem to kick off the evening.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know why I put I am in-state. I am NOT in-state, I am from Maryland. Then again, it’s a private school so it doesn’t really matter. But, I will set up an interview because I can tell it looks important. Ans @bookmama22, that’s awesome about your daughter. Congrats to her!</p>
<p>^^ I hate to be cynical, but the essay mentioning is part of the bag of tricks that college reps use to sell a school–and selling a school is really a big part of their jobs. </p>
<p>D2 and 2 other kids from local high schools were mentioned by name by the president of selective (and expensive) OOS private college they had all applied to when he was in town as part of a lecture series. (On a topic that had nothing to do with college admissions. He was talking about environmental sustainability.) At first I was really surprised and impressed by it, but then I realized he just was just doing his job.</p>
<p>(D2 was even less impressed by the call out. She rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah, right. Like he actually read my essay and remembered me. He just has our names on his cheat sheet.”)</p>
<p>Actually WOWM, the person did not call her out by name in front of anyone and I wasn’t tooting my horn here. It was a private conversation in the hallway after the Guidance Dept/former Music Dept secretary introduced my d to the university admissions rep who had remarked in a group of other college admissions reps about her singing and the secretary ventured she would be in fact attending U of R. When introduced, she had a conversation about the very specific music-related essay that she had written and it was about a very specific event that was memorable and in fact had a Rochester connection although that was not the reason she wrote the essay in question… so it wasn’t a generic situation. </p>
<p>My entire point was that writing a very or multiple strong essays is important, not just to the University of Rochester but to many if not all schools.</p>
<p>Yeah, D2 had that happen too. Several times. Always with traveling reps from private colleges. </p>
<p>I agree that while essays are important, you still need to understand that the principle job of a college rep is salesmanship. He’s selling a product (education), in fact a very expensive product, and establishing good relations with the customer is a part of the job. </p>
<p>(Later on, the rep’s job is to sell a particular applicant to the rest of the committee.)</p>
<p>D2’s HS guidance counselor was a rep for a big name private college for many years. In fact, he wrote a book about his experiences that’s often mentioned here on CC. (It’s not a hatchet job, btw, but it is revealing.) He spends considerably time each year explaining the college admissions process to the parents and students–including the salesmanship aspect of the adcomm’s job.</p>