<p>Hello, my name is Tyler and I have never been into the whole Ivy League thing. However, when I found out that if your family makes less than 60,000 a year you can get a full ride I quickly became interested. I am currently a junior so I still have some things to do to get ready for college, but I thought I would get a preliminary opinion. OK so here is my info.</p>
<p>GPA: 4.078
Rank: 1 of 714
Public High School
ACT( took as sophomore taking it again in like 2 weeks): 29 (hoping for 33)</p>
<p>Schedule: 10th
Honors Chem
ACC Algebra II
Spanish III
AP History (got a 4 on the exam)
English 10
Health
Drawing Fundamentals (got thrown in I hate art lol)</p>
<p>11th
AP Government (haven’t taken exam yet)
English 11
Organic Chem
Analytical Chem
Bio II
Econ
ACC Trig
Spanish IV</p>
<p>Prospective 12th grade schedule
AP Calc BC
AP Bio
AP Chem
AP Spanish (spanish V)
English 12
Newspaper/Brit Lit/Sociology (i dont know yet)</p>
<p>Extra Curricular</p>
<p>Science Olympiad
Driven Club (christian club)
Spanish Club
Spanish Honors Society
NHS
Varsity Tennis
Young Republicans</p>
<p>I come from an extremely low income family (Less than 15000 a year.) My parents are divorced and I live with my mom. I am a first generation college attendee.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your help. I know these can be annoying. Please be brutally honest</p>
<p>you’re a shoo in…</p>
<p>or maybe you have no chance…</p>
<p>nobody knows :O</p>
<p>Your ACT score is low. You also might want to play down the Young Republicans and Christian Club. Those kinds of activities aren’t popular among Ivy League admissions officials. No joke.</p>
<p>Otherwise, I don’t necessarily think you have any problems with your coursework and activities. You’ll need to show more leadership in whatever you do, though.</p>
<p>jamescchen – that is NOT true, NO college admissions officer would look down on Young Republicans or Christian Club activities. There are Young Republicans and Christians at all Ivies. If anything, it strengthens your applications, since schools are looking for diversity. </p>
<p>And your ACT and SAT scores are looked at in context with your high school and socioeconomic status, as well as first-gen college. Yes, try to get a higher score – you have plenty of time to work on that. A 29 as a sophomore is pretty good.</p>
<p>Thanks guys, Im running for spanish honors society president so hopefully ill get that.</p>
<p>“that is NOT true, NO college admissions officer would look down on Young Republicans or Christian Club activities.”</p>
<p>Want to bet? Do a search on political donations at sites like Open Secrets, and look at the lopsided giving to Democrats at places like Brown and Harvard. I’d say 15:1 or even 20:1 giving in favor of Democrats is commonplace. No bias there. Now move along…nothing to see here.</p>
<p>The fact that graduates from these schools give money to Democrats has absolutely, positively NOTHING to do with who is accepted at these schools. You are claiming that there is bias, that admissions officers actually put black marks on applicants who are not Democrats. That is so far from the truth as to be absurd.</p>
<p>From all I know, fireandrain is correct in this matter.</p>
<p>No admissions officer would dock students for participation in church groups or Young Republican clubs. As was noted, it could even provide a (slight) advantage, as Brown (to be blunt) needs at least a few political dissenters. </p>
<p>However, it is true that a student’s essay about his or her yearning for a Marxist utopia might be better received than one that rails against gay marriage or is otherwise overly conservative. (bias for the far-left over very conservative)</p>
<p>Thanks, Kicharo. But I would argue that there would not be a bias against an essay that revealed a student’s disapproval of gay marriage, as long as it was well-written and revealed more about the student than the issue.</p>
<p>There is an element of self-selection here. Very conservative high school students are applying to Oral Roberts University, not Brown. The conservative bastions of this country are in the south and west (Utah, etc.), where Brown and other Northeastern schools see few applicants.</p>
<p>I’m referring to political donations by employees of Harvard and Brown (et. al.), not just its graduates. As an applicant to Brown, you would have to be suicidal or have the biggest balls in the world to write an admissions essay stating your opposition to gay marriage. It certainly would get noticed by the committee.</p>
<p>Would someone with liberal tendencies and children about to apply to Brown be willing to test their theory on the admissions committee being open to conservative thoughts?</p>
<p>Again, what does the political donations of employees have to do with who admissions accepts?</p>
<p>And I will stand by my statement that an applicant who writes about their opposition to gay marriage or their support of intelligent design would not be discriminated against.</p>
<p>Most of the applicants are liberal. Most of the students and faculty are liberal. That does not mean there is overt discrimination in the admissions office against people who are conservative.</p>
<p>And why on earth would someone who has liberal tendencies lie in their admission essay and say they are conservative? That would result in a rejection.</p>