Chances for a really stressed out person

Colleges & Universities A-Z Amherst College
1

<p>Hey, I’m a white male from NY and I really really really want to go to Amherst. I applied ED to Amherst and got deferred. What are my chances for Regular Decision? Here are my stats:</p>

<p>GPA: around 3.85 UW 4.0+ W (not sure exactly)
SAT I: M 740 V 720
SAT II: Physics-800, Math IIC-780, Chemistry-730 (taken as Freshman), Writing-670 (retaking in January, I know I can get higher)
Rank: No ranks at my school (top 10% definitely, probably even top 5%)</p>

<p>Since Freshman year, I’ve taken all hard (Accel./Honors/AP) courses at my school, which is an extremly competetive public school (top 3 public school on Long Island). Here is my course breakdown:</p>

<p>Freshman year - Global History I A, English 9 A-, Spanish 2 accel. B+, Comp. Sci. A, Math II accel. A-, Chemistry accel. A-</p>

<p>Sophomore year - Spanish 3 Honors A, English 10 Honors A, AP Comp. Sci. A, Math III accel. A, Physics Honors A, AP Euro. Hist. A</p>

<p>Junior Year - English 11 Honors A, Spanish 4 Honors A, Precalculus Honors A, AP Biology A-, AP U.S. History A</p>

<p>Senior Year - I am currently in 5 APs: AP Chemistry (expecting an A 1st semester), AP Spanish (expecting an A- 1st semester, AP English (expecting A or A- 1st semester), AP Calculus AB (expecting an A 1st semester), AP Economics (expecting an A 1st semester)</p>

<p>AP Exams: Euro. Hist.- 5, Comp. Sci. AB- 5, US Hist.- 4, Biology- 4</p>

<p>EC’s and awards
Varsity Baseball (10, 11, 12)- 2004 All-Nassau County, 2004 Team MVP, Captain 12
Baseball (general)- I play baseball all-year round (fall and summer leagues) and plan to play in college (explanation later). It takes up alot of my time but it is and always will be my first love.
Varsity Basketball (11, 12)- 2004 Scholar-Athlete, Captain 12, I also play in fall and summer leagues.
HGP (literary magazine; 10, 11, 12)- Section-editor 11-12
National Honor Society (11,12)- President 12
Science Club (9, 10, 11, 12)- Officer 11-12
Spanish Club (10, 11, 12)
Mathletes (9, 10, 11, 12)
National Merit Scholar
AP Scholar with Honor
Elected to both National Young Leaders Conference and National Youth Leadership Forum on Law (could not attend due to conflicts with sports)</p>

<p>Community Service
9th grade- volunteered at my town’s public library (around 10 Hours)
10th grade- none
11th grade-volunteered as Special Education Student Aide (around 20 hours)
12th grade- same as 11th grade (5-10 hours)
Overall I’d say 30 or so hours which I know is not alot but sports and schoolwork take up so much of my time.</p>

<p>Work
Worked a part-time job the past 2 summers</p>

<p>I got 2 great recs from teachers I know very well, and a good rec from my GC. I also feel I wrote good to very good essays (my english teacher liked them also).</p>

<p>Ok, here is where I want to explain my baseball situation and other things. I was offered a recruiting spot at williams which I turned down because I really wanted to go to Amherst. At Amherst the coach could not give me a spot because he had already committed to 4 other players, but he did write a letter to admissions for me and they know that he wants me to play there. Also, my grandfather went to Amherst and has been a contributor for many years, although less so now. Also my cousin went to Amherst and wrote me an excellent supplementary recommendation. In addition, my Guidance Counselor and principal were extremely surprised by my defferal so my Guidance Counselor has been in contact with the Dean of Admissions and he said that my application qualified in every way it is just that there was such a large applicant pool for ED. I also would like to mention that she told him about my turning down the williams spot for Amherst and she said she thought it made an impression.</p>

<p>Do you think I have a decent shot at RD for Amherst?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>sorry for the length, but please evaluate my chances. Thanks.</p>

3

<p>You may want to watch the video on Amherst admissions to get an idea of what they look for. It's posted several times on this board. They seem to be really hard on grades and to a lesser extent test scores.</p>

4

<p>That's bull. There's a label that goes on the front of your file with your SATs on it. Sure, you need good grades, but SATs make or break you. Colleges care about them because SATs affect rankings is USNWR.</p>

5

<p>Thanks alot for the advice. I was not able to watch the video but I did read the Interview. That's scary. I guess my next question would be, are my SATs high enough? I believe I'm somewhere at or above the 50th percentile for verbal and close to 75th percentile for math. Please anyone else with a response or thoughts on my chances please reply. Thanks.</p>

6

<p>Oh those percentiles are for Amherst's students.</p>

7

<p>Please if anyone else has any idea about how Amherst admissions work, I would really like to hear your thoughts on my chances and what else I could do to help myself. Thanks.</p>

8

<p>Your chances would be better if you scores were at 75/75 but what the heck.</p>

<p>You're a good poster student for one of the paradoxes of admission at high-end schools: if you look at your profile, the gut reflex is to say, "Wow. Great kid. He's in."</p>

<p>What's sobering is when you look at the profiles of all the other applicants and yours suddenly begins to look like one-of-many. You might look at the Amherst acceptance/rejection thread(s) on the Old Board to get a sense.</p>

<p>My sense is that a) you're a crap shoot...maybe yes, maybe no...and b) there's not a damn thing you can do about it now. The birds are in the air. You have exactly what you ask...a decent chance but not a slam-dunk. Btw, effect of legacy is dwindling year by year...and a good thing imo.</p>

9

<p>Thank you very much for your opinion TheDad.</p>

10

<p>Does anyone think that my chances will be helped by my GC telling the Dean of Admissions, Tom Parker I believe, that I turned down the Williams spot for Amherst? Also, they said my application qualified it was just the numbers.</p>