chances for a hispanic kid at Tufts, Georgetown, etc

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>hey. well as the topic says, i’m a hispanic kid in my senior year, looking to go to one of the following places [Tufts is at the top, the rest aren’t in a particular order]:</p>

<li> Tufts University [Fletcher School]</li>
<li> Amherst College</li>
<li> UT Austin</li>
<li> American University</li>
<li> New York University</li>
<li> Washington University</li>
<li> Georgetown University</li>
<li> Jacksonville University</li>
<li> Knox College</li>
<li>Occidental College</li>
<li>Oglethorpe University</li>
<li> Vassar College</li>
</ol>

<p>i’m going to have to narrow that down a little more, i suppose. well, heres my resume:</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA: unweighted: ~90, weighted: 100+
rank: 27/466
Junior year classes: IB Chemistry SL, IB English HL, IB History of the Americas, Pre-AP Algebra 2, IB Psychology HL, AP Government, Spanish 3.</p>

<p>IB Chem SL test score: 4
AP Government test score: 3</p>

<p>Senior year classes: IB English HL year 2, IB math studies, IB Psychology HL year 2, IB 20th century history, AP economics, IB Spanish, IB Theory of Knowledge.</p>

<p>i do have a C on my transcript…a 78 in Spanish 1st semester Junior Year.</p>

<p>SAT score: 1790 [pretty bad, i want to get to 2000 this year].</p>

<p>extracurriculars:</p>

<p>-apart of the Varsity One-Act play freshman-junior year, won some awards.</p>

<p>-participated in the National Hispanic Institute’s Young Leader Conference [basically a debate tournament], advanced to the National tournament and won 1st place in my event.</p>

<p>-made coaching staff for the debate event mock trial in the National Hispanic Institute’s Young Leader’s Conference.</p>

<p>-Eventually worked up my way to Director of the event, and am left completely in charge of running the debate event for my region. i’ve probably put over 2,000 hours into this, maybe more. i’m pretty passionate about this.</p>

<p>-Co-founded a federally certified a non-profit corporation, FRIDA [aimed at bringing out the artistic abilities of kids from 5th-7th grade]. Currently the Director of Public Relations.</p>

<p>-Wrote editorials for school paper, freshman-sophomore year.</p>

<p>-a self-taught trombone player</p>

<p>-participated in the ‘We the People’ Competition. basically, a compeition centered around Constitutional knowledge. made 1st at state. advanced to nationals in Washington DC, made 4th.</p>

<p>-National Honor Society</p>

<p>-a ton of recognition-awards</p>

<p>-selected as a delegate for my school to attend the GOLD Leadership seminar.</p>

<h2>-i’m pretty sure my recommendations will be awesome.</h2>

<p>i’m also from one of the poorest geographical regions in the entire country.</p>

<p>how does it look? what SAT score should i aim for? also…should i take the ACTs?</p>

2

<p>haha that's so funny, i was JUST typing you a message saying that we are pretty much the same!
you have much better ECs and awards than i do, though.
80% of my class will probably apply to UT-Austin, so i guess that's the only one i know much about. you should probably be able to get in there, some kids from 06 that i know were accepted with lower class ranks and subpar ECs. i don't know about the ACT, but what was the breakdown of your scores on the SAT? i could maybe offer some advice on "target scores"</p>

3

<p>haha, well lets see...UT is kinda my safety school [the whole top 10% thing]. to be honest, i wouldn't be too disappointed if i ended up there. Austin is an amazing city.</p>

<p>math -- 550
reading -- 620
writing -- 620</p>

<p>i'm terrible at math. i didn't study too much for the test however...i plan to study much more for the next one.</p>

4

<p>bump, please respond.</p>

5

<p>please? :[</p>

6

<p>amcantu, we have very similar everything. I'm hispanic, ranked 27, did one-act, etc..</p>

<p>I honestly think you have an excellent chance. I got into MIT with nearly the same stats, except my SAT score was 2110. If you raise that a bit, I think you're golden.</p>

7

<p>Hah nice... I'm not going to add anything new, really... The problem with doing these recs is that no matter what you say, how good your SAT scores are, and no matter how good your extra-currics are, there's no way for hardly anyone to predict chances without a good, long look at your application, and how everything's presented. </p>

<p>I would say, though, that if you could improve your SATs, that seems to me like the easiest way to improve your appliation in a vital area. I like the SATs, because if you relax/stay alert/study properly, it's a very quick and, for me, relatively painless way to raise your chances by a whole lot. For me, raising an SAT score is easier than raising a rank. I don't know if you have any more chances to raise your SATs again, though-- unless they would count a January testing. Also, I'm not sure if this is your final SAT score.</p>

