Chances for PoliSci major? Organized thread!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>COLLEGE STUDIES
Major: Political Science
Minor: International Relations / Economics</p>

<p>GPA/COURSELOAD
GPA: 3.91 UW / 4.71 W
Rank: 5/95
APs: English Language, English Literature, Spanish, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Calculus AB, Computer Science A, US History, Chemistry, Biology, US Government & Politics
SAT: 1470 (760CR/710M)</p>

<p>ECs
- National Honor Society
- Spanish Honor Society - Vice President
- Debate team - Team Captain (10th-11th)
- 75+ hours volunteering at Ronald McDonald House
- Volunteer for local government - elections/polls
- Varsity tennis</p>

<p>AWARDS / RECOGNITION</p>

<p>Debate & Forensics
- Many local awards
- Placed 6th place in state competition
- Placed in top 32 in nation (CFL)
- Finalist at nationals (NFL)
- Participated in Law Day 2006/2007 & People Speak 2007
- Featured in national documentary for People Speak
- Met with non-profit organizations, Kiwanis/Breakfast Optimists</p>

<p>Spanish Team
- Participated in state Spanish competition
+ Placed 3rd overall as a school
+ Received highest honors for extemporaneous speech
+ Received second-highest honors for dramatic performance
- Participated in local World Languages Field Day
+ Received perfect score for extemporaneous speech
+ Received perfect score for dramatic performance</p>

<p>Other
- Selected to attend Boys State 2008
- Attended Youth Leadership Forum in Keystone, CO
- National Merit Semifinalist (PSAT: 226)
- National technology fair - finalist (ISTF)
- Regional science fair - 4th place
- Tennis team - "Most Dedicated Player"</p>

<p>COLLEGES OF INTEREST
Match
- American University
- Wake Forest University
- Emory University
Reach
- Georgetown University
- George Washington University
- Yale University
- Columbia University
- Harvard University
- Vanderbilt University</p>

<p>Thank you for any insight or advice, positive or negative!</p>

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<p>GWU is more of a match for you</p>

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<p>lookts pretty good, GW is more of a match, i don't know too much about American but seems like a likely.</p>

<p>vandy (depending on your geographic location is may also be a match)</p>

<p>on a sidenote, what exactly is people speak?</p>

4

<p>The</a> People Speak
The format of the People Speak I participated in consisted of a panel of distinguished speakers, as well as my debate partner and I. The panel had a woman who worked for the UN, two international law students, and a woman who was head of a local influential political organization. All of the panelists had extensive, impressive resumes. The event was held at a local law school, and was filmed for said documentary. We all spoke on Convention on the Rights of the Child, and other Geneva Conventions. We spoke to a large group of people from the community and answered questions, etc.</p>

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<p>That was really organized :)</p>

<p>American is a definitely and I think you'll get into all of your match... what's your full SAT score?</p>

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<p>You seem to love Spanish. Just putting this out there, something that could add to your resume - you could put your Spanish skills to better use than just competitions. See if there's some way you can use them to help out the community. However, that's just a suggestion. Do what you want and you won't go wrong.</p>

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<p>Thank you for your suggestions, Jenkster- I will try to seek additional opportunities for Spanish speaking in my community, maybe with children.
Eating food, on the SAT I got a 750 in writing.</p>

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<p>any other help would be great! thanks!</p>

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<p>COLLEGES OF INTEREST
Match
- American University - Definite Accept
- Wake Forest University - Definite Accept
- Emory University - Accept (On that note, Emory isn't a real match for anyone)</p>

<p>Reach
- Georgetown University - Accepted
- George Washington University - Accepted
- Yale University - Rejected
- Columbia University - Rejected
- Harvard University - Rejected
- Vanderbilt University - Accepted</p>

<p>Major really won't matter anyway, they know most kids switch majors.</p>

<p>On the Ivies, I really didn't know good your school was, but usually, kids should be higher up at a smaller school. Regardless, it's a crap shoot anyway, good luck!</p>

