Do I have a shot?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wesleyan University
1

<p>So I'm a senior applying to Wes c/o 2019 RD.
Indian [Asian] Male. Not applying for financial aid.</p>

<p>It's my second choice (which was a really hard call to make since I really love this school but Rice offers more scholarship).</p>

<p>US Citizen applying from India (I grew up with my grandparents, parents live in Texas).</p>

<p>GPA: No GPA
IB Points: 41 / 42 (All A's/7s and 1 B/6 in Chem)
Predicted a 43/45.</p>

<p>Class Rank : Top 5%</p>

<p>Subjects: IB History, IB Biology, IB Chemistry HL
IB English Literature, IB Math, IB Spanish SL</p>

<p>9th/10th grade - IGCSE syllabus
9A*'s out of 9 possible. National Topper in Drama</p>

<p>AP Scores: Psychology - 5 (Self-Studied- School offers only IB)</p>

<p>SAT: 2300 - CR = 740, M = 760, W = 800
SAT II: Bio M = 780, Chem = 760</p>

<p>-National Merit Semifinalist (PSAT = 227)</p>

<p>ECs:
-Eagle Scout
-Conducted a project in rural Andhra Pradesh, India to teach hygiene/health to village children
-Shadowed neurosurgeons in 9th grade. Watched surgeries, consultations, went on ICU rounds in Indian hospital
-Worked in American Hospital in 10th grade summer. Paid work.</p>

<p>-Paid internship at Seton Hall Institute of Neuroimmune Pharmacology in 11th grade as a part of the NIDA Summer Internship program. Worked on research (behavioral sensitization with methamphetamine in HIV transgenic rats).
Recommendation from employer (influential scientist).</p>

<p>-Theatre - I love performing. School production (Much Ado About Nothing).
-Drama Club
-MUN --> Have attended 8-9 conferences. Won awards and have chaired a committee twice.
-Senior Basketball team 4 years. Lots of awards in the city circuit.</p>

<p>Awards:
-Presidential Gold Award for Service
-US Congressional Silver Medal
-IGCSE Distinction Certificate
-National Merit Semifinalist</p>

<p>-Over 500 hours community service to Habitat for Humanity/Scouting projects.</p>

<p>Essays: Pretty good I hope. Common app was about zen and how I was introduced to it in a sangha.</p>

<p>Recs: English Lit Teacher and Bio Teacher. Lit teacher one will be good the other is probably 'meh'.
Counselor Rec: Really good. I'm positive about this one. We're good friends.</p>

<p>Looking to study psychology, sociology maybe some philosophy.</p>

2

<p>Oh, my supplement is about debating Batman, Immanuel Kant and vigilantism in school and how I would want to continue having conversations like that. I think Wes would be the perfect place. I dunno, I’m just incredibly attracted to this place.</p>

<p>Another EC, I’ve done stand up at college bars to microscopic scale success. One time at a pretty big comedy club</p>

3

<p>I would say your chances are excellent!</p>

4

<p>You’ll get in, probably as an early-write, but you’ll end up going elsewhere.</p>

5

<p>I’d aim higher, look at Vassar (great Med-School accept), Pitzer and Pomona could be good reaches, Pomona especially highly regarded Neuro program and why not go for broke and put out an app to Williams or even Amherst, Amherst may be too far, but Williams accepted 18% this year, even Swarthmore accepted 17%. Reach schools are fine but I think you might be underreaching here?. Wes accepts almost 24% of apps.</p>

6

<p>Nobody goes to Amherst and Williams for sociology.</p>

7

<p>Englishman, Vassar accepted 24% and Wesleyan 20.4% according to the most recent US News.</p>

8

<p>And Pitzer, really? It’s ranked 35th.</p>

9

<p>Pitzer is actually very, very difficult to get into. And, why would you advise someone not to choose a perfectly splendid LAC based on its USNews ranking? That is so 1997. </p>

