My daughter is only just finishing up her sophomore year, but seems to have her heart set on Boston University for a variety of reasons. I won’t bother going into that here, but I agree that it is probably a good choice for her. She is an excellent student, but in conversations with other parents in my community, including those who have older children already in college, everyone seems to say that it is very hard to get into BU.
This makes me a little bit nervous! I’m not sure if it’s really that hard to get into, or if these parents are basing their perspective on a more average achieving student than
my daughter. Here’s a profile as of third quarter sophomore year:
GPA: 95 UW, 104 W
Taking all honors and AP classes since freshman year
APUSH exam (freshman): 3
PSAT (sophomore, very little prep) 175
Entering IB diploma program next year, GPA might drop a little
Excellent writing skills
ECs: No sports, but a serious musician, has played viola with a youth orchestra for three years and is in her regular school orchestra and chamber orchestra, both first chair
NYSSMA every year, participation in All-County and other selective orchestras
Some volunteer work, planning to start a club to perform music in hospitals, nursing homes
Does Relay for Life
Thoughts?
Forgot to add French Honor Society and will be inducted into National Honor Society junior year.
Here is the Common Data Set, if you haven’t seen it: http://www.bu.edu/oir/cds/
She is in the top third for GPA. Solid ECs. Her PSAT is a bit worrying. A 1750 SAT would put her in the bottom quartile. The good news is that she will study harder for the SAT; it’s not uncommon to jump 100+ points. She really needs to focus on getting it up to 1850+. Bear in mind the 50th percentile is likely around a 1950. She should definitely take the ACT too. The middle 50% is 27-31, so if she could fetch a 29+ she’d be in better shape. The admission rate is about <37% so it’s not going to be a walk in the park for her. It’s hard to say without a firm SAT/ACT, and it’s really early days, but she is perhaps in High Match/Low Reach territory with ~1850 SAT.
Her writing skills can really pay dividends, so get a jump on the essays in junior year and identify some great topics/content which really portray who she is. Show interest in the school any way she can and butter up the teachers/GC for solid recs. If she can pull all of that off (especially SAT & good essays!), she might not be any worse than a coin toss, which, for a school that your heart is set on, is not that bad.
We just went through applying here. It’s a reach for her, I think. She needs to do well on the SAT, I’d say over 2000. The BU essay question is basically, “Why BU?” I don’t think they care all that much about interest. If it’s just an urban thing she’s looking for, Boston has SO MANY COLLEGES. She has a lot of options.