<p>That's a good hook.</p>
<p>But what about the puppies? :(</p>
<p>My community service is 2 summers of working with child cancer patients in a 3rd world country and I spoke at the UN on behalf of the organization. Not exactly puppies, but some of the kids with the shaved heads wre still pretty cute.</p>
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My community service is 2 summers of working with child cancer patients in a 3rd world country
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<p>Well...that's not exactly how I'd spend MY summer, but it's definitely good for admissions.</p>
<p>" My dad is a faculty member at an ivy league school if that matters at all..."</p>
<p>If he is a full-time, tenured faculty member that should give you excellent access to someone in the admissions office who would likely give you excellent input on your chances at other top level schools...and could probably recommend some schools that you may not have considered. </p>
<p>Is one of your Dad's benefits that kids go to his school for free? Are you interested?</p>
<p>Nope, freshman grades are only a minor side dish along with test scores, other GPA, classes, ECs, etc</p>
<p>Brown and Columbia are reaches, but feasible. The only thing that may hurt you at those and other ivies is that C+...apply early and you have somewhat of a chance....</p>
<p>thanks to every1 who responded. Gryffon, I'm not only inquiring about how much Freshman year will hurt me. I'm concerned about my whole transcript, even if I had a better freshman year.</p>
<p>2boysima, how exactly would I go about contacting an adcom? I don't think my dad comes into regular contact with them (I've never met any)...and I don't want to be like, "hey adcom, tell me if I'm going to get in, kthanks." Should I have my dad contact the person? Visit the office myself? Money isn't really an issue, but I don't know if there is a free ride/discount for faculty. I'll certainly check.</p>
<p>I would suggest having your dad make the contact. And...rather than asking about your chances at the school your dad is at....say you want to talk about college admissions, in general, and see if they have any suggestions of places you might apply to. That way, they're more likely to meet with you, and can probably give you an honest assessment of your chances at similar schools...and they may bring up some schools you haven't thought of.</p>
<p>"THis is going to sound pretentious, but as low as Uchicago...?"</p>
<p>It does, and if this shows through in your essay you will have a rejection from them in the spring. </p>
<p>If you can obtains scattergrams from your GC, you will be able to see which colleges are kindly disposed to your HS. Your grades won't help you that much at the ivies - but within the context of your highschool they may be ok. </p>
<p>Brown and Columbia are both going to take your essays seriously, so probably the best thing you can do is to concentrate on them and on your first semester grades senior year.</p>
<p>ohio mom, our public school sends probably 30-45 kids to all of the ivys combined. We have no athletes, but a lot of legacy, and just from experience, it doesn't take a 4.0 to get in (there are probably only 5 kids in each grade of 450ish that have a 4.0 or above). The thing is, since my school doesn't rank, they may see the 3.8 as worse than it is.</p>
<p>Also, i hate to bring this up, but what about the "upward trend" thing that I hear bandied about (usually by kids who are just trying to make themselves feel better, though). 3.44-->3.82-->3.86-->3.9 (hopefully)</p>
<p>wcf -
the number of kids your school sends to ivies is VERY encouraging for you. Although your school does not officially rank, colleges may well be able to derive where you stand from your gpa and the school profile. Standing a little below top ten percent isn't great, but you should give up, either. Just make sure that you include schools that are less insanely competitive than HYP etc. on your list! </p>
<p>If you are able to play the early decision card - and you are positive of where you want to go - you may want to do so. I would suggest applying to a couple of RD schools first, however. Your first app is never your best, and you what to be at the top of your form for the EA or SCEA app.</p>
<p>Also - a rising trend is much better than a falling one! No senoritis for you.</p>
<p>haha, thanks for the encouragement...after discussing the impact of freshman year with my GC, he advised me to "make it up" with strong 1st semester grades senior year. He said that instead of having a drop senior year, I took mine 4 years early.</p>
<p>Thats great advice regarding the apps, Ill make sure to do that. This probably shows my inexperience with the whole college admissions process, but can you apply to an RD school...before you send in ED? Like, do RD schools accept apps at that time?</p>
<p>You will need to read the specific ED (or Single Choice Early Action) contract very carefull, but in generaly if you apply to a binding decision contract you can't submit any other early applications - binding or not. I believe that some of the school allow rolling admissions applications, while others do not. Again, read the final print, call the admissions office and ask if you have any doubt. Even the best of GC's have been known to have the occaisional brain fart - make sure you know that everything is being done correctly.</p>
<p>From watching 3 cycles of admissions I will tell you that don't really trust schools with admission rates under about 40% to always behave in a predictable fashion. What I do trust is applying to a good spread of schools - geographically and competitively. If you like Columbia, for example, UChicago and Rice are good choices. Penn State Honors is nothing to sneeze at - perks in the Honors college and an amazing array of classes in the university at large. </p>
<p>One of the things that I noticed in the last admissions cycle (and my kid's in college so I could just observe) was that kids with essays that clearly showed them in some fashion (activities, intellectual processes, or passions) tended to do quite well assuming that the student and the college were a good fit to begin with. First you need to find this fit - and this goes way beyond the position on the USNWR rankings.</p>
<p>badump- any other opinions?</p>
<p>dump (trying not to break out laughing...) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, that post wasn't at all helpful. So?</p>
<p>Oh I know what I can do to help.</p>
<p>BUMP BUMP BUMP BUMP BUMP</p>
<p>I know, real helpful.</p>
<p>The short answer: ABSOLUTELY NOT.</p>
<p>The long answer: I'm not giving the long answer.</p>
<p>No. They dont really care much for freshman year.</p>