Chances at Brown, Yale, UVA, Georgetown?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Profile:
Junior
Male
African-American
First generation
Northern Virginia
Potential political science/government major</p>

<p>Colleges:
Brown University
Yale University
University of Virginia
Georgetown University
American University</p>

<p>GPA:
4.2 Weighted 3.75 Unweighted (cumulative over three years including near-accurate final grades for Junior year)</p>

<p>SAT:
This is obviously my weak point, I'm working to bring them up and am having some success at a rigorous practicing schedule for the June SATs, with October as a back-up. Math will continue to be a weak point for me. These are not a good reflection of my performance, considering I didn't study for my January SATs. </p>

<p>January SAT: 590 CR, 560 Math, 690 Writing (1150/1840)
May SAT Subjects: 700 US History, 580 Math I
June SAT: Will take</p>

<p>AP Course History:
10th grade - AP World History <a href="4%20on%20the%20exam">A UW</a>
11th grade - AP US History [A- UW], AP English Lang/Comp [B UW], AP Spanish Lang [A UW], AP Psychology [A UW]
12th grade - AP Comparative Government, AP English Literature, AP Calculus AB, AP Spanish Literature</p>

<p>EC:
- Speech & Debate Team Captain (Junior Year - )
- Spanish Honor Society President (Junior Year - )
- Class of 2011 President (Freshman Year)
- Speech & Debate Director of Training & Recruitment (Sophomore Year)
- Internship with Candidate for Delegate in my area (Summer 2009- Fall 2009)
- Selected for and will participate in Boys State (Summer 2010)
- Very active in political campaigning, volunteering, etc.
- Member of two school orchestras (Freshman Year - ); in addition to a daily class as part of my schedule, I take a 90 minute after-school class that serves as an Eighth period
- 4 Honor Societies: National, Spanish, English, History
- Cross Country (Freshman Year - )
- Selected & Participated in National Leadership Conference; all-expenses-paid program
- Student Government (Freshman Year -)</p>

<p>Honors/Awards:
- State Champion in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking (Speech and Debate)
- State Champion in Student Congress (Speech and Debate)
- My county's Democratic Committee awarded me "Volunteer of the Year" in 2008
- A series of Minority Awards reflecting the best minority grades in the county
- National Qualifier in Student Congress (Speech & Debate)
- Won a series of Metropolitan, District, and Regional tournaments (Speech & Debate)
- Attained highest marks at Solo & Ensemble Area Orchestra competitions (3 years running)</p>

<p>I would greatly appreciate your suggestions on how to improve in the coming months! Thanks so much.</p>

2

<p>Bump? I would appreciate your opinion.</p>

3

<p>You seem focused into politics and such, so that’ll no doubt tremendously help you. If you can get your SATs up to at least a 2000, I would say your chances are:
Yale: high reach (but not hopeless)
Georgetown: high match
Brown: reach
American: match
UVA: match/low reach
Good luck!</p>

4

<p>Your GPA, both UW and W, are solid, but not enough to consider safe by any means for Yale, Georgetown, Brown and UVA OOS (I’m assuming); however, you have taken challenging courses which should help you out for Georgetown and UVA. Also, if you’re not Hispanic, the AP Spanish-es are commendable considering you do well on the AP exam.</p>

<p>Your SAT is a major weak point though. For Yale, it kills you, for Georgetown and Brown, it almost kills you, and for UVA it puts you somewhat lower in the pack of competitive OOS applicants. If you get it up to a 2000, you should be fine for UVA and better for Georgetown, but not for Brown or Yale. Those will be high reaches until that SAT hits the 2250 range. Try the ACT; the math is a little bit easier and most people score higher on it than on the SAT. Also, for your subject tests, the Math I score is pretty bad (not trying to sound mean or anything, just showing you how an adcom would view it). Although math is a weakness and you have no intentions of pursuing further study, most students at these schools are amazing at virtually EVERY subject, and honestly a school would rather choose a student who is good at both english and math than a student who is great at english and average at math. Schools want someone well-rounded; kill yourself practicing math and you should be alright.</p>

<p>Your ECs are good, but not OUTSTANDING. Leadership is checked off, perfect. Internship is great, so is Cross Country. I don’t see any volunteer work, which will hurt you significantly at ALL schools. </p>

<p>All in all, your passion is there and you would make a fine student at any one of those schools, but your scores eliminate you too early in the process for the adcoms to even see that passion. Get your scores up SIGNIFICANTLY, and you’ll be fine.</p>

<p>Also, is that NLC really all-expenses paid for? Every time I’ve gotten a letter they want some ridiculous amount of money. If you do have to pay, school’s don’t like that honestly. Anyone with money can attend; but if it’s legit like you say, then good job! :)</p>

5

<p>Thanks so much for taking your time to reply. I just have a few questions.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Does political volunteering not count? I have tried my hand at the Red Cross, etc. but my biggest dedication has been political volunteering – for campaigns and for my local Democratic Committee. In fact, they awarded me Volunteer of the Year two years back. Do colleges not view political volunteering as “volunteering” in the admission process?</p>

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</p>

<p>You’re not being harsh! I am even harsher on myself about my Math scores. I am prepping like crazy for the SAT I in June in CR and Math. To be honest, I’m a realist, and I think 2250 is currently out of my reach, but I don’t think 2000 is bad.</p>

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</p>

<p>Yeah, I actually haven’t bothered with any programs that require out-of-pocket, because it is outside of my parent’s financial reach and I wouldn’t feel good “fundraising” of any sort.</p>

