Chance me?

<p>Chance me for these schools? </p>

<p>Haverford College (Early Decision)
Mount Holyoke College
George Washington University
Wake Forest University
University of Pittsburgh
New York University
Allegheny College
University of Rochester</p>

<p>GPA (UW): 3.1
SAT: 1830 CR: 650 Math: 600 Writing: 580
Rank: Top 50%</p>

<p>I have switched schools from a rigorous top charter school to my local public school. My former school did not offer a bussing system and my parents are out of town twice a week for work. I had no way to get to school and therefore I switched. The former school was ridiculously rigorous and practiced grade deflation. </p>

<p>My sophomore year is what brought my GPA down. I had two teachers arrested for pedophilia, one teacher die in front of me and then two of my friends committed suicide. Most of my grades are A's and B's but that one year I received 5 C's. It had a massive impact on my GPA, as you can see. My GPA without that year is a 3.49. </p>

<p>I have taken an extremely rigorous schedule and will be graduating with 14 college level classes (dual enrollment with local universities including Penn State and AP classes). I have doubled, tripled and quadrupled on various subjects at a college level. I have never taken a course below Honors in high school. Even my gym classes were at an "honors" level. </p>

<p>AP's (Score in Parentheses):
Biology
Chemistry
World History (4)
U.S. History (5)
English Language and Composition (5)
U.S. Government and Politics
Comparative Government
Psychology</p>

<p>College Classes:
Intro. to Fiction Literature
Critical Analysis and Composition
Calculus 1
Calculus 2
Physics
Intro. to Philosophy</p>

<p>My recommendations are excellent and are coming from a college professor and one of my AP teachers. They are both wonderful and very personal. My counselor recommendation will be average to above average. </p>

<p>Extra Curricular Activities: </p>

<ol>
<li>Model UN (9-12) </li>
<li>Assisted in organizing a Model UN competition for Middle Schoolers</li>
<li>Represented the delegations of Somalia, Japan, Ecuador and Iran</li>
<li>Chosen to address the General Assembly in local University</li>
<li>Mentored 5 members of the team</li>
<li>Speech and Debate Team (9-12) </li>
<li>District Champion in Extemporaneous Speaking (11th Grade) in the State League </li>
<li>Qualified and Semi-Finaled in States (8th in the State) in Extemporaneous Speaking</li>
<li>Competed at Wake Forest University Early Bird competition and semi-finalled</li>
<li>District Champion in Congress Debate in the N.C.F.L. </li>
<li>Competed at Harvard College in Extemporaneous Speaking (10-12) and Yale (12)</li>
<li>Experience in multiple fields such as Public Forum Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Extemporaneous Speaking and Congress Debate</li>
<li>Biology Club (9-12)</li>
<li>President 9-10 </li>
<li>Participated in Marine Biology Compatition</li>
<li>Founded a branch in New School </li>
<li>Green Team (10-12)</li>
<li>Volunteered in an after school program for inner city children to teach them about how to make their school more “green.” </li>
<li>District-Wide Energy Audit Project/Eco-Lexus Competition</li>
<li>School Newspaper </li>
<li>Managing/News Editor</li>
<li>Heads political/healthcare news column</li>
<li>Tutored kids (9-12)</li>
<li>Peer tutoring in school</li>
<li>Tutored middle school kids</li>
<li>Taught at a School for Disabled Children in India for a few summers</li>
<li>Also assisted in raising money for its creation ($2000)</li>
<li>Taught physically disabled children (3 Summers)</li>
<li>Assisted in Medical Research at local Osteopathic Medical School</li>
<li>Shadowed 2 Doctors </li>
<li>Neurosurgeon and Dermatologist</li>
<li>Piano</li>
<li>Played for 10 years </li>
</ol>

<p>With everything I have done, where would you put me? I'm not sending any essays unless I am absolutely in love with them. My common app essay extensively discusses my experience with bullying. </p>

<p>What do you all think?</p>

<p>Oh dear… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to include all the schools I’m applying to. I was hoping to only get “chanced” for Haverford. I truly do love the school very much and I was hoping for some brutally honest feedback. What do you all think will happen? </p>

<p>Also, do you think writing a supplemental essay on how I came to find Haverford is a good idea in addition to the others? It’s actually a pretty cool story that includes Howard Lutnick (Class of 1983 from Haverford), a Swarthmore Rep and a UPenn Professor.</p>

<p>Have you taken any SAT subject tests? AP scores would help to have more scores to help your case. Definitely declare your love for the school.</p>

<p>It may be a hard sell, but I think Haverford may be more fair than some other larger universities when it comes to circumstances. I second the opinion for declaring your love for the school and the Honor Code. </p>

<p>I don’t know if an additional essay will help you, but it I don’t think it would hurt you either.</p>

<p>Haverford really looks at the candidate as a whole in my experience (disclaimer, I’m a student). I would say that, while it may be a stretch, it’s certainly not out of reach, especially if you explain what happened during your sophomore year. That seems awful by the way, and I am very sorry for that. But, your extra curriculars look great and, with some good essays, acceptance would not be impossible.</p>

<p>I never got back to you all because I was so nervous about going on CC and seeing all the other strong applications! Thank you so much for your input! I poured my heart into my essays and they came out very, very personal. I don’t even like sharing my common app essay with a lot of people because it hits home a little too close. I ended up not writing that supplemental essay because I felt that respecting the app limit was best. I did explain my sophomore year fully and I truly hope that it came across to the admissions committee that I did the best I could under the circumstances. </p>

<p>Thank you so much for the kind words and honest critique! :)</p>

<p>Just explain as best you can your circumstances for Sophomore year. Don’t blame your circumstances entirely for your poor grades… Colleges will respect you more for acknowledging that you might not be perfect, rather than pushing all the blame on outside circumstances.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, the OP was not accepted ED.</p>