Emory, Chance me.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Emory University
1

Hi, I’m applying to Emory RD for 2018 fall term and would greatly appreciated any feedback for my chances at getting accepted. Thanks for reading in advance!

Male, Caucasian. Both parents immigrants. I applied for a Chemistry major, and have a heavy interest in science.

GPA UW: 3.85. My school doesn’t do weighted or class ranks.

Full IB Candidate. My HL’s are English, History, and Physics. My SL’s are Math, Biology and Spanish.

AP courses: AP Human Geography, AP World, AP/IBUSH, AP Chem, AP Env Science, AP/IB Gov

*My school has the history and physics classes as IB/AP. Not entirely sure why but I assume that it is just the same class (which it is) and there is additional IB stuff for IB candidates.

IB Courses: Bio SL, Math SL 2, Spanish SL (did all the way to 4), Physics SL 1, IB Physics HL 2, IB Lang/Lit.

AP Scores: APHUG - 5, APWorld - 4, APUSH - 4, AP Chem - 4, AP Lang - 5.
IB Score: 6 in Spanish (taking the rest senior year)

Sat: 1410 (kinda low. I’m bad at standardized tests :/)
Only took one subject SAT and it was for Chem. Got a 760.

EC’s/awards:
HS Swim (Varsity all 4 years. Went to state)
Club Swim (8 years)
Chemistry Club
HOSA (its a health/science related club). Officer (treasurer role) in senior year. Won 1st at state in a group event and placed like 12th at nationals (out of 90 teams).
CIA (Its a solar panel building club which is entirely volunteering. We build solar panels for homeless people who reside in temporary encampments. We also built panels for a community in Tijuana, Mexico and our adviser went there to install them over the summer.) - around 60 hours
AP Scholar with Distinction

I would give my college essay a 9/10. Spent a butt load of time and I asked my junior English teacher to read over it and give me feedback.
I assume my recommendations should be pretty good. Asked 2 of my favorite teachers: AP Chem and APUSH. No college visits unfortunately because of lower income.

Thanks again for reading through this and I appreciate any feedback! :slight_smile:

2

RD will be hard:

SAT is technically fine (may be in middle 50, the lower end, but competitive nonetheless), but keep in mind most applications are in the RD round and there will be tons around and far ahead of that score.
Only Higher levels and special topics extensions to them count for IB. Maybe only 1/2 of the APs are regarded as “useful” by Emory and many other elites: AP Lang, AP Chem, and APUSH (barely), the IB Lang/Lit if HL are then redundant.

ECs are fine I think. Had you ever considered something like a chemistry Olympiad or other things higher than the chemistry club? Basically something to take that interest further than testing and club membership. It may have helped develop an academic spike that makes you look attractive to some departments. Oh well too late.

No need to rate essays…decisions will be out in a month and it really only matters what they think of the essays and how they paint you as a person and scholar.

How do people do this…“reach”, but you may very well be admitted.

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@NotABonobo
Other than your SAT score I think you’re app is great, The 740 and 4 on the AP Chem exam stands out. However, I personally and I’m sure the admissions office would agree that pulling the trigger on you is risky as your SAT is low and you didn’t apply ED to show valid interest. Low Reach/REACH.

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Thanks for the feedback :). I was actually going to do ED 2 for Emory, however my school already sends 2nd semester grades out by mid February which is really late and in addition to that I had the flu during finals week so I had to make up stuff past semester 1 delaying everything even more.