Colorado College Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Colorado College
1

I have been eyeing Colorado College recently, and want to know if I have a reasonable chance or if I am wasting my time. Here’s my stats:

ACT: 30 composite (36 English, 34 Reading, 28 Science, 21 Math) and 31 Super Scored
GPA: 3.46 UW/4.03 W
Rank: 154 out of 500+ (Top 30%)
Senior Courseload: AP Gov, AP Research, AP Japanese, AP Lit, Honors Physics, Honors Intro to College Math

Highschool Context: extremely large public school that has over 25 APs, known as an extremely competitive environment (ie. often ivies+top 20s will ONLY visit our school in the whole area because they love getting our students. A lot of people say our top 20% is most schools’ top 10%)

Freshman: all honors classes
Sophomore: all honors/pre-AP classes
Junior: AP Psych, AP Seminar, AP Language, honors
Senior Courseload: AP Gov, AP Research, AP Japanese, AP Lit, Honors Physics, Honors Intro to College Math

Extracurriculars:

  1. School Literary & Art Magazine (10th - 12th) This magazine had been dying since at least 2004, and my sophomore year I made it my goal to bring it back so students could have an outlet to express themselves…I’m now the editor and our coffeehouses have the largest turnouts in years.
  1. college prep program designed to help underrepresented kids get opportunities outside of the city (10th - 12th) I'm on this programs student executive board and I also am the focus of another program where I help guide 10 young freshman through their first year of high school; I had previously led them on a wilderness expedition to help them develop leadership skills.
  2. Student Council Executive Board, Senior Commissioner of Activities (12th) I organize all events for the senior class including community service and work with the administrators and class officers to help push policies/petitions.
  3. Church Soccer (9th - 11th) I played a season every fall; had to stop because of how busy my senior year was.
  4. Work (Party Bus; my sister's dad took a bus and recreated it. He knew I needed help with money so he offered me a job to manage the consoles on the bus; i've been working weekends and partial summers there since 9th grade.)
  5. Japanese Club (9th -12th) (we interact with exchange students and learn and celebrate japanese language/culture)
  6. a leadership organization designed to help keep young black boys on track, help them succeed to college, and help them become leaders within their community. lots of community service through this organization. (11th/12th)
  7. links organization - this is actually for women but they created a special section that has an emphasis on black male youth because theres a big problem with them not succeeding in my area; they help us with leadership as well (12th)

Volunteer Work:

  1. Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 11th/12th
  2. local zoo’s halloween function 11th
  3. school’s green team, cleaning the school and collecting recycling every week 11th (had to stop because student council took the slot)
  4. Martin luther king Jr. Da of Service cleaning up the poorer portion of the city 11th/12th
  5. various other events through the leadership organization I’m in 11th/12th

Honors:
National Honors Society (11th/12th)
Distinguished Honor Roll (9th - present)
Citizenship Award (9th - present)
Honorable Mention in my state’s Letters About Literature
AP Scholar

How I Spent my Summers:
2014: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), local college honors camp, local high school’s honors camp (writing)
2015: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), Rhodes College Summer Writing Institute, Kenyon Young Writers Workshop
2016: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), Deer Hill Expeditions (where I led the kids)

Race: African American
Sex: Male
First Generation College: No, mother went to college. Father dropped out of college and is currently unemployed. I rarely see him.
Family Income: 61k
Household: 3 (my mom, my sis, and me)
Intended Major: Sociology
Hooks: URM, single parent household, love for writing/expression(?)
Weaknesses: Class Rank, C junior year in precalculus and a C currently in physics (might be able to pull the C up to a B with midterms)

2

My advice would be to emphasize the experience at Vanderbilt. That is something that sets you apart. Quite frankly, the rest of your resume is fantastic, but everyone here has phenomenal numbers. As is the case with everyone at CC, the essays are going to have a significant impact on your chances.You appear to love writing, so let that shine through in your essays.

3

@KoloradoKid Thank you so much! I am always worried that my resume isn’t very competitive (my school is unimaginably competitive so its very easy to doubt yourself)

4

Jeez, I didn’t do half of the stuff you did and I got in. I will say its muuuuuch easier getting in ED or EA if youre really set on CC. In any case, your chances of getting in are fantastic.

5

@mightve thank you!! I’m sure your gpa/act were much better than mine so maybe that is what made up for it!

6

Your URM status will help as it isn’t the most diverse school and they are working to change that. Put a lot of focus on writing strong supplemental essays that show that you “get” Colorado College. Fit is important to the admissions process.