<p>I am in the 11th grade and have taken a strong interest in Wellesley. In Freshman year, I only took a few honors classes, but I did well over all. By well, I mean getting A's. However, I took math at the honors level and got a B, so for the following year, I decided to move down to CP Math. That year, I took all honors, aside from math, and did well. This year, I am taking three AP classes (the maximum amount of AP classes my school lets us take in Junior year). The rest of my classes are all honors and CP math, and so far, I am doing well. I took the SATs and scored a 2160 (for math, I got a 700). Also, I am in the top 8% of my class and my GPA is 3.8 unweighted. I am involved in many extra-curriculars (with leadership positions), have been the representative of my school at a few leadership seminars and have been on a study abroad program learning about the Greek culture. I speak Greek fluently and have taken a test to prove this. For next year, I hope to take four AP classes: Spanish, English, Euro and Art History. Other than math, I am a very strong student. My concern is that Wellesley will not accept me because I have taken CP math and will only take Pre-Cal my Senior year. In math I got:
84 Freshman year at the Honors level, 98 Sophomore year at the CP level and 99 Junior year at the CP level.</p>
<p>I got accepted this afternoon with two major issues- a 3.62 GPA with the dip in junior year and a 2 on my AP Spanish exam. My test scores were average and I’m pretty bad at math. I’m in Calculus this year, but my grades have always been Bs or Cs. I kept hearing over and over that Wellesley was very holistic, but I was pretty sure the GPA was too big of a hurdle. </p>
<p>Your application doesn’t have to be perfect. I made sure to pick teacher who I knew would write awesome recs and my essay was strong. I put abstracts for the research I’ve done in the additional information section and I made sure to use the character limits for activities wisely so they knew my leadership positions were legitimate and not just application padding. </p>
<p>What I’m getting at here is that you totally have a shot. Don’t be afraid to play up your strengths and don’t be afraid to challenge yourself (maybe take a math-related class within your skill level on Coursera (<a href="https://www./%5B/url%5D">https://www./</a>) to demonstrate that you’re attempting to tackle your math issues). You never know what might happen.</p>
<p>Thank you! That is a great idea. I will visit that website!!</p>
<p>morgantee,
My daughter and I attended Discover Wellesley weekend this year. (I highly recommend doing this if you have a chance. My daughter got SOOOO much out of it and they are excellent hosts! I think they may even have aprogram that offers travel fees to certain students who don’t live in the northeast, but I’m not sure about that…)</p>
<p>She also commented several times about how they really like to see that students took risks, challenged themselves. She gave the example of someone who’s struggling in a class knows she will not get an A, but decides to stick with it rather than drop it for the sake of her GPA. I’d imagine that EmmaEB’s suggestion about taking a supplemental math class would be exactly the sort of thing they would love to see. You could also look into “dual enrollment” where you take a course at a local community college. In our community these are free or very low cost to high school students. They even have intensive summer courses. Maybe you could take a pre-calc course over the summer and be ready for Calculus at your school in the fall? Or just take it in addition, and have your guidance counselor make a special note in her write-up for the Common App that you have challenged yourself in math outside of your high school.</p>
<p>Wellesley is a wonderful school. Good luck!</p>
<p>At the parents’ presentation there was specific discussion about math courses and calculus. I paid special attention to this since my daughter is also in CP math and is taking “Advanced Math CP” as a senior (which is Pre-Calc.) Here’s what I have in my notes:
The admissions director was talking about how they read applications. She began by saying, "We look at: 1) Can this student be academically successful @ Wellesley… has she had the rigor? 2) Does she have AP calc or regular calc? We want to see because we know that math = problem solving ability. also, the higher the math level, the higher the future earning potential. She said, “I have to know she has fulfilled a certain level of math.” if she hasn’t then we’d look at her math SAT score. 3) We look for some science. We look for a minimum of 2 years of a language. 4) If the transcript is solid, then we look at the SAT scores. We are less accepting of high scores if we see that she didn’t challenge herself in high school… but that doesn’t mean you need 6 APs senior year. 5) Then we move to a more subjective/holistic view. Who is she? What’s her story? Who will she be in our community? Will she be an active participant in our community? What will she bring to the table?</p>
<p>In the Q & A, I asked more specifically about the Calculus comment. She amended it to say that CP pre-calculus was the bare minimum.</p>
<p>One other thought… can you move back up to honors level Pre-calc next year? If you’re getting 98 and 99 at CP level, it seems like you could certainly handle a bit more rigor there. Is honors pre-calc an option at your school or is it a different “track” that you can’t switch to at this point?</p>
<p>Thank you so much. This really helped.</p>
<p>As long as you work hard and get involved, you have a chance.</p>