Chance thread? I just want to know where i stand

<p>IS (Virginia, NOVA), male and applying for the sciences </p>

<p>SAT: 1910 (CR: 610 M: 680 W: 620)
ACT: 28 (E: 30 M: 28 R: 31 S: 28 E/W: 31)
Subject Tests: Math Lvl 2 (690) US History (780)
GPA: 4 out of 4.5 (upward trend: 3.7 to 4.2 to 4.3 and senior year so far i have a 4.5)
AP: 11 (2 sophomore, 4 junior, 5 senior)</p>

<p>ECs:
Internship with NASA (Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholar)
National AP Scholar
3rd Place Regional Science Fair
Microbiology, Biotechnology, and Molecular Biology Internship during my summer (this was a HUGE time commitment)
President of a club in school that organizes ALL fundraisers</p>

<p>Sounds like you’ve taken some fantastic courses (11APs!) and done pretty well in them. Given you’re on an upward grade trend, make sure you send us your first-semester grades especially given the rigor of your senior schedule. If there’s any reason why your freshman year GPA was lower than the rest, feel free to let us know why.</p>

<p>Your standardized test scores are within our middle 50% range (1280-1420/27-32) which is good although many of the students who apply have scores within our middle 50% range.</p>

<p>You didn’t list a lot of school-year extracurricular activities (unless the internship is equivalent to a part-time job in which case that may limit the amount of extracurricular activities you’re a part of) so make sure your list on the application is thorough so we know what you’re invovled with and how you might contribute to W&M’s many clubs and organizations.</p>

<p>Remember, our applicant pool is really strong and full of wonderful, smart, talented applicants like yourself and we simply cannot admit them all so just enter any selective application process with your expectations set reasonably.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>thank for your response. </p>

<p>ive just been wondering how important are the essays in the admissions? I dont have stellar stats but I think i am a strong writer so I think the essays REALLY help me out. Do you think I am an applicant whose essay can tip to scale towards acceptance? </p>

<p>i know that kinda sounds like a dumb question, but its just that this whole college admissions process has been sooooooo hectic hsdfhdlfhdfh</p>

<p>An essay can tip the scale for any applicant if it’s particularly well written or if the subject matter is particularly compelling (or it can tip the scales the other way if the essay is poorly written or the topic is less than flattering). Any particular part of the application (extracurricular activities, recommendations, essay) can be a tip factor. If an applicant isn’t competitive then an essay won’t change that but if an applicant is on the bubble, an essay can certainly be a tip factor.</p>

<p>i know this is a real blunt way of putting it but do you think from what i have provided I am an competitive applicant or a clear reject? i know that there’s more to an application than the numbers and stuff, but if u had to assume that the recs and essays were going to beabove average how would i fair? btw i completely understand if you dont want to respond with a direct answer but i dont mind if you are being upfront about it.</p>

<p>philly93, while I would love to give you a direct answer, our process is such that I can’t. Until we see your transcript, review your essays and letters of recommendation and evaluate all of that for oursevles and then review the entire applicant pool, we really don’t know how any particular student will fare. We need context for that student and the entire applicant pool to be able to see how competitive you are in relation to your school and to the other applicants in our pool.</p>

<p>To better understand our process and why giving direct responses to chance me threads are so difficult, check out our most recent Admit It! Blog ([W&M</a> Blogs Chance Me](<a href=“http://blogs.wm.edu/2010/12/14/chance-me/]W&M”>http://blogs.wm.edu/2010/12/14/chance-me/)). It was written in response to all the chance me threads being replied to.</p>