Check out these Emory admissions essays deemed outstanding by Emory admissions and posted as standouts on Emory’s admission’s website:
Please chance me. I toured/met with a student/met with a professor and fell in love with emory. If this isnt detailed enough, let me know and I’d be happy to add more info.
I have a 3.9UW and 1490 SAT,
-many EC and leadership including 2 season varsity athletic (captain for 1)
-NHS officer
-Band section leader and officer
- student leader of 2 comm service organizations
-did a spanish exchange program
-12 Honors/AP Classes.
59/720 rank
SATII 690 Chem, 780 Math II
Full year Job,
Camp counselor and instructor one week a year in one of my sports
Wrote the “extra information” about taking a summer course to accelerate my math education
Good recs, great supplement rec from boss as well as a peer rec from a soccer coach/friend’s dad who has known me very well for nearly my whole life.
@Peterya
RD is a tough round and there’s a lot of students just like you. You’re EC’s are lacking, and your ranking is low compared to you’re GPA. That probably means you didn’t take a sufficient amount of rigorous classes. Best of luck.
@VANDEMORY1342 what am I missing in my EC? My other question is, will rank be viewed as poor 59/720 or as meeting a “top 10%” qualification? Also, i did take the most rigorous courses available to me which summed up to 12 Honors/AP including AP Calc, AP Chem, AP Spanish, and AP Psych this year. My rank is largely due to my schools rank system, as we have 4 levels of courses and our AP classes bring grades down compared to a student taking a “B- Level” vclass and doing well in it.
Also, i dont know if it holds any significance but I dropped my lunch so that I could take more courses my senior year
EC Are
Varsity Ski racing and captain
Elected Band Officer
NHS Officer
Band section leader
JV-V Tennis
Spanish Exchange host and exchange students
Ski Camp counselor and Teacher
Full year Job (Owner Rec), promoted to leader
2 separate community service organizations
I hope this doesnt come off as defensive, I just want to know how my app is being viewed from someone who has a bit more experience here. Thank you :))
@Peterya : “I hope this doesnt come off as defensive, I just want to know how my app is being viewed from someone who has a bit more experience here. Thank you”
That is defensive and we are not an admissions office. It doesn’t make sense to come on CC and ask for “experienced” reviewers. We don’t know.
And your ECs do appear to be “standard” among the many high achievers that apply to Emory and its peers. Nothing sticks out as “wow, you won this and that award or deeply engaged in x,y,z to the point of x”. If you did do such things, those are what should be listed. With what you are showing us, you will not stand out much. This looks like the profile of many high achievers who are qualified but may not be admitted. You just have a bunch of “things” on the resume. To increase your chances, you better choose 1 or 2 that are meaningful to you and integrate them into your personal statement really well.
I would also like to see the scores on the AP exams. Also, a 3.9UW and in top 10% suggests grade inflation at the school (If AP classes truly brought people’s grades down and a decent amount of people were taking them and yet the 5-10% range started at 3.9, that would be concerning. HOWEVER, if your school does not have a particularly large magnet/gifted/honors program and enrollment in such coruses and you outperformed the group that does take those, then it is great). Not all top 10% people will be regarded equally. They will want to have a feel for the rigor of the school overall and would want to contextualize the grades. For example, they would definitely want to see good AP/IB scores as finals in several classes count worth a very large chunk of the course grade (especially in beginning courses) and are about the same length (hour wise) as APs. Emory clearly does not look for “buzz numbers” like “top 10% of class”, “over 1500 on SAT”, “Took X amount of APs”, everything gets contextualized. Unless the context reveals relative excellence in context of the school and others in the applicant pool from similar caliber schools and backgrounds, then we can’t just look at those and tell your chances.
