<p>I am a rising high school senior, and unfortunately also an extremely lopsided student. I'm not going to sit here and type away the minutia of the awards I may or may not have been awarded throughout my life, but I'll try to summarize my situation fairly briefly. I go to a rigorous private high school in Connecticut, and my GPA is 3.3, unweighted. However, my GPA for the past year is 3.5, and my GPA for the most recent quarter is 3.8. Furthermore, I have not only taken the most rigorous curriculum at my school, but I have skipped three years of high-level math courses (Precalculus, AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC) on my own in the past year alone (I earned a 5 on the BC Calc AP exam), I skipped AP Computer Science on my own and earned a 4 on the exam, and I took the AP Chemistry course and earned a 5 on that exam as well. On top of these, I earned an 800 on both the Mathematics level 2 and Chemistry SAT subject tests, and my SAT 1 score is a 2260.</p>
<p>But numbers aside, what I believe really makes me distinct from the other applicants is that I play very serious classical piano. I have won several competitions, and my piano teacher (who is a world-class performing pianist) tells me that I would have little problem getting into Julliard. Additionally, I have spent nearly every summer of my high school career going to music festivals and advancing myself musically.</p>
<p>Among others, the places I am applying to include Williams, Amherst, Brown, and Wesleyan, all of which are places who supposedly pride themselves in accepting not only those who are 4.0/2400 students, but also those who will bring diversity and true excellence to the campus. Am I completely delusional? Keep in mind that, for instance, the average GPA of the bottom 25% of even the students who were <em>rejected</em> from Williams last year was 3.70. Will my GPA truly be a massive bottleneck for the schools I get into? Will these schools actually be able to overlook my GPA and see not only my steady improvement, but that I can bring at least as much intellectual drive, motivation, and diversity as the other students there?</p>
<p>Immense thanks ahead of time,
-eggplant1994</p>
<p>Totally go for it and for sure send in a piano tape. I have two kids who recently graduated from Williams and were heavy into their wonderful music program. Your lopsided application may make you a more interesting applicant. Your APs show you can do the work and are self motivated, SATs are fine. I think Williams likes a class with kids with their own passions and you have that. Good luck. (both kids loved their years there)</p>
<p>I think a stand-out musical talent will be a major plus, but not a slam-dunk. Grades are still more important than SAT’s (although both are important) at Williams and other top tier institutions.</p>
<p>I had a lower GPA and a 2340. I had only taken 2 AP classes by the time I applied to Williams. I was also first chair in the state and in the nation for my instrument. So you never know! Good luck, always worth trying.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the advice. Floridadad55, what do you mean by my “story”? Do you mean that I should tell them that I am really very motivated (however much this may not be reflected in my GPA), how I play piano, etc? Also, how do you guys think my transcript will hold up against the other applicants, in terms of areas of focus and interest? I know that Williams is a very liberal-artsy place, with a majority of people majoring in social sciences or humanities.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t want to go to Julliard for two reasons:</p>
<p>1.) The environment of the school doesn’t seem like a place where I would want to spend 4 years. Many people, including my piano teacher (who is a Julliard alumna), tell me that it is a hyper-competitive program based more on politics and connections than actual musical ability.</p>
<p>2.) I don’t feel that it is necessary to endure 4 years of the environment discussed in (1) just so I can say that I went to Julliard, especially when I can go to other phenomenal schools (let’s generalize that as US News top 20, liberal arts or university). If, say, I didn’t get into anywhere with a US News ranking over 30 (let’s say 50 if it has a big name), I might consider going to Julliard, because it might then seem like a worthy sacrifice.</p>
<p>Regarding the second note, I wouldn’t care so much about the school’s name if it didn’t matter so much. If I see someone’s educational background as, say, Brown B.A., Yale M.A., Harvard Ph.D., it is certainly much more impressive than an educational background like DePauw B.A., Georgetown M.A., UChicago Ph.D., and the accomplishments of the person usually follow suit.</p>
<p>A small note about the school’s name; it does not matter NEARLY as much as you think it does! My dad went to a no name state school in Ohio and now has Stanford, Harvard, Yale, etc alumni working for him. It’s the experience that gets you jobs way more than the school you went to. Grad school is a different story, but undergrad had no correlation with your future success (unless you go to a specialized school, such as Juilliard). Stop worrying about the name and start focusing on what you want in in the actual school. No point going to Harvard just for the name if you’ll be miserable there…</p>
<p>Sorry about the rant, but this is something that very few college applicants understand and we all must get it into our heads that the name means nothing compared to work experience when applying for a job.</p>
<p>Dear OP,
I’m no expert in college admissions or anything like that, but here are my two cents:
I understand why you might not want to Juilliard. I’ve heard the same things, and I’ve also heard that the teachers often try to control their students’ talents. That is why I did not apply to Juilliard pre-college (I’m a violinist from NYC, I also have a long music resume).<br>
Aside from your GPA, your numbers are very good, but I’m sure you know that. If you’re looking into the Math and Science fields, those will do lots of good for you.
