<p>My family has a big legacy at Boston College, both my parents went there and my dad’s 8 brothers and sisters went there as well as some of my cousins.
My parents also donate money (not a lot) to BC every year and there is a small scholarship for students under my grandfather’s name that my family set up.
Will all this help me at all if I were to apply to BC? Will it give me a small advantage against other students?</p>
<p>It should help some -- IF you already meet BC's normal standards for admission. But don't count on it to get you in if your stats are well below par.</p>
<p>here are my stats:</p>
<p>gpa: 3.8 (weighted)
classes for 08-09 school year: AP English and AP History, Honors Physics, Pre-Calc, Spanish 4, Orchestra
7 Years Playing Cello - attended music camp last summer
Member of school orchestra and outside youth orchestra, plays cello at nursing home and church weekly
9 years playing piano
National Music Honor Society
Principal Cellist in both orchestras
staff writer on school paper (soon to be editor), interns at local paper
attended two week journalism conference at american university this summer
founder of dollars for darfur chapter at school
member of pennies for peace
student mentor
interns at town museum (starting January 2009)</p>
<p>anyone else?</p>
<p>Yes, it will help. But not likely to get you in if you are not in the consideration group. A friend's D was turned down (waitlisted) with a resume like yours because her SAT scores just were not in the midstream. They did personally discuss the app and rejection with the family. Just too many stellar kids from here that apply to BC, and she was not within range for acceptance even as a legacy. Her brother was accepted this year with stats in the upper 25%.</p>
<p>Dear writeroffictions : The risks in your statistics would be as follows. First, your profile did not contain any board scores, SAT II scores or other standardized testing models. Be sure to check your scores against the range advertised for BC - expect that you need a 2-way SAT in the 1350 range and a 3-way SAT of 2000 or so for a ballpark estimate right now.</p>
<p>Second, a weighted GPA at 3.8 is likely an unweighted 3.6 or so. Is this a top 10% grade within your class? Our reason for asking is that you are "weak" on the number of AP courses you are taking which are typically the heaviest weights. Some applicants for BC will be sporting ten or more AP exams - certainly a large percentage with more than two in total. In short, is your senior year curriculum the most rigorous available from your school?</p>
<p>Third, for balance, it would be nice if you had some sports background along with your music and volunteerism.</p>
<p>Your resume reads like many of the other 31,000 applications that BC receives - so you have to figure out what will make your application shine over the others. I am not sure that this material explains your "hook".</p>
<p>well sophomores are only allowed to take 1 AP and next year i'll be taking 2 APs (my school doesn't like when you take more than 2) and i haven't taken the SATs yet bc i was a sophomore... but i did well on the PSATs</p>
<p>finally-- why should i add sports? i'm not athletic besides yoga which i do a couple times a week but that doesn't really count lol
but sports is def. not needed if i do very well in music and newspaper
don't colleges prefer when you excel in a couple areas rather then do a million activities just ok ?</p>
<p>I hope so, I'm in the same situation (kind of). My dad says it will really help, but I'm not totally convinced (he's pretty optimistic). I think that it will give you a big edge against people in your "range", you might be a bit below the curve, but you should have the edge against people with similar stats, hopefully gaining you admission</p>
<p>Dear writeroffictions : Our suggestions were intended to help you identify gaps that your profile demonstrates when compared to the community against which you will be competing at Boston College. Although you have likely seen these numbers elsewhere, BC last year reviewed 31,000 applications for a freshman class of 2,250 spots.</p>
<p>Most chance-me posts are coming from Class of 2009 graduates - what was unclear from your posting is that you are a Class of 2010 graduate and therefore your AP course load at this point is on par. Remember that the candidates with the best academic chances at BC do indeed demonstrate proficiency in six or more AP courses.</p>
<p>If you opt out of sports participation, that is your choice. We can only provide advice, that does not mean you need to follow it. Your response does however demonstrate an "I know better than you" view ("sports definitely not needed") and that generally will not play well at the collegiate level and will play even worse at a university that embraces a Jesuit education tradition. I hope you are correct that your sports background is not required. Having been involved in collegiate education for more than twenty years, I am not so sure.</p>
<p>I will not speak for all colleges, but balance and excellence are both considered. Excelling at music and newspaper (journalism activities) is similar to about 10,000 other applications at BC. Your application needs to make you stand out as "the one" to pick, not one of 10,000 applications that look relatively similar.</p>
<p>Again, this is not meant to be a bummer - it is meant to help you identify competitive gaps. Accept it or not, the choice is yours. Good luck with your college search and preparation process.</p>
<p>OP, go ahead and opt of sports participation if you do not have any interest in that; it will not be held against you at all. (Just to reassure you, my son is completely apathetic towards sports -- both as a participant and as a spectator -- and he was accepted EA.)</p>
<p>BC is not looking just for athletes. It is looking for academically-talented students who have shown that they are not just bookworms but have taken on meaningful ECs -- which can be sports, performing/ visual arts, journalism, community service, etc. Resume-padding is actually not very helpful. Stick with the activities that interest you, display your passion, and try to assume leadership roles wherever you can.</p>
<p>scottj -- I think you are off base with your comments about the need to rack up AP courses to be competitive. It really comes down to how many AP opportunities does your school offer and have you taken advantage of those opportunities. As the OP mentioned, many schools also limit the number of AP courses you are allowed to take in a given year.</p>
<p>At my daughter's rural/suburban public school only one AP course was offered before this year. Yet 3 of the 4 kids who applied to BC were accepted. All four were in the Top 15% of the class. All had SAT scores in the 1900-2050 range. 1 of the 3 who were admitted did NOT take any AP courses, but did take all Honors courses.</p>
<p>The student who did not get admitted (applied EA) had the highest GPA and class rank of the four and did take the one AP offered. She did get admitted to a Top 5 USN&WR LAC, however.</p>