8

<p>Not to be a killjoy or anything, but how did you get a C in Spanish if you're Hispanic?</p>

9

<p>THE FLETCHER SCHOOL IS A GRADUATE PROGRAM. You can't go there for undergrad.</p>

10

<p>Amcantu, Fletcher is not for undergraduate study. If you mean to say that you want to study International Relations at Tufts, you apply to the College of Arts & Sciences. The IR dept. office is in Fletcher, but your degree will say Tufts University - College of Arts & Sciences, not the Fletcher School (that's only for Master's and PhD programs). That being said, the Tufts undergrad IR program benefits greatly from having one of the best IR grad schools in the country located on the same campus; and many Fletcher professors teach some advanced undergrad classes as well.</p>

<p>Anyway, WUSTL, Tufts, Georgetown, and Amherst are reaches. You better write amazing essays to stand out! NYU might be a high match. I don't know anything about the other schools. Good luck!</p>

11

<p>I, um...you're Hispanic. But you got a C in Spanish. How exactly did this occur? </p>

<p>I think you have good shots at these schools, but I think you also should reconsider what exactly it is you are looking for in a school. These schools are all very different from another, and I was surprised to see Knox on the list. I mean, UT-Austin vs. Georgetown vs. Knox? They're not very comparable. You don't seem to have a clear idea of the college environment you want.</p>

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<p>if you notice, i made this post back in august when i really didn't know what i was doing. yes i know its a graduate school now.</p>

<p>[edited out - Mod JEM]</p>

13

<p>I can't believe people are so ignorant. I'm Italian, but that does not mean I speak Italian. Maybe he's Hispanic-American? Wow, people are stupid and stereotypical. But anyway...</p>

<p>I'm not trying to dishearten you, but you don't really have much in the way of chances of getting into Georgetown, Amherst, Vassar and Tufts, even if you could raise your SAT score by 100 pts (which is the average improvement for the 2nd time around). They are just very highly competitive schools, and to even have a chance you would have to break 1350, I think. I don't know much about the rest of your schools. I think if you could get your SATs up past 1300 you would have a shot at NYU, though it would be a reach. If you could raise your combined M + CR score by 50 or more points then American University shouldn't be a problem.</p>

<p>It does work to your advantage that you're Hispanic and froom a poor region of the country, but the scores still have to be present.</p>

<p>Don't get me wrong. You are a very good student and you could get into some excellent schools, but it seems like an Ivy League is just slightly out of your reach.</p>

<p>If you could break a 2000 like you want to, your chances of getting into any of those schools would multiply about ten fold.</p>

14

<p>Try taking the ACT also. If you can break 30 on that you can submit that instead of the SAT :)</p>

15

<p>scabooter,
It's not being ignorant to assume that the OP would have a predisposed propensity for speaking Spanish. Regardless of whether he grew up in a Spanish speaking household or not, he has a background in the culture and has ties to the language. If he is Hispanic "enough" to list it as his ethnicity, then he should have some skill in the language or some passion for Mexican culture that would place him above his peers in that class. </p>

<p>Yes, you are Italian but don't speak the language. If you took an Italian class, surely you would have passion for the language and strive to do well since it is part of your heritage. </p>

<p>Even if the OP was terrible at speaking Spanish, he should be more interested in the language of his ancestors (and his parents would probably urge him to do well in the class). Thus, it is ironic and does not bode well that he made a C in Spanish.</p>

16

<p>"If he is Hispanic "enough" to list it as his ethnicity, then he should have some skill in the language or some passion for Mexican culture that would place him above his peers in that class."</p>

<p>Uh, not necessarily. If I personally had a quarter or some fraction of minority ancestry, even if I was completely removed from that culture, I would still list myself in part as that minority, if it benefited me. I'm sorry, I know this is cynical, but the system is faulty, so you play the system. Not to mention that in this district, where there are probably an equal number of Spanish Monolingual and Spanish Bilingual classes, and where OP would not going to be the only Hispanic kid in the classroom, and there are a fair number of kids who have been raised in Mexico for part of their lives and speak beautiful Spanish, he would not necessarily best his peers. You are also discounting several other factors--foreign language is not counted into the ranking system, and the teachers are often uninspiring, so passion for the subject is often killed. I'm not trying to excuse the C, I'm simply saying that, yes, it is ignorant to assume that OP would have a predisposed propensity for speaking Spanish.</p>

17

<p>...that math score NEEDS to improve.</p>