Chances at Oberlin

<p>I applied to Oberlin today, I really hope I get in. </p>

<p>Stats:
- Male
- Suburb of Boston, MA
- Senior
- my high school sends some grads to top schools (depends on what you consider "some" and what you consider "top schools). My school has sent students to Boston College, Boston University, Oberlin, Occidental College, Cornell, Tufts, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Cornell, Brandeis, etc.
- GPA: 93.5 unweighted / no weighted GPAs
- class rank: top 10%
- SATs CR/M/W: 660/610/710 = 1980.
- Good recs
- My essay is pretty good!</p>

<p>ECS:
- Select Choir (President)
- French Club (Co-President)
- The Writing Center (Chief-Editor)
- Amnesty International
- National Honor Society
- various school concerts</p>

<p>Outside Interests:
- Regional Select Choir
- Foreign exchange: 2 weeks in France
- award-winning photography for Enterprise Bank
- writing and photography are published in school's literary magazine
- piano lessons
- peaceful protest in Boston ("The Rescue")
- Schools for Schools organization
- member of a group dedicated to bringing free, safe fun to the city of Boston
- write on a Philosophy Forum with members of my Philosophy Club (Philosophy Club was discontinued, so we use this instead)</p>

<p>Scholastic Honors:
- Honors Award ("summa")
- 6 student recognition awards</p>

<p>Volunteer Services:
- teaching French to elementary school students (80+ hours)
- Writing Center program (80+ hours)</p>

<p>Your SATs are a little on the low side, especially in math. Other than that, though, you seem like a solid applicant.</p>

<p>Yay for French exchange programs! I also agree that your SATs are a bit low but Oberlin is very holistic, plus your GPA is great and probably more important to them anyway. Good luck!</p>

<p>Thank you both! Yeah I know my SATs are not outstanding, but I really am not good at standardized testing (does everyone say this?), so I hope they aren’t a total downer. They’re in the middle score on collegeboard except for my math. I suck at math. But I sure do love Oberlin! Thanks for your responses.</p>

<p>Is there anything I can do now that I’m applied to Oberlin to convince them to accept me? hahhaha, this sounds pathetic but really… I’ll write a love letter to the school if need be.</p>

<p>Dear imsolidmatter,</p>

<p>Yay! You seem like an awesome applicant. Going for EDII is very helpful (I hope that’s what you did). Here’s the important part: showing that you’d succeed at Oberlin. After all, Admissions want students who will add to Oberlin and also gain an incredible education here. If you’re smart, motivated and open to new things… you’ll do well here. Hopefully, your “Why Oberlin” essay confirms that.</p>

<p>Love letters are always nice. I think the best thing to do is to send an email to the counselor for your area (Joel Presti - <a href=“mailto:Joel.Presti@oberlin.edu”>Joel.Presti@oberlin.edu</a>) to the effect of “what can I do now?” If you recently won something, or just did something cool, that’s a good excuse, but if you just want to give him a shout, that’s good too. The counselor for your area is the first one to read your application and is your representative/lawyer/hero for when the admissions folks make decisions. </p>

<p>Merry Christmas!
Aries</p>

<p>imsolidmatter… as a fellow Oberlin applicant (as we talked about a couple of weeks back, lol), I think your GPA/SAT’s are a little off their mark, making it a sizable reach. However, with good recs, essays, and great EC’s (which you def have), your app is def given much more consideration… do you have any AP’s/Honors @ your high school, b/c that helps out ur average? I’d say it’s a reasonable reach, but def possible. Hope this helps!! just curious, what other schools did u apply to?</p>

<p>Thanks to all who replied… </p>

<p>iAries: I actually applied RD… haha, I hope this doesn’t hurt my chances too much. I will definitely considering giving my admissions counselor an e-mail. Do you think doing this for more competitive schools helps? Or just Oberlin? </p>

<p>Amr2014: I applied to Vassar, Skidmore, and Hampshire… as well as a few others & 2 safeties. :)</p>