FIRST CHOICE: BROWN. CHANCES FOR ED? (Will chance back!)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Brown University will be my ED choice this fall. Yet, knowing how important/influential ED is for college admits, I will not be applying if I have a "Hail Mary" or "one in a million" kind of odds for the school -- I definitely don't think I have such low odds, but I want to get some eyes to look at my stats...</p>

<p>Grade: Rising Senior
GPA: 3.75 (Upward trend)
SAT: 2260 (CR: 800; W: 780; M: 680)
Hook/URM: African-American. (My parents are East African immigrants.)
School: An elite progressive private school, where there is no weighting and no AP classes are offered. Instead, challenging classes are given an 'Accelerated' designation, but even that is limited to language and science classes. Literally, stamped all over our college material is that WE DO NOT DO AP'S and we are NOT A TEST-HEAVY SCHOOL. </p>

<p>Classes:</p>

<p>9th:
English: A-
US History: B+
Physics: A-
Math: B+
French: B-
Design (art): B+
Characterization (art) : A-</p>

<p>10th:
English electives: A/A/A
World History: A
Chemistry: B+
Math: B
Shakespeare (art - play): A
*Instead of year-long English classes, after 9th grade my school offers only semester-long electives. I have been doubling in English classes (and dropping my Arts class) since freshman year, which means I take 6 academic classes a semester instead of 5.</p>

<p>11th:
English electives: A+/A/A/A
20th Century History (Acc.): A
Biology w. Chemistry: A-
Math: A-
French: B/B+</p>

<p>12th:<a href="projected">/u</a>
English electives: A
Islamic Civilization: A
French: A-
Anatomy: A
Calculus: A-
Directing: A</p>

<p>AP/SAT II:</p>

<p>AP's: </p>

<p>English Lit - 5
English Lang - 5</p>

<p>Self-studied, since school offers no APs and our Acc. classes are not designed to prepare us for the AP tests.</p>

<p>SAT II's:</p>

<p>English - 780
US History - 750</p>

<p>Extracurricular's:
4-year Varsity Crosscountry athlete, will letter.
BtC - 4 year commitment; club that meets to discuss the racial/ideological gaps and issues within my school's community and the wider world. I am also involved in hosting a series of days in the upcoming year which will introduce the wider school community to the issues we discuss every week.
Leader of Debate Club - 4 year commitment; Big deal at my school, will co-lead.
Arts Editor of school newspaper - 3 year commitment; 2 years Arts Editor.
Writing Tutor - 2 year commitment
MAJOR Theater commitment over the years -- participation in 4 plays throughout high school, with lead roles in 2 of those, including a major lead role in our Shakespeare production during my sophomore year.
Bard Writing Workshop and UVA Writing Workshop participant
CIT at a summer camp for my sophomore year summer
3 weeks teaching English in the country my parents came from (will feature in my essay, which is explained in more depth later.)</p>

<p>Awards: School does not do awards along with having any AP's, so this section is n/a. Just to reiterate, we have a long tradition of sending a large portion of our graduating class to highly selective universities, and the middle fifty percent to challenging, well-regarded schools. This aspect of my application will likely not pose a problem.</p>

<p>Essays: Will be stellar. English is my standout subject, and I've applied to things in the past and regularly been accepted. I know this sounds super arrogant and preachy, but I'm very, very confident in this part of the process.</p>

<p>Recommendations: From my English teacher and History teacher. My English teacher is going to have PHENOMENAL things to say about me as we are very close. Likewise, my History teacher is also the advisor for a club I'm a leader in, so also very positive things to say.</p>

2

<p>Before I say anything, I’m a little confused. Your portrayal of your high school seems a little contradictory, as you say:</p>

<p>“Just to reiterate, we have a long tradition of sending a large portion of our graduating class to highly selective universities, and the middle fifty percent to challenging, well-regarded schools.”</p>

<p>at the end, but in the beginning and throughout your post you mention that your school is not a test-heavy school/does not prepare you for AP’s. How exactly does that work? Sorry if I’m not getting something :)</p>

<p>If I ignore the last part, and treat your school as one that does not adequately prepare you for college-level material, your stats look solid for ED at Brown. The fact that you overcame the lack of resources at your school will help, as well as your essays. I wouldn’t say you are a shoo-in (no one is, at this point), but you at least have a solid sporting chance.</p>

<p>Good luck! :D</p>

3

<p>Haha, I completely understand the confusion. I didn’t really get it when I first toured either! My school operates on the philosophy that “teaching to the test” for A.P. classes is counterintuitive to the learning process. As such, we don’t have AP/Honors classes – instead, some classes are “accelerated” courses but that varies by department and within the departments, by the teacher.</p>

<p>If you know the NYC school St Ann’s we are in a lot of ways similar to them. All that being said, most colleges, especially in the Northeast, are aware of progressive private schools – while we are a minority, we aren’t that much of a niche!</p>

4

<p>What is your class rank if it ranks</p>

5

<p>Honestly, strong stats, EC, and essays + URM = DUH ACCEPTANCE LETTER.</p>

6

<p>No rank and haha @pursuitof, if only that was true.</p>

7

<p>You seem like you have an <em>excellent</em> shot :smiley: Your stats are great and you have impressive EC’s. Despite the fact that your school doesn’t have advanced classes, you appear to have had a relatively rigorous schedule (self-study AP’s and 6 academic classes is great, especially if it’s not something that most students at your school do.
Your SAT II scores, are great, especially English. Will you be taking the SAT reasoning test? If you do, then definitely study over the summer…you’ll most likely do fantastic on the reading and writing sections, and seeing your math grades, you’ll probably do really great on there too.
Good luck!!!</p>

<p>chance me back? ( <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1374409-list-realistic-will-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1374409-list-realistic-will-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt; )</p>

8

<p>Chancing back :slight_smile:
As im not an admissions officer, I can’t analyze your gpa accurately, so I won’t try. Your SAT score is pretty good, but try to get that math score above a 700 if you have a chance? Math is usually the easiest to raise for most people, but I don’t know you personally, so who knows. You’re ECs are great, there was an african-american girl at my school who got into Princeton with similar specs as you (pretty close SAT score, gpa was near yours, and your ECs match up pretty closely with hers). The only difference being that she went to a highly ranked public school and you go to a private school.</p>

9

<p>I think you have a great shot! Your ECs are great (drama club representtt)! The only question I have is whether or not the upper 25% of your school’s graduating class usually self-studies for many APs or not. It’s amazing that you’ve self-studied for 2 already and done so well (I can’t imagine being that focused without classroom test preparation), but if the kids your school sends to Ivies usually self-study for more then get on that!</p>

<p>Also, how many classes did you take that were accelerated/how many accelerated classes does your school offer? If you’ve taken many of them, then some of those Bs can be justifiable. If you haven’t taken many though your school offers a lot of them, you may have a slight issue there. Just my 2 cents.</p>

<p>Chance me back, please?</p>

10

<p>please chance back lol </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1376336-penn-brown-yale-columbia-chance-me-chance-back-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1376336-penn-brown-yale-columbia-chance-me-chance-back-2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>Your in dude</p>