Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
1

<p>GPA (w) : 4.46 (rank 40/420+)
GPA (uw) : 3.82 (I don't know ranking, not top 10%)
Coursework : rigorous all through highschool, IB diploma candidate taking 5 HL courses (only testing HL in four so I can get my diploma), 2 AP classes sophomore year (Euro and APES). Straight A's except in math (B in Alg2, C in PreCalc, B in the first year of Math Methods, expected to get a B or a C this year, B in first year of HL Computer Science, expected to get an A this year).
This year on top of my IB classes from last year, I'm also taking the IB required philosophy course (Theories of Knowledge), and advanced Spanish course, and aiding with credit for my Euro teacher.</p>

<p>SAT: 760 writing, 640 math, 800 reading
ACT: 31 composite, 27 math, 30 science, 36 reading, 32 english (11 on the essay)
APs : 4 AP Environmental Science, 4 AP European History, 5 AP Literature and Composition (didn't take the class, just the test)</p>

<p>ECs:
Hugh O'Brian Youth (HOBY) : high school's ambassador in 2008, one of two state scholarship recipients to the World Leadership Congress summer 2008, Junior Staff volunteer in charge of the seminar database for seminar 2009 and 2010, CLeW organiser for my county this year</p>

<p>Model UN : 4 years involvement, 3 years of leadership positions, Best Delegate award last year</p>

<p>RMI : ...this one is a little complicated to explain. Essentially, our freshman year, a friend and I decided to create a Harry Potter text-based roleplaying website to help other people develop their characterisation skills for creative writing. I built the website, keep it updated on the technical side, and run everything on the people side too.</p>

<p>Teen Court : an opportunity for first-time juvenile offenders in my county to be literally judged by a jury of their peers. Served as a juror for a year, and am going into my second year as the clerk.</p>

<p>Living Stations of the Cross : every year on Good Friday, my church puts on a sort of meditative drama of the Passion. 4 year involvement.</p>

<p>Varsity Swim Team : lettered, am going into my second year.</p>

<p>I'm also part of National Honour Society and Spanish Honour Society...which I was sort of counting as academic awards rather than ECs...? Not sure if I'm heading in the right direction with that one.</p>

<p>Rec Letters:
Teacher recs should be very good, one from Chemistry and one from European History
Counselor rec should also be good, as my IB advisor is writing it</p>

<p>Other:
Attended the Johns Hopkins Engineering Innovation this past summer</p>

<p>The things that I'm really worried about are my marks in math, my math SAT section, and my ECs (just because they're so weird and random...I'm really into everything that I do EC-wise, but it's just not very mainstream recogniseable stuff).</p>

<p>Chances/Advice?</p>

<p>Thanks ^_^</p>

2

<p>You’ve got two great ECs there. The fact that they are interesting and not mainstream is what makes them interesting. Interesting is good in college applications, at least at a place like Swarthmore.</p>

<p>The teen court is just a great EC. It fits with being a Swattie where students are expected to be peers in a community.</p>

<p>The Harry Potter thing is fun because you can take it in so many different directions: the role playing game (check out Prof. Burke’s blogs), creative writing, and web design. </p>

<p>Do some digging in the video section of the news archives at the Swat site. A first-year seminar on Harry Potter was featured on an MTV (I think) show. Video of the class discussion was linked from the Swat website. Could be something useful for your Why Swarthmore? essay where you should be trying to find a nexus between stuff that makes Swarthmore Swarthmore and stuff that makes you you.</p>

3

<p>Is your school very selective? If so, your rank can be overlooked (not within top 10%). As ID said, your ECs are very interesting. You should also consider applying ED to maximize your chances at Swarthmore and put in a compelling application with a very good ‘Why Swarthmore’ essay. </p>

<p>IB diploma might help you out as well.</p>

4

<p>thank you both very much!</p>

<p>ID : …that was amazing. Thank you! I just showed the Harry Potter thing to a friend of mine who is also considering Swarthmore (although not this year, she’s a junior) and she was just as amazed. That would be SUCH a great class to attend. And thank you for the reassurance as well–my dad has been scaring me because he says if nobody knows what something is, they’re not going to care and that I should just put things like NHS on my list instead of the activities I’m much more into/involved in.</p>

<p>achat : I don’t know, but I don’t think so. I go to a public school that’s magnet for the IB programme. So we have about 150-200 kids attending who had to apply to the programme, but for the most part we’re just a pretty good public school (about half our kids take AP tests and 92% of our IB kids get their diplomas). I’m definitely considering ED, but I may or may not do it, depending on how term grades pan out, since I’ve been rather ill and have missed a lot of school.</p>

<p>Thanks again!</p>

5

<p>That actually sounds like a very selective high school. There aren’t that many with IB programs in the country and the fact that so many are successful at it would not escape the notice of selective colleges. Plus you had to get in…so it is selective. Colleges consider the reputation of the school, the toughness of the curriculum etc.</p>

6

<p>I’m afraid I have to disagree with your dad’s advice. At a college like Swarthmore, virtually everyone who applies has the NHS, AP Scholar type stuff on their application. It’s honestly barely even worth the ink to write it down. The goal is to try to stand out in some way. Most normal people haven’t won a Nobel Prize in high school, so the way to effectively stand out is to be interesting. The admissions office is reading thousands and thousands of applications. If you can stop them and make the reader say, “Hmmmm, this kid sounds interesting, I’d like to get to know her…”, then you’ve got a leg up over at least some of the applications in the pile.</p>

<p>I believe that the best way to get accepted at elite colleges is to take something that you really love, that’s different from the same old same old in some way, and write about it effectively in your essays. Even better if it is tied in some way to an academic strength (as your interest in creative writing could be tied to your role player game website stuff). You’ve got two activies – the teen court and the Harry Potter website – that jump off the page as exactly the kind of things that make killer admissions essays. These colleges like to picture vibrant, enthusiastic young adults doing stuff they are passionate about on campus. That’s exciting. Getting top academic students is already a given. The ultimate is to earn yourself a nickname. If the admissions people start talking about that “Harry Potter” kid, you’re golden because you’ve stood out.</p>

<p>Now, I’m not saying that you will or won’t get into Swarthmore. I don’t know. I’ve only seen two chances threads in five or six years where I wrote back and said, “you are a lock”. One was a judge in teen court, BTW – in addition to having a flawless transcript (test scores, valedictorian, etc.) and being a third generation legacy!</p>

<p>PS: Your dad is right about one thing. If nobody knows about an activity, then it won’t count for much. That’s why you use the essay prompts (the main essay, the favorite activity essay, and the Why Swat? essay – to highlight the interesting things about you that you want to “pitch” to the admissions office. Too many students think these have to be dry academic essays or about world-class awards. They don’t. They are your opportunity to introduce yourself as an interesting young adult. The best essays, IMO, present a little slice of your life and make the stuff you do more than just bullet points on an EC list. For example, you could do Model UN as most meaningful activity, a Teen Court story/case as your main essay, and the Harry Potter website to riff about role playing games, and imaginative literature, and creative writing, and web design in a Why Swat essay. Or, whatever combination works for you.</p>