<p>high school junior
African-American
GPA: 3.95 weighted 3.8 unweighted
top ~20% of class of 600
will have taken 8 AP and 5 honors by end of senior year</p>
<p>published poet
Relay For Life committee board
National Honor Society
School Newspaper 3 years, held an executive position
Art Magazine photo editor
student government elected member
art club
speech, debate, and acting team (got 2nd place at university tournament)
junior and senior leader in PE division
peer counselor
C.H.A.N.G.E. Foundation member
volunteer on regular basis at church</p>
<p>Vassar is my dream school and I plan on applying early decision...thoughts??</p>
<p>Well I’ve just applied ED II so, bearing in mind that I have a month until I can reflect on any firsthand experience about what it takes to get in, I think you have a pretty good shot. </p>
<p>The “published poet” part really stood out for me, and I think that when you get to writing your “Why Vassar” essay next year, you should stress your desire to, say, be a frequent writer in Helicon, the school’s literary magazine. You could even send a few poetry samples as your “Your Space” Submission.</p>
<p>Your GPA is around the same as mine and academic rigor really is an important part of admission selection - I go to an IB school so I don’t know anything about APs but be sure to take the hardest course of study you can bc that’s the first thing they look at. You NEED to bring up your test scores because they are also considered to be very important admission factors. I would actually recommend taking the SATs because Vassar would look at the best scores you earned for each category (reading, math, writing, plus your 2 subjects) rather than assessing each individual test as a whole as they do with the ACT. </p>
<p>I think you’re definitely on the right track but I would push for more leadership positions upon entering 12th grade (e.g. run for an executive position in student government, try becoming editor-in-chief of the school newspaper…etc). Like I said, though, you’ve definitely got a good shot at making it in. Good luck!!!</p>
<p>I got a 2160 (710 math, 710 writing, 740 reading) on the SAT I test, which is within Vassar’s range and slightly higher than the 2014 freshman profile averages (“Their average SAT scores were 702 on the critical reading exam, 679 on the mathematics exam, and 691 on the writing exam” [Vassar</a> College || Statistics](<a href=“http://admissions.vassar.edu/about_statistics.html]Vassar”>http://admissions.vassar.edu/about_statistics.html)). </p>
<p>Like I said before, I would recommend taking the SAT instead of the ACT because it is superscored (meaning that Vassar looks at the best scores for each SECTION [i.e. critical reading, math, writing, and the two subjects] if you take the test more than once, rather than looking at an INDIVIDUAL TEST as a whole [which I believe is the case with the ACT]). </p>
<p>I think the best tip I can give you is to go out and buy The Princeton Review’s Cracking the SAT Reasoning Test (I think that’s the title) because it is AMAZING and explains EVERYTHING with great clarity and depth, IMHO. Don’t rely on the Princeton Review for Subject Tests, though, or at least don’t use it as your main source for studying (I did, and got a 670 in Literature and 700 in Biology (M) as a result [totally didn’t see that cross-section of an eye coming :p]). My second piece of advice would be to take the test more than once (I took it twice, and my math score jumped by a hundred points as a result!) </p>
<p>thanks so much guys! I’ll definitely be making a trip to Barnes and Noble soon </p>
<p>lebagon, do you have any other advice for me with my extra curriculars and such? I feel like when I look at students applying to prestigious colleges nowadays, they’re all starting some grand organization and taking pre-professional programs. I just feel like it doesn’t look like I’m trying to admissions officers compared to these fellow applicants…</p>
<p>whoops! Thanks for pointing that out, CrewDad. Sorry. </p>
<p>I would still go ahead and take the SAT if I were you, though, bc in the event that you get deferred ED I or decide to apply ED II (like me :)), you’ll be able to send you BEST possible scores to all the colleges you apply to (some, like CrewDad said, do not superscore the ACT [yet]) </p>
<p>Alright, so in terms of extracurriculars and stuff, here’s my advice to you:
I think that your application would be VERY strong if you clearly demonstrated 2 things:
Your creative ability and success
Your leadership ability and success</p>
<p>Here’s how I think you could do that:</p>
<p>CREATIVE ABILITY:</p>
<ul>
<li> I don’t know where your poetry has been published (whether online or in print), but I would HIGHLY encourage you to get some more of your work published (so that colleges can see that you’ve CONTINUED to be successful and active). </li>
<li> Try to enter some sort of literary/poetry competition (perhaps enter more than one)</li>
<li> If your school has a literary magazine, make sure to get published in that. </li>
<li> If your school DOESN’T have a literary magazine, then it would be AWESOME if you could get one started (that would be a wonderful blend of leadership and creativity ;)).</li>
</ul>
<p>LEADERSHIP:</p>
<ul>
<li> Run for an NHS executive position</li>
<li> Run for a student government executive position</li>
<li> Try to hold an executive position in the school newspaper again</li>
<li> Maybe start a poetry club in your school. Or maybe start a community service program whereby you would teach poetry writing to underprivileged kids. That would be very cool.</li>
</ul>
<p>ALSO, MAKE SURE TO STAY BUSY DURING THE SUMMER. </p>
<p>Well that’s all I could think of, let me know if you have any more questions (also, sorry for how long my posts always end up being. I get a little carried away :))</p>
<p>this is so ironic. I planned on going out for NHS secretary, being EIC of my school’s literary magazine (that’s what I meant by ‘art’ magazine; we showcase art and creative writing, i’m the photo editor of that), and going out for a pre-professional summer program.</p>
<p>One other question, when I was looking into the universities for summer programs, they are all like $2,000. I was wondering if there is any way I could volunteer with a university and work with those into law (I may want to major in political science.) Thing is, all of the places I’ve looked into for student internships are all for graduate students or undergrad students with some sort of training in the field. Suggestions?</p>
<p>hmm the only university program that comes to mind would be Harvard’s Summer School Program. </p>
<p>There are about a billion (college-level) courses to choose from (when I participated I chose creative writing and philosophy), INCLUDING political science courses, I believe. It’s a 7-week program (and officially costs $10,000 [including room and board] but you can get a scholarship to turn that gigantic price into next to nothing :)]).</p>
<p>I can’t help you with the interning thing, as I, myself, have been trying (and failing) to intern at different organizations (including the UN) and have found it IMPOSSIBLE to do so because of my age It might be easier in the states than in Lebanon to try interning at your local governor’s office or something (?) I’d even look into internships with NGOs…</p>
</p>
It might be easier in the states than in Lebanon to try interning at your local governor’s office or something (?) I’d even look into internships with NGOs…</p>