<p>I recently had a discussion with my guidance counselor in regarding my chances of acceptance for a RD at BC. He said my chances would be quite low, and that BC would be a reach for me. </p>
<p>Tests: 2090 SAT (610 CR, 750 W, 730 M)</p>
<p>32 ACT (planning on retake for both Oct, and Dec) *11 on essay. </p>
<p>740 for Chem, 740 for Math II, and 700 for Bio (also retaking them for 770+)</p>
<p>GPA: 3.42 unweighted
(What really brought me down was my junior year. Had 3.7 unweighted for both fresh and soph year.) </p>
<p>9 APs at graduation. Took AP Comp, Psych, US, Euro, and Chem and currently taking Lit, Economics, Bio, and Calc BC.</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities:
Nothing much to say here for the school. No clubs, and no sports. However, I did marching band for 4 years. </p>
<p>Outside of school I have around low 200+ hours of volunteer service (combined from helping elderly with technologies, reading for little kids, and for domestic violence), and a job I’ve been in for 3 years. </p>
<p>@iob1950:
Many schools, like BC, look at your academic profile to see if you’re capable of “doing the work”. If you’ve shown you are, then they move on to the more important parts of your application. </p>
<p>Your academics are in the range where students do get accepted.
But who is the rest of “you”? How will you enhance the makeup of the entering freshman class? </p>
<p>When you say “nothing much for ECs”, will your application convey that? Or will it convey the type of student BC values? How much have you studied to learn about BC and what it looks for in its admitted applicants? Once you’ve done that, can your take what you’ve done in the past 3.5 years and have your application reflect that?</p>
<p>Unfortunately for you, Junior year is usually the most important one on the transcript as it evidences your academic performance in more difficult courses, such as honors/AP.</p>
<p>Also, unfortunately, ~90% of matriculants to BC are in the top decile of their class, and I would be surprised if a 3.4 was top quartile in your HS.</p>
<p>Based on your transcript, you will need essays to really sing and tell your story.</p>
<p>par has a good suggestion: consider HC as a less selective Jesuit college.</p>
<p>@bluebayou
Well, the problem lies with the essay, as I don’t quite want to make my personal story to be sent as a major, “striking” to say, essay for the colleges that I’m applying to. Further, “failure” seems to be an overused prompt (at least from conversations with my colleagues) so thus, I’m planning on including this on my “additional info” part.
And yes, I do understand and realize that BC would definitely be a reach for me with given my low GPA. Still, I’m “hoping” for my high standardized scores to somehow “boost” me up and recognized what happened. With a relative 3.7 dropping all of a sudden to a 3.42, there is definitely an elephant in the room. Moreover, I’m quite working hard to receive acceptable grades for my first semester, as I realize that it can also help me in a way.
Cheers for the replies though guys. Really appreciate your comments. @jpm50 @par72 @JellyFishh </p>
<p>@jpm50 well, those are probably the students who had an average GPA of 3.78, taken from the BC admission office information.
With my 3.42, I definitely believe I’ll need some score that sounds out from them.
Thanks for the encouragements and all. Again, I appreciate them very much. </p>