Do I Stand A Chance?

<p>I applied to Boston College Regular Decision.
It is my first choice.</p>

<p>I have a 3.63 UW GPA and a 3.83 W. With my best grades occuring this past semester.</p>

<p>I scored a 28 on my ACT, 29 Writing, 31 Reading, 29 Math, 24 Science, 11 Essay, and a 1250/1890 on my SAT, 690 Critical Reading, 560 Math (not my strongest), and 630 reading.</p>

<p>I go to a private, catholic high school in California.</p>

<p>I take 3 AP Courses and took 3 last year.</p>

<p>I was captain of my high school tennis team for two years, a school spirit leader, member of the scholar program, and a member of our school service group and a couple other things.</p>

<p>Please let me know what you think. Thanks.</p>

<p>I think you have a good shot. Test Scores appear to be the only thing holding you back (Like I'm one to talk, I only got a 29 on the ACT :)) But it seems as if you have a decent shot. Good luck!</p>

<p>lowish to medium, to make up for the lowish act you need more EC's</p>

<p>the classes you arent taking AP, are they honors?</p>

<p>Reject/waitlist is my prediction. I might be cynical here, but "a private, catholic high school in California" going to hurt with your present academic credential.</p>

<p>BC has a lot of students from private schools. Your standardized tests might be fine if you were from a down trodden public school, but coming from a private one, it definitely will hurt. </p>

<p>BC has more Catholics than Vatican City. So that won't help, nor hurt.</p>

<p>California sends a large amount of students to BC every year, so you gain no geographical advantage; it might even be a disadvantage. </p>

<p>If you're a girl, then it will be tougher. It actually is a bit tougher for women to get into colleges these days. The number of qualified male students applying to colleges is "sinking like a lead balloon," so they are now the new URM. </p>

<p>On the other hand, if you a male non-Asian minority, then you'll stand a great chance.</p>

<p>Dear cate90 : With a 1250 SAT two-way score, you are right at the 25th percentile of the accepted class from last year. Expect those numbers to have crept upwards by 20-30 points this year. For the three-way score, 1860 is the 25th percentile. Ironically, your ACT score at 28 is also the 25th percentile.</p>

<p>Your GPA at 3.63 is fine, but not as impressive as others posted on other threads. Without a class rank perspective, it is difficult to put this number into context. If you are not in the top 10% of your High School class, your test scores combined with these academic numbers would likely place your application onto the rejected list.</p>

<p>Now, other things missing from your profile here : music/arts, other seasonal sports besides tennis (three-season athlete), club sports (if any), in-school clubs, leadership positions, volunteerism, and other academic issues. On this last point, six AP exams are interesting : Calc BC holds more weight than some others, 5s hold more value than 3s or worse.</p>

<p>Based on what you have presented, BC represents a stretch school for you and given the limited intangibles presented here, a rejection seems to be a possibility. Let's close by offering that I hope I am wrong as this is your top school and hopefully your essay offset some of these gaps/concerns raised.</p>

<p>Dear Cate,</p>

<p>Contrary to what everyone else thinks, I do think you stand a chance. While your grades and test scores may be lower than those of otehr applicants, they fall well within BC's range. Keep in mind that you didn't post the quality of your recommendations, your essay, or your activities. All of these things can only help you, and, combined with your scores and grades, will place you, in my opinion, in a comfortable position. </p>

<p>Has Jeremy responded yet? </p>

<p>M</p>

<p>Thanks M.</p>

<p>Your words of encouragement are truly kind. I can only wish that i will meet someone as nice and intelligent as you wherever I choose to go to school.</p>

<p>C.</p>

<p>I think you have a shot, but 75% of the applicant pool has higher scores than you, and they only admit around 27%. So the question is if you distinguished yourself in the ECs and Essays section. If you did that very well, you have a shot. If you didn't, it might be tough going. good luck though, wherever you choose to attend!</p>

<p>i hope you get in....if you are male it will help...also, how many kids from your school applied as well?? CA will help somewhat...</p>

<p>my d1 is a sophomore transfer at BC now...she was deferred, waitlisted and rejected 2 years ago this spring...she had a 1260/1960 but 730 in writing, the 1st year they offered it...Capt/leading scorer for 3 years of LAX, editor in chief of yearbook, yada yada, church stuff, soccer team etc, lots of work ethic stuff, grandfather went there etc...small N.E. independent school, 3.82 cum...we are not Catholic and parents are divorced...ho hum</p>

<p>our experience with students at her hs: BC only took kids with over a 1400 unless they were male...</p>

<p>did you hear the applicants went up 7% to 31,000??</p>

<p>keep the faith; it is truly a crapshoot...and btw, 9 kids applied her year and heard back at ALL different dates...no rhyme or reason..</p>

<p>2 buddies of my D2 got accepted EA this year to BC...near perfect SAT scores...</p>

<p>lol, OP's name is "cate", I doubt they are male.</p>

<p>But it's true, there was an article in Newsweek a while back about how BC admits around 13% more males than females.</p>

<p>^And we have more female (52%) than male (48%). Something doesn't add up. </p>

<p>I prefer that college rewards merit regardless of gender; if guys like to spend their time admiring the idiots from MTV j a c k a s s, then college is not for them. As a guy, I would love to have a 70% female population at BC. ;)</p>

<p>Woe, woe, ---more catholics than the Vatican???
BC, like all catholic colleges, will give an extra look at catholic school applicants. It is a heritage thing, and rightly so.
ESPECIALLY BC, founded b/c NO ONE ELSE WOULD EDUCATE THE SONS OF THE BOSTON IRISH! (read Havid). They owe it to their founders to take care of their own. Thankfully, the catholic schools do NOT forget where they came from.</p>

<p>And let's not forget the geo diversity offered by a Cali applicant.</p>

<p>The Vatican has only 800-1000 Catholics living in it. BC has several thousands Catholics (including non-administrative employees, faculties, administrators). Hey, I was surprised by this little fact too. I didn't realize Vatican City was that small either.</p>

<p>I don't know about giving any extra boost to Catholic applicants. It does have an optional question on the supplemental application about your religious affiliation application (being a wise guy in high school, I put down atheist!), but it's for data collection. Like I said, I don't think it helps or hurts (at least that's the official statement).</p>

<p>BC does have a large number of students who are Catholics, but I don't know if this is because the Catholic students want a Catholic college or not. The only way we can find out for sure is exam the percentage of Catholics who were admitted.</p>

<p>How much of an impact is ethnicity? </p>

<p>Because in my application, I made it fairly clear -- not for the purpose of utilizing affirmative action, or exploiting it, should you be so chagrined, but simply because the facts are unavoidable -- in my application that I am both a Hispanic and Catholic.</p>