6

<ol>
<li><p>Sorry haha that was my fault. I didn’t immediately see volunteering since you put it combined in a bullet with the political volunteering so I inadvertently overlooked it. Yes, if you did political volunteering that looks phenomenal since you’re doing something you have passion in.</p></li>
<li><p>Ok good lol I didn’t want to come off arrogant or something. Anyways, a 2000 is a good score by all means (I actually scored a 2000 myself on the January test), but is definitely not good enough for Yale and Brown.</p></li>
<li><p>Alright that’s good then lol. Is it only for 1 week like those other programs? If so, it’s probably not of much significance come time to apply. I’m actually attending a summer math and science program for 4 weeks that’s state-funded and only accepts 300 students out of a pool of 1500, which looks significantly better than something that lasts 1 week (unless you’re doing something completely out of the ordinary, in which case I’d say yours probably has more power). Once again, not trying to sound arrogant lol, but a longer summer program is better. However, you’re doing internships which makes up for it so you’re set!</p></li>
</ol>

7

<p>2000 would be good enough at any school for a URM with those ECs.</p>

8

<p>Grades and test scores are nowhere near good enough for Brown and Yale, and to a lesser extent Gtown/UVA. The kids that apply to those schools (and actually have a chance of getting in) are going to be overqualified in almost every catagoery, URM or not.</p>

9

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</p>

<p>Yeah…the program isn’t of that much importance to me and may not even fit. It was only a week and sponsored by a local electrical company as part of a national cooperative event. </p>

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</p>

<p>Realistically, my grades will probably never get any better than they are and my SAT scores may hover just above 2000 if anything. Does this automatically disqualify me from these schools? I figure that I have a lot more riding on acceptance than just scores and grades.</p>

10

<p>EC’s are great, GPA is solid, but the SAT scores are way too low for the schools you wanna go to. However, you are African American, which helps considerably. You should dedicate your remaining time to study and prepare for the SAT’s. Honestly, they are the one thing holding back your otherwise great resume.</p>

11

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</p>

<p>Thanks. I am studying a lot…if I do not bring up my SATs to an ideal 2100+, though, do you think it would automatically disqualify me from contention for admission to these schools?</p>

12

<p>well, i’ve heard that some schools have these set academic minimum requirements that you MUST be above in order to get in. For example, you could have the most impressive EC’s and a perfect GPA, but lets say you have a 1600 or so out of 2400 on SAT’s. Schools like MIT or Harvard will simply ignore the rest of your application; they simply won’t take anyone in who isn’t near perfect on all aspects of the app. However, I don’t think your scores are nessesarily THAT low. they will hurt you a lot at some of the top schools you mentioned like Yale, but they do not mean automatic rejection. all the same, work on getting them up</p>

13

<p>Don’t be discouraged by kids who mean well but don’t know how it works. Top schools scools at URMs in different ways as scores are generally lower for this category of student.</p>

<p>Your state championships scream that you are an achiever. This will count for a great deal. Work on your scores, but don’t hesitate to apply.</p>

14

<p>Thanks for your advice! I will definitely work hard to bring up those SATs!</p>

15

<p>You will get in as a minority…even though the SAT is way too low.</p>

16

<p>I recently took my SATs again and received a 610 CR/590 Math/760 Writing, so 1200/1960. I’m really conflicted, because I only wanted to take it twice. I believe I’m close to a good score, but not there yet. Would this score improve my chances or does it need to be even higher?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

17

<p>That is a pretty solid score for a URM, you could get it higher, but you are DEFINATELY high enough to get in as a URM.
This is for an african american female for Brown:</p>

<p>Decision: Accepted</p>

<p>Objective:</p>

<ul>
<li>SAT I (breakdown): 1790</li>
<li>SAT II: 670 Chemistry, 760 bio, terrible math II</li>
<li>Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): don’t quite know, my school doesnt work in gpa system</li>
<li>Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/30, valedictorian 5 years in a row</li>
</ul>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
oh gosh, too many to write down here </p></li>
<li><p>Job/Work Experience: none</p></li>
<li><p>Volunteer/Community service: a lot, worked with orphans, painted hospitals and schools, held fundraisers etc…</p></li>
<li><p>Summer Activities: nothing really</p></li>
<li><p>Essays: Very touching i was told. </p></li>
<li><p>Teacher Recommendations: Fantastic- they raved about me! haha</p></li>
<li><p>Counselor Rec: really sweet</p></li>
<li><p>Interview: didn’t do one</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Other</p>

<ul>
<li>State (if domestic applicant): </li>
<li>School Type: small private international</li>
<li>Ethnicity: African</li>
<li>Gender: female</li>
<li>Income Bracket: uhhhhggg?</li>
<li>Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I’m an African female</li>
</ul>

<p>Reflection</p>

<ul>
<li>Strengths: I rock, haha</li>
<li>Weaknesses: ummmm…math definately</li>
<li>Why you think you were accepted: unique applicant- and i’m awesome hehe</li>
<li>Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected from UCB and UCLA, and yale, accepted at CMC, and Mcgill, umiami, ubc and ucsb, waitlisted at pomona college</li>
</ul>

18

<p>I’m sorry, but with those scores and that relatively low GPA, your chances are not good at all. Yes, it is possible to get in, but it would be quite the surprise.</p>

<p>your chances are especially poor from georgetown because it tends to be very difficult to get in from the NoVa, MD, DC metro area. You need a good 250-300 point boost in your SATs to be competitive for all of those schools listed, somewhat less for UVA since you’re in-state.</p>