Do I even have a shot??

<p>Wad ya think?</p>

<p>White/female from TN</p>

<p>One of the top public high schools (I think its in the top 500ish nationally) in the south. Regularly sends students to top schools (Harvard, Emory, Vanderbilt, WashU, public ivies...)</p>

<p>possible majors:History, English, or Political Science
possible minors:Spanish, Latin American Studies, Economics
(don't worry, I'm not going to try to do all of them)
after college: either law school,grad school, or business school</p>

<p>GPA: 3.73 (unweighted)/4.1 (weighted)
class rank:most likely top 10%
I will have taken 9 AP classes, 6 honors classes, and 4 years of foreign language.</p>

<p>ACT: 30 (33 reading/30 math/29 english/26 science)</p>

<p>high school schedule:
freshman
Orchestra-A
Geometry Honors-B
English Honors-A
Health Class-A
Biology-A
Spanish 1-A</p>

<p>sophomore (definately weakest part of my application)
Spanish 2-B
Alg 2/Trig-A
Orchestra Honors-A
English Honors-A
World History honors-B
Chemistry-B
english/history is a team-taught class that is arguably the hardest at my
high school including AP classes</p>

<p>junior year
AP US History-A
AP Physics B-B
Pre-Calculus-A
AP Junior English-A
US Government-A
AP Micro Economics-A
Spanish 3-A</p>

<p>senior year schedule
AP Senior English
AP Calculus AB
Gym(required to graduate)
AP Macro Economics
AP Environmental Science
AP Modern European History
Spanish 4, Honors</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Karate (1996-present)
training for 12 years
Second degree black belt:10/06
Nationally Certified Assistant Instructor Certification: 12/04
I teach both children/adults every week
Presidents Vision Tour Committee senior member
Head of 117th Regional Black Belt testing committee
2006 National Championship:
2nd place in two divisions
scoring/timekeeping committee
2005 Regional Championships:
3rd place in one division
Judging committee
Rotaract (2004-present)
Treasurer-2007
Head of Habitat for Humanity project chair-2006/2007
Relay for Life project chair-2006
RYLA nominated leadership conference participant-2006
Project Committee member-2005
various other projects I've been apart of
Student Council(2005-present)
Head of a committee, member of another committee
Homeroom Representative
Orientation tour guide since sophomore year
School Newspaper(2004-2005)-it was a class, could only fit it in one year
Sports Editor
TN HS Press Association award for feature article
National Honor Society member & tutoring/speaker committee member
400+ hours of volunter work by time of graduate (Presidents Gold Award)
Girls Club for two summers,then Animal Shelter,then juvy law group
Distinguished Spanish 1 Student award</p>

<p>The teachers doing my recommendations know me very well(one teacher I had freshman/junior year, the other I had sophomore/junior year). I've been on good terms with my counselor and she also knows me really well. And I think essays will be a strong part of my application</p>

<p>given that you're a female TN might give you a little edge in terms of diversity. i'd suggest you to put some focus on the 'active citizenship' part of your application, tufts loves that.
it's also good that you're doing spanish. language is a big requirement at tuft, esp if you wanna do IR.
i'd say you have a pretty fair shot. just polish those essays till they shine like the moon. you can't do much abt other parts now.</p>

<p>I agree with the above assessment. You have as good a chance as any. Work hard on essays!!! And is there any chance you can take the ACT one more time? Maybe push it up to the Tufts average, 31. You're close!</p>

<p>If you are not applying early, I would make sure that you convey through additional letters and calls to your regional admission officer, your interest in attending. They may think coming from Tennessee that you did not really have plans to attend if accepted but put it on your list because someone recommended it. Those coming from geographical locations that are not that common will only get the edge if the admissions office believes they are really interested.</p>

<p>you have a real shot
good luck!</p>