Chances for A Nervous Junior

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
1

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>Well, I'll be honest WUSTL is currently my number 2 pick for college as of now (Rice is #1). However, that could be changing fast as I haven't visited WUSTL. However, before I do visit, I want to know if this school could even be an option for me. If you can give me any advice, I'd appreciate it!</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 UW and 4.1 Weighted
Rank: 1/327</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
Human Geo- A+
Civics- A+
Hon Geometry- A+
Hon Eng- A+
Spanish 1-A+
Band- A+
IDS/P and IDS/L- Both A+s
Health and Gym- A+</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Anatomy- A+
Spanish 2- A+
Hon Alg 2- A+
Hon Eng- A+
World History- A+
Personal Finance- A+
Biology- A+</p>

<p>Junior Year:
AP Bio- A+
AP US- A (ugh..he doesnt enter it on resume as an A+..even though my percent is over 100)
AP Eng- A+ first Sem A second semester (99 percent)
Chem- A+
Hon PreCalc- A+</p>

<p>Senior Year:
Calc BC
AP Chem
AP Eng
Ap Euro
Physics
Gym (ugh)
Stats</p>

<p>ACT: 32 (if WUSTL superscores...guarenteed 33 and probably 34)
Recs: GREAT!
State of Residence: NE
Legacy?!?: My Uncle Went there if that counts</p>

<p>ECS:
FBLA- Executive board member, historian, and treasurer (9-12)
SADD (9-12)- Class Rep 3 years
Science Club (11-12)- President and Founder
AcDec (9-12) Captain 2 years
NHS (11-12)
Quiz Bowl (9-12) Inactive though
Olympus Club (9-12)</p>

<p>Volunteer Work:
Red Cross- 300 hours
Cancer Society- 100 hours
Sunday School Teacher- 300 hours
Congressman Office Volunteer- 150 hours
Founded organization to raise money for Serbian Orphans who lost parents during Balkan Wars (personally raised 1000 dollars)</p>

<p>Awards:
1st Place in Cell Bio and 3rd in Health Science at State Science Olympiad
1st in Health Science and 3rd in Disease Detectives at NE Regional Science Olympiad
1st in State Econ Challenge...flew to Houston for free and got 5th Place in Midwest
---at Econ Challenge also won first in state at microeconomics
2nd in State Finance Challenge
3rd in Regional Economics Challenge
4th in state at Cyber Security Competition
Friend of Alexander Hamilton Merit Award Winner
President's Gold Volunteer Award
Represented my HS at state leadership seminar
Local Radio Station and News Station's volunteer of the year award
At least commended for National Merit (WUSTL was one of my 2 schools = D)
Won Like 16 regional AcDec Awards (was a top scorer at all of the competitions we were in)</p>

<p>--Have an internship at local med center this summer as well...will send in abstract with app</p>

<p>So, how do my chances look guys?!?</p>

2

<p>yep, you definitely have a chance. your stats look way better than mine.
any SAT II’s?</p>

3

<p>Na, not yet…doing them this fall</p>

4

<p>excellent chances…but how on earth did you manage to get an A+ in almost every single one of your classes?</p>

5

<p>I invested waaay too much time in school work. But ya…I dont think they even matter…</p>

6

<p>not to be mean, but is this a joke? how many A+'s is that?</p>

7

<p>I didn’t know schools actually gave A+'s. I always thought that was just something a teacher wrote to make you feel like you did excellent.
Again, everyone who posts on here seems to have amazing extracurriculars that completely blow mine out of the water.
It seems to me you have great chances, just make sure you write a good essay, do well on those SAT IIs (and consider taking the normal SATs if you haven’t already, I don’t see how it could hurt your chances). Also, for National Merit, don’t you only have one choice? I was a finalist for 2008-2009, and I could only choose one school (I was awarded the WUSTL $2000 per year scholarship, which is actually more than the “normal” National Merit scholarship, a one time deal of $2500).
Also…did you ever sleep? You have 850 hours of community service listed, a bunch of extracurriculars (some of which you are an officer of), and competed in a bunch of competitions. I don’t get enough sleep as it is and I don’t do nearly that much.</p>

8

<p>Wow, impressive. Out of curiosity, are you Serbian? My mother was born in Belgrade.</p>

9

<p>Your stats are unreal (amazing). A word of advice though: because your stats are so high, make sure you show tons of interest in Wash U; they are known for waitlisting applicants that they think may go to a better school. If you want the best shot, apply ED.</p>

10

<p>I think Mike1123 has it quite right. I know you say Rice is your first choice, so my advice would be the following (I am going to assume you visited Rice being as you slightly implied it in your OP by only saying you had not visited WUSTL yet):</p>

<p>Visit Wash U for a couple days and nights before the ED deadline, preferably well before. Do the whole bit where you go to classes, talk to profs, hang out with current freshmen and sophs as much as you can. If that causes you to make Wash U your #1 choice, then you can apply ED and use the visit experiences in your narratives. Your stats are clearly good enough, as long as you nail the essay. In fact, your stats are good enough to have a shot at every school in the country. It just becomes a bit of a crap shoot when going for the top 10 or 15.</p>

<p>If you are set on either Rice or Wash U and not the HYPS schools, then ED is the way to go at your top choice. This assumes money is not as much of an issue and you don’t need to wait for the results of a scholarship decision. If it is , then you might have to go RD and apply for as many of the scholarships as possible. Nonetheless, you should get into Wash U RD as well, as long as they don’t think you are set on Harvard, etc.</p>

11

<p>Philip: Ya, my Grandfather came here from Belgrade during WW2, and I still have alot of family out in Serbia. </p>

<p>Albo: Idk, at our school the grading system is
A- -------- 93-94
A ---------95-99
A+ ---------100+ </p>

<p>But, im my opinion our school is slightly grade inflated. (Lots of kids who are at a high B are bumped up to an A by teachers, so ya take my grades with a grain of salt).</p>

<p>Thanks for all the advice everyone! I’m planning to visit WUSTL this summer, and I sincerely appreciate all this feedback!</p>

12

<p>Well…every school is different I guess, so they may factor those A+'s in as A’s anyway, I don’t know. They must have some way to correct for differences between schools though, because, for example, my school must offer more AP courses than yours, because I took 14 AP courses in high school and wasn’t at the top of my class, others having taken up to 18, whereas you are taking what looks like 6 or 7, but at your school you are number 1.</p>