Hi, I am a high school senior planning to apply ED to Boston University. It is far and away my first choice school, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Gender: Male
Race: Asian
Religion: Jewish
State: New York
Major: Film Production (Possible Minor in Advertising)
Academics
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.7
Class Rank: Top 10%
SAT: 1470 (New SAT)
ACT: 32
AP Classes:
World History-3 (Don’t plan on submitting)
US History-4
Environmental Science-4
English Language and Composition-5
This year I am enrolled in AP Psychology, AP Government, and AP Statistics
Athletics
Varsity Winter Track: 9
Boys Varsity Tennis: 9-12
Captain: 11-12
All-League, All Division, All County, MVP Honors
Music
Principle Trumpet, All County Orchestra: 9-10
Jazz Chair, All County Jazz Orchestra: 10-12
NYSSMA All-State Jazz Ensemble: 11-12
Honor Societies/Clubs
National Honor Society:12
Tri-M Honor Society: 9-12
Foreign Language Honor Society: 10-12
Academic Team:10
Video Production Club:11-12
Honors/Awards
Breakfast of Champions Award
High Minds in Motion Athletic Award: 9-12
NYSSMA Majors Musicianship Award: 9-12
AP Scholar with Honors: 11
I also have several hundred hours of community service, three letters of recommendation from two teachers and my guidance counselor (reliable sources), and sufficient work experience.
As I said before, Boston University is my #1 school, so any input would be greatly appreciated 
.
You will be totally fine!! Don’t stress 
PS: I’d submit your AP World score, you may not have gotten college credit from it but you still passed!! It’s worth them seeing that you at least passed.
I know someone who applied RD to BU with stats only slightly lower than yours, and got in. I think that your chances are very good. However, make sure that you can afford it – either plan to be full pay or run the NPC and see whether your parents are fine with the result.
Thank you for your responses! Yes, you’re totally correct about the World AP. I forgot to mention that I am enrolled in AP Literature this year as well so we will see how that goes :). As far as financially, it is a bit of a reach in that aspect. I will apply for their two scholarships but I’m not sure I will qualify, as my grades are only somewhat above their average scores. To be honest, anything above $50,000 seems absolutely ridiculous to me, but I guess that’s what college is these days.
“To be honest, anything above $50,000 seems absolutely ridiculous to me,”
Personally I agree, but it depends upon a family’s finances.
“but I guess that’s what college is these days.”
It doesn’t have to be. In-state is much less and you have good choices in NY (whether they have your major I don’t know). With an unweighted 4.0 there should be other options where you can get a merit scholarship which will bring the cost down somewhat. Each family has to make its own decisions how to trade off cost versus getting to where you want to go.
Personally, for a degree in film production I would try to avoid taking on debt.
I definitely agree with you 100% and the advice about film school debt is something I have been told time and time again. In fact, up until last year, the my whole family was in agreement that I would attend a State School (Or anywhere that offered me scholarships). However, after much research and many college visits, it became clear that while these schools have “Film” programs, they are not in fact “Film Production” programs, which is my intended major (Those programs are more history-based). My guidance counselor also pushed Private Schools as she believed they would offer me more money than the SUNYs…Pretty funny to think about now!
Purchase was one of the schools I visited that offered a Production program (the only SUNY), but I was able to speak one-on-one with the film professor there, and he surprisingly suggested I look elsewhere, as he felt the school’s program in that area was sub par. (I still may apply, though)
I believe I will be applying to BU, Syracuse, Purchase and possibly Northeastern as a backup, in case you were wondering which schools I was referring to previously.
Wow… I can’t believe the film professor said that! If it is really that iffy that he told you not to even apply I wouldn’t even apply there. Of course, it’s your decision, I’m just shocked he said that! Ultimately, the best thing you could do for yourself is follow your heart with these kinds of things (and your pocket ahah) and it will all work out! Hopefully we’ll both get into BU and I’ll see you there. Either way, best of luck with film production, I’m a photography person and while they are very different, I always appreciate people who value good cameras!!
