<p>UW GPA: 3.7
Ethnicity: sort of mixed; Spanish last name
Gender: Female
School: some really smart Ivy League material, many non-college aspirers; great disparity in class quality depending on whether a students takes CP or Honors/AP
Course Load: about 18 Honors and AP's by senior year -- good balance of sciences and non-sciences (like Government and English)
SAT: 1960 (CR: 640, M: 600, W: 750); will take again in May AND June to ensure at least 2000 superscore, hoping for 2100 superscore</p>
<p>Awards?:
1. PSAT Commended Scholar
2. Honor Award every year (for my school)
3. AP Scholar (probably since I doubt I'd get lower than a 3 on all the tests I'm taking this May)</p>
<p>School EC's:
1. dabbled in Amnesty International, Academic Team, Cultural Diversity
2. Anime Club
3. NHS
4. Pres/Founder of Gay-Straight Alliance
5. Varsity Sabre Captain of Fencing Team</p>
<p>Outside Stuff:
1. Library
2. Women's Health Care Center
3. After-school catechism teacher
4. Hospital (working with a pharmacist)
5. Went to summer school at Columbia for American Philosophy</p>
<p>Other:
1. For recommendations: teachers will talk about how well-read, articulate, and talkative -- in a good or bad way I don't know -- I am
2. Very good at writing essays because I speak with passion I suppose
3. Got a novel deal with a publisher (Sort of smutty publisher...) that I turned down because of family reasons
4. Would be able to speak clearly and disingenuously in interviews
5. Intent on majoring in Chemistry, which I think isn't really that popular in many liberal arts colleges (when compared to, say, political science or sociology)</p>
<p>What are my chances at Swarthmore, Bowdoin, and Claremont McKenna? I realize Swarthmore is exceptionally difficult to get into (my school's very active valedictorian did not get in), but I don't know.</p>
<p>A higher SAT would be better. At least 2100, if not higher. try taking the ACT as well. And if you don't break 2150 on the SAT, I wouldn't send it to bowdoin.</p>
<p>Other than that, you look good but nothing really jumps out. Essays can be a big factor at small schools like these.</p>
<p>I'd put all of them as reasonable reaches. No guarentees, but the chance is there.</p>
<p>Bowdoin was very hard to get into this last year- they only accepted 18% and it was even lower for women. I think it would be stretch for you to get in, but not impossible. Everyone who applies to Bowdoin has a good essay and gives a good interview. </p>
<p>The Anime club probably detracts from your overall application as it's not a club admission people really like to see. Your PSAT awards and SAT scores are not outstanding- you might want to consider not sending them to Bowdoin. Also, fencing is cute and may or may not make a difference, it would be more helpful to you if you knew if those schools had fencing teams and had made contact with that team.</p>
<p>If you have a chance you should visit Bowdoin in person and see if you can connect with a professor or staff member who will send a note to admissions. The school is so small that little things like that go a long way.</p>
<p>Snowfort, I think you're being a bit down on her ECs. And I also don't think this is true: "Everyone who applies to Bowdoin has a good essay and gives a good interview."</p>
<p>It's good to try and be realistic (clove, your scores <em>are</em> rather low for these schools), but I don't think it's ever good to encourage someone to remove perfectly good/admirable extracurriculars from their list. The purpose of listing ECs isn't just to give the admissions officers an idea of what activities you might be involved in at college - it shows them that you have an interest/passion in things other than academics, and if one of those things is anime, so be it - there's nothing wrong with that (... and there is an anime club at Bowdoin, by the way).</p>
<p>PS - clove, there have been people at Bowdoin trying to pull together a fencing club since before I started here. I don't think they've ever gotten it together, but if you wanted to do it (and got in here), you'd have Bowdoin's full support, and possibly funding. Just FYI. :) Good luck with the application process - all the schools you listed are great schools, and I hope you get into one of them.</p>
<p>My team was 3rd in the state. Sabre squad qualified for squad states but ended up last (but at least we qualified, right?).</p>
<p>But I don't see how being in a club for four years (anime club) could be bad; I doubt that those schools expect EVERYBODY to be interested ONLY in academia and the typical volunteer work and fundraising that most do.</p>
<p>So anyway, yeah, I'm taking my SAT's again. Hopefully they don't emphasize too much on them. Do you think they like good essays? Because writing's pretty much all I can do. I mean, I could always try to get a contract back with Bloomsbury and put down that I published a novel...but I don't know if I want to run the risk of my family finding my work and, um, not paying for college at all.</p>