Schools
Amherst College
Boston College
Brandeis
Columbia GS
Cornell
Duke
Harvard
JHU
Stanford
University of Chicago
WUSTL
Yale
I already have guaranteed admission at UMass Amherst’s Honors Program but I want to try my hand at something else. Would love to get chanced in terms of which are low reaches and which are high reaches since they all have incredibly low transfer rates.
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 680 M, 790 CR, 720 W (2090)
ACT: 30 (32 Writing)
SAT II: None
Current College GPA (out of 4.0): 3.55
Pursuing major/study: Political Science and History
I’m graduating this semester with an AA in Liberal Arts, Dean’s list, honors program
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Student Ambassador, Phi Theta Kappa, mentor for disadvantaged youth program, (founder) international relations discussion group.
Job/Work Experience: Editorial internship at a major news media organization for the past two summers, along with a year long position as a contributor and lower level editor at the same organization. I also work for a political fact-checking company year-long. Generally together they are 50+ hours a week.
Volunteer/Community service: Co-founder of a grassroots group that has organized worker strikes and protests to (successfully) increase wages at multiple businesses in the area, prevented/slowed tuition increases at universities in the area, etc. Also a volunteer organizer and trainer for local and state level political campaigns.
Essays: Focused on my own struggles with how school and politics have negatively and positively affected my personal life. I talk about how I basically had a breakdown induced by stress at my first school was turned around into success here. There were some exploring the idea of blackness, my career goals in academia, but all together I think they were great
Teacher Recommendation: One was amazing from an English professor, one was from my history professor also great and ties into my career goals.
Additional Rec: One from Lead Editor at said news organization (amazing; alumni from Harvard/Yale/Cornell) and another from an adjunct professor from one of the schools I’m applying to I’ve known for a few years.
Other
School Type: Community College
Ethnicity: Black
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: ~$65k
Hooks: Black, first generation American (parents from Africa) but my father has graduated from college. Failed out of my first college then enrolled in community college. I’m now an honors student (PTK), Dean’s List, and completed my own independent research project which I’ll be presenting at a statewide conference in a few months.
Reflection
Strengths: Made clear my field of study (politics), how well-versed I was in it, and my clear academic need for transfer.
Weaknesses: The fact I failed my first two semesters of college. My GPA isn’t HIGH largely because of my job and community commitments. I have a weak ACT and “average” SAT because I haven’t retaken it since high school.
