Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Amherst College
1

<p>Hi, just wondering if anyone could give me a rough estimate as to my chances at Amherst</p>

<p>Currently a junior at a competitive private school, in top 20% seeing as how my school does not rank numerically</p>

<p>White Male, (but I’m also a first generation Croatian national, so dunno if thats worth anything)</p>

<p>Freshman Year: Took most competitve schedule offered to freshmen (Alg. 2, Honors and some seminar classes)</p>

<p>Sophmore Year: Took most competitve schedule offered to sophmores: (Honors English II, AP Stats)</p>

<p>Junior Year: I’m in all honors or AP’s w/1 study hall (AP US, Honors Spanish IV, AP Chemistry, Honors PreCal, Honors English IV which means I’m taking the AP English Language test, and Honors Green Campus which is an application class that deals with environmental issues affecting our school)</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule (tentative): AP Euro, AP Spanish, AP Comparative Gov., Political Issues, Honors Physics, AP Calc. BC, AP English, and a Study Hall</p>

<p>SAT: 680 M, 700 CR, 760 W (taking 2 more times)
PSAT: 219 selection index, so possible National Merit
Taking ACT in April and SAT II’s in May</p>

<p>EC’s:
-Member of 3x State Champion Varsity Wrestling Team
-2x State Qualifier in Wrestling, took 4th this year
-Freestyle+Greco State Champion
-Member of NC Jr. National Freestyle+Greco Team, Member of NC East Coast Duals Team, Member of NC Disney Duals Team
-Competed at Junior Nationals for Team NC
-Volunteer/Shadow at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center doing research in Plastics and Reconstruction
-Tutor Hispanic children at local elementary school
-Member of NHS, Mu Alpha Theta, Spanish Honors Society
-President/Co-Founder of Film Club, Scientific Theory Club, and Badminton Club
-Member of Enivornment Club, Democratic Student Union and Celebrate Diversity Club (hold positions but didn’t found or anything like that)
-Class Secretary Freshman year
-Honorable Mention in Toshiba Exploravision Contest
-Chemistry Olympiad
-Have a steady job if that counts</p>

<p>Summer Plans: Living with a host family in Argentina for a month, working, probably going to Junior Nationals for wrestling again</p>

<p>Will probably have solid Recs from good teachers who know me and I can usually write a good essay when it counts</p>

<p>Thank you for reading and giving feedback if you did!</p>

2

<p>The good:
- obvious commitment to and skill at wrestling. Unfortunately, Amherst doesn't have a wrestling team, so you can't get recruited for that.
- Being a varsity athlete while holding down a job and keeping your grades up is very demanding. well done there
- You are taking a very demanding schedule</p>

<p>The less good:
- Your current SAT scores (except writing) are towards the bottom end of what accepted students usually get. (See the common</a> data set for the distribution of enrolled students' scores and remember that the accepted students average will be higher) If you could boost your math and cr, that would help you out. Your writing score is fine.
- You have a ton of EC's, which can make you look like a serial-joiner/resume-whore if you don't present it right.</p>

<p>The indeterminate:
- Your in the top 20%, do you have any guess where you fall within that? What's your weighted/unweighted GPA? Failing that, what's your distribution of A's and B's?
- essays and recs, obviously</p>

<p>My advice:
Focus your SAT prep on math and cr. A 50 point boost in each would put you well within the accepted students range and let the adcoms focus on the rest of your application. Of course, if you do much better on the ACT, that will be a moot point. Choose the SATII tests that you feel give you the best chance at scoring high.</p>

<p>Focus your presentation of your ECs. From what I can see, you basically have 4 major categories of activities about which you are really passionate and invest the most time: wrestling, science, spanish, and community service (and work). You need to focus your presentation on those major areas and cull out your other activities (like class secretary freshman year) which aren't as impressive on their own right and don't fit in with your story. I'm not sure whether you should include Film Club and Badminton Club, since they don't really fit your narrative but founding a club is fairly impressive. If you really are passionate about those two, then include them.</p>

<p>The design of the common app may make it difficult for you to present your EC's the way I suggest. What I did was to include more detail in the "more information" box at the end of the common app. In your case, I would suggest creating a major heading for each of you major activities (Wrestling, Science, Spanish, Community Service) and plug your activities/accomplishments under the appropriate categories, giving them each a line or two of detail. You might also want an "Other" category, under which you can include your work experience, plus Film club and Badminton if you decide to include them.</p>

<p>It would also help if you focus your essays so that they portray the same person as your EC's. Remember that Amherst doesn't have interviews, so the way they get to know you is through your essays. If you can carry a coherent narrative of yourself throughout your application, you will really be able to show them who you are. Get some good editors who know you well to read your essays, not only for content and style, but also to make sure that the person portrayed by the essay is actually you.</p>

<p>Bottom line:
You certainly have a good shot of acceptance. If you can get good recs and craft your application and essays to paint a coherent picture of who you are (and maybe bump your scores up a bit), you will have as good a chance as anybody.</p>

3

<p>One more thing. If you are interested in studying the environment, Amherst is creating an Environmental Studies interdisciplinary major starting next year.</p>

4

<p>Thank you Catfish, that is probably the best response I could've hoped for.</p>

<p>My cumulative GPA is somewhere between a 4.4-4.6 W and about a 3.8 UW which basically means that I got all A-'s to A+'s except one B+ the first semester of AP US (I was crushed) ;)</p>

<p>I am taking the SAT two more times, so hopefully that grade will go up.</p>

<p>I can see what you mean about the extra EC stuff. Odds are a lot of that won't end up on my application. As for badminton, it's just a club for kids who don't play sports to get a sports credit, it's not competitive.</p>

<p>Well, thank you for the feedback and if there is anything else you can throw in it would be greatly appreciated!</p>

5

<p>Your very welcome. Your grades should be fine as long as you can keep them up. One B+ won't hurt you, especially if you end up doing well on that AP test.</p>

<p>As for EC's, you don't need to cut too much if you can organize it properly. What you don't want is a laundry list of 8 dozen clubs and activities with no rhyme or reason, because that makes you look like a serial joiner who only did all those to build your resume. But, if you can organize them and show that they are really only aspects of the 4-5 things you really care about, the adcoms will see that they form a cohesive whole.</p>