In reference to your low GPA - Williams has accepted kids with lower GPA’s. First of all, get your guidance counselor to mention your huge upswing of grades in the secondary school report. Second, junior year is also the most important, so if you had a 3.8, that will work in your favor. Third, make sure you keep doing well first term senior year.
You don’t mention your other extracurriculars - if you have other ones, then hopefully they are ones you have committed too also, so the school can see your passions. That will help.
I went to a college-essay-writing thing once, and they said that if your grades aren’t the best, then write your personal statement about why you want to study what you want to study - talk about your drive to learn, so that the college can tell that you’re an eager student even if your grades may not be reflective of it.
Williams interviews aren’t so much to learn about you as they are to have you ask them questions. They aren’t even required or suggested, so I’m not sure that will help for Williams. But for other schools, emphasize your academic persistence and desire to learn when you speak to them.
Definitely do the music supplement - Williams has very few music majors, so it could definitely help you.
All of this being said, Williams (and those other schools) are still reaches based on your GPA…but honestly, that is your only flaw because everything else looks great. Just sell yourself well.</p>
<p>@floridadad55: Williams interviews are supposedly non-evaluative; they don’t keep a file on what occurs in the interview and it’s not used to make admissions decisions. Doing an interview might be good advice at other schools but I’m not sure if it would help at Williams.</p>
<p>@eggplant1994: you absolutely have a chance, though not a slam dunk*. When the admissions committee looks at an application, they see numbers (GPA and test scores) and words (teacher recs and personal statement). To the extent that you have a weakness in the numbers, you can try to compensate or explain it with the words. That means writing a strong personal statement, of course, but it could also mean finding teachers who can talk about your talents and your passion and – in the ideal case – say something like “eggplant1994 got a bad grade in my class because of [mitigating factors which are no longer an issue], but I would still recommend him/her over many of my students who got better grades because (s)he showed such great [passion, drive, intellectual curiosity etc.]”, or “has matured incredibly”, or whatever. After all, grades are only a mechanical summary of a teacher’s evaluation of you, so if you can get a teacher to write about how grades don’t tell the whole story then that might go a long way (of course, you don’t necessarily get to decide what teachers write about you, but you can usually have some idea of what they’d say). </p>
<p>On a bit of a tangent, Williams is actually not all that liberal-artsy as far as liberal arts schools go. The proportion of math/science majors is something like twice as high as at Amherst; I think it’s roughly 30% vs. 15% (if you care to Google I think there’s a list out there somewhere comparing the prevalence of science majors at a bunch of top LACs). As a math person, I’d certainly take Williams over Amherst or Wesleyan (not super familiar with Brown). And Williams certainly respects kids with those strengths, so if there’s anything more to say about your math resume (AMC/AIME/USAMO scores, other math competitions or activities, college-level classes you might be taking this fall, etc.) or academic accomplishments in other areas, make sure that’s also prominent on your app. </p>
<ul>
<li>Of course, quite likely no one on this board has ever worked for Williams admissions, so all of our comments about chances are essentially uninformed. My perspective is from having graduated recently and knowing a bunch of other Williams students, so I have some idea of what the admitted pool looks like, but not the admissions process itself.</li>
</ul>
<p>Wow, that’s super helpful, thanks so much jeke. I was worried that they would look at my application and think something along the lines of, “Well, he’s smart, but he doesn’t really have the qualities we’re looking for”.</p>
<p>Also, I toured Williams and Amherst, and I LOVED Williams, it is by far my early decision school. Amherst was OK, felt like a second-rate Williams, to be honest.</p>
<p>eggplant, I think your chances would be better RD. It would be great to show Williams (and other schools on your list) outstanding grades from first semester senior year.</p>
<p>The full semester will carry more weight and could really help your application. I know students at my sons’ private high school with a profile similar to yours are advised to wait for RD; these students often do very well in the RD round. What do the college counselors/advisors at your private school suggest?</p>