<p>Me again.</p>
<p>In or out? </p>
<hr>
<p>Chances Rundown:
Am I in or out?</p>
<p>Hispanic Male
San Antonio, Texas
Medical Magnet School</p>
<p>3.95 (95.658) GPA
20%>x%<25% ranking (190)
30 ACT
750 SAT II <em>Bio-M</em>
750 SAT II <em>World History</em>
760 SAT II <em>Math 1-C</em>
10 APS</p>
<p>2nd UIL Spelling
UIL Spelling Regionals</p>
<p>Red Cross Club
Dance Revolution Club
Student Council</p>
<p>I would be appling ED.</p>
<p>How much does rank hurt me</p>
<p>I think you have a great chance, especially as an ED!</p>
<p>I recently visited the campus and sat in on the info session and attented the tour. I fell in love with what I saw and heard. They gave us alot of literature including a letter from the Dean of Admissions talking in part about why he dislikes the trend towards lac's shilling early decision and how at Amherst there is no advantage to applying ed. Any thoughts or comments?</p>
<p>i partly disagree. while amherst is pretty good about taking only a third of the incoming class ED (other schools like hyp take about 50%), you still have a clear advantage over RD applicants. however, one must also consider that most ED kids are private/prep school kids who generally have better stats. the ed advantage is that an admissions officer knows that it won't waste a spot in the class on you.</p>
<p>glucose's stats would be semi-competitive as a white applicant. however, since he is a much coveted URM applying in the ED group of white prepsters, he will have a very good chance.</p>
<p>bump, bump</p>
<p>Apply if that's your #1. I say you have a shot, just as much a shot as anyone else because you do have high scores and are an URM.</p>
<p>Amherst 08: With all due respect why do you believe that private school kids have better stats as a generalization? My public school in Philly suburbs is top notch with great local reputation sending grads to best schools.</p>
<p>Do you think all things being equal if a person has the stats that Amherst looks for there is a true advantage to early decision application?</p>
<p>Public schools in the suburbs might as well be private schools. (They're full of a bunch of rich kids whose parents pay tuition indirectly through high real estate taxes.) Admissions officers, if they are familiar with your school, will treat you like a private school kid in evaluating your application. This means they will expect higher stats. </p>
<p>That being true, there are far more bad public schools than good ones. Go to New York City or any other place besides the suburbs and you will see the disparity. </p>
<p>Private schools on the whole have excellent student bodies whereas public schools have more of a range of quality, and, in most cases, they cannot compare to the quality of even the worst private schools. (Believe me, I've been to both.)</p>
<p>As to applying early, you will have a distinct advantage because colleges care about their yield. Yield means how many accepted students actually matriculate. As an early decision applicant, you are bound to matriculate so they don't feel they are wasting a slot on you.</p>
<p>NB: There are also a handful of specialized high schools without rich student bodies; however, these schools require a really competitive test for admission, and therefore take only the cream of the crop. Examples would be Stuyvesant or Hunter in NYC or Thomas Jefferson in VA. Admissions officers know these schools well because of their good placement histories and treat them with the same expectations of any private school kid.</p>
<p>They evaluate public suburban school kids as private school kids? Hmm. My public school was pretty subpar.</p>
<p>Only certain public schools. For example, Greenwich High School or Scarsdale SHS. If your school is located in a rich area, they will assume the school is good for the most part because they will have had previous experience with kids applying from there. (Rich kids tend to apply to top schools.)</p>
<p>Amherst: </p>
<p>New issue; Are first years who choose substance free dorms forever deemed geeks and socially doomed? Aren't all of the dorms non-smoking for safety purposes? I really don't mind if people drink or smoke pot but would prefer non-smoking. Are there dorms that are no smoking but turn back to other substances?</p>
<p>Do the residence people do a good job of trying to match compatable roommates freshman year? Are most of first years put into doubles? I took tour this summer and the dorms were fantastic. They told us that by Sept. 2007 when I would be a first year if I got in all dorms will be either new or renovated. Are dorms coed by floor or room and what about bathrooms?</p>
<p>How long did it take you to get the feel of the classes so that u could get into clubs and a social life? I am a varsity tennis player. How tough is it for first years to survive Amherst courses and be on varsity team? I guess these are enough questions for now. Thanks,Dana</p>
<p>I was in sub free housing my first year. While I wasn't deemed a geek-mainly because I branched out and made friends in other dorms- most sub free people, who did tend to only mingle with sub free people, were thought of as antisocial and somewhat nerdy. All dorms prohibit smoking, and as for other substances, it really depends on the people in the dorm.</p>
<p>Lots of first years get placed into doubles, but there are many two room doubles and two/three room triples as well. The dorms are mostly coed by floor, but every year there is usually a floor of one dorm reserved for single sex housing, i.e. an all girls floor or an all boys floor.</p>
<p>I think it took about one semester to truly get a feel for the academic life on campus. In terms of balancing life between academics and a varsity team, I wouldn't know personally because I am not on any team. However, my friends on sports teams don't seem overly stressed. Amherst is a DIII school, so sports are less intense than at any of the Ivies. </p>
<p>Here's an article about a student who transferred from Harvard to Amherst and was a three-sport athlete here.</p>
<p>thanks alot for all your info.</p>
<p>Just returned from Amherst dropping off D who is in Appleton (the nunnery - all female floor sub free - she is not a nerd.) There is an all male floor in South, I believe. The numbers of students who requested sub free has increased a lot, so it will be difficult to generalize since they are in 3 dorms now. As to public vs. private schools - the class of 2009 is the first class to have more than 50% from public schools. And 50+% have some sort of financial aid. The one thing that caused us difficulties in deciding which college my D should attend was FA - FAFSA said I could afford an outrageous amount. At the FA orientation, the Dean said that unless the FAFSA met what Amherst thought was reasonable, they avoided using federal funds for those students and found money through Amherst. If a student receives even $1.00 in FA from feds, then the school by law MUST adhere to the FAFSA calculation. Amherst believes the calculation is outdated and outmoded, and does not take into account the current cost of living, so they have Amherst loans, and FA and avoid using fed funds. Now I know why Amherst was able to give us so much more $. So go for it, and cross your fingers. There is no liability to being from public school or not having enough money. YOU get yourself in, not your social standing.</p>
<p>About sub-free, I live in a totally subfree dorm (North). Actually in the last evenings we had quite a handful of people from non-subfree dorms come over for various reasons so the sub-free clique thing does not go very far in my opinion. I am extremely satisfied with this housing for one reason and that being that there is not any peer pressure to drink or do drugs. That does not mean we cannot have fun in non-nerdy kinds of ways, that we do not go to parties or whatnot. About 20% of the class this year requested and got subfree housing for various reasons. There are sociable kids in subfree and there are nerds in non sub-free.
We don't have kegs in our rooms, so what? That does not mean that we don't go party in other dorms or that we can't be cool kids mixing with everyone else.</p>
<p>Hey, evitajr1, I live on the nunnery as well--I recall talking to you earlier in the spring when I was finalizing college decisions, and you said your daughter was from TX. I <em>think</em> I've met her... she has really colorful lamps in her room? Then I may have met you in person as well. Oh, tangents.</p>
<p>Yes, 20% of first years wanted subfree. 18% of all Amherst students do not drink. There is definitely no stigma about being subfree.</p>
<p>Just to add this: the sub-free dorm North is planning on having a toga party with a root beer keg. I don't think this sounds dorky, and I'm pretty sure that it will get just about as ruckus as most other parties sans drunken fighting and vomiting.</p>
<p>You have a good shot at Amherst. If you are completely comfortable with applying early decision, then apply ED.</p>