10

<p>@wesleyan97: US News is a year behind - Wesleyan accepted 23.7% for the freshman class this year.
<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/facts_faces/2018%20Profile%20revised.pdf”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/facts_faces/2018%20Profile%20revised.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>In this instance, because Englishman was suggesting that an application to Pitzer represented a more ambitious reach than Wesleyan. The difficulty of admission owes more to its test-optional policy and people wanting a back door into Pomona and CMC courses than to any great virtues of Pitzer. </p>

12

<p>@wesleyan97: For someone who believes that rankings are specious and unfair, you sure seem to pay attention to them.</p>

13

<p>Well, I hate sports, so when the rankings come out it’s sort of like my moment of tribal affiliation with a team.</p>

14

<p>@smartalic34‌ Vassar accepted 23.5 in the most recent round, basically = to Wes.</p>

15

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<p>One of the few things I remember from my Introduction To American Politics (GOV 101,102) course some forty five years ago with Prof. James Murphy, is that people who switch party identification have the weakest level of allegiance to either party - or “team”, if you will - neither the one they left nor the one they left behind. I think this explains your constant oscillation between Bowdoin’s golden retriever s (your metaphor, not mine), and Wesleyan’s mongrel student body. You present your arguments as an attack on Wesleyan’s stewardship, but, what I really think is going on here is just good old-fashioned, “the grass is always greener” syndrome. I think the cure for that is to just stop paying attention to the rankings. You. Can. Do. It. (sorry, couldn’t resist the John Wesley reference.) </p>

16

<p>I’m not going to get sucked into your tortuous machine of boosterism, apologetics, and feeble reasoning. My attacks on Wesleyan’s president emanate from having reviewed his callow scholarship and followed his actions as president. Not once while at Wesleyan did I feel the slightest pang of regret for leavin Bowdoin. However, the intervening years have seen Wes change and not for the better. I’m too tired to write at length about this and would prefer to consult some young friends currently attending the school before offering anything further on the school’s large-scale issues… </p>

17

<p>So, at least we’ve narrowed down your criticism. You really mean, the last eight years. Fine. That should make things simpler. But, for people who are not die-hard Wesleyan trivia geeks, I’d suggest everyone lay in a good supply of Red Bull. You’ll need it.</p>

18

<p>I won’t be following up. As I mentioned on another thread, a stomach virus laid me out for a couple days and instead of doing something constructive like reading Benjamin or meditating, I vented my effete bile on here. A waste of time that I can only apologize for.</p>

19

<p>I comment only as parent of a DS14, he applied and was accepted to Pomona, Pitzer, Wes & Vassar. Didn’t consider Bowdoin, Williams or Dartmouth…all too remote. We visited them all and I cannot help but agree with @Wesleyan97 and @Circuitrider. I liked Roth but really how many times can you mention HIMYM and other film alums in one speech (6 I counted). We didn’t like for Middletown or Wes’s 'grittyness", it was too easy to be flown-in for a visit and oh so easy to be woowed, Vassar didn’t do that and yet expected DS to attend, Pitzer played cool and knew admits would be down to low double digits%+ and yes we did consider it a back door to Pomona but he got it there too…so where to go…? But to @Wesleyan97 their endowment allows for so little…so few $$$ per student $245K ps leaves precious little for those little projects and $$ fin aid. </p>

<p>So we followed the money and choose $1m ps endowment and attend …Amherst</p>

20

<p>I suppose Roth could have gone “on and on” about the senator and two sitting governors it has currently serving in office. Or, the second Apker Prize for Physics won by a Wesleyan undergraduate in three years. Sounds like he was trying to please the crowd.</p>

<p>Keep us posted on those “little projects”. From what I hear, both Amherst and Williams will be performing budgetary triage for the next decade in order to pay down the debt they’ve incurred for costly building projects. In fact, they’ve both been so spendthrift over the past twenty years that their Moody’s ratings are only marginally better than Wesleyan’s despite having much bigger endowments “$$$ ps”. Wesleyan is so much better run than either of those schools that its even been able to expand the threshold below which families receive -0-debt financial aid (from 40k to 60) while keeping tuition increases at or below the rate of inflation for two years running.</p>