Chances for a hardworker with an interesting story

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am going to be a Political Science/International Relations major that plans to go to law school.</p>

<p>Special Circumstance #1
My mother has schizophrenia that caused distressing behavior at home and a hostile environment. Had to live away from home for weeks as well. </p>

<h1>2</h1>

<p>Very low-income family. I worked over 20+hours per week all years of HS and used nearly all my earnings to help my father pay the rent, utilities and other needs as well as paying for my mother's medical bills, who is unable to work due to disability. As a result, I was a major wage earner for my family.</p>

<h1>3 Missed over 1 month of freshman year with horrible bronchitis at finals time. Came back to school very sick. Very bad freshman year grades (2.5 average) for the year.</h1>

<p>Let's start with ExtraCurriculars/Work ...</p>

<p>Nat'l Assoc. of Young Libertarians- President and Founder of the National Association of Young Libertarians, a 527 federally tax-exempt political organization. Over 450 members in 25 states.
10-12 grades 16hrs/week</p>

<p>Youth for Digital Prog. Foundation- Founder, Chairman of the Board of Directors of tax-exempt non-profit organization. Have Sent over 45 comp/tech donations to schools worldwide including Nigeria, Cambodia and Ecuador.
10-12 grades 11hrs/week</p>

<p>Model United Nations
Award-winning delegate that has attended conferences all over state and nation. 9-11 grades</p>

<p>School newspaper Staff writer 11-12 grades</p>

<p>American VIP Transportation- Teacher of an English learning class and computer class for company workers with special needs, disabilities, or who are not fluent in English.
9-12 grades 10hrs/week for 26 weeks per year</p>

<p>Huntington Beach Hospital- Provided transportation from and to the Anaheim Hospital for mentally handicapped, cancer, and leukemia patients.
10-12 grades 20hrs/week for 6 weeks</p>

<p>Law Forms Center- Volunteered in a legal aid office that provided assistance to recent US immigrants and clients from disadvantaged backgrounds. I have helped over 50 immigrants become American citizens by helping them learn english, American government and history necessary to pass the immigration test.
9-12 grades 10hrs/week year-round</p>

<p>Make-a-Wish Foundation- Provided assistance and transportation to adolescent cancer and leukemia patients visiting Disneyland park and resort.<br>
9-12 grades 36 hrs/week for 4 wks per year.</p>

<p>Anaheim Convention Center- Assistant coordinator of major conferences and events at the convention center including IBM, Microsoft, Assoc. of Christian Schools., Tustin Police Assoc.
9-12 grades 10hrs/week during Sep-Dec of each year</p>

<p>Immigration Consultant- Work as an Immigration Consultant and I am a manager at the company. Have worked 10-12 grades for 26 hours per week year round.</p>

<p>Prestigious Law Firm internship over summer</p>

<p>UCLA Political Science undergraduate course-- Received an A</p>

<p>Other Stuff
In-state (CA)
Low income as stated above</p>

<p>Academics
UC GPA- 3.96 (weighted)
GPA 10-12- 3.7 (unweighted)
GPA overall- 3.4 (horrible freshman year as state above)
MAJOR upward trend- 2.5 Freshman Year, 3.5 Sophomore, 4.33 Junior GPAs</p>

<p>SAT I- 1790 first time w/o any prep
Retaking in October and December SATs
SAT II- US HISTORY 800
BIOLOGY-E -560
Taking Literature, Biology in November
Class Rank- horrible because of bad freshman year, top 50%....</p>

<p>Colleges
Georgetown
Claremont McKenna
George Washington University
American University
Fordham University
Boson University
Vassar College
Tufts
Duke
Every UC except Merced/Riverside</p>

2

<p>You have survived some very difficult circumstances and managed to perserve. Good for you!
Georgetown, Vassar, Tufts, Duke, and Claremont McKenna are all super reaches- extremely unlikely.
Do you need financial aid? Then you may want to check out less competitive schools where your stats are in the top 75%. You might qualify for merit aid, especially if your SAT score goes up. </p>

<p>American University would be a reach. You might want to google the sites of different schools online and review the admission statistics. Below are the stats for American University. </p>

<p>American University Admitted Freshman Statistics</p>

<p>Fall 2006 Admitted Freshman Profile </p>

<p>Applications: 15,094
Admit rate: 53%
The averages are:
GPA 3.56/4.00 (recalculated based on academic courses)
SAT 1285 (of 1600)
ACT 28
The middle 50% test scores are:
26-30 on the ACT
1210-1360 on the SAT I (out of 1600)
250-273 on the TOEFL (computer-based)
603-647 on the TOEFL (paper-based)
High School Rank: Of admitted freshmen who reported rank, 55% were in the top 10%.</p>

