Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston College
1

<p>White Catholic Male
Florida
Small Private Catholic High School</p>

<p>All through my HS career I have taken the single hardest course curriculum offered to me. This includes all honors courses and well as 8 AP’s total.*
*<em>9th-AP World
*</em>11th-APUSH, AP Lang & Comp
**12th-AP Chem, AP Calc AB, AP Lit & Comp, AP Gov and Politics, AP Macroeconomis</p>

<p>W GPA 4.14
UW GPA 3.67
ACT- 29 Twice
SAT-taking in Oct and Nov (possibly December)
Class rank- I am not sure to be honest. As well, I have a concern here. My freshman year I was at a highly competitive Public high school (top 10 in nation) and enrolled in the pre-IB program and in an AP course. Due to the competitive nature of the school and courseload, my GPA suffered and is now negatively affecting my class rank. (I believe I’m right at or below top 25%. {terrible, I know). Will they be able to see this and realize this, or should I mention it somewhere in my app?*</p>

<p>Extracarricular
*<em>Varsity Track-named best male sprinter by coaches 11-12
*</em>Varsity <em>Football 10-11
*</em>Youth Group-inudes numerous mission and service projects (over 500 hours.) As well , I participated in ND Vision and am a leading member in my youth group’s leadership team- 9-12
*<em>National Honors Society-Senior year I am an officer in my NHS Chapter serving as Parlamentarian. As well, i’ve done service work with habitat for humanity through NHS-10-12 *
*</em>Boy Scouts-I have achieved the rank of Eagle Scout which required the planning and execution of a large scale project. As well, I’ve worked on numerous other projects totaling over 100 hours of service)-9-11
*<em>Prom Committee-fundraising, planning, decorating, organizing, and cleaning up or school’s junior/senior prom. 11
*</em>Student Council Vice President-12th</p>

<p>Community Service
*<em>Soul in the City-a nmission trip to Orlando where, with my youth group, I helped a school in the poorest part of Orlando prepare for the upcoming school year by doing things such as landscaping and mulching the outside and well as preparing classrooms for teacher- 300 hours
*</em>God’s Katrina Kitchen-a mission trip to mississippi where I helped in drywalling and tiling houses which had been devastated by hurricane Katrina. -75 Hours
*<em>Habitat for Humanity-consisted of sodding the lawn of a home that habitat for humanity had recently built-6 Hours
*</em>Soup Kitchen-includes serving and preparing food to the local homeless and poor-15 Hours
*<em>Eagle Projects-projects included renovating a local baseball parks storage shed, builiding a wooden walkway at a local basball park, building picnic tables for a local school, and my own eagle scout project which included renovating my sisters local daycare-100 Hours
*</em>Book-Sale set up-helped a local school prepare for the coming school year-15 Hours</p>

<p>Awards, Recognitions (help here. Feel weak here. Do I need to describe them or anything like that?)
*<em>National Honors Society
*</em>Spanish National Honors Society
*<em>First and Second Honors
*</em>Named best male sprinter on the track team.
*<em>Eagle Scout
*</em>Recieved two service awards for the completion of over 100 service hours in a single school year </p>

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2

<p>Any feedback at all?</p>

3

<p>If your GPA has suffered because of freshman year I think they would understand. But it’s not like it doesn’t exist (freshman year)</p>

<p>Anyways I would say you have a good shot. The only thing you can really do now is up your ACT score, which is still good, but if you have any more opportunities to get higher (ie next test dates) you should take them.</p>

4

<p>Well, doesn’t BC superscore the ACT? If that is the case, I would have a 30 which puts mr right in the middle 50th percentile.</p>

5

<p>Anyone please give me feedback.</p>

6

<p>lol i love the random rankings of schools.</p>

7

<p>I’m confused ^. What are you talking about?</p>

8

<p>Dear ufcollins : On board scores, your ACT score of 29 (double) pretty well establishes where you are in that space. In recent years, the ACT baselines have increased over what you see on the College Board’s website, making 29 somewhere closer to the 25th percentile. As we have seen over the last several years here on College Confidential, the ACT score of 29 has been a real rejection point on many applications; it is a very tenuous score at best.</p>

<p>In terms of classwork, your AP loading is solid with eight courses (language?) although your unweighted GPA is slightly low at 3.67. Lowered GPA related to adavanced courses should be accounted for in your weighted 4.14 average. The idea of advanced work is that difficulty increases, hence the weighting. However this is why class rank also factors into the equation to see how you performed against your top 10% peers. Sorry, but at the end of the day, this is a competition.</p>

<p>The community service picture is interesting if you can turn the activities into impact statements. Similar with your activity leadership roles.</p>

<p>At this point, you are probably a 40-for/60-against shot if you add some nice essays into your Board Score presentations. That said, you could well have some magic in those activities that will come out in your essays to tilt the teeter-totter. Good luck in your application phase!</p>

9

<p>“top 10 in nation” public</p>

10

<p>My freshman year school was ranked 5th on U.S. News’ report this year. </p>

<p>As for my rank, there are only a handful of students who i feel are better students and should be ranked higher than me. Of the 20-something students in front of me, I feel confident saying that at least 10 of them have never stepped foot in an AP class. This is why my class rank suffers. They’re freshman year the spent it with honors or standard courses at a much easier school and cruised through with A’s. I was at a premier public IB school in pre-IB and AP courses with A’s and B’s.</p>

11

<p>Dear ufcollins : My experience from both teaching and recruiting at the collegiate level shows that a signficant percentage of the students that form the top 5-10% of any class of 300 or more are consistently the academic achievers who appear in the most advanced courses offered in the curriculum.</p>

<p>If that is not the case in your situation, you will need to have your guidance counselor very explicitly detail this in a letter that accompanies your transcript. Further, you might want to consider having your principal or counselor contact your BC admissions counselor to explain your situation if you feel that somehow your participation in the International Baccalaureate program harmed you. However, before having that call made, a word of sincere caution : Both AP and IB are viewed in very much the same light, particularly at BC. Highlighting weakness without reason in an IB program could also flag your AP performances. Hence, take care in moving down that path.</p>

<p>Lastly, a personal perspective : the only things more useless than college rankings are high school rankings. While A ranking reference makes for a nice cover page on a High School year book, it is student performance that ultimately is the key point, not the institution.</p>