chances at dartmouth?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
1

<p>Filipino American Female from a not-so-competitive (compared to the east coast) high school in the East Bay Area, CA.</p>

<p>GPA: 4.06 weighted (most rigorous courseload)
Rank: top 5% (something like 19/393)
SAT I: 680 Math, 740 Critical Reading, 700 Writing (10 Essay) (( thinking about retaking ))
SAT IIs: 650 Chem, 710 U.S. History (plan to take Literature, Math IIC)
APs: 4 U.S. History, 3 Biology
12th Grade APs: AP Gov, AP English, AP Calc, AP Microeconomics (online)</p>

<p>I also took Germany II - IV (honors) independant study because my school only offers Spanish and French. I took Spanish I + II concurrently with German II + III.</p>

<p>ECs:
- Student Leadership (10th, 11th, 12th grade)</p>

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<p>Sports:</p>

<ul>
<li>JV Volleyball, 9th grade - starting setter</li>
<li>JV Softball, 9th grade - started (2nd, LF, CF or SS)</li>
<li>JV Basketball, 9th & 10th - starting forward (9th) starting point (10th), 10th grade average 10 pts./game (August 2004, partially tore ACL in left knee, ended basketball career)</li>
<li>11th + 12th Grade assistant to Men's Varsity Basketball Coach</li>
<li>Varsity Softball, 10th-12th, Went to playoffs every year, started 2nd base (12th)</li>
</ul>

<p>Work / Volunteering:</p>

<ul>
<li>Works 15 hrs./wk at Dad's office as receptionist for last 4 years</li>
<li>Summer 05, works 30 hrs/wk at Dad's office</li>
<li>Summer 05, works 8 - 16 hrs/wk at Transfair USA (notforprofit Fair Trade Certifier)'s Administration Dept.</li>
</ul>

<p>*ie, most of those who do go to college from my school go to UC/CalState/Community College, with about 50% going to community college. I think one person has gone to Stanford in the last few years, the rest of the good students generally just end up at UC Berkeley / UCSD.</p>

<p>My school does not offer many APs, which is why I have taken so few of them. However, I have taken all of the Honors/AP classes that I am able to (except for AP Stats, AP Physics, and AP Chem) but those that I haven't are classes that I know I wouldn't do well in. </p>

<p>I also have shown extreme interest in Dartmouth. It is on record that I have attended an info session, tour, and have had successful interviews at these schools, and I have been keeping in contact with my admissions interviewer.</p>

2

<p>As of now I would say its sort of a longshot because of the SAT, but if you can improve your SAT it will help you significantly.</p>

3

<p>karasoldout, where do you go to school in the East Bay? I live there as well and I'm applying to Dartmouth.</p>

4

<p>I go to Dublin High! Where do you go?</p>

5

<p>I got to Piedmont High in, you guessed it, Piedmont. It's a small town inside of Oakland, but autonomous and not part of Oakland.
We sort of have a bad reputation as being pompous rich kids. Some people are, but thats a small minority, we're actually nice and friendly...don't believe what you hear! ;)</p>

6

<p>Yeah, I have heard of your school ;) Most of the people at Dublin who know Piedmont lump everyone into that rich, pretentious category. Hope you're not one of them !! :) Wht college are you applying to in fall?</p>

7

<p>Well, I'm applying to Dartmouth Early Decision. Then for regular (if and when I don't get into Dartmouth), I'm applying to a whole host of schools:
U Penn
Brown
Northwestern
Wash U St. Louis
Cornell
Haverford
Colgate
Claremont-McKenna
Michigan-Ann Arbor
UC System (Berkeley, LA, SD, SB, maybe Davis)
Bucknell
George Washington
Boston U</p>

<p>I really need to narrow this list down, it's probably too reach heavy but maybe I'll get into a couple.
You do mock trial? I do too, I was a witness sophomore year and defense attorney last year (hoping to do only pretrial next year, but my coach might make me do pretrial and regular trial...ugh).</p>

8

<p>Aah, my boyfriend was on Mock Trial with me last year. There was someone from Piedmont that he hated who was an attorney two years ago now... I don't remember his name. All I remember is that him and my friend Ray hated his guts for being a douche attorney and he went to Amherst. </p>

<p>Those colleges that you are applying to look a lot like mine. I looove Dartmouth, I'm doing an overnighter sometime in October after homecoming. I think I'm goign to apply ED and there's nothing thats ggoing to stop me, even someone telling me that my SAT scores aren't good enough. I wanna go. If I don't get in though, I'm probably applying to Claremont McKenna EDII and then regular decision I'm going to try Scripps, Pomona, Brown, Tufts, Boston University, Northeastern, Emerson, UC Berkeley, UCLA. </p>

<p>I would apply to UCSB and UCSD, but it takes 5 years for you to graduate on average just because of the competition to get classes you need to graduate.. which sucks.</p>

9

<p>Filipino Americans are URMs I believe...Get your SAT scores higher and you have a good shoot. =p</p>

