<p>Regular Decision Applicant
Interested major: Political Science
Applying from New York State</p>
<p>Grades:
-GPA: 94 unweighted
-Rank: 28 out of a class of 569 students
-SATs: CR-540, M-480, W-510, Essay-08
-ACTs: 22</p>
<p>AP Courses:
-World History: 4
-American History: 4
-English 11: 3
-English 12: Currently enrolled
-Spanish: Currently enrolled
-Government and Economics: Currently enrolled</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities:
-Interned on a mayoral campaign in the past election
-Student Government: School-Wide President
-Model UN: member for 3 years
-Cross Country: member for 3 years
-Theater: Cast member in high school’s annual musical for 4 years
-People to People delegate to China
-Volunteer at local library for the past 4 years</p>
<p>I realize my SAT and ACT scores are very low. How much will that hurt me considering the strengths of the rest of my application? Thank you!</p>
<p>It will hurt you a lot. American considers test scores and GPA as the most important parts of the application. Somewhere on their site you can actually the percentage of applicants with specific SAT/ACT scores. The percentage with yours are very, very low.</p>
<p>Could happen, but you’ll have to make a compelling case that you are more deserving than several thousand similar applicants with higher test scores.</p>
<p>Seinfeld,
it’s too bad that you are not still in 11th grade.
If AU were your first choice, you could have applied ED without submitting your test scores and you would have had a decent shot of getting in. With your scores being considered as part of your application package, it could hurt you. But here’s hoping…!</p>
<p>I’m hoping that the admissions committee will appreciate the depth of my extracurricular involvement and my high gpa. I’ll just have to wait and see and cross my fingers. I really want to go to school in DC. I was rejected from GW and AU is my second choice.</p>
<p>I think with a good essay and if you show high interest(interviews etc) you will get in for sure. I did ED, and my grades and ec were def not as great as yours.</p>
<p>seinfeldfan, a parent here–just wanted to let you know that adcoms are aware that People to People is just a student tour organization, the “delegate” terminology aside. Perhaps you can work some of your experience in China into an essay, which would be more effective than listing it as an EC. Is there no explanation you can include with regard to your very low scores–are you learning disabled or non-native English speaker, perhaps?</p>
<p>No I have none of that. I’m just a really slow test taker, always have been but I am improving.</p>
<p>And yes that’s true that People to People is a tour organization but I hope that the adcoms realize that it’s not just a trip spent hanging on the beach. Students have the opportunity to have great interaction with the native people of the country they are visiting, for example a home-stay experience.</p>
<p>I appreciate your advice on incorporating some of my experiences from China into the essay but I already wrote my essay. I wrote the essay about an experience where I had to persevere through a challenge. I know that sounds clich</p>
<p>My overall score was a 1980
I applied ED this year, and I sent in my sat scores. I did p2p too btw, my adcom was pretty interested in where we traveled and what we did.</p>
<p>Since you did an interview/visited I think your chances are reallly great
Make sure to wow them with your essay!</p>
<p>Thank you for your encouragement! I hope it works out. If worse comes to worse I could always transfer but I’d rather not have to deal with that. Where did you travel for p2p?</p>