Chances??

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston College
1

<p>Rising senior in Massachusetts school
Male
Caucasian (Italian)
Middle-Higher income bracket</p>

<p>GPA: 3.96 UW/ 4.87 W</p>

<p>Rank: 4 of 230
-Might be higher, not sure</p>

<p>ACT:
Math: 36
English: 31
Science: 30
Reading: 26
Composite: 31</p>

<p>Math: 32
English:34
Science: 30
Reading: 29
Composite: 31</p>

<p>Best/Superscore:
Math: 36
English: 34
Science: 30
Reading: 29
Composite: 32</p>

<p>Math II - 710
Math I - 750
-Taking Math II, Physics, and Biology in October and probably again in November</p>

<p>EC’s
-Student Government - Class President 4 years
Student Council - all 4 years
Spanish Club - 3 years
Ping Pong Club - 2 years
Band - have played the trumpet since 5th grade
******* - Marching Band - 4 years
******* - Pit Band - 4 years
******* - Concert Band - 4 years (section leader, first chair trumpet)
******* - Jazz Band - 4 years
As Schools Match Wits - Local highschool game show competition
Council of Peer Educators - 3 years
National Honor Society
Key Club
Varsity Baseball-League Champs
Varsity Indoor track</p>

<p>-Have volunteered at local hospital setting up fundraisers for cancer patients.
-Have volunteered over 30 hours for baseball clinics and camps
-Have over 20 hours of other hours at various events
-Have about 100 hours of tutoring Math/Precalc as volunteer</p>

<p>I have taken very rigorous courseload (as seen by weighted GPA).
I am taking AP psych, AP bio, and AP calc senior year, haven’t taken any yet
Our school requires many prerequisites for the AP’s you can take, block scheduling doesn’t help either.
Our highschool is in the top 10% for MCAS scores as well.
Our highschool sends about 4 or 5 kids to top universities every year.</p>

<p>Awards:
Rotary Youth Leadership Award - sophomore year
Massachusetts Boys State 2009
George Eastman Young Leaders Award
Bausch and Lomb Science Award</p>

<p>Possible majors: Math, Biology, Biomedical Engineering</p>

2

<p>explain your gpa scale it makes no sense compared to a normal one. its odd that you took act living in mass. you have a decent shot</p>

3

<p>A in AP or Honors is a 5…highest anyone has right now is 4.9</p>

4

<p>Dear nardi925 : First reaction - what a varied set of individual test scores! With regards to your ACT scores, swings of 4 points in an ACT (36 down to 32) Math section (similar to an SAT swing of 800 down to 700), are typically red flags on their own however you have three sections with swings of 3 points or more! Honestly, I have not seen a college confidential posting with similar ranges. While superscoring is a common topic on Board testing, suppose we only took the worst scores : 32, 31, 26, 26 … and we are looking at a composite of 28. You can easily see that your scores can swing from the bottom quartile right through to the 75th percentile. </p>

<p>In your case, you should speak with Boston College admissions about this type of range. You need to likely produce some evidence as to which set of numbers are the “real you” in some of these areas. As you are coming from Massachusetts, you might well be more open to more criticism about this range than if you were from a more far-off area in the country. A visit to Boston College’s admissions department might help you get better insight on this range and possible implications for your acceptance.</p>

<p>Your average, class rank, and activities are compelling. Certainly winning the Bausch and Lomb award (University of Rochester) should make that school a safety application for you which should help to set the bar on the schools you are investigating.</p>

<p>Yours is an interesting application with some testing variances that are hard to explain. It is almost as if I would have preferred to see back-to-back composite scores of 31 without any further subscore breakdowns.</p>

5

<p>Thank you very much scottj. Do you think other parts of the application, including the transcript, could offset the discrepencies in test scoring? What’s your advice on taking the test again, because I was planning on it to get a single seating of a higher composite. What other advice would you give? Could SAT II’s help out on the differences?</p>

6

<p>wow seeing as honors/ap are weighted the same and you will only take 3 aps. Your chances are lowered. seems like a reach</p>

7

<p>Dear mardi925 : Let me restate one of the phrases from my last paragraph - “Yours is an interesting application…”. Based on what I see, you should definitely file an application if you believe that Boston College remains of interest to you.</p>

<p>Regarding standardized test scores, we tend to spend much time in these threads discussing these scores since we see more of those numbers than all of the components in your full transcript. Of course your transcript will provide a more complete personal picture of you as a student, so it is always possible that your four year performance parameters can override the results from a four hour test.</p>

<p>I am somewhat lost as to why you have SAT II subject scores in the 700+ range, but you have not exposed any SAT I scores. (Do not bother taking any of the Math subject tests again now that you have 700+ scores - your AP Calc curriculum will be more valuable anyway provided you take the associated AP exam.) Taking the SAT I this Fall might provide another (better) testing option for you as opposed to a third round of ACT testing - in the Fall, you actually should be able to take both exams one more time before application time. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>