Chances

<p>I'm applying to the FLL, specifically for Linguistics. Would I have a chance with my current stats? What should I do to improve?</p>

<p>Male
Hispanic
Class of 2008/2012
South Florida
Private Catholic school, sends some grads to top schools
GPA: 4.1 (W)
Rank: 33/339 (~Top 9%)
PSAT: 205
SAT: 800CR 620M 720W (1420/2140)
ACT: 28</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests:
Spanish- 770 (Grade 10)</p>

<p>AP Tests/Classes:
Spanish Language- 5 (Grade 10) Youngest student in class
English Language- ? (Grade 11) Ranked 1st in class with a B+
US History- ? (Grade 11) Scheduling error; self-studied for test</p>

<p>Senior Classes:
AP English Lit
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics B
AP Computer Science AB
AP US Gov
AP Comparative Gov
AP Microeconomics
Hon. Computer Apps
AP Spanish Lit (self-studying)
AP Macroeconomics (self-studying)</p>

<p>ECs:
- 4 years in DSA (local version of Young Democrats); will be President next year
- 4 years in Model United Nations; attended 3+ major conferences and won Outstanding Delegate; 2 years as Secretary
- 3 years as freelance photographer/writer for both yearbook and newspaper
- 3 years in Spanish Honor Society
- 3 years in History Honor Society
- 2 years in Math Honor Society
- 2 years in National Honor Society
- 2 years with school's morning news; worked as anchor, editor, producer; will be an Executive Producer next year
- 2 years in Squires (service organization, rival of Key Club)
- 75+ hours volunteering</p>

<p>Awards:
- National Merit Commended; possibly Semi-Finalist
- 3rd place in a local university's Physics Olympiad; team only had 4 months of honors-level Physics
- 2nd place in a local Geography Bee; lost to the current World Champion</p>

<p>620 math ain't gonna do it. get that up and you'll have a good shot.</p>

<p>I'm planning to retake it in October. Hoping to get above 700.</p>

<p>I also got into FLL for linguistics. I'd say yeah, try to get your math score to 700 (that's what mine was) and also think about what other language-related ECs you can do. for example, i was self-studying russian and had taken a linguistics course at my comm. college, and also participated in an exchange to japan over the summer. you need to show that you're really interested in ling, and then the exact numbers of your scores will start to matter less. good luck!</p>

<p>With an 800 cr and an expressed interest in linguistics not math or science, even if you can't get your math score up you still have a shot. You should still try to get it up, but even if you can't, I think your cr scores will probably compensate at least partially.</p>

<p>My school doesn't really have any language-related ECs or programs, but I've done some stuff on my own. I've taken basic Latin lessons and taught myself to read Russian and Hebrew. I also used to be fluent in Esperanto, but I've gotten very rusty. It's not really an activity, but I've spent a lot of my free time reading language and linguistics books from my library since I was young.</p>

<p>ok, then definitely make sure you include all that info on your application. that's what's gonna set you apart from everyone else :)</p>

<p>matthewink, what resources have you used to learn Esperanto? I've tried to learn it, but evey site I went to was pretty *****ty. I think the only thing I remember is:
-Ti parolas esperanton?
-Jes, mi parolas.</p>

<p>Not to be pedantic, but that would actually be "Vi parolas esperanton?"</p>

<p>[url=<a href="http://pacujo.net/esperanto/course/%5DPacujo%5B/url"&gt;http://pacujo.net/esperanto/course/]Pacujo[/url&lt;/a&gt;] has a free e-mail based course which is a pretty good start.</p>

<p>[url=<a href="http://lernu.net%5DLernu!%5B/url"&gt;http://lernu.net]Lernu![/url&lt;/a&gt;] has a lot of good resources, including a dictionary which translates into several languages.</p>

<p>You can probably find some other sites if you look around hard enough. Wikipedia in particular has a lot of information and links to Esperanto websites.</p>

<p>It also helps a lot to know somebody who speaks it. I only got as good as I was because my friend was learning it at the same time as me and we tried to use it as much as possible.</p>

<p>Thanks for the links and correcting my mistakes. </p>

<p>About your chances... I'd say their really, really good. Of course you know you'd have to take 2 more SAT IIs, but otherwise, I tihnk your URM got you in (but I honestly don't know how much Gtown weighs it).</p>

<p>EDIT: I was reading the Pacujo site, and they said we get an online diploma. Do you think something like that would be able to go on a resume?</p>

<p>Thanks for the evaluation. I took the US History, Math IIC, and Physics SAT IIs on June 2, so I'll know my scores sometime next week.</p>

<p>I'm not really sure about the diploma, but I would just write "fluent in Esperanto" on a resume to be safe.</p>

<p>Quick update: I just got my SAT II scores.</p>

<p>US History: 760
Math II: 710<br>
Physics: 650</p>

<p>i'd say you're in. very very solid, well-rounded applicant.</p>

<p>i wouldnt say in, but def a good shot- the thing is there are some many applicants with the same stats or better- just keeping trying your best</p>