Chances? (Early Action!)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston College
1

So, BC, along with BU, is my “reach” school, so I’ve been stressing on my chances there with early action (this is assuming I can even reasonably afford it in the first place).

[“Stats” are “reposted” from WAMY?, but no one said a thing there regardless. Also, I’m a rising senior but some assumptions are made (I’m not quitting anything so go figure).]

Background:

  • Gender: Male
  • Race: Hispanic
  • Religion: Catholic (I’m personally agnostic, but my upbringing was Catholic and my family still identifies)
  • Wealth: Middle Class [My father transitioned jobs which “hurt us” more than FAFSA would’ve shown, so I’m a bit worried about aid, honestly)

Numbers [NOT ENTIRELY SURE]:

  • Weighted GPA: 4.0 (100.3)
  • Unweighted GPA [Not sure specifically here]: 3.65 (89 - 91?) (Possibly/hopefully higher)
  • Rank: Top 10%, possibly 5% (of 600+ class)

Testing:

  • SAT Superscore: 2110
  • SAT Composite: 1410
    *** CR - 730, M - 680, W - 700
  • SAT Sub Tests [taking in October]: Math II (for sure), Bio-E and/or Chem and/or Lit

APs (all HN classes before then - so I’ve had a good, tough curriculum):

  • English Lang: 5
  • US History: 4
  • Calc AB: 3
  • Chem: 2
  • Comp Sci A: 2
  • 6 more for senior year - English Lit, Spanish Lang, Psych, Stats, Environmental, Physics I
    *** I may make this 7 if I self-study Art History, but maybe not

Extracurricular + Service:

  • FBLA (4 years) - Committee Member & Webmaster
  • Nat’l Honors Society (2 years) - Historian & Webmaster
  • Soccer (3 years) - JV
  • Tutoring (2 years) - Both with NHS and for (a) teacher(s)
  • SPTSUSA (1.5 years) - Raised/raising money for teen suicide prevention with some friends
  • Babysitting (3 years) - Closest thing I’ve got to work
  • Key Club (1 year) - Just this year, which is never great but eh
  • Maybe some other opportunities as I find them before I’m back into this year

“Accomplishments”:

  • Nat’l Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar
  • AP Scholar
  • NHS Membership (not much, I suppose)

I’m also confident that I could do well (I’m going to the right people and I’m a good enough writer, I think) on the essay, which I hope helps as well.

So yeah, is this good enough (feel free to comment on my BU chances as well)?

2

hi Ivan:

I’m not good at chance threads, but I recommend that you search the bc thread for posts by scottj, who has excellent advice on how to craft a ‘why BC?’ essay. A well crafted essay could drop BC into the “match” category.

Does your family speak Spanish at home? If so, why not the Spanish Subject Test?

Good luck.

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Dear bluebayou : Thank you for the introduction on this thread. Hopefully, I can share some thoughts directly with this poster.

Dear IvanRambles : As bluebayou indicates, my chance-me responses typically will call out gaps in your profile which can be addressed (hopefully) over time. Please take these suggestions in that spirit. You can certainly make the cut with further investment in your senior year.

Your SAT Board Scores are certainly in the second quartile of accepted students and are right on the fulcrum of being in the top quartile. I am struggling to position your lower AP scores (3,2,2) with being in the Top 10% of your current graduating class. Typically, one sees stronger AP performance in chance-me profiles. Remember that Boston College takes roughly 85% of their freshman classes from the Top 10% of their individual High Schools making this a fairly important statistic. In your senior studies, you should redouble your efforts on your AP performances.

Next, we need to consider “school spirit” activities including sports, arts, clubs, and more. In terms of sports, we see JV Soccer which encompasses one season of the three High School sports seasons. What do you do the remainder of the seasonal year? Without music, you need to rely on clubs which also looks thin here. What are the impact of your clubs on the school or community? What is your contribution?

Is there a job or internship which can be included in your profile? Any summer work which might have been relevant to leadership skills?

You say you are confident that you can do well on the essay. Here are the requirements to consider.

[1] Explain why you make Boston College a better place by having you attend. Boston College will be filled with 2250 freshmen sporting your statistics and more … but what makes you more interesting to all of those other freshmen that makes a BC Admissions Counselor want you to attend more than the next candidate?

[2] What are your passions that have seen you drive a solution in the community?

[3] What volunteerism efforts have you led that impacted others? What have you done in High School that has impacted the student body?

