Chances? / Questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Amherst College
1

<p>Hello all! I have been lurking CC for months now, but have only just decided to create an account in order to ask questions I haven’t seen answered yet. First of all, I wanted to know what my chances are for Early Decision at Amherst (I visited the school once and fell in love and am positive I want to go here). Also, I attend an extremely competitive high school with a difficult course load that is ranked highly everywhere, but had no test preparation at all for reason I’d rather not go into:</p>

<p>AP Exams:
U.S. Government - 3 (sophomore)
World History - 4 (junior)
Spanish Language - 5 (junior)
English Language & Composition - 5 (junior)
Biology - 5 (junior)</p>

<p>SAT Scores:
January - M 680, R 660, W 720 (total: 2060)
June - M 630, R 690, W 740 (total: 2060)
Superscore: 2110</p>

<p>ACT Scores:
Composite: 31
English: 31
Math: 29
Reading: 29
Science: 35
Writing: 10</p>

<p>GPA: 3.4 (Unweighted), 4.04 (Weighted). Let me explain this - I did very badly freshman year, and okay sophomore year, but my junior year GPA is about a 3.8. So I did slack off at first, but I improved significantly throughout high school, and am continuing to do so.</p>

<p>I am an active participant in my school’s Humanities & Arts program, which requires participants to take extra credits in the humanities/arts depending on their focus (I am a humanities focus and so am taking six total years of Spanish, including 2 APs, and four years of history, including 2 APs, along with four years of music, all honors), and also requires senior participants to write a Senior Independent Project, which is an extended research paper of eighteen to twenty pages.</p>

<p>I know my scores and grades are not fantastic and are not exactly Amherst material, but I have other things working for me:</p>

<p>Extracurricular activities:
Private piano lessons 10 years
Marching band 3 years
Spanish Honor Society 2 years
Softball 3 years (JV captain 2 years)
Class Planning 3 years, Freshman Class President
Over 200 community service hours - 50 hours working at the Residency & International Admissions Office this summer (where people go to register their children in my county’s school system), 46 hours working to teach children how to use computers before high school, and a bunch of other stuff here and there. </p>

<p>I am an African-American female from Tunisia (came to the US as an infant but visit Tunisia every year), and I am writing my essay on the Tunisian political revolution and how it affected me and my country. </p>

<p>Like I said before, I don’t know exactly what my chances are, but I know they’re probably slim. However, with an amazing essay (I am confident that I can write an original, unique, well-written essay), do you think they might accept me ED?</p>

<p>I will ask other questions once people start to answer this</p>

2

<p>Being a minority with the Tunisian hook may definitely be of interest. Otherwise, your grades and test scores are low. I would work on bringing up your test scores early this fall.</p>

3

<p>I am taking the Bio (M), Lit, and Math 2 SAT IIs this October. On my practice tests so far, I’ve gotten 780 on Bio, 770 on Lit, and 750 on Math, so I hope my actual scores will be accordingly high.</p>

<p>A question I had was, does anyone know how good the financial aid is at Amherst? I don’t want to apply ED if they’re not going to help me out much.</p>

4

<p>His test scores are not low… come’ on.
I think you’ll get in if you apply ED</p>

5

<p>I’m a her, but thank you! :]</p>

<p>I think I’m applying ED, but the only thing I’m scared of is, my parents can only pay for 20k a year, and I am applying to lots of outside scholarships and FAFSA, but I don’t want to be drowning in loans later on because I’m also planning on going to vet school and it piles up. So I don’t want to end up paying a lot more money at Amherst than I would at another school just because I had no choice.</p>

6

<p>Also, I don’t know if it counts for anything that I speak Arabic and French fluently (Arabic was my first language), and am practically fluent in Spanish now.</p>

7

<p>shoo-in
10k</p>

8

<p>Really? Does anyone else think that?</p>

9

<p>It’s kind of remarkable that our GPAs and test scores are very similar, and some of our ECs; I’m very interested in Amherst too, but it’s probably my second choice to Pomona. Plus my best friend is Tunisian! But personal bias aside, I think that you have a very good shot at getting into Amherst (especially ED) and from what I’ve read, they have the best financial aid of any LAC in the country. So good luck on your application, and who knows? Maybe we’ll be classmates in the class of 2016! :D</p>

10

<p>Haha that’s actually really funny! I hope you get into Pomona, and if not, into Amherst! It would be hilarious if we became friends or something :smiley: And I really hope to get at least some financial aid. I know they don’t give out anything merit-based, but I don’t know if I qualify for need-based and sdklfhsalkjfhasdl it’s hard not to freak out</p>