Either way, don’t come here looking for experience. That is ridiculous. We don’t know. The best we could say is: “Your profile looks normal for an applicant that has a chance of being admitted but will not stand out by itself”. The only “experience” we have is looking at old threads and maybe reflecting on those who gained admission versus those who don’t. Without a spike or 2 in addition to 75% level stats, AND a rigorous HS, it really isn’t worth calling anyone a match (in fact, I would say “reach” unless I felt someone has a legit shot at a Woodruff Scholarship and the best candidates among those tend to be much more “pointy” or at least have a serious spike or 2 among their well-roundedness. It isn’t that the ECs are weak so much as that they do not indicate a spike anywhere which means you chances are simply not very predictable. Conclusion: qualified, but likely a reach (perhaps a low reach as they call it). Can’t really tell if you will gain admission, but you should be happy if you do. Definitely do not expect it. Just hope for it.
Also, I need to see all of the “academic” APs you have taken. I know that many tend to list “softcore” APs like AP capstone and things like that. And do not count honors courses. Those are basically a bare minimum expectation among those considering applying to even top 50 schools.
Please tell us more about this math acceleration. You say you are only in AP Calc. Which one, AB or BC? Do you plan to teach yourself higher level math, attend a local college to do so or compete in competitions that use rigorous math? That would put you near “spike” level in an academic area that Emory has had lots of success recruiting and would likely want to continue it, though some of the students I think of are on a completely different level in terms of having a spike in math: http://news.emory.edu/stories/2016/09/er_goldwater_scholars_alwaise_kantor/campus.html
These two are essentially similar to those who would have been the ever so rare “academic admits” (where they were literally sought after because a specific department saw their potential to go far in a specific field and wanted to enhance their training as opposed to “I’m sure they’ll do something great one day, let us just harbor them at Harvard and let them do what they do”) at say an HYPS.
Emory now has faculty read some applications and they apparently look to find need for students in their depts. who communicate and demonstrate a certain deep talent or passion that showed up as early HS. This could lift an otherwise typical applicant over the top.
@Peterya , take it with a grain of salt. I am not a fan of chancing for this very reason. You know where you fit with respect to 25/75 percentiles and you have the course rigor, organized sports, part-time job, and working with kids in the summer. That’s all something you should be proud of. You didn’t list scores on AP exams and Emory likes those when they’re good. Hey, good luck.
@Peterya
I hope I didn’t offend. Your at least a Low Reach for Emory, and the rest of the schools you applied to.
SAT: 1330 (670 reading, 660 math, or vice versa i can’t remember)
ACT: 33, 24 science, 31 math, 32 ela
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.694 (at time of app, not a 3.8)
Weighted GPA: 3.89
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 15%?? (really don’t know, i also go to peachtree ridge which is highly competitive)
AP classes: 9 upon graduation, env sci (4). human geo (4), us his (4), phys 1 (3), stat (3), lang, calc ab, psych, french (predicted 4-5 for last 4)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): scholar athlete, once.
SUBJECTIVE: loaded on ap courses near the end of high school, shows commitment to rigor. Also did orch 4 years, french 3 years, shows dedication to courses.
Extracurricular activities/ Work experience (place leadership in parenthesis): NEHS 2 yrs, NSHS 1 year, jv tennis 3 yrs, NFHS 1 yr. Worked summers at a day camp for children
Applied for Financial Aid?: yes
Intended Major : media studies, secondary english/writing studies
Domestic or International (state or country in parenthesis): domestic (georgia)
Race and/or Ethnicity: asian
Gender: F
Income Bracket: middle class
Hooks (URM, first generation college, Recruited Athlete, Famous, High Donar): mother is alumni but she doesn’t donate.
Other Schools you are applying to: GA Tech (given non legacy cond transfer), Clemson (accepted, not going), UNG (accepted not going), GGC (accepted, not going), KSU (not released yet, overqualified for both school and honors program)
General Comments: I think I have a fair shot at going to Emory, I visited a tour day and they really do seem to consider more than just test scores and gpa. My essays were very strong.
@Peterya I toured as well. tbh i think you have a very good chance of getting in. Their stats are actually slightly lower than ga tech’s for whatever reason, and even students who answered questions on a panel for people that day said “don’t worry too much about your scores.” The college really looks at you overall, and you seem to have a lot of varying ec’s under your belt. They place a huge emphasis on the importance of diversity, so the spanish exchange program will make your app stand out.