[4] What challenges have you overcome that makes you sure that “Men and Women for Others” in the Jesuit tradition matches your educational trajectory?

Crafting some of these ideas into your essay will be critical for your application. Remember that the BC supplemental application questions will allow you to showcase your understanding of these concepts in the BC context.

Good luck with your application process.

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as an aside, OP, scott’s points 2-4 would also make excellent topics for any college essay. The best essays can be the slice of life, how you have impacted – and enriched the lives – of others.

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Firstly, thank you both for the responses, I appreciate the input immensely.

Okay, so to bluebayou: fair question, and my parents do actually speak the language semi-regularly at home. That said, I have little confidence in my own Spanish skills, at least compared to my other subjects (especially English, ironically enough).

And to scottj: Um, wow. You were really thorough about what you said. Thanks so much.

  • My AP performances were my fault, I focused too much of my studying on the humanities and that hurt me (it feels like luck that I even got the AP Scholar). As for the rank/AP “discrepancy”, well, I’m not sure what to tell you; the top of my class is fairly competitive, I suppose. I also think that I did better going one “thing” at a time in my courses than I did on the APs (and me getting my rec from my Chem (with the 2) teacher will hopefully explain that, especially with me struggling in that class). I’m feeling that my caring more about this year’s AP’s will make up for that.
  • As for things outside the soccer season, I forgot to mention I’ve been playing piano for quite a while, if that amounts to anything.
  • And I’m not sure what else to say in regards to things “looking thin”. I’ve been doing these clubs all year and I thought me being dedicated (even for just a member) and a (‘double’) leader in both of my “main” groups would’ve made a difference but now I’m a bit concerned (even with the fundraising and outside work). I thought my “spirit” was good enough, but I’ll work on it regardless.
  • Babysitting was the closest thing I had to work, and I don’t think that’ll change before November. That’s kind of a shame but collegeboard “said” work experience was “only considered”, so it never crossed my mind to care much about it. Thanks for pointing that out to me (even if it’s likely too late).
  • As for community contribution… well, service was always my favorite thing about FBLA, and we’ve been very active in our county (same for NHS), and fundraising for teen suicide awareness has meant a lot to me, if that’s what you mean.
  • As for those essay tips, thanks (again) so much for that. Wanting to go to study education, you’ve given me a great idea for connecting volunteering with my passion for teaching others. These’ll be very handy, I’m sure.

Also, a question as I’ve started large chunk of my CommonApp for this already:
How many essays am I doing for this outside of the personal essay (which, from my understanding, is “universal”). Is it just the one “writing supplement” or…?
EDIT: Also, I just read that EA is actually more competitive than regular admission? Can I get some elaboration on that, because that definitely changes things.

And one more, sincere thanks because this message is already too long anyway.

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Well, damn. I just looked into it, and, unlike some places I’ve looked into, it is MORE selective, because BC doesn’t emphasize interest (good for them, I suppose). I just assumed otherwise because I read that the percent of acceptances was higher (it actually still is, I think). Question answered, never mind that one.

EDIT: Okay, further reading has suggested that I’m an idiot and still am not sure. Clarification still welcome (I’m a mess).

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not to worry, Ivan (although your screen name fits), we are all friends on the BC thread.

yes, EA is generally more competitive than RD, but that is true at pretty much every school. Think about it…students who want to show senior grades, or who want to take another test in November will not be ready for Early Application.

That being said, if you are ready with a rock-solid essay, I would suggest that you apply EA. At worst, BC may hold you over to RD to see your senior grades.

btw: I’m sure that you have seen that BC’s early action is restricted in that you cannot apply ED anywhere at the same time you are applying to early to BC. The point is that if you are considering ED somewhere, BC is out in the early round.

fwiw: the Span subject test is pretty hard, probably the most difficult of all the language tests, so don’t take if you are not comfortable.

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Okay, that’s good to know. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to apply early then. I mean, if this is going to be my peak school, then maybe I ought to be honest about my chances and have this be a risk I don’t want to take. Or not; I’m still entirely sure. Either way, I want my app ready to go by November anyway. (And yeah, I wasn’t applying ED anywhere else; BU was the only consideration and I wasn’t sure about that. Thanks for bringing it up regardless). And yeah (again), I’m going to avoid the Spanish sub-test, espeically because I get to take a “Bi-literacy” test at the end of this year anyway.