Chance me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Williams College
1

<p>Hi! I'm only a high school junior now, but I want to get an early start on college searches because my summer will be really busy with schoolwork for APs, hanging out with friends, work, etc. I don't want to rush to finish all my apps during the beginning of my senior year, so yeah ;) Anyway, I'm pretty much in love with Williams and planning on applying ED. I think my academics are okay, but I'm not sure about my ECs...</p>

<p>GPA: 4.23 (got off to an okay start since I started taking APs, but my GPA should be higher at the end of the year because I'm getting more As)</p>

<p>Rank: 14/300+ at a competitive parochial/prep school</p>

<p>SAT: Haven't received scores yet (2-3 weeks...the wait is torture!) but I'm confident that I did really well on on the CR and W sections, and got at least 700 on the Math.</p>

<p>Classes:
Junior Year
AP English (B first sem, A this quarter), US (B), Chem (raised my B- from first quarter to an A-)
Honors Pre-Cal (A), Latin (A), Physics (A) -- APs not offered to juniors for these classes</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule
AP English, Latin, Euro, Econ, Gov, Bio, and Calc -- all have prerequisites to qualify for them and can only be taken by seniors. The teachers take our GPAs, grades, and recs from other teachers and put them into a spreadsheet. Excel does something to make a composite score, and only students above a certain number get in. Euro also required an essay (only about 20-25 people got in out of about 35 who qualified and tried for it--apparently, there's no possible way in hell to get an A in this class) and Bio required a test and essay (also selective, though not as much as Euro).
I know this is kind of an insane schedule, but I'd rather get Bs and work for them than get As in Honors classes and just slack off. </p>

<p>EC/Comm Service/Other:
Latin Club - Annual Blood Drive
Diversity Club
ECHO (a service club) -- Operation Christmas Child, Crisis Center, Catherine's House (a shelter)
Parish Youth Group (since like third grade) and Choir
Various volunteer activities like parish Carnival, Santa's Workshop, etc.
NC House of Representatives Page Program (last summer)
--planning on doing Teen Court this summer through senior year, so excited!! :)
--also considering applying for a volunteer program at a hospital, but I'm undecided. May do it next summer.
Working as a tutoring assistant at Kumon, a learning center</p>

<p>Awards:
Cougar Award Freshman and Sophomore Year (Highest Honors)
National Latin Exam Gold and Silver Medals</p>

<p>I wish I could be more involved, but with Asian parents...well, I'm kind of limited. Hopefully, these are good enough! </p>

<p>I visited Williams' Admissions page and saw the "Window Essay" requirement--I'm going to write about getting stuck in traffic in Vietnam (where I was born), seeing a little girl peddling food to pedestrians and drivers, and realizing that that girl could've been me if I wasn't so lucky. I think my Common App essay will be about the relationship between my mom and I, which is...unusual compared to many American and even Asian mother-daughter relationships, and how that affected me :) </p>

<p>Okay, so be honest and please tell me what you think. Thanks!!!</p>

2

<p>Wow, Cake! </p>

<p>It seems like you are super involved!! I can’t imagine how hard you must’ve tried to balance your academics on top of your activities! Congrats!</p>

<p>As for your chance, Williams is just one of those schools where you can’t call it a “for-sure” school haha. But if you do get a great SAT I + Subject scores, I’d say you have an amazing chance! And the ideas for your essays sound very personal and well-thought out.</p>

<p>Well, here’s a big good luck from a senior! </p>

<p>GOOD LUCK!! =]</p>

3

<p>Thank you :slight_smile: I figured Williams would be hit-or-miss school, but I’m hoping I’m closer to a hit than a miss…I’m depending on my essays to ‘set me apart’ from other applicants, so I do hope the admissions people think so, too.
Also, I was wondering if I should send my SAT I scores to Williams this early, since CollegeBoard offers the four free reports. Either way, I have to send all of them when I apply, even if I retake the SAT and get better scores, right? Hmm…</p>

4

<p>I am not sure it is a good idea to agree to send the scores before you see them. You can always do it later for a small extra fee (around $9) and if they are not strong you can retake and never send the weaker scores. I believe your scores will be quite important for Williams - it is one of the things that puts you in a certain band, and your course load is on the strong side but not extremely so. You will be competing with kids who take two years of calc in high school, maybe more, and 8+ APs. Keep in mind when you see the average SAT scores these include highly recruited athletes and others with specific desirable traits, so with no exceptional talents and I don’t think low 700s will do the trick. Make sure you are specific with the ECs - they should be listed in the order of importance to you and you need to quantify your involvement. It would help if you had a leadership position in at least one. Also, unless you are a recruited athlete or a legacy I don’t think you will help your chances applying ED. Kids with very high grades with 6 or so APs and over 2100 SAT plus a wide variety of ECs were flat out rejected ED. Even the recruited athletes who were not tops in their sports needed scores above the Williams average to get in ED. I don’t mean to be super negative, but with these small schools it is very difficult to get in - so it will help to not focus on just one name, but build a list of similar schools and don’t get set on one and you are bound to end up happy.</p>

5

<p>Yeah behrumt is right, at a school like Williams you want to aim above the middle 50% because it’s being weighed down by varsity athletes and ultra legacies.</p>