Chance Me!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Emory University
1

<p>General Background Info:
Gender: Male
Race: Hispanic/Caucasian
Grade: Rising Senior</p>

<p>Stats/Scores:
GPA (cumulative, unweighted): 3.67
Class Rank (haven't been told what I'm ranked, I'm just assuming this is where I am): Top 10-25% in class of ~200 (I go to a very competitive high school in Florida)</p>

<p>NOTE: Commas separate different times taken.</p>

<p>SAT Overall: 1750, 1740 (1780 Superscore)
SAT Math: 620, 600
SAT Writing: 590, 620
SAT Reading: 540, 520 (YIKES!)
SAT w/ Essay: 8, 8</p>

<p>ACT Composite: 26
ACT Math: 30
ACT English: 28
ACT Science: 24
ACT Reading: 20 (TERRIBLE!)
ACT w/ Essay: 10</p>

<p>NOTE: I plan on submitting the ACT, I'm done with the SAT. The next few times I take the ACT, I plan on raising my score to a 27 or 28. The reason I plan this one or two point gain is due to the fact that I neither studied nor practiced for any of these (which shows).</p>

<p>Course Rigor:</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
English 1
Spanish 1
Global Studies
Biology
Algebra 1 Honors</p>

<p>(1 Honors class out of a possible 2 Honors classes taken)</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Chemistry Honors
English 2
Spanish 2
World History Honors
Geometry Honors</p>

<p>(3 Honors classes out of a possible 3 Honors and 1 AP class taken)</p>

<p>Junior Year:
Physics Honors
English 3 Honors
Spanish 3 Honors
US History Honors
Algebra 2/Trig Honors</p>

<p>(5 Honors classes out of a possible 3 Honors and 2 AP classes taken [assuming you know if AP is offered, the Honors level of that same course offered])</p>

<p>Senior Year:
AP Chemistry
Honors Anatomy (AP Chemistry and Honors Anatomy are my two required elective choices I chose out of AP Chem, Honors Anatomy, Marine Bio, AP Physics, Honors European History, and AP Spanish 4)
English 4 Honors
American Econ/Gov Honors
Calculus Honors</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>-National Honor Society for 2 years
-Lacrosse for 4 years
-Mu Alpha Theta for 1 year
-Key Club for 2 years
-250+ hours of community service (mainly working with children with learning disabilities or poor education and feeding the homeless/hungry in and around my community)
-Taught myself two programming languages (Python and VB.net, both a little bit short of intermediate levels [currently in the process of trying to learn Obj-C for development of iOS applications])</p>

<p>Recommendation Letters:</p>

<p>Don't even have them yet but I expect very good ones, as pretty much all of my teachers like me even though I tend to keep to myself at school.</p>

<p>Essays:</p>

<p>According to the ACT website, only 3% of students who take the ACT w/ Essay portion get a 10 or higher so I plan on my essay being very well written. Furthermore, during a visit at Emory they told us what they were tired of hearing in every essay and what NOT to write about so I have a pretty good idea as to what I will write about in my essays and generalize that they will be very convincing.</p>

<p>Final Words:</p>

<p>I know my tests scores in Reading and in general are terrible and probably nowhere near where they need to be as well as my EC's being a little bit week but I do have Emory as a reach school and I'd simply like to know my chances of getting in anyways. Like I said earlier, I will be retaking the ACT at least two more times and plan on getting a 27 or 28 so hopefully that will boost up my chances. I don't think Emory requires SAT Subject Tests but I do plan on taking them (for other colleges I plan on applying to require them) and hope to score well. Also, over my senior year, I hope to help out our sports team doctor in becoming his assistant or just helping him out in any way possible throughout the next year just to get some experience on my back. My father is a dentist and my mother was the CFO of a Fortune 500 medical company along with her father being a doctor so you can see where the medical aspect of our family comes in (maybe not so much with my mom being a finance person but you get the idea).</p>

<p>Cheers!</p>

2

<p>As you already said it’s definitely a reach. Emory’s middle 50% ACT is 29-33 and their UW GPA is 3.78-4.00, so you’re below that in both areas. You definitely still have a shot though, especially if you apply as Hispanic and do ED. Try to get straight As 1st semester of senior year to get your GPA up and send in a midyear transcript if you get deferred, and either get that ACT to a 30+ or SAT to a 2000+ and your chances will improve dramatically. Also doing well on the ACT or SAT Essay section has virtually no correlation with how well you’ll be able to write a college application essay. It’s very easy to wing the SAT/ACT essay but not so much the latter. SAT subject tests only help a bit if you get about a 720 or higher, and not having them will barely hurt your application to Emory. </p>

<p>In you case, I would apply to both Emory and Oxford, since with your stats you would likely be a match at Oxford.</p>

3

<p>First off, I’d like to say thanks for posting.</p>

<p>I do plan on applying as a hispanic to all my colleges because both my parents (caucasian mom, hispanic father) say it will help me out, as hispanics are considered a “minority” group. I also want to have the best chance possible in getting in and I love the school so much that I do plan on applying ED. I also haven’t really looked into their Oxford campus because I only learned about it at my recent visit to Emory but I will definitely check it out as a possible way of entering Emory (two years at Oxford and then you move over to Emory for your junior and senior year) .</p>

<p>I don’t know why my reading test scores are so low because I do read (required school reading and some outside of that) but I think sometimes my mind just drifts away from the main idea of the paragraphs they give in those tests or I just can’t remember every detail of information they give me. I’ve found that anything I find interesting while reading, I usually have a better chance of remembering and getting the question right (in regards to summer reading). I might also just suck at reading =) but I’m pretty sure my grades reflect, to some degree, how hard I study. Then again, some people don’t study at all and get straight A’s while others study their hearts out and get B’s and C’s.</p>

<p>Again, I know it’s a reach but I really like the school and would be 110% happy with my decision if I got in so I will try my heart out next year, hoping everything will go up (grades, test scores, etc.).</p>

4

<p>Looks like collegestu gave you a good answer.</p>