Chance me Top 50/25

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Intended Major: Political Science with a Minor in either Cinematic Arts or Journalism

GPA:

  • Freshman Year: 88.2 - Suffered from a serious illness for the first year and a half of high school. This impeded my ability in school and had a negative effect on my grades. I️ can provide more information if needed.
  • Sophomore Year: 90.7 - Did better Second semester than First
  • Junior Year: 95.5
  • APs/Honors: AP Euro, APUSH, AP Gov, AP Lang, AP Psych, Spanish 3 Honors, Pre-Calc Honors (School only offers 12 total AP classes. I️ took all but two that were offered in the humanities and will only 1 science (Psych is a science ast my school) since science is only offered senior year unless you are 2 years ahead. 2/3 of the AP classes can only be taken senior year unless you are 2 years ahead in either a math or science).

ACT/SATs:

  • SAT: Taking in May
  • ACT: 34
  • SAT IIs (I know they aren’t needed for many on my list)US History, Literature, Not Sure (Most likely Math I or II)

ECs:

  • Co-founded my city’s chapter of the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence - Large time commitment. Help to organize rallies and marches as well as raise awareness for gun legislation. NOTE: Please don’t get political. Know this is a touchy subject. You can do research on the Brady Campaign if you wish.
  • Youth Leadership [Insert City Here] - Helped to teach us about our community, the leaders in our community and how to become better leaders. Did a service project throughout the year where we raised money and volunteered at a nonprofit in our community.
  • Varsity Golf (3 years), Squash (2 years, though since it started as a varsity sport)
  • Model UN: Pretty self explanatory, won a few delegate awards. Chance of leadership position next year.
  • Youth and Government: Went to state capital to do a “mock legislature” with other schools in our state.
  • Young Democrats Club: Will be president next year. Met to discuss current political events as well as debate the Young Republicans (A significantly larger club).
  • Broadcasting Club: Broadcasted several sporting events for my high school.
  • American Civil War History Club: Met to discuss the Civivl War. Battle strategies, Kahoots etc. Chance of officer position next year.
  • Went on a service trip to the inner city for 6 days to work in a Soup Kitchen, School and “Missipn Mall”. May write essay on this.
  • Decent chance I will be going to Kenya this summer to work in a hospital for 1-2 weeks. May write essay on this if (and hopefully when) it happens

Other:
State: New York
High School: Private, Jesuit
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White

Schools:
UCLA and USC are my top choices as of now. I will be interviewing this summer at USC. The other schools are (in no order) BC (Legacy), Notre Dame, Georgetown, Loyola Marymount, NYU, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara, UCSD, American (Legacy), UCSB, Fordham. I also may apply to Dartmouth because I am a Legacy and it’s worth a shot.

I know my freshman and first half of sophomore year grades were low, but hoping my second half sophomore year, Junior and First half senior year grades, ECs and ACT/SATs can help make up for them.

2

Grades are below the standards of most of your schools but the ACT and ECs are outstanding.

Reach:
Notre Dame
GTown
USC
Dartmouth

Target:
BC
NYU
UCSD

Rest are safeties or low targets

3

@EmpireFrontier Would the “illness” have a major effect on the application or not?

4

@JohnRooney889
If it were up to me or most people, absolutely. I missed about a month due to an awful stomach flu when I was a sophomore and the damage was irreparable.
But with some of these schools, they just do not seem to care. They like to see how a student performs in the eyes of adversity.

5

@EmpireFrontier and future readers of this post. The Illness I’m referring to is Depression and Anxiety. I️ suffered from Depression and Anxiety for about 3 years and went to Paychologists and Psychiatrists countless times and was placed on medicine. May write my essay about how it gave me a new perspective on life and allowed me to become a person who wants to change the world for the better. I️ was originally hesitant to write about this but it’s a left of why I️ am and my “resume” would not be complete without it.

6

@JohnRooney889
Small world, I wrote two of my college essays about my depression issues throughout my childhood. I was rejected to 3 schools and accepted at the two (UPenn and Dartmouth) that I wrote about the depression for.

7

@EmpireWorld What schools were you rejected/waitlisted from and why did you not write about depression on those applications?

8

Any other advice or opinions would be helpful. Also, I️ have many other hours of community service, but I️ haven’t kept track how much, at various places near my city.