Current Year Courses- AP Lang, Art, Honors Calc, Physics, Internship in Cinematography
(I am currently doing a semester away studying Vermonts ecology and hiking through it)
I will have taken 4 APs total by end of senior year (I wasn’t allowed to take them while away from my main campus)
Common App Essay Topic: week long backpacking trip through a national hurricane and learning how to make decisions (something I have always struggled with) (also in the additional section I talked about how I am working on a project about bee keeping and working to pollinate the local flora and my greenhouse)
3 really great recommendation letters from English, ecology and film teachers
Stats:
1370 SAT (690 Reading, 680 Math)
3.76 Cumulative GPA
3.95 Current GPA
ECS:
Environmental Club
National Honors Society
GLOW Club (gay, lesbian or whatever)
Varsity Track and Field
Director, Writer and Editor of all school film (senior year)
Cinematographer for all school film (junior year)
Member of Trivia Team
Works at Local Farm
Awards:
National Hispanic Recognition Scholar
Literary Award (9th Grade)
Computer Science Award (10th)
RIT Creativity Book Award (11th)
On your application I would lead with your bee project and semester away. EDII would be your best chance at getting in. Four ap classes at the end of senior year is a little concerning, most vassar students take more. Your test scores seem to fall somewhere between the 25% and 50% of vassar admits (close to the 25 though). However, Vassar is a school that cares about test scores but will look past them according to your activites (which seem very unique and cohesive). If your gpa is a 3.76 unweighted that makes you a contender but if it is weighted that may be concerning. Overall, your activities seem very unique and interesting and I would lead with that
@artfanatic3 Thank you for reading and replying! How do you recommend I lead with those two things? Do you think my essay is representative of my experiences, since I did it during my semester away? I would have been taking more APs this senior year but I was unable to while away from my main campus, and we only offer 1 only 2nd semester AP class, hopefully, that factor is okay, but I don’t know. Also my cumulative gpa is a 3.76 unweighted and a 4.71 weighted!
I like the idea of your essay and having your gpa as an unweighted 3.76 is a positive sign. For activites on the common app, make sure that the bee thing and semester away is at the top. Not many high schoolers have the opportunity to do those things and it will 100% make you stand out.
@nervous4college - Saw you on the Middlebury thread. Any chance you would consider a West Coast school? The geographic diversity might help. Also, as @artfanatic3 said, your project during your semester away makes you stand out from the crowd. I can’t private message because apparently this site requires you to be a “junior member”, but if you would like to private message me, I might be able to give a little advice as a parent (and fellow Vermonter) who has gone through the process multiple times.
@stndacy I was thinking about looking over there but I am unsure how far my parents will let me go, do you have any school recommendations? I will private message you now
@nervous4cOllege Don’t know if you tried to message me but nothing came through. If not, no problem - just didn’t want you to think I wasn’t responding.
