Emerson College

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I have a 2.5 unweighted GPA and a 2.999 weighted GPA. My first 2 years of high school, I had medical, financial and family problems which destroyed my GPA. My junior year grades were better but not great (I just started my first semester of senior year). Emerson College is my dream school but I know the chances of me getting are 0 to none. I'm retaking a few classes that I bombed freshman and sophomore year and that should raise my GPA a little but I don't think it will be substantial enough. I live in Florida (originally from MA), I'm female, white. I have around 250 community service hours, I'm in the IB program and my SAT score was a 2030 (760 reading, 670 writing, 600 math). I'm in marching band and concert band, as well as my city's Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. I'm also in debate club (JSA) and key club. I know I can get really good letters of recommendation and write good essays. I'm applying early and I either want to be a marketing communications, political communications, journalism or publishing major (my English and history grades are fairly good, math and science, not so much). I just want to know if I have any chance at all of getting in. I'm retaking the SAT to get my math and writing score up and if my GPA goes up a little bit. Also, are there any EC's I should get involved in this year? If I get straight A's this semester will that help my chances at all?</p>

<p>Senior year classes: AP Calculus AB, IB Biology HL, IB History HL, IB English HL, IB Spanish SL, Theory of Knowledge</p>

<p>EDIT:
AP Scores: AP European History 3, AP English Language 4, AP US History 4, AP Biology 3
IB Scores: IB Music 5, IB Math Studies 5
I also have a scholar designation on my diploma because of statewide EOC's (not that it matters much)</p>

2

<p>Hi Ecunningham, Your scores and your extra-curricular activities are very strong, but Emerson does also look for academic strength in terms of grades. However, the fact that you had issues during your first two years should be addressed in your application and I think it would be very helpful if your guidance counselor wrote a statement which addressed these issues as well. As for applying early, yes it does send a very strong message to the school that this is where you want to be. On the other hand – the school will be looking at you based upon your first three years of high school. If you are confident that your senior year grades will be much, much better then you should consider whether it would be better for you to be considered along with the regular applicant pool of students. If you are deferred, then your chances of acceptance when they take a second look are actually a bit lower as the number of deferred students who are ultimately accepted goes down. On the other hand, there is a higher acceptance rate for early applicants than regular applicants. It’s a tough decision! If you can swing the finances, I would strongly recommend a trip to Boston which includes a sit down with an admissions officer. I don’t think they offer meetings with applicants who have already applied. We suffered through the agony of a deferral last year so I’m drawing from experience, and yes - kid was accepted with the regular pool but it was very stressful. I wish you the best of luck.</p>