<p>White Male from Illinois, Public HS
Rank: 18/644 (top 3%)
GPA: 3.8 UW
ACT: 33 (35 E, 32 M, 32 S, 34 R, 10 W)
APs: Psych (5) APUSH (5) Spanish (5) English Lang (5) Comp Sci (4)
SAT Subjects: Math II (690) Lit (690) Spanish (690) US History (740)</p>
<p>Dunno if I should bother sending those.</p>
<p>My grades (upward trend):</p>
<p>Freshman Year (3.4 UW)
Honors Bio: C/B </3
Honors Algebra: II B/A
Honors Spanish: II B/B
Honors English: A/A
Global Studies: A/A</p>
<p>Junior Year (4.0 UW)
Honors Physics: A/A
Honors Pre-Calc: A/A
AP Spanish: A/A
AP English Lang: A/A
AP US History: A/A
AP Computer Science: A/A</p>
<p>Senior Year:
AP Physics C
AP English Lit
AP Calculus AB
AP European History
Adv. Spanish Topics</p>
<p>Assume I get one B in a class. Possibly Physics.</p>
<p>ECs:
Urban Exploration Club (President 9-12)
Student Tutoring (11-12)
Job at Movie Theater (10-12/15 hours a week)
Model UN (President 9-12)
Naturalist (Environmental) Club (Vice President 9-12)
National Honor Society (12)
Theater (9/20 hours a week) <- had to quit because it was affecting my grades.</p>
<p>Undecided major.</p>
<p>I know most of these are reaches for me, like they are for most people, but I figure it's worth a shot. Which do you think are worth applying to? Just one or two. I have already applied to a lot of matches and safeties, but I want to see if I can do better. It's okay to tell me I have no chance, I just would like to know if it's worth my time.</p>
<p>Your record is strong enough that you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t at least try for a couple of reaches. Your ACT is solid, top 3% in spite of a 3.8 is pretty good, and you’ve got leadership roles in a couple of ECs.</p>
<p>On the negative side, your SAT IIs are low for top schools and the C in Science Research, dropping from an A, may be a big problem. Also, you don’t have much in terms of community service, but you do do tutoring and working at a real job actually counts for a lot these days at highly-competitive schools. If you work to help out the family because you’re low income, that could be a big plus. If you’re the first in your family to attend college, that would help a lot, too.</p>
<p>Your best bets statistically would be Carleton, Emory and Rice. UPenn and Cornell (substitute for Columbia) have the highest acceptance rates in the Ivies. </p>
<p>Brown has an Open Curriculum and tends to seek out those who have proven they can work independently, stats are a little more flexible - here, unfortunately, that C will haunt you because research is generally self-driven and you missed the opportunity to prove yourself. Perhaps there are other factors that could sway their minds; otherwise, admission will be a big reach.</p>
<p>Yeah, I had an 86 in that class, and the teacher hated me, so she gave me an F on my final… Whatever, I went to state. It was an elective anyways. Will it really hurt me that much? I think my CA essay is pretty good.</p>
<p>I’m definitely applying to Carleton, Emory, and Rice… I was wondering, are my grades/ACT average for these schools (not acceptance-wise, but like in the whole applicant pool)? Or do hail-mary apps make up a large portion of the pool?</p>
<p>Not if you explain it somewhere on your app! Going to state vindicates you. Of course you can’t come out and say “My teacher hated me,” but you can say something to the effect of “My teacher and I strongly disagreed on the direction of my research. Although I was penalized for my independence with a C, others liked my research and the project won awards all the way to state.” Note how different this looks than a first impression, which could well be: he neglected to do his work until the last minute (slacker!) and got a richly-deserved bad grade because of it.</p>
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<p>At every level, a portion of the candidates will be reaching quite a bit for a shot at their dream school. Your stats are solid; ten years ago you might have been a solid mid-range candidate for some of the Ivies. Today, unfortunately, the competition is brutal; you may get in to those schools if an adcom takes a shine to your essays, but it’s hard to generalize.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, once you get beyond the top-15 or so schools that almost every top 1% student tries to apply to, absolute perfection is no longer necessary. Be confident! You will do fine – just make sure you apply to a range of schools with varying acceptance rates and try to spread them out geographically. Sometimes a school, especially in New England, will want you because you come from an underrepresented area; at other times, there is a bias in favor of the Midwestern crowd for Midwestern schools, who traditionally have served their regional communities.</p>
<p>Don’t neglect the Ivies, either. You have a shot, but the odds are against everyone, so try your best without becoming fixated on the idea that your life is over if you don’t get in.</p>
<p>Hmm, I already sent in the Common App to a few schools, so I can’t really change it. Can I email an attachment to my schools to be added to the “Additional Information?” Or should I not call attention to it? </p>
<p>I’m not even really sure if the Ivies fit me. I know HYP would be a waste, and Dartmouth has too prominent of a Greek scene. I just feel like it would be a waste not to apply to at least a few top schools, even if I think my matches may be better fits. I already applied to Georgetown and WashU (because there’s no supplement), and I really like Rice and Emory. I don’t know, my list is already really long.</p>
<p>My son had some reservations, too. He wanted smart classmates, so the professor could teach at a faster pace with less repetition for the kid who just doesn’t get it. On the other hand, he was afraid that these schools might be too pompous. Brown’s easy-going professors and self-mocking tone won him over.</p>
<p>Fit is more important than so-called prestige; don’t waste your time applying to places other people expect you to attend. Limit yourself to 8-10 applications or you’ll burn yourself out – just make sure that you apply to a batch of schools with a wide range of acceptance rates and, ideally, from a few different geographic areas to play it safe.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t add to applications already submitted, but it might be worth the bother to add something before submitting the rest. Good luck and relax! You will get into some good schools, even if you don’t get your first choice. Later, you may well discover that the place you end up was really the best fit for your personality. It tends to work out in the end. Really.</p>
<p>I don’t really know how to explain the grade without making it sound like it was the teacher’s fault… because it was. Let me just vent: the teacher made me make an instructional video for a piece of equipment that I had NEVER even used, and then gave me an F on it. Originally, she gave me a D, but then she CHANGED IT so that I would have a C in the class. How can I possibly explain that?</p>
<p>Should I just email the colleges I’ve applied to and say I forgot to mention that I went to State Science Fair?</p>
<p>Well, of course it’s your teacher’s fault! You don’t need to go into huge detail, you just need make your point while trying to come across as relatively neutral and dispassionate in your statement. Is any part of what I wrote earlier inaccurate?:</p>
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<p>If you can get supporting documentation from your guidance counselor, that would be great. You might also look into getting the C changed, if you can prove that your teacher lowered your original assignment grade after the initial assessment; that sort of thing is just inappropriate behavior from a teacher.</p>
<p>Okay, great. I am working on it right now. On a side-note, are my SAT IIs really that bad? I know 690 is low for Math II, but would it be better to just not send it?</p>
<p>About 11% of the students who take the Math II SAT II get a perfect score; from that perspective, a 690 is not very impressive. This varies by test, however: a 690 in Lit is probably a much better accomplishment and a 740 in history is quite a solid score. I’d go with history and lit, unless the school requires one math/science score.</p>