Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
1

<p>Sorry, I know this is annoying but I am very worried about my chances of getting into WashU. WashU is my first choice and I am applying ED this year. My grades are not bad but what really worries me are my very low SAT scores, I can't seem to test well at all. I am an Asian female from a very competitive private school (does not rank students, 84 people in my class) that WashU seems to favor. </p>

<p>GPA: weighted 3.9, unweighted 3.7</p>

<p>SAT scores (taken twice, I am taking one more in Oct but not expecting a much better score, I know these are really, really low):
Reading-620
Writing-640
Math-600
total=1860
Subject test: Chinese Lit 760</p>

<p>APs(current): AP English 12, AP Envi Sci, AP Art History, AP Cambridge Capstone 12*</p>

<p>APs/honors (that i have taken): AP Chinese (9th grade), AP English 11, AP US History, AP Cambridge Capstone 11*, Chinese 5 honors (10th)
so including this year's APs I will have taken a total of 8 APs in my high school career.</p>

<p>*Cambridge Capstone is a course by Cambridge University (in the UK) in conjunction with Collegeboard. Only 15 schools in the world are doing it, it is a 2 year global perspectives course that requires me to send research reports and projects to Cambridge University for review. I took the AP test for this and received a 5</p>

<p>I am part of Chinese Honors society, I was on honor roll all 4 years</p>

<p>ECs:
Varsity Equestrian (4 yrs),
Varsity Lacrosse (4 yrs),
Varsity Golf (2 yrs),
Writer for school literary magazine (4 yrs),
Robotics (1 yr),
Tech Captains (1 yr),
Leader of Christian club (4 yrs),
community service (helped disabled children learn to ride horses, spent summer before 11th grade in China teaching elementary school kids English)
Spent this summer doing an internship at a travel company in Taiwan
Orchestra 2nd chair violist (4 yrs)</p>

<p>I think my letters of rec will be good and so is my essay. I have shown a lot of interest in this school (i.e, visited, applying ED, mailing list) and I hope to do an interview once I submit my common app.</p>

<p>I am applying to WashU's school of design and visual arts as a Communication design major, so I am sending in an art portfolio as well. I hope to minor in either Writing or Philosophy.</p>

<p>If anyone has any honest feedback it would be much appreciated! :)</p>

2

<p>I am honestly not very hopeful at this point because of my SAT scores, so if anyone has any perspective on my scores in terms of WashU standards that would be very helpful. I am a hardworking and good, solid student. And i suppose the fact that I am applying as an art major might factor me in a bit differently/will be taken into consideration (i am not going for anything highly competitive like pre-med) but I am not sure.</p>

3

<p>I agree with your self evaluation. Everything but SAT look solid. Have you considered taking the ACT? Even though they are both standardized tests, many students who struggle with the critical thinking based SAT find the more knowledge based ACT easier.</p>

4

<p>Yes I tried the ACT but I received the same score I did on the SAT. I chose to stick with the SAT because I was more familiar with it. I keep getting in the 700s (in reading and writing) and around 650 (math) for practices so I think it may just be that I have nerves whenever I take it for real. Thanks for your feedback! :)</p>

5

<p>Well, in that case then I’d aim for at the very least a 2000, but ~2150 would be better (obviously). As it is, I can’t see washu being anything other than a high reach for you. Sorry, but best of luck!</p>