Hi guys. This is a chance thread for my friend.
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2100 Superscore (660 CR, 760 Math, 680 Writing, 8 Essay) (2 Sittings); He will be taking again in October and is aiming for a 2200+
ACT (breakdown): N/A
SAT II: Will be taking Math II and Spanish in November (Expect 750+ on Math II and 700+ on Spanish)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.76/4 (Would be in the top 5% at his school, but they don’t rank. He goes to a private school with ~90 kids in his grade)
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Calculus AB (4) (Will be taking AP Calculus BC next year)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: He has taken the hardest possible course load at his school all four years (he goes to a private school where only 2 AP classes are offered (Calculus))
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Minor Awards; nothing noteworthy
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varsity Tennis (Captain) (9, 10, 11, 12) (He has been doing tennis for ~10 years), Classical Violinist (~10 years as well; member of many orchestras and currently lead violinist in his chamber group) (this will be the subject of his common app essay as it has meant the most to him so far and has dedicated the most amount of time to it (~3000 hours)), Co-founder of school’s radio club (10, 11, 12), Sports Broadcaster for high school basketball team and recorded for local television network (11, 12), Volunteering (9, 10, 11, 12) (See below)
Job/Work Experience: Summer Internship with a Cape Cod Semi-Pro Baseball League (affiliated with NCAA) (11 and possible 12) (6 weeks) - Learned technical and broadcasting skills
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer at Tenacity (Organization that functions as a tennis camp) (10, 11, 12) (6-8 weeks each over the summer), Counselor at a Bible Camp (more than 4 years; 2 weeks per summer)
Summer Activities: Everything above
Essays (rating 1-10, details): CommonApp essay - Decent (Projected to be above average) 7.5-8.5/10, Supplements (Assume to be very good) 8.5/10
Teacher Rec #1: Spanish Teacher - 10/10 (Also his Tennis Coach); Best student in his class who helped other students succeed and participated a lot
Teacher Rec #2: AP Calculus AB Teacher - 8/10 (One of the better people in class; participated a lot)
Counselor Rec: 9/10 - Great Relationship with College Counselor (school is small so people actually know each other)
Additional Rec: Not likely
Interview: N/A yet; should be fine
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Journalism (In preparation for career in sports broadcasting) (Perhaps additional minor in music and/or statistics)
State (if domestic applicant): Massachusetts
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Small Private
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Upper Middle Class
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): This isn’t a hook in the definition sense of the word, but his school is known for getting many people into top colleges, and average scores for accepted students at his school tend to be around 50-100 points lower than the national average (e.g. at his school, the accepted average SAT for Harvard is 2160)
Reflection
Strengths: Extracurriculars (large passion and relevance to intended field/career and are also kind of unique) (leadership is not bad either) (each extracurricular has a large time commitment and he has put in a lot of effort in each); Course Load (hardest possible), GPA (to an extent), Work/Volunteer Experience, Recs, Relative Fit for major/career
Weaknesses: Test Scores (at least for now), Course load (his school doesn’t offer all of the AP’s that other schools have), Essays could go either way (good or bad; he isn’t the best writer; in my opinion the biggest deciding factor behind test scores)
General Comments: He is applying only to journalism schools. I am only going to list the four most relevant ones.
ED Northwestern University (Medill School of Journalism) (Major in Journalism w/ possible double minor in Music Performance and Statistics) - This is his dream school and he will be going full out to get in here
EA University of Maryland (School of Journalism) (Honors College) - Second Choice
RD Syracuse University (Newhouse) - Third Choice
RD American University - Fourth Choice
He really would like to know more than anything his chances for Medill, but any feedback is appreciated. (Note regardless of feedback, he will not be making any changes to schools he is applying to)
Also, DON’T get off on me for doing hypotheticals. I know they are not ideal, but it helps more to say that than nothing at all.
Thanks.
