<p>nope. we're a good private school with a good rep. my class happens to have a lot of very good and well rounded students, and they are very aware of the "college landscape," which, when added to a very good college counseling office, is why everyone who applied to Amherst this year is qualified.</p>
<p>one kid who got an early write is a straight A student who is a two year varsity soccer player, 4 years working/writing for the school paper including editor this year, 4 years photographing for the yearbook, and 4 years in student government</p>
<p>one is farris hassan, the kid who was on the news for making an impromptu trip to iraq. he also has very good grades.</p>
<p>one is a good student, not necessarily straight As, but he's of colombian descent...he already has been accepted to Rice and UChicago as well</p>
<p>one is a 2 year varisty soccer player, 4 years track, 4 years cross country, got a 36 on the ACT, 2390 on the SAT, good grades</p>
<p>two of my other good friends are still pending, one is the valedictorian of my class, the other is probably top 5-10 in the class as well as 4 year all state clarinetist, 2 years volleyball, 4 years weightlifting...i hope they get in, but i doubt they'd go.</p>
<p>It seems that these are few and far between, or at least that not that many CCers among the recipients.</p>
<p>Has anyone (other than the Oregon poster) from the West Coast received an early write? Is it safe to assume that all early writes should have been received by now?</p>
<p>MastaTTTang, my impression is that the 1-7 number system is just a convenient way to group applicants into "tiers" to make comparisons easier throughout the review process. Also, I believe that the difficulty of the course load relative to what each high school offers is also taken into account. They don't just plug a couple numbers into a computer and let it spit out the academic rating. Furthermore, the college does not base the entire decision off of this one number.</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted
Stats:
[ *] SAT: 2230 (Math: 790 Verbal: 750 Writing: 690)
[ *] SAT IIs: 690 US History, 680 World History 800 Math IIC 720 Math IC
[ *] GPA:99.3 Weighted
[ *] Rank:9/637
[ *] Other stats:
5 on AP: English Language, Calculus BC, Caluclus AB Subscore, Statistics
4 on AP: US History, World History
Subjective:
[ *] Essays:Fairly solid, Can't remember exactly what the Amherst prompts were, but I wrote on a Gandhi quote for my Common App essay.
[ *] Teacher Recs: 1 was spectacular, the other was decent (poorly written letter)
[ *] Counselor Rec:Solid, very detailed
[ *] Hook (if any): I've worked with children with special needs for over 3 years, in a slew of ECs (Academic Decathlon, Math Team, UIL, Journalism etc)
[ *] Applied early? No
Location/Person:
[ *] State or Country:Texas
[ *] School Type:Public
[ *] Ethnicity:Asian (Chinese)
[ *] Gender:Male
Other Factors:I like to think that I'm fairly well rounded, not only in the entire breadth of my extra curriculars but also my academic extra curriculars as well. I also took the most difficult courseload offered to me at my school, as well as getting the school district to start a Calculus 3/D.E. class for me.</p>
<p>General Comments:Amherst is a great school, and while my ultimate decision is pending the rest of my admission decisions in the upcoming weeks, I'm extremely pleased to be accepted here. Good luck!</p>