Competetive College Chance

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am a senior this year and have a 3.7 GPA with unprepared 29 act so will go up.</p>

<p>classes:
Freshman year: Enriched English I, Physical Science, Amer Govt, Geometry, Spanish 1
Sophomore: Biology, Intro to Biz, Enriched English II, Spanish II, Algebra II, American Hist.
Junior: AP World Histroy, AP Lit, Chemistry, Marketing, Spanish III, Functions/Trig, Journalism, Yearbook</p>

<p>Senior Year (this year): Anthropolgoy, AP Lang, AP Psych, Calculus, Journalism II, Leadership</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>-Spanish club 4 yrs
- HOLA (leadership assosiation) 4 yrs
- YIA (youth in action) 2 yrs and leader this year
-LGBTA 2 yrs and head of advertising this year
- Enviropeace 1 year then club was cancelled
- Character Counts 4 yrs and leader this year
-Montage (literary magazine) 2 yrs
- Newspaper 4 yrs
- Yearbook 1 yr</p>

<p>Sports:
Horseback riding my whole year
snowboarding 4 </p>

<p>looking to apply to schools such as Depaul University, Loyola Chicago University, UW-Madison, U of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Boston University, USC, NYU, Columbia (a huge reach but my dream school), University of San Francisco, University of Washington, University of Denver, New Hampshire University, University of Vermont. Obviously some of these are more safety schools and some are huge reaches.</p>

2

<p>You’re applying to too many safeties which will waste your time. </p>

<p>Columbia - reach
USC, NYU - high matches to low reaches
UW-M, UW, BU - matches
All others - low match to safeties</p>

3

<p>DePaul: Safety
Loyola Chicago: Safety
UVT: Safety
UNH: Safety
Denver: Safety
UWA: Low match/Match
UWI: Low match/Match
USF: Safety
UMinn: Low match
Columbia: Reach
USC: Reach
NYU: High match
BU: Match</p>

4

<p>Hi Maddy :slight_smile: while I can’t speak for all of the colleges listed, I can tell you a little bit about my experience. </p>

<p>I graduated High School with a 3.6 GPA, and a 2120 on the SAT. My classes were as follows:</p>

<p>Freshman: Honors English, Honors World History, Honors Biology, Geometry, Accelerated I/II Latin, Honors French II </p>

<p>Sophomore: Honors English, AP World History, Chemistry, Trigonometry/Algebra II, Third year Latin, French III Honors, Choir</p>

<p>Junior: AP English, AP US History, Honors Physics, PreCalculus, Honors fourth year Latin, French IV Honors, Architectural drawing </p>

<p>Senior: AP English, AP Macroeconomics, AP Political Science, AP Biology, Calculus, Accelerated I/II German, AP French V, Shakespeare, Art and Literature of Cinema, Psychology</p>

<p>I participated in Youth to Youth (similar to SADD), wrote for the school newspaper for 4 years, ran track for 2 years, and worked at a local historic society for one year writing and performing secretarial duties. There were several other extra curricular activities such as a tutoring program K participated in for 2 years but I won’t get into them since they were not highlights. </p>

<p>Anyway, I applied to the following schools:
Boston University, Boston College, Tufts University, College of the Holy Cross (Worcester), Colby University, Wellesley Women’s college, Bowdoin College, and Brown University (which was my dream school). </p>

<p>I was accepted at Boston University, wait-listed at Wellesley and Holy Cross, and rejected from the rest. What can I say? It was a heart-breaking experience. My advice is: you can never have too many safeties. You may be rejected from or wait-listed at every one of your higher schools, and only get into safeties (though this is highly unlikely). If you do get accepted at all the safeties, you may find that only one or two of them offer you substantial financial aid. It can never hurt to have backup. </p>

<p>I got very lucky in that BU gave me a TON of financial aid, otherwise I would have been dead in the water. Out of all your schools, I would say that BU is definitely top tier (though once again I can’t really speak on behalf of the others). </p>

<p>Another important component of applications is class rank. My HS did not provide class rank or percentiles. Therefore, it was difficult for colleges to compare me to other incoming freshman. Do you have a class rank? If so, would you mind sharing it? That would be very helpful in determining your chances at some of these colleges. </p>

<p>I hope that this helped you a little bit :)</p>

5

<p>Thank you to everyone who gave me input! </p>

<p>HHamilton–unfortunately my HS does not rank either, but I would guestimate that I am in the top 10% of my class if that helps! </p>

<p>Also I forgot to mention that I volunteer at We Can Ride, which is a special needs rehabilitation center with horses. I also went to Thailand the summer before my junior year and volunteered at a local village and with elephants, working to learn more about their endangerment. </p>

<p>I also got into an honors mentor program this year so instead of 7 classes I will have 5, and then those 2 hours i will eventually work with someone in the field i plan to go into, which right now is something in film/communications.</p>

<p>If this helps to decipher any of my matches then that would be helpful.</p>

<p>Also! Do you think that not having as rigorous (as in all honors or AP) courses will hurt me? My school does not offer a ton of APs and I am english person so science and math are very hard for me so I chose to stick with a better gpa than ruin it with impossible classes for me.</p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

6

<p>Well I think that you are a fabulous candidate for any college you apply to. I don’t think that lack of science will REALLY hurt or hinder you but it might cause some admissions departments to consider you as less well-rounded than other students. </p>

<p>Unfortunately class rank is very important to many universities, it allows them to compare you to all the other applicants on a pretty standard scale, so you might consider asking your guidance counselor to contact the schools you apply to and give them a few words on your behalf. I’m really not sure how to get around that :confused: but with the HS experience you have described, I’d say you should apply to a couple more ivies and some other schools that you think you’d like. Don’t limit yourself to safeties (but once again, you can never have too many safeties).</p>

7

<p>If my guidance counselor is writing me a letter of rec, should I ask her to mention class rank or that we don’t rank? We used to, maybe they still have the availability of it.</p>

<p>Do you really think I could get into an ivy? Or a school like it? I kind of thought because of my 3.7 and limited APs, I wouldn’t really have a chance</p>

8

<p>I think your guidance department will let colleges know that they don’t rank anyway, for instance with every application my guidance department sent along a pamphlet describing our school system and putting us in general percentiles based on GPA. Talk to your respective counselor about different options, and let him/her know that even if they can’t rank you, you would like it to be mentioned that you’re in the top X percentile. </p>

<p>I do think you have a good chance, but as with anyone, it will be a reach. What it will really come down to is your essay, teacher recommendations, and SAT II scores. Could you tell me what your grades were on SAT subject tests? As long as you are strong across the board, which you seem to be, then an ivy league may be a reach but it is not necessarily OUT of reach. Nothing is definite but you should at least give it a try.</p>

9

<p>I havent taken any SAT IIs because initially i didnt think i would be applying t any schools that required them. Is it too late to take them? And who requires them?</p>

10

<p>All ivy leagues require them, along with the majority of other “high end” universities. It isn’t too late to take them, but you need at least 2 tests and you should start studying now. Go on the SAT website and pick out a couple of tests to take. Whatever you’re very good at is what you should take the SAT 2 in.</p>