<p>You guys should be happy you got deferred. I got straight up denied early action. I have similar credentials to some of you so i thought id post...</p>
<p>Statistics:
SAT I (breakdown): 1310/1990 (CR:660 M:650 WR:680)
SAT II: US History: 760 Math 1: 650 Lit:610
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.69
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 80/400
AP (place score in parenthesis): English Lang(5), US History (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP English Lit, AP European Hist, Honors Calc, Honors Psych, Honors Law, Honors Modern Conflicts, Honors Environmental Science
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Financial Literacy Challange top 10%, Honor roll, Student of the Month, Invited to be counselor at Boys State
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varsity Baseball, Varsity Football, Stock Market Club (Founder and President and established a DECA chapter), Student Council (Elected Government Co-Chair), Boys State, Citizebs Police Academy, RBI Baseball Academy.
Job/Work Experience: I have been working at Stop and Shop Supemarket since my freshman year non stop, and worked my way up to supervisor from bagger, baseball instructor, Intern at office during school (as Class)
Volunteer/Community service: Food panty, Eldery leaf raking project, relay for life, jimmy fund fundraiser,
Summer Activities: Work, training for football
Essays: Very good, i want to be a finance major and i wrote about the current economic crisis and morals etc.
Teacher Recommendation: Two of them were really good, other one average
Counselor Rec: average- only 6 counsellors for a school of 1,200
Interview: nope
State (if domestic applicant): MA
School Type: large public
Ethnicity: white
Gender: male
Hooks: Intended Finance major and i am the founder and president of my schools stock market club, commitment to job, member of very successfull football team, leadership</p>
<p>but yet. I did. crazy
im actually heading up to boston from Virginia christmas break
planning on talking to an admissions officer lol, and discussing my chances at regular decisions</p>
<p>Deferred uggh
ACT: 32
Decent public school in Florida
3.45UW/4.0W
Excellent EC' (President of Debate team, captain mock trial, president ss nhs, treasurer nehs)
Very good teacher recommendations, decent counselor rec. </p>
<p>AP Scholar with Distinction
Euro - 3
Lang - 3
Human Geography - 4
US History - 4
Psychology - 4</p>
<p>Currently Taking:
AP Government/Economics
AP Literature
AP Statistics
Honors Physics
Honors Debate
Honors Journalism</p>
<p>BC seems to be 'playing it smart'.
It knows that most of these high-SAT people won't actually attend BC and that they are simply using it as a backup.</p>
<p>It is getting a lot tougher for Boston College admissions I think it was at about 26 percent. Just the last couple years its been getting a lot tougher. </p>
<p>University of Chicago may be a better school BUT they do have a 40 percent acceptance rate..which is considerably higher. They say a lot of people applying to UoC know they want to go there and that has some affect on the rate but.. that's still a 14 percent difference.</p>
<p>I highly doubt BC is rejecting overqualified students that want to go to BC, I am guessing if anything it was the student whose essay just didn't persuade them that BC was there first choice. </p>
<p>If you really want to go to BC though and have the stats.. get in touch with admissions staff, tell them this is the place for you and ask them what you can do,.. it shows commitment.. and I believe it does make a difference. I am sure you will find creative ways.</p>
<p>i can see why some of these people got deferred; although the SAT scores may be fine (especially for jcrew), the GPAs should be good as well; after all, the GPA is one of the most (if not THE most) important factors in decisions</p>
<p>I believe anotherasian is incorrect. GPA is most definitely not the most important admission factor. not even close. Courseload, ECs, Essay, Letters are much more important. GPA is different based on the school they attended.</p>
<p>^^Actually, for ALL selective schools, gpa+strength of schedule are #1 & #2, or #2 & #1, depending on the application reader's personal bias. #3 is usually test scores, but some colleges like the U of Chicago (and the UCs) downplay test scores, so essays/recs move up into that slot. For certain specialized programs (theater, dance, film, music), ECs will move up into the top 3 criteria. The Jesuit schools typically prefer community service over normal HS stuff bcos that's what they are all about -- serving mankind.</p>
<p>I honestly don't think it was Tufts syndrome because I believe another person from my school got in with similar sat scores and a higher gpa. I suppose my gpa just didn't cut it. Oh well, I think my gpa will go up from around 3.58 -> 3.63ish so hopefully that'll be the pushing factor. Also, my only ECs were either golf or volunteering, or a mix; I don't suppose I could have emphasized the volunteering anymore? Not sure but perhaps the ECs looked a little sparse too? Idc too much though because I feel content with myself knowing I would have done everything on my EC list, regardless of whether I had to fill out a college app or not. Here's to hoping my last early school (which I'm kind of treating as a safety-but I obviously shouldn't have high expectations after getting 2 deferrals) takes me or else I'll have to wait it out painfully till spring.</p>
<p>Pawne4,
1. There is no BC Essay
2. University of Chicago IS self-selective because you'd have to be absolutely nuts to want to go there (I am nuts.)
3. BC, surprisingly, shows no interest in learning students' interest. If you go to the campus, there's no sign in or mailing card or anything.</p>
<p>the moral of the story is this: whatever...</p>
<p>I'm gonna have to agree with James.. seems to me that boston college doesnt care about your interest level at all.. all information sessions and campus tours are loosely held together and there is no way for you to leave your name, fill out a comment card, or anything like that.. they also dont give you any opportunities to say anything else about yourself ie. supplement essays.. BC locks the applicant out of pretty much everything which is disappointing</p>
<p>I guess i didn't realize that, I applied as a transfer student and I HAD to write a COUPLE essays.</p>
<h2>However.. this is what admissions staff from tufts said about "tufts syndrome, i thought it explained it clearly enough.</h2>
<p>My situation is pretty easy, actually. We don't waitlist or deny students because they are so strong we know they'll have other options. I recognize that people are entitled to believe what they want to, but Clevfry's suspicions have no basis in the reality of admissions at Tufts.</p>
<p>We build an intentional community here at Tufts. There are times when we take the student with softer testing over the stronger testing (for instance) because that person feels more like they belong at Tufts, or they feel like they have greater potential, or they present more interesting personal qualities in their writing.</p>
<p>The essays matter. The recommendations matter. WHO YOU ARE matters. If admissions was only about GPA and testing, then I wouldn't need to read applications. That is, to me, the most exciting thing about working in admissions. That is my job to identify and interact with young people who have the greatest potential to add to our community or to add to the world at large. Making that decision is much more complicated than looking at statistics and extra-curriculars. Doing admissions this way means will be a more interesting class, and helps us maintain the identity of the school.</p>
<h1>You are MORE than your academic stats and extra-curriculars. I know you are more; you should know it, too.</h1>