Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
1

<p>SAT:
Highest math: 750
Highest verbal: 690
One sitting highest: 1400</p>

<p>Writing: 620 (retaken)
Math 1C: 750
Literature: 610</p>

<p>GPA:
W: 4.4, UW: 3.6
Rank: 10/607</p>

<p>EC:
Tennis (4 yrs), President/Founder of a club, Co-president of NHS, Vice-President of Class (2 yrs), Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership ambassador/junior counselor, Academic Decathalon (varsity), regularly attends city council meetings to address concerns in the animal shelter.</p>

<p>Bad:
Last semester of junior year grades:
B
B-
B-
C+
C+</p>

<p>Should I apply early?</p>

2

<p>Unless you are a URM, or have some other major hook, your chances are not that great because of relatively low verbal/writing scores, and less then stellar grades...</p>

3

<p>URM? what's that?</p>

4

<p>The test scores wouldn't necessarily blow you out of the water, but I'm afraid that the second semester junior year grades will. </p>

<p>You don't want to go to Swat if you are struggling in high school courses. A "B" or two won't kill you, but that dip is pretty much across the board. The Swat adcoms would look at is as doing a disservice to you. The place is challenging academically.</p>

5

<p>those are all AP's...</p>

<p>my first semester grades were
a
a
a
b
b</p>

<p>but my parents were going through a divorce... things were pretty shaky.</p>

6

<p>taken in context, your grades can't be as bad as the other posters think. if you're in the top 2% of your class, i think your school must just be hard on grading!</p>

7

<p>URM is under-represented minority (African American or Hispanic).</p>

<p>It's true that your class rank is high despite the grades. It won't hurt to try applying, I guess... Just make sure you have a good back-up plan...</p>

8

<p>do your grades show a decline (did you get mostly As in 9th,10th grades)?</p>

9

<p>yes. i think that's going to be a bad thing?</p>

<p>i'm having a teacher send in a special rec about my situation which she knows all about. no, i'm not a URM.</p>

10

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<br>

<p>That's the best way to handle it.</p>

<p>I'm just trying to be realistic. Swarthmore is probably the hardest liberal arts college in the country to get into and may be the most challenging school academically outside of the tech schools. </p>

<p>The adcoms have a "checklist" of things to look at on your academic transcript. Very few applications have checks next to everything: hardest courses, three sciences, four years math, four years English, 4+ years of at least one language, high test scores, top class rank. But, each item that doesn't have a check mark means that you have to have something else outstanding to offset it -- essays, ECs, life experiences, etc.</p>

<p>At Swarthmore, your test scores are average. As I said, they won't blow you out of the water. But, you would have to give them a reason to admit you. Add in the weak semester and I'm just afraid that the cumulative effect will be too much to overcome, especially because I don't see an outstanding EC that would make them say, "we have to have this student!"</p>

<p>Hey, maybe not. Give it a shot. I'm just trying to be realistic so you don't get your heart set on something that may not happen. I think Swat is a reach. On the plus side, your class rank is very strong. In fact, it's amazingly high considering those semester grades.</p>