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<p>Thank you for the advice. Our school is in the Newsweek best schools list, pretty high up (top 100).</p>

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<p>What kind of debate do you do? I tend to always assume policy, since that's what I do, but maybe not...although you do make reference to having a partner. PF & extemp, I guess? Are you going to NFLs this year?</p>

<p>Whatever kind you do, colleges definitely like forensics, and it looks like you've got the kind of national recognition that they are looking for. I've heard that some colleges have a specific admissions officer who evaluates debaters, so they'll know the kind of prestige involved in making it to finals at NFLs. Even your place in the state is good - I know Illinois is super competitive. Your school is obviously a member of the NFL, so you should also put your NFL rank on there somewhere. A kid from our team last year did PF and ended up at Columbia, and he said that when Columbia saw his Degree of Special Distinction they practically started drooling.</p>

<p>It seems like you're focusing your interests, which is what those kind of selective schools like to see you do! I agree with what everyone else has been saying - your matches are pretty sure, so is GW, Georgetown is fairly likely, Columbia I'd say is within reach, HY no one is really sure. I do think you have a really good shot at Vandy - a lot of kids from my school with much less impressive stats matriculate there.</p>

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<p>I do PFD and congress. I made it to octas in PFD at CFL, and finals in congress at NFL. I have a degree of special distinction. At states, I did PFD. I qualified this year for states/NFLs in congress, but can't go to NFL because of another engagement. I have a separate debate resume, including all the extra stuff like speaking to Breakfast Optimists and participating in local bar association competitions, as well as all my awards/placements at local competitions. </p>

<p>I plan to do additional, political-related volunteering this summer. Our county has a "student advisory board", which allows selected students to serve as a liaison between teens and the school board, and I plan to try out for that. </p>

<p>Thanks for your detailed response, briefingsworth!</p>

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<p>Congrats! Seriously, finals at NFLs is an accomplishment, especially as a sophomore. I did Congress at districts last year (in addition to policy) and found it very boring...except I gave a speech in French. So you went to Wichita but you're skipping Vegas? That doesn't seem fair. I suffered through Wichita and plan to fully enjoy Vegas this year :)</p>

<p>I don't know how possible this is, but I know that the parli circuit in college is kinda like the PF circuit in high school. Maybe you could talk to the parli coaches (if there are such things) at competitive parli schools (if schools are really competitive in parli - I'm not sure!) and see about getting recruited by them. </p>

<p>You could also try to get elected to a class officer position, supposedly this looks good, especially for polisci majors (although I know it's probably just a popularity contest). And of course, try to excel at Boys State and maybe gain a spot at Boys Nation. I'll be trying for the same at Girls State :)</p>

<p>Also, I have a question for you. You said you're attaching all your debate accomplishments on a separate resume? You plan to send that in to colleges, right? I think that would probably be a good thing for me to do as well. How exactly did you organize it? By year? And are you putting all of your accomplishments on there? You probably excel at tiny in-state tournaments like I do, but do you think those merit a spot? Thanks!</p>

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<p>Thanks! Class officer elections have unfortunately passed, as did I.. as you said, they are popularity contests and our SGA is incredibly lame. I probably should have at least tried, but I would have felt like cheating to put that on my college resume, you know? Plus, at our school, class officers must take a mandatory non-honors course, bleh. I didn't really want to put down "discussed homecoming themes" on my app, if you get my drift ;)</p>

<p>I am definitely going to try to secure that Boys Nation spot! </p>

<p>I organized my resume into service (speaking to civic groups), leadership (team captain/president for 2 years), local, state/national. I put the awards into little tables and copied/pasted into word. I'm going to include it as a separate page with each college application. We only have a handful of locals each year, so I plan to put them down on my application for more diversity (...or taking up space).</p>

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<p>Any other help would be great! Thanks!</p>