3

<p>Reach:
Duke
Georgetown
Claremont McKenna
Vassar
UC-Berkeley
UCLA
Tufts
UC-San Diego</p>

<p>Match:
UC-Davis
George Washington
American
Fordham
UC-Santa Barbara
UC-Irvine</p>

<p>Safety:
Boson U (apply to CGS)
UC-Santa Cruz</p>

<p>Just make sure to explain your situation on the private school applications and the public school ones that give you space for it. Also, it would help if your HS counselor mentions some of those facts in the Secondary School Report, or in his recommendation.</p>

4

<p>I agree with the above posters, except that don't apply to the College of General Studies at Boston just so that it's guaranteed entry. I have a friend who goes there and says it's a joke. Apply straight to A&S.</p>

5

<p>My college counselor said Vassar, Fordham, GWU, American and Boston U would be safeties. She only knew my GPA/APs and Honors taken however and not my SAT scores and ECs. </p>

<p>Some more info:
First generation college student
Father immigrant
Low income</p>

<p>APs
AP US- A, A 5
AP Bio- A-, A 3
AP Stats- A-, A-, 3
All of these junior year.</p>

<p>Senior Course Load
AP Art History
AP Computer Science
AP Gov/Econ
English 7-8
French 7-8
Physics Honors
Calculus at local college</p>

<p>Also, my school is very competitive and sent students to Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Princeton last year</p>

<p>Thanks for all the help</p>

6

<p>Your counselor is irresponsible. How can she make such a claim without your full stats?</p>

<p>You do have an interesting story, but so do many others. You can't count on your story "making up" for sub par stats although they could.</p>

<p>Your ECs seem impressive, but it is hard to fathom how you did all that while helping support your family. Make sure your recs bring this all together.</p>

7

<p>CGS averages, with respect to scores are lower, and they do make more allowances for a situation like yours.</p>

<p>Here's the link:
<a href="http://www.bu.edu/admissions/apply/class.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bu.edu/admissions/apply/class.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Here's the CGS Core:
<a href="http://www.bu.edu/cgs/about/interdisciplinary%20core%20courses.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bu.edu/cgs/about/interdisciplinary%20core%20courses.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Other interesting CGS link:
<a href="http://www.bu.edu/cgs/prospective/team.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bu.edu/cgs/prospective/team.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Each person needs different things. So what may seem unnecessary or a 'joke' to some might be a good way to strengthen or reinforce some college skills. Especially at BU, which is huge, some personal attention for the first two years can be a blessing. Just an idea.</p>

8

<p>Should I check into John Hopkins as well? I heard that they have the best PoliSci/International Relations program...Too much of a reach to bother?</p>

<p>Thanks for all the help. I'm definitely looking into BU now too.</p>

9

<p>Harding, were you in the Huntington Beach High School MUN program? That just <em>might</em> carry some extra weight at the more political science/IR schools. If you are at HBHS and want to study IR, get back into MUN...there aren't many high schools where you'll learn more in the subject.</p>

<p>Your SATs will make it hard to get into the super-premium schools. You'd be a great match for a UC, and there is nothing wrong with that. If I were you I'd still send my application off to Georgetown (I can't believe someone picked JHU over Georgetown for IR) and a couple of other private schools. Your life story is inspirational and certainly helps explain the grades not being perfect (although they are still good -- despite what you hear on CC). Your weakness is going to be your SAT scores. Unfortunately, I agree that it will be tough to get into Yale or Georgetown with those scores.</p>

<p>Good luck, and make sure to let me know if you are at HBHS.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
Special Circumstance #1
My mother has schizophrenia that caused distressing behavior at home and a hostile environment. Had to live away from home for weeks as well.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I know EXACTLY how that is. My mother was like that, I'm glad to know you made it through alright.</p>

11

<p>Hey Rick, I actually go to Mira Costa but I have been at the HBHS MUN conference for the past 3 years. It seems like a great program you guys have down there and I know quite a few people from that MUN program.</p>

<p>Working hard to improve that SAT score...</p>

<p>Thanks for all the advice!</p>

12

<p>Harding:</p>

<p>You might want to try the ACT too....</p>

13

<p>Harding292:</p>

<p>UCB/UCLA: Reach
UCSD: Slight Reach
UCI/UCD/UCSB: Match
UCSC: Safe Match</p>