<p>How likely do you think it is that I'll get in? I adore Smith, but I'm kind of panicking.</p>
<p>STATS
GPA: 3.2 unweighted, 3.6 weighted (Terribly low, with two bad math grades. D+ in Honors Algebra II/Trig, D- in AP Calc.)
Rank: A little out of Top 25%
SAT I: 710 CR/600 M/740 W (2050 total)
SAT II: 710 Lit/550 Bio
ACT: N/A
Other Stats: Not anything amazing, just an AP Scholar. 4 English Language, 4 Psych (self-study), 3 World History</p>
<p>SUBJECTIVE:
Common Application Essays: Writing is my strong point.
Smith Essays: Ditto.
EC's: Multicultural Club (President), Newspaper (Feature/In-Depth Editor), Black Student Union (Secretary-Treasurer)
Teacher Recs: I'm guessing two amazing ones from my AP English teacher and newspaper advisor, and a solid one from my APUSH teacher.
Counselor Rec: Should be good.
Major Awards:
- YoungArts Finalist in Writing / Presidential Scholar in the Arts Nominee
- Scholastic Art and Writing Awards: National Gold Medal (Short Story), National Creativity & Citizenship Award (Journalism), Gold Key (Short Short Story), Gold Key (Journalism), Gold Key (Novel Writing)
- National Council of Teachers of English Achievement in Writing Award
- National Merit Semifinalist
- National Achievement Semifinalist
- Not an award, but accepted into Iowa Young Writers Studio.
-Hook (if any): URM</p>
<p>LOCATION
State or Country: New Mexico D:
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: African-American</p>
<p>Applying as an English major, I don't know how much that will make up for how terrible I am at math.</p>
<p>Apply. That’s going to be my advice to everyone. We’re NOT the admission board. We don’t exactly know whether Smith will accept you or not. Your best bet is to apply. They might accept you, they might not. You never know.
Now, my personal opinion is that you have a shot. The great thing about Smith is that they place a lot of importance on individuality. Interview. You will have a chance to explain your GPA and convey your ardor to attend Smith.</p>
<p>Apply! I’m pretty sure I was accepted mainly because writing is such a strength of mine. my grades are not perfect - I’m in the top 25% not top 10. Smith is definitely willing to look beyond grades, and I’m sure they’ll be impressed that you took challenging math courses even though your strength is clearly English. I don’t usually post on here but you look a lot like me on paper so I wanted to give you a little hope. However, I applied Early Decision which gives me a little bit of advantage, and according to my guidance counselor, the average gpa IS a 3.8. Talk to your guidance counselor but I think you should apply! Best of luck!</p>
<p>We actually look really similar in terms of numbers, writing, ECs, etc. and I was accepted EDI. I think applying ED worked in my favor. You may want to consider applying EDII?</p>
<p>I agree with others here, you lose nothing by applying. You most likely won’t receive any merit aid, but if your parents have a low EFC anyway due to a low income, that probably won’t be such a huge concern. </p>
<p>Smith is willing to look at the whole applicant, however the most important factor will still be your transcript. Obviously you have some weaknesses there, but your courses are challenging and that’s what they want to see. This might be a case where submitting your SAT scores, even though they aren’t required, would be a good idea as your math SAT score is pretty good, and can help reinforce that even if you maybe didn’t do so well in your really advanced math courses, you have a generally strong math foundation, certainly enough to perform to par at a college that requires no math courses. </p>
<p>And you shouldn’t ignore the strengths of your application by focusing on the negative. Transcript-wise, you have strong grades in your other courses and you’re taking the most challenging course load available (at least it seems that way from what you’ve listed). And for the other factors you have strong EC’s and I’m sure will have good, persuasive essays. </p>
<p>So we can’t tell you if you’ll get in or not, but those to my eye are the strong and less strong points of your application. Go ahead and step in the ring and see what comes out of it.</p>