Chances? (OOS and RD)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
1

Unweighted GPA: 3.333 / 5.0
Weighted GPA: 4.381 / 5.0
SAT: 1300 (620-M, 680-R)
SAT II: Chem 620, Biology M 680, U.S. History 750
ACT: 30 (English 34, Math 26, Reading 32, Science 30)
ACT superscore: 31
State Of Residence: FL
Male
Hispanic (Puerto Rican)
Class rank: top 24% (out of nearly 550)

AP’s:
9th: AP World History, AP Environmental Science
10th: AP Bio
11th: AP English Lang, AP Chem, AP Spanish Lit, AP Calc AB, AP U.S. History, AP Physics 1
12th: AP English Lit, AP Physics 2, AP Studio Art: 2-D (aka AP Photo), AP Psychology, AP Statistics, AP U.S. Gov, AP Microeconomics
–AP Scholar

Extra Curriculars:
-100 volunteer hours
-Volunteer at a Rehabilitation Hospital with PT and OT and occasionally the pharmacists
-Spanish club all 4 years, Treasurer 11th and 12th
-Spanish Honor Society, inducted in 10th, Vice President in 12th
-FBLA 9th and 10th, Vice President 10th
-March of Dimes 10th, helped with march of dimes walk
-American Cancer Society, helped with Relay for Life Event
-High school varsity swim team all 4 years
-Club swimmer all-year round (afternoon AND morning practices (too much swimming!!))
**Not an EC but I worked at a rehab medicine doctor’s office the summer going into 12th

Major/Field of Study:
Biochemistry (maybe with Pre-med, still deciding)
I’m also considering double majoring in economincs. Or political science/ business administration/ finance. I’m still deciding.
–The long term goal is to go into either medical school or politics

Essay: I wrote about the memory of Monica Puig winning Puerto Rico’s first gold medal in the Olympics while listening to my grandma, (she was in PR I was in the US) who believed she wouldn’t live long enough to see such an event and how I am motivated to succeed based on the constant calls from mi abuelita urging me to do my best and make her proud. I promise the essay sounds 3000x better than this awful summary.
**This essay was written before Irma and Maria hit P.R., and I fear that admissions will see my essay as trying to earn pity points and/or wooing them with my minority status.

Mother has college education in PR
Dad has college education from Iowa State and is unemployed.
We are upper middle class

I applied to UCF (accepted with scholarhsip), Auburn (accepted), Alabama (accepted with scholarship), FSU, UT-Austin, UNC-Chapel Hill, and UF. UF is my first choice.

Comments:
I know my test scores and gpa definitely aren’t the best, and I definitely don’t have a lot of volunteer hours and extra curriculars, but I’m hoping they will see that I at least challenged myself and got involved with EC. Also being a competitive swimmer and taking all AP classes is a lot of effort, so I hope they take it into consideration, but I doubt it. Vanderbilt is definitely my reach. My chances are slim.

Thank you!!

2

Again, if you didn’t put in a Chancellor’s Scholar essay, I would wonder why. I am well aware of the rigors of year round swim team and of the time commitment. No regrets, instead plan out a new life for yourself with time reallocated to allowing for more time in academia. In May, I would suggest that you go to the school that will offer you honors classes that are smaller in size and more personal to help you excel in college. Vandy freshmen in general already have scary good study habits. You may be able to kick up your performance from good to great in the classroom. If you are serious about going for a hard science major in college, things are going to have to change up. You will have remedial work to do in quantitative courses but you have the ability to learn and to apply yourself to math and sciences if you totally change how you use your time in college and you study math during the summer before you show up. Time management is the downfall of most students in first year of college. Even fine students with perfect test scores can blow it on study skills till they mature and treat college like a full time job. Look around for Phase 2 Best Fit for your academic life and think critically about where your language talents and bilingual abilities can maximize your performance. Look at budget and factor in that you may end up in graduate school. Play your long game. You have the goods for a long term fine outcome even though you do not compare favorably to those admitted to Vanderbilt at age 18.

3

@Faline2 WOW! Thank you so much for the great advice! I will definitely keep it in mind!

I have already dropped swimming, in preparation for college coursework. Once again, thank you very much for your input.