<p>School:
Tallahassee, FL
Class size about 500, top tenth, 4.2-3ish GPA
Alot of apps to Harvard- but I only know of one other app to Yale
[Then again there are those super stealthers]</p>
<p>AP:
US (4)
Spanish (3)
Euro (3)
Eng. Lang (4)
Chem (1) [Lol fluke 7% pass rate for our school, about 40 kids in the class too]
Eng. Lit (tbt expct 4)
Macro Econ (tbt ecpct 4-5)
Gov. Politics (tbt expct 4-5)
Calc AB (tbt expct 3)</p>
<p>2000 flat SAT took once
Middle 600's SAT II (US,Math2,Lit)</p>
<p>National Hispanic Scholar
3 Years Varsity Tennis, 1 JV
Board member School Advisory Council
7 years student government (Various titles Pres, Director, Rep., 7 years and you have about every title =/)
Prom Chair
Florida Association of Student Councils
Externship Program (Executive Internship): Interned with Project Manager at Science Applications International Corp. [fortune 500 =)] Also with local webmaster *went into depth in elaborate on actvty.
FLYMCA Youth in Government- Founder blah blah
+[Insert Laundry List of Service clubs: NHS, SNHS, Key, etc.]</p>
<p>Work:
Consultant and Graphic designer- Lifelyme (Lanford Foundation for Lyme Disease)</p>
<p>Essays Highlighted on intense family involvement in politics. Touched on some family members high in political places. Going for Political Science</p>
<p>For the most part I get to write my own recs :P</p>
<p>How did you get a one on the AP CHem exam? If write your name correctly and just answer 5 MC and like 1 FRQ, thats a 2... I know colleges dont care 4 versus 5 really, but s 1 on AP Chemistry really, really is unheard of, since freshman with basic knowledge of units could get a 2 on it.</p>
<p>Honestly- I have no clue. I got straight A's through the class. It baffled alot of my friends too- pretty much all of us straight failed. I thought I did fine on the MC, and average on the FRQ's.</p>
<p>Meh- I don't think that's going to make or break though. There are definitely a lot of applicants with higher objective stats than me. =/</p>
<p>Getting a one on the AP exam basically invalidates any "A" you would have received in your Chemistry class and may raise a lot of questions about your school's rigor / your strength of schedule.</p>
<p>the class before mine ALL got 1's except for 1 person who got a 2
in my class, everyone got 1's (about maybe 20 people) except for 3 of us who managed to pass.....crappy teaching and a lack of motivation/knowledge by students to study on their own can be devastating</p>
<p>We've actually gotten alot of 1s for AP Physics
The class is pretty tough..I'd say Chem is a harder class
but the teacher doesn't really teach the materials needed...like he'll spend months on a topic that's not important at all and spend like a day on soemthing that is.
Also, most of the class is seniors who could care less about passing but still, there were a LOT of 1s..I don't remember anyone saying they got a 4 or a 5.</p>
<p>My friend got a 2 and she was quite proud of herself! Many people were jealous of her.</p>
<p>Do you really think that that could be grounds for rejection? </p>
<p>I would definitely think I fit the "Yale student" image. My involvement in student government on a state level, URM, EC's, professional experience, and area of interest in my opinion would make up for an obvious placement in the lower end of the objective statistics spectrum.</p>
<p>I am sure as hell not the "smartest" person here. Damn you bionic CC's.</p>
<p>I think you have great extracurriculars, but I'll be honest, your SAT and SAT IIs are low (for Yale). You're a URM, so that might help. Your essays had better be amazing though. Even if you don't get in, you should easily be able to go to a great college.</p>
<p>sorry to hijack the thread...but i have a relevant question...most in my school got 1's in ap chem and i passed it....i'm the val and i have decent standardized test scores (2200 SAT, 34 ACT, 790/770/770 on subject tests)...does the fact that my school is not as rigorous as others help me considering i still did well on standardized tests and in my coursework?</p>
<p>or does it just make them think "he's the val at a mediocre school...so what?"</p>
<p>Well my school does really well on AP exams..mostly 3/4/5 on the exams but just for AP Physics...everyone seems to fail.
So it shouldn't make them question the rigor of the whole school...maybe just the rigor of the AP Physics class..like an A in AP Physics might not be so impressive if you flunk the exam
If everyone else also failed...it probably doesn't look AS bad.</p>
<p>@bicyclekick--However, if you passed and everyone else failed..then it'll look really good. And I think your scores are better than just decent. (well...maybe just decent on CC but for average people..they're really good!)
Don't know about your "val at mediocre school" question though...I'm kinda wondering the same thing!</p>
<p>For the mediocre HS question: AOs know that you don't have control over what classes your school offers or how well other students do. So if you stand out at your HS (eg. val) AND have competitive test scores (SATs & APs), you will be given due consideration in admissions. It does tend to be easier to "stand out" in a mediocre HS, but you have to be able to show on standardized tests, essays, ECs, etc., that you are up to the task.</p>
<p>^ My school has really bad APUSH scores overall. Out of the 35+ people who took it last year, I only know of about 4 people that didn't get a 1 or a 2. (The teacher was fresh out of college and didn't really know how to teach.) I got a 3. Is there any way to explain this to Admissions, or will they automatically know the pass/fail statistics for my school...? If only 4/35 people get a 3 or higher, I would think it would be obvious that it's the teacher's fault and not the students', right?</p>
<p>I really think the AP things don't matter at any school there are going to be different strengths (like at my school everyone does really well on English, bio, and math APs but chemistry not at all bc of the teacher). I think colleges do not care a whole lot about AP scores I want to be an engineering major and only took humanities APs bc I want to have a firm science foundation by taking the colleges in college and science at our school is bad. But I doubt that it will weigh that much against any applicant.</p>