@plxsendhelp
Well your mom should start donating. Legacy certainly helps but only for the ED rounds (I’m fairly sure of this). It would have been better to not sent that SAT score but too late now, …is the ACT superscored?. I would also say Low Reach, however the conditional acceptance to GTech gives me pause especially considering the instate acceptance rate. A wait list from Emory might be likely if the legacy stat doesn’t help.
And Emory’s stats are a bit higher than Tech’s actually but not by much ( statistically the same).
http://admission.gatech.edu/content/freshman-admission
http://apply.emory.edu/discover/fastfacts.php
@VANDEMORY1342 , I don’t believe you are correct on legacy only helping on ED. The review process doesn’t change. I would think a parent donating large amounts would help more, but the status itself helps and applications go through a separate process according to the passage copied below.
It would be nice if anyone using the template for chances would change the spelling from donar to donor.
Do alumni children get special consideration during the admission process?
The undergraduate admission office values the legacy connections of applicants and encourages students to detail their university ties accurately on their applications. The admission staff and Emory Alumni Association (EAA) work closely to document legacy applicants through the admission-review process. During the initial application review, an applicant’s legacy status is noted on the review sheet and admission evaluators are instructed to consider the affiliation. In addition, during the committee-review process, there is a separate committee that does an additional review of legacy applicants. Finally, the deans of admission for Emory College and Oxford College closely monitor legacy decisions throughout the entire process.
@VANDEMORY1342 I understand why you might suggest donating, but we don’t really have an extra few hundreds to lay down. Neither of my tests were superscored, and I don’t know what happened with my SAT, I should have gotten higher, but it is what it is. Also, my mom only attended for 2 years and never had a deep connection to the school, otherwise I think she might have donated (really, what she does with her money is not my business and I don’t care too much). Emory is not my first choice, and as you can tell by my gt result, I don’t plan on staying wherever I go for more than a year.
Also, I am definitely in the upper range for their ACT, and they got my mid year report which now reflects a 3.8 uw. The SAT still stands, but I think I’m at least going to be considered.
Also holy crap its a 34 science not a 24 LOL
You plan to transfer to GT after one year at whatever school?
And I thought the science score looked off …
@BiffBrown yes. i got a conditional transfer for 2019, i need x gpa i have to take x classes and as long as I do that I am guaranteed a spot.
@plxsendhelp You have to take x number of classes or x set of science/math classes or both?
Perhaps you should start off at someplace easier than Emory.
@BiffBrown
If her mother did not graduate, I don’t think she is considered legacy (unless she lied on the Common app). If she’s not legacy then Emory is a Reach for her, her WGPA is low.
@plxsendhelp If GTech is your first choice please withdraw your app. No need to potentially fill a spot for someone who actually is really considering Emory. You can fulfill the one year requirement at GGC or GSU and not risk a low freshman GPA.
@plxsendhelp : Do not go to Emory, that would be non-sense. A bit to expensive. Why not go somewhere else that is cheaper with an engineering school or program, and perhaps consider staying there?
@VANDEMORY1342 My mother did graduate from there, she just attended for her latter 2 years. Emory was still my second choice, but at this point I suppose just waiting to see what they say. And I’m not sure what you mean by taking a spot, because it would be my spot for a year. I would attend the college and then transfer, like many people do.
@bernie12 That isn’t a bad option, but I plan to take my conditional transfer to tech. My debate is more dependent on the environment I want to be in. If between fin. aid the cost is not that different for emory or for kennesaw state, then I will likely choose Emory because it’s going to have different people and a different environment. To be quite honest, Emory to ksu is kind of a downgrade. Being surrounded by a certain type of people is important to me.
Also, I am still not sure what kind of aid I will get, because Emory has a good reputation when it comes to financial aid. They say they meet 100% of demonstrated need, so it’s a waiting game.
@plzsendhelp Your plan is to transfer after a year, how is that not potentially ( you’re still likely not to get accepted) taking spot. Emory is assuming you will be there for 4 years not 1. If you told admissions your intentions, you know you would be rejected without much consideration. And why apply to Emory is you want to be an engineer. You got into your first choice, morally you should drop the others. Good luck to you.