Do I have any chance at Vassar after my freshman grades?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vassar College
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<p>I visited and its now by far my favorite choice. Im a white male from upstate NY. My few AP's are all that my school offers...</p>

<p>My Info:</p>

<p>Freshman year (Terrible): 83 gpa w/ accelerated spanish, mock trial and varsity track</p>

<p>Sophomore year: 90.8 gpa w/ AP world history; mock trial, community service club, trivia club, varsity track, school newspaper</p>

<p>Junior Year (present) college level spanish/sociology/environmental science/us history: 93/94 gpa w/ AP English, mock trial (Leader), community service club, trivia club, varsity track, school newspaper (Editor), Future Business Leaders of America, STARTED SPEECH AND DEBATE CLUB :-)</p>

<p>(Over the summer I will take precalculus and either philosophy or chemistry at a local community college to reach the highest math/ sciences at my school senior year, calculus & physics)</p>

<p>Senior Year: aiming for a 96 or above gpa, Ap English, calculus, physics, Economics, Spanish 6, college level business.</p>

<p>Do you think I have a shot or did my freshman year kill it for me? Thanks for any help! By the way, I want to double major in Economics + Philosophy and minor in Spanish...</p>

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<p>Well, I’m only applying to Vassar this year, so I guess I’m not really an authority on the subject, but I’ve been browsing threads and it seems like colleges (especially Vassar) don’t place too much emphasis on Freshman year grades as long as there is a nice upward trend, which you seem to have. As long as the rest of your application is stellar, I think you should be fine. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Are you going to change your name to iwantvassar? </p>

<p>I wouldn’t worry too much about your freshman grades if you have improved so much. Was there a reason they were that poor, which you overcame? I know someone who flunked many classes freshman year because her parents announced they were divorcing, and she acted up. You could explain your circumstances to them.</p>

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<p>I did, to be completely frank, pretty terribly my freshman year. However, I stepped it up the other three years, and was never on anything less than High Honor Roll and I did a completely excessive number of extracurriculars and I got in, even with only doing regular decision. If you’ve improved so much, you definitely have a chance to get in.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much for your answers everyone! I really appreviate it.</p>

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<p>Can you post your stats averagesnarker?</p>

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<p>Yeah averagesnarker I’d like to see them too if you don’t mind posting them.</p>

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<p>I don’t mind at all!</p>

<p>Freshman year: 3.3 GPA. no honors classes
Sophomore year: 3.7 GPA, honors Bio
Junior year: 4.2 GPA, Hon. Anthropology, Hon. Psychology, Hon. Astronomy, Hon. Music Seminar (composing and arranging for choir), Hon. US history
Senior year: 4.0 GPA, Hon. Trig/Precalc, Hon. Senior Seminar (composing and arranging for full orchestration and choir), AP Biology, Honors Physics</p>

<p>Test scores:</p>

<p>ACT/PSAE: 31
SAT I: CR 770, M 630, V 710
SAT II: Biology M 750, Literature 740
AP Biology: 5</p>

<p>ECS: Four years of choir, four years of women’s choir, three years of jazz choir, three years of newspaper (editor-in-chief), two years of marching band, two years of concert band, two years of GSA, four years of German club, one year of yearbook, one year of NHS, one year of Tri-M music honor society, one year of Quill and Scroll journalism honor society, four years of Friends of the Library club, three years of Media Aide (library assistant)</p>

<p>Honors: National Achievement Scholar</p>

<p>Misc: All District Senior Chorus Member, All State Senior Chorus Member, four years of Division I ranking solos and one Division I ranking duet at Solo and Ensemble, three varsity letters (two in journalism, one in choir), Regional Editorial Writing Champion, state editorial writing competitor, tutored freshman my senior year, volunteered at the animal shelter every Sunday.</p>

<p>Also, I’m a multi-ethnic, secular Jewish female, I submitted my writing portfolio along with my repertoire list, had amazing recs, and my essay was about my reaction (a very sad one!) to the supposed ‘death’ of print journalism. And I did approximately one gazillion extracurriculars and spent up to forty hours of my week on them.</p>

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<p>Oh, and I also did opera camp and participated in various small scale opera productions through that.</p>

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<p>@iwantwesleyan what are your test scores?</p>

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<p>@averagesnarker haha that is so impressive I’m not suprised at all that you got accepted!</p>

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<p>@crystalj I’m not sure about my test scores yet (taking sat next month), but on the psat I got 63-60-64 and I didn’t start sudying for the real sat until afterwards (I hope to do better in January!), but I’ve also done pretty well on my practice ACT trsts and I’m aiming for at least a 30 composite on that.</p>

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<p>If I manage to keep everything up as planned and apply early decision round 1 next year, could you guys give me some preductions on my chances based on these stats. I know some are variables but I would just like a rough idea if possible. Thanks :-)</p>

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<p>I have no idea :(</p>

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<p>My high school:
I go to a smallish (graduating class size of 68 students) rural high school that is about 45 minutes west of Albany, NY. I do not know of anybody from my school going to Vassar, but last year my friend got into Cornell (top 5 but not valedictorian/ saluditorian) and she goes there now…but that was an anomoly, since most of the time our smartest kids and valedictorians go to (less competitive than Vassar but the most competitive/ still great public options in our state) suny schools to save money (which ill probably do too if I cant get into Vassar next year).</p>

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<p>Anyone else with a better knowledge of Vassar?</p>

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<p>BUMP! And I got my first sat scores…630cr, 620m, and 680w. I plan to study A LOT and retake in June or May, whichever date I’m not taking subject tests…Is my writing ok or does that need to go up too?</p>

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<p>I would say to be safe they all need to go up</p>

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<p>Really, the best think would be for all to be above 650, at the very least, and over 700 for at least two would be best. I had 770 cr, 630m, and 710w and I angsted for ages about my math score. Writing is the least important one, though, in the grand scheme of things. It’ll be much better to get your critical reading up quite a lot, because your math score isn’t too far out of the Vassar range (it’s 20 points below the 25th percentile, which isn’t good, but it could be a lot worse and I know people here who have done a lot worse).</p>

<p>For your subject tests, take ones on which you think you can get over 740-750.</p>

<p>Have you thought of taking the ACT+? I know a lot of people discount it, but some people are better suited to the different test format. I took both, since my state requires ACT+ to graduate and I needed the SAT for National Achievement, and did slightly better on the SAT, though I know some people do strikingly differently on the tests. If you take the ACT+ and like your score, you don’t have to send subject tests in, either.</p>

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<p>^I second that. My SAT didn’t even break 2000 (although it was within 100 points), but my ACT was a 31, so I only submitted that and got in. The ACT is much more time-constrained, but I preferred the format as a whole. Plus, I’ve heard that the most important thing considered with the ACT is your composite score rather than the individual sections, as opposed to the emphasis placed on M+CR for the SAT.</p>