Chance me?

Hi! I’m a senior and I’ve been looking into different women’s colleges recently (in addition to the co-ed institutions I had already explored). Smith kind of stole my heart but as started to look more into Bryn Mawr, it looked more and more appealing. I want to major in computer science and Bryn Mawr seems to have a pretty big emphasis on science and math. I also love the school spirit and the campus looks so beautiful! In pictures, at least, I’m hoping to visit soon. Anyways, do you think I have a pretty good shot at getting in? What’s their reputation with financial aid? I used the NPC and it didn’t look like something we would be able to afford but I didn’t have all of the numbers either (just more general estimates of incomes & assets).

General Info


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Female
Hispanic
NJ Resident
3.9 UW GPA
4.4 W GPA
Class rank: 27 out of 155. I know it’s kind of low but my school is ranked around ~100 in the country if that helps at all.
New SAT: 740 Verbal/770 Math (1510)
Old SAT: M 700 R 700 W 710 (2110)
PSAT: 710 Verbal/760 Math (1470) (217 SI I think; with my state I’ll probably only get commended)
National Hispanic Scholar

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Senior Courses:
All courses will be taken at my county college this year so second semester classes are tentative
-English Composition 1
-Lifetime Wellness
-Computer Science 1
-Calculus 1
-Early Modern Europe
-English Composition 2
-Personal fitness
-Calculus 2
-Microbiology
-Advanced Spanish composition

I’ve also participated in something called WISTEM (Women’s Intro to STEM). It’s a program run by Harvey Mudd (this is the first year they’ve done it) and in addition to a 3-day residential program, we’ve participated in an online program where we have attended webinars by graduates from HMC (all women in minorities) and taken an online introductory comp sci class by HMC.

Another bit of information is that I’m in the Healthcare Sciences academy at my school and through that I have earned 22 credits from Rutgers University over the past 3 years.

Extracurriculars:


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School chorus (2014-2015 Secretary; 2015-2016 Webmaster; 2016-2017 President)
Marching band and jazz band
Religious Studies club (Vice president; helped found club)
Gay-Straight Alliance
National Honors Society
Peer Leaders (Junior/freshmen mentor type thing)
HOSA-Future Health Professionals (occupation-based club with competitions. I have place 2nd and 3rd on the state level in medical reading and have participated in two international conferences)
Church-related activities (Antioch Leadership Team (we lead a retreat for other teens); choir; catechist (religious ed teacher); Mystery Play (we perform the Passion during Lent))
Swim team
Lifeguarding during the summer (at a large pool and at a special needs summer camp)

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For my essay, I’m thinking about writing about how I got into writing stories and my experiences with National Novel Writing Month because writing has always been a hobby that stuck with me even when my interests changed. Another idea I had was to write about working at a camp for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and how it’s impacted me and my career goals. I’ll probably go with whichever comes out more naturally, and I have to say I’m a pretty strong writer.

Over the summer, the women’s colleges we toured included Bryn Mawr, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, and Wellesley. All of them were outstanding with beautiful campuses and good academics. The only one that dropped in our estimation was Smith. The school that rose the most was Mt. Holyoke partly because of our preconceived notions countered by the school’s excellence on all fronts. My opinions aside, and so long as you are OK with a women’s college, all of them are really good. You seem like a solid candidate for both Smith and Bryn Mawr.