Aww thank you sunflowerlover you’re so kind! That’s good advice and yes I hope we both get into BU as well, let me know I was just looking at your similar thread and 1) You should have no problem getting in to BU (wow so many APs) and 2) I love what you are doing with music in your school! I can always appreciate people who value good music (music is my life!)
No, thank you!!! And yes, music is wonderful, I can never understand people who don’t see the benefits of the arts, being involved in them is LIFECHANGING! I definitely will!! If we both get in and go there it would be nice to know a friendly face before arriving on campus
Definitely! It is always such a shame when administrators try and cut out the Arts Program. My school is very athletic-minded (we are a football powerhouse) so despite the fact that our music program had 15 All-County musicians, 8 All-State musicians, and even 2 (!) All-National musicians, they still wanted to get rid of music in our school 
Since we are both applying ED i guess we’ll find out December 15 (according to BU website) what’s going on! Hope we get in, that would be awesome!
Absolutely!!! If we both got in it would be awesome to have a like minded person on campus! I’m really lucky, our principal is great about supporting the music department, but I’ve heard waaaay too many bad stories… it’s so sad, so many people don’t understand the true benefits of music.
Hi everyone!
Update: I just submitted my ED application to BU (COM) last week and was wondering if anyone else did as
well!
Almost done with mine!! Just finishing up the BU Essay Sooooo nervous!!
@purplepug13
If you ae not admitted to BU or Syracuse you will likely not be admitted to Northeastern.
@sunflowerlover
Ahh, the BU Essay! It was SO hard trying to fit what I wanted to say into only 250 words. I primarily wrote about their opportunities in film. Hopefully it is enough to show the admissions counselors how much I love their school!
And @TomSrOfBoston
Yes, you’re probably right, I know BU and Northeastern have almost identical admission rates.(~29%)
As it turns out, I didn’t even apply to Syracuse; although Newhouse was quite unbelievable, there were too many other aspects of the school I didn’t really like, such as location (safety), and campus environment (SU is consistently one of the top 5 “party schools”).
I actually ended up applying to 5 schools, with BU as my ED, and NU as an EA application. We added in Wesleyan as well, since it was nice when I visited, but that would probably be a reach. Should I get into BU though, I guess we’ll never find out
I noticed section C7 in the 2015-16 BU CDS shows “Rigor of secondary school record” as Very Important, while everything else (GPA, Tests, Rank, Essay, and Recs) as Important.
If this is correct, does that mean BU values the applicant’s willingness to choose the most challenging classes available more than the rest?
2016 BU CDS
https://www.bu.edu/oir/files/2016/04/cds-2016.pdf
@purplepug13 I know!! It is sooooo challenging!!!
@romns116
It’s funny you mention that because just the other day I was reading a 2018-19 college guide and saw the emphasis BU placed on strength of schedule. You’re right, BU does care about course load. In fact, most colleges do these days. They’re all about, "We’d rather see Bs in AP Courses than As in Regents Courses."If you have the chance to attend a tour, session, or speak with a faculty member, they’ll tell you that it does matter. At one of their high school sessions, they showed three different students, all of whom were qualified, and explained why only one of the three got in; mainly because they maintained high grades while enrolled in many AP courses.
This kind of worries me, only because I have not taken the greatest amount of APs. I have taken 8 to date: 1 Sophomore year, 3 Junior Year, and 4 Senior Year. Although I’ve maintained sufficient grades in each of these,I know of other students who have taken many more than myself.
@purplepug13
What is the college guide you referred to? Is that the CDS?
Thanks for sharing the course load info from the tour, that’s very interesting. Have you heard the same info from other schools?
You mentioned other film programs, do you like Syracuse’s BFA program? Miami? My son is looking at those as well mainly due to the FA. I’d be interested to get your thoughts on other film programs (besides the usual USC, NYU, Chapman, LMU, etc), esp schools that give merit and need based aid. Our EFC is 0