10

<p>I know the attorney you're talking about, and, let me tell you, he was sort of a douche. Anyway, I have a similar GPA and EC's as you, but, being from different schools, hopefully we won't be in direct competition ;). I visited there in April and had the good fortune of abnormally pleasant weather; the campus is amazing and euro history class my friend and I went to was actually pretty interesting.
I was thinking about applying to Pomona, but I have a better shot at Claremont and it's stronger in economics (my tentative major, along with maybe a natural science or government). Wash U and Claremont both have EDII, although I don't like them above all other schools on my list so I can't make that commitment. My parents are reluctant to pay for a private school unless it's "better" than a UC I got into, maybe I'll get some sort of financial aid (kind of hard to beat Berkeley and LA). I checked out Tufts but I got a weird, industrial vibe from the surrounding area, it's sort hard to explain, other people I know got it as well. As to Scripps, well, I can't apply there for obvious gender related reasons.</p>

<p>Oh, it actually doesn't take 5 years to graduate from UCSD (don't know about SB). My sister is going to be a third year there in the fall and she's on schedule to graduate in 4 years, no problem. She could graduate early but is taking a lighter course load towards the end and maybe interning somewhere.
It's not like she had a bunch of AP credit coming in either, she had some, but she didn't have too much trouble getting classes.</p>

11

<p>That's weird. A few of my friends got into UCSD and said that on Accepted Students Day they basically said you're going to be here for five years, deal with it. I just know someone who knows a prof at UCSD and he said don't go to to UCSD (something I take as a bad sign.)</p>

<p>Claremont McKenna is great if you want to do economics. I didn't think I would want to go there, I thought I was 100% more cut out for Pomona... and then I went to the info session / campus tour / my interview. My interview was supposed to be 20 minutes long and took an hour and a half. It had that vibe that it was a great place to go if you love to learn A LOT (and party, too).</p>

12

<p>I heard Pomona is more of an all-around liberal arts school, where as Claremont is strong in the social sciences especially econ, poly sci, and int'l relations. Even if I do end up at Claremont, I could always go over to Pomona to take a couple classes, and party too. I'm just looking to get out of California for awhile, hence my heavily east coast college list. I visited U Penn...the campus is beautiful but the surrounding area is indicative of USC's surroundings (although not as bad I think). And then Brown is just incredible, I get the feeling it's sort of like Pomona (liberal, relatively laid back students, etc).
I haven't had any interviews yet, and will probably only do ones in my area with alumni. I've heard that the guy who interviews people in Piedmont for Dartmouth is really nice; I'm already anxious for that interview. My school usually has a pretty good matriculation (95% four year schools, other 5%community college and travel). Although no one chose to go to Dartmouth of the 2005 class (my friend's sister got accepted to Yale, then turned down Dartmouth...way too smart). I'm pretty sure a few people form the '04 class went there though.</p>

13

<p>His name was PUTNAM, my boyfriend just reminded me. </p>

<p>I liked Brown better than Pomona -- its in a city, but has a strong campus-y feel. It was secluded from the city, which I appreciated (I want to make strong friendships. However, I love that there's no core requirements. I love Dartmouth because of all the internship/study abroad opportunities and the fact thats its secluded, so I will be able to make lots of friends and party. Who knows, I'm going to overnight at both of them hopefully after homecoming and see which is better for ED.</p>

14

<p><a href="don't%20know%20about%20SB">i</a>*</p>

<p>According to UCSB's statistics, the average it takes to graduate is 4 years and 1 quarter. I guess it all depends on how lucky you are getting classes, and how much AP credit you're taking in, I remember someone on the UCSB LiveJournal group saying that they would be graduating in 3 years.</p>

15

<p>Agree with slipper.</p>

16

<p>Putnam, really? I was thining of a different guy cause Putnam didn't go to Amherst. He's not a douche, he's just incredibly smart and talented so he can make any opposing witness or attorney look like an amateur.</p>

17

<p>Oh, I thought he did? Where did he go?</p>

<p>I think my friends thought he was a douche because he was smart and flaunted it. And he almost ripped their hands off when shaking hands.</p>

<p>I never met him, I don't know :p</p>

18

<p>He went to Swarthmore, but another guy on our team the year before last went to Amherst. I guess I could see where your friends could have gotten that impression, although he's not like that at all. When we were at state in 2004, he actually got a couple offers from law firms willing to pay his law school tuition if he worked for them after.</p>

19

<p>Yeah. Well, I'm sure that some other schools thought that I was *****y Expert Witness, but I don't really care, since it really doesn't matter. </p>

<p>That's awesome that he got offers from law firms to pay his tuition. I'm sortof jealous, it makes me wish that people at my school actually gave a **** about Mock Trial. I don't know if you faced us last year (I was only on defense), but there were really only 2 people on our team (excluding myself) that weren't douches or just complete idiots. About 6 people dropped off the team after the first two months because they didn't feel like doing it their senior/junior years. It was LAME.</p>

20

<p>I was an attorney on defense and I don't think we faced you guys in practice matches (or in county, cause you're not in Alameda). Mock Trial at my school can get pretty intense--there's like around 50-60 people who try out for around 16-18 spots. And our coach (he's also the Civics teacher) makes sure we're prepared. Last year we got 11 or 12/40 at state, but we were still sort of disappointed cause we had done better the years before.</p>