Chances Please?

<p>Hello. I’m currently a senior hoping to begin college in the fall of 2010 (will apply for BC College of Arts & Sciences). I plan on structuring my courses around the pre-med requirements, though I don’t know exactly what I’ll major in yet (probably a science)</p>

<p>GPA Unweighted: 3.6
Class Rank 9/155
SAT: 1920 superscored (600 CR, 620 math, 700 writing (11 on essay))
SAT II: Taking Bio M, US Hist, English Lit in October </p>

<p>AP Exams: Eng Lang 4; US Hist 3
Taking Calc AB, Eng Lit, Spanish Lit in May '10</p>

<p>Senior Courses:
AP Calculus (double period)
AP English Lit
Anatomy & Physiology Honors
Spanish 5 Honors (AP exam is optional)
Financing
Psychology </p>

<p>Honors/Awards:
National Honor Society (2 years)
-will complete around 90 total hours of community service (43 last year)
Third Place in school science fair
John & Abigail Adams Scholarship (all advanced on MCAS)
Published two poems in Positive Teens Magazine (national)
Published poetry in school arts magazine</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Grocery Store: December 2006-present
Began as cashier, promoted into the grocery department to order the shipments (I know that’s not really important but o well)
Average 16-22 hours a week</p>

<p>Extracurricular:
MMA (mixed martial arts) training since December 2005
-4 days a week (involves wrestling, jiu-jitsu, judo)
-will be competing in a local MMA fight in November
Boxing/Kickboxing (since December 2005)
-4 to 5 days a week
Weight Lifting (since January 2007)
-3 days a week
Volunteer for organizations such as the Walk for Hospice (helps fill NHS requirements as well)</p>

<p>Thank you</p>

<p>Dear soad342 : Starting with the numbers, your 600/620 scores on the critical reading and mathematics components are bottom quartile each. Compounding this concern is that your scores are reported here as already having been superscored making this 1220 a combined best two-way, not an individually scored two-way performance. Now, your essay score (11) is very strong indicating a writing skill based on this one sample which bodes well for your essay.</p>

<p>Regarding your AP curriculum, you have not taken a Biology AP or Chemistry AP course which would underscore your interest in potentially chasing a science/premed curriculum in college. (Have you taken them in junior year?) If your high school offers these courses, you will need to be prepared to describe why you did not consider those sciences (if you have not already). Please note that no one will directly ask you since you might apply to CAS without a major declaration, but if we can pick up on this from a limited profile analysis, it will show in your full application.</p>

<p>On foreign language courses, you might want to consider taking either your Language AP or an SAT II to achieve an appropriate score to place out of the core language requirement.</p>

<p>While you have mixed martial arts experience as sport, there is very limited school involvement - no school teams, no clubs, no music, no leadership positions or offices held. You do have some fine arts (poetry) publications and that might be worth stressing. If you are involved with the school wrestling team, it will be critically important for you to show that school engagement as it is completely missing here.</p>

<p>Despite your high class ranking, this profile does not feel like the “full package” is present. As a starting point, you have to plan on retaking the SAT (third sitting) and potentially sitting for the ACT to provide an alternative set of scores. Your work experience and promotion shows drive and desire which is not coming through on your high school extra-curricular engagement. While it will be difficult to change this in your senior year exclusively, perhaps there are some elements of your profile that you have overlooked which might help.</p>

<p>In closing, Boston College is a substantial stretch school at this point. You should also be developing a strong listing of schools where the two way SAT scores will be in the 1100-1200 range where your application might be more favorably received.</p>

<p>Thanks for answering. No, I haven’t taken AP Bio or AP Chem because my school doesn’t offer it. I was in Biology Honors in 10th grade (94 final average) and Chem Honors in 11th grade (89 final av). </p>

<p>About the lack of involvement: Typically, all of our sports teams have practice Monday through Friday, with games/events on Saturdays (sometimes on weekdays too). With work, I feel it would have been too stressful to try to participate because my work schedule isn’t set in stone (every week it is different days/hours). Also, my school does not have a wrestling team (I go to a very small school with ~600 students).</p>

<p>I assumed I would need to re-take the SAT’s again in order to bring up my math and CR scores.
Thanks</p>