Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
1

<p>My father has been thinking I could into Vanderbilt the last few months, but I'm not as confident about getting accepted as him after what I've read here and other places on the Internet.</p>

<p>Currently a white male junior in South Carolina in high school taking 1 AP class (Psychology... 92% first sem.) and 2 honors (Physics 86% and Pre-Calc 98%). Sadly, I could not take honors classes in English, Spanish, Biology, or Chemistry due to my old school not having honors or AP in anything but math.</p>

<p>3.93 Unweighted
4.05 Regular Weighted
4.50 South Carolina Weighted (giving higher gpa each percent and not by grade...don't know if this is actually used)</p>

<p>SAT:
650 Math
550 Critical Reading
550 Writing (7 on essay)
Taking it again in June to get my CR higher (600 hopefully) and might take ACT this fall.</p>

<p>No extracurricular or sports since middle school (I did so many back then but I know that doesn't matter...). At my old school I moved there right before freshman year and had no friends and I'm a very shy person so I went without. I also was one of 8 chosen in my elementary school grade to go to Math Field Day and I was in GATE (Gifted and Talented program) in elementary and middle. I do play guitar if that counts.</p>

<p>No leadership, volunteer work, or job either. I've gotten things like NHS or whatever in the mail but my parents didn't think I'd need them.</p>

<p>I DO plan on getting a part time job this summer and Senior year, plus some extracurriculars then too due to me actually having friends now. They won't think I'm doing this just for college, will they?</p>

<p>Next year my schedule will be AP Stats, English, Honors Physical Science, Guitar 2, and AP Human Geography.</p>

<p>Thinking of an Accounting or maybe Engineering major, but I'm not quite sure yet. A science or business major are possible too but as of right now I doubt it.</p>

2

<p>Sorry, but I don’t think so. Your SATs are not nearly good enough, the lack of ECs and Community Service is bad, the fact that you haven’t taken many APs or Honors (not that it’s your fault) isn’t that good either. Anything from middle school and elementary school doesn’t count, you can’t even put it on the application. You should still apply if you really want to go, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.</p>

<p>You need to look at what you want to major in or maybe even what career you’d like to do (bad grammar much lol?) before you determine what college is for you. That comes after. Best of luck!</p>

3

<p>Do a big volunteer project over the summer- volunteer at a hospital, at food shelters, etc. BUT THE MAIN THING IS: WORK ON THE SAT SCORE. Vanderbilt is very big on test scores… take the ACT for sure. You need to get 700+ on CR and Math to be in the running with your situation. I recommend buying the Official SAT Guide and doing every practice test and improving. It’s definitely doable. I scored a 2060 the first time I took the SAT, and a 2360 the last time (with 800s in Math and Reading).</p>

4

<p>Take one more challenging class next year. AP Stats is well known to be an “easy” AP, as is AP Human Geo. In fact, many top colleges don’t even accept Human Geo as college credit. If you are in pre cal this year, you should definitely be in Calculus next year. Stats should be an additional class to calculus. Look at the admissions section of Vandy and see what the accepted pool looks like (and show your dad!). Good luck!</p>

5

<p>Another thought: NHS is an invitation from your school, not the organization itself. Do what you can to get involved in something you have a passion for, and run with it.</p>