I am currently a junior who is stressing about getting into college. More specifically, I am stressing about getting into Brown.
My school does GPAs on the 4.0 scale. Both unweighted and weighted I have a 4.0. My percentage is a 95.1
My SAT score is not bad, but I still have time to raise it to my liking.
Extracurriculars:
-4 years of dance at my school (after school and during school).
-Archery
-Internship at MIT (starts this summer and lasts throughout all of senior year).
-Fem club
-NHS
AP Classes:
-APUSH
-AP Bio
-AP Calc
-AP Lang
-AP Physics C Mechanics
-AP Physics C E&M
-AP Computer science
I have not written my college essay, but I will put a lot of time and energy into making it exceptional.
I have my Ap biology teacher locked down for a college recommendation, and I know that she loves me. I have not yet chosen another teacher to ask for a recommendation.
I would really appreciate it if people could tell me where I stand and how I could push myself to make sure that I have a better chance at being accepted. I’m super stressed right now, and I’m getting migraines, and my guidance counselor is AWOL.
However, Brown is a very selective school and each year they reject many, many more people than they accept. If you put together a killer application essay you might still get the ‘we regret to inform you’ notice. So put in that application to Brown because lightning might strike, but spend some energy finding other schools that might not be as perfect but also might have some things that you like. Try to fall in love with a range of places, it will give you more choices at this time next year.
Dream schools are for suckers. You will be bombarded with marketing literature and everyone will discuss this with you. It’s all bogus. YOU are an extremely talented student. You will be wildly successful. Have a dream life and identify several appropriate roads (colleges) for you to get there. Then apply to a range of colleges, and live your life. The college isn’t the prize, YOU are the prize! Get that into your head and have a little swagger! You have the goods!
I’d recommend that you give up the idea of a dream school and work to create a solid college list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (find out your parents’ budget and run the net price calculator for each school) and that you would be happy to attend. The people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one or two hyper-competitive schools and then don’t get in. Cast a wide net and recognize that (assuming no major hook) Brown, with an acceptance rate of under 10%, is a reach everyone as there is just not enough room for the school to accept all of the well qualified candidates. Expand your horizons and recognize that there are many wonderful schools out there where you can have a great 4 year experience and get where you want to go in life.