<p>I am a junior in the IB program at my public high school in Virginia. Georgetown is my first choice for college; I am going to apply to the Walsh School of Foregin Service there. Here are the points of my academic career thusfar (my grades are from the end of my sophomore year):</p>
<p>Ranked 7 out of 493 (after this year I predict it going up to 5 or 6)</p>
<p>Weighted GPA: about 4.45, this will be about 4.6-4.7 after this year</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA: about 3.94</p>
<p>SAT scores (I've taken it once): 680 CR, Math 640, Writing 640</p>
<p>EC's: I am the trumpet section leader in marching band, vice-president of the math national honor society (next year I will be president), member of NHS, co-founder of the Diplomacy Club, treasurer of Model UN (next year I will be a co-president), I ran varsity indoor and outdoor track in 9th and 10th grade(this year I am too busy to run), president of Spanish Club, member of French Club, and this year was my first year on the Scholastic Bowl team and we went to regionals for the 5th time in my school's 50+ year history.</p>
<p>Volunteering: I volunteer at a local middle school to help middle schoolers build SEA Perches, which are underwater robotic submersibles, with the help of local Navy contractors.</p>
<p>Other: this summer I will hopefully either par</p>
<p>participate in the Governor’s School Spanish Program or the Virginia Commenwealth University’s Russian program*
sorry, I accidently posted before I was done typing</p>
<p>Too early to tell. Take your SAT again and subject tests, continue to stay involved in extracurriculars and keep your GPA up, build relationships with a teacher(s) to get a good recommendation(s), and write good essays. There are a myriad of factors involved, including an interview, so at this stage in the game I would just focus on school and doing what you’re already doing rather than potentially stressing unnecessarily for over a year about factors that are precarious.</p>
<p>As WizK points out, the testing is what you need to focus on next. Look at it this way - if you’ve spent a couple thousand hours achieving the excellent grades you’ve earned, it’s worth taking a few weekends to bone up for the SAT and SAT II’s. Don’t be afraid to take the SAT’s a third time if necessary, as GU like most schools will superscore. Right now, they’re precariously low - barely into the middle 50%. (Note that GU doesn’t use the writing portion of the SAT - know your application process!)</p>
<p>The EC’s are okay, but it might help to get involved in student government along with the ‘clubs’. (Clubs can be a little suspect, because schools never know whether being ‘founder and president’ of a club means that you and your buddy started a club that has no existence or objection other than the creation of a line on your application.)</p>
<p>Also, bear in mind that the SFS may well be the toughest of the schools at GU to get into, so you may have to decide between Walsh and the College.</p>
<p>I plan on taking the Spanish and US History SAT Subject tests and I’m 99% sure I can get a 780-800 on Spanish and probably in the high 700’s for history. My low point on my application will probably be my math SAT score, but does it really matter all that much for the SFS since I probably won’t be using too much math? And I would do student government but it’s a little late now that I’m a junior. I’m literally in every single club at my school except SCA and ecology though.</p>
<p>Low SATs can hurt you, irrespective of whether you’re applying to SFS or another school. On the other hand, SATs are hardly the whole picture, and your other “numbers” (i.e., GPA, rank, Subject Tests - IF you perform as well as you predict) are solid. They will look at the non-numbers stuff too, so just focus on what you can improve and/or control and don’t worry about things that you can’t control (although it sounds like you’ll be taking another shot at the SAT). Great essays can be very important, especially for applicants whose numbers might not “wow” the adcom.
Good luck!</p>
<p>my history teacher said the lowest score a student of hers has ever gotten is a 710 on the subject test and I speak Spanish. About how much do the SAT I scores count? I have a feeling that those are probably going to be my Achilles heel. I’m probably going to apply for ED at Cornell’s School of Arts and Sciences to try to major in China and Asia-Pacific Studies as well since they have a relatively high rate of ED acceptance.</p>
<p>If I’m not mistaken, Georgetown only looks at your CR and math score. If you can raise them both to 700+, you’ll be in good shape. I’d advise getting a prep book and doing some practice – the best way to do well on the SAT is to become familiar with the types of questions they ask. The SAT forum here on CC has some great study tips, so I’d advise looking around in there. Your SAT scores aren’t great, but they aren’t bad, especially only having taken it once. Raising it to 700+ shouldn’t be tough.</p>
<p>Would you prefer to go to Cornell over Georgetown? An ED acceptance at Cornell will blow any chance you have of becoming a Hoya.</p>
<p>Im not going to visit cornell until spring break, but from everything ive seen I would love to go to either one. If I apply to cornell ED and georgetowm EA I figure I have a pretty decent chance of getting accepted to one of them</p>
<p>it may be an important thing to note that Georgetown does Restrictive EA. That is to say, you can only apply to EA schools if you apply to GTown EA, but they won’t allow you to apply anywhere ED. Furthermore, ED to Cornell would be a binding contract guaranteeing matriculation if you are accepted (unless of financial considerations, but Cornell is pretty generous), so you may want to decide which school you like more instead of trying to play the ED acceptance rate numbers game. GTown is one of the few schools more selective in early round than in regular round as well.</p>
<p>All of which mean that if you want to apply early, it’ll be one or the other. Visit the schools or talk to current students to get a feel for the campus life, competitiveness, work/internship opportunities, stress, school spirit, or all the other subtle intangibles you can’t get off a website that are major factors in deciding which one is your top choice.</p>
<p>KidfromtheBeach is right on ED and EA. You really DO have to understand clearly what those two are and how even Restricted EA still allows you only to apply to that one. If you try to apply to both and one finds out, both will be rescinded. Don’t take that chance. There are many other universities that have non-restricted EA, however, and you can apply to those until the cows come home. (My son was accepted at four before Thanksgiving.) The key is really knowing what you want and making only the one ED OR Restricted EA.</p>
<p>Laplatinum said, “If you try to apply to both and one finds out, both will be rescinded.”</p>
<p>Lap, there’s really no “try” about it. Colleges rely upon HS counselors to enforce ED and EA rules, and all of your applications will go through the counselors. Unless they’re lousy or sleazy, they will not send counselor recommendation letters that violate the rules, because they don’t want to risk being ‘blackballed’ by colleges. It just isn’t worth it. </p>
<p>So, rather than saying, “Here’s what happens if you try it and get caught,” it’s probably better to just tell someone that he or she will not even have the opportunity to cheat.</p>