Help with ED/ Chance me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
1

Hi guys! So, this summer I did a three week camp at Vanderbilt and absolutely fell in love. My cousin who I’m very close with also went there and has really made me want to attend, as well! It is definitely my #1, but I’m a little conflicted about doing ED or not. I know it is the most probable way I’ll get in, but most likely they will give my family no aid, which will make money tight for my parents. It will also mean my twin brother will probably have to attend either an In-state school or a school that will give him a lot of merit aid (school isn’t really his thing though, which is why my parents are willing to spend more on me). What do you guys think my odds are, and do you think I should do ED? Thanks in advance!

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2170 (710CR, 750 Math, 710 Writing)
ACT (breakdown): 33 C, (33E 33M 33R 34S), Taking again…I had never seen an ACT before
SAT HBKJGX: Lit: 670 Math II: 700…I was getting 800s on all of my practice tests but didn’t finish and had a panic attack during the real thing… definitely retaking:(
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.91
Weighted GPA: 4.7
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): not sure yet, definitely top 10%
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH self studied (3), US gov (4), Chem (3), Human geo (5), Lang (5), Calc (5), World history (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Biology, Multivariable Calc C, AP computer science principles, AP lit, AP Latin, Intern Mentor GT (same credit as an AP at my school), hoping for AP physics C if it will fit…
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
Honorable mention for CSPAN studentcam (national competition)
AP scholars with distinction
Magna cum laude on national latin exam (2 years in a row)
I think I qualified for something with national merit…I’ll see soon

Subjective:

Extracurriculars:
Volleyball 2 years (JV captain and MVP sophomore year…quit bc time commitment)
Club volleyball (3 years)
Track and Field 3 years (Varsity, only girl pole vaulter)
Student Government Association 4 years (Class president for two years, will be school president this upcoming year)
Howard County Association of Student Councils (4 years)
Math Team (4 years)
Model UN (4 years)
Allied bowling (4 years…you basically help kids with disabilities participate in sports, same for the next two)
Allied soccer (2 years)
Allied softball (1 year)
Voices for Change (4 years, it’s basically a community involvement group through local gov)
National Latin honor society (2 years)
National English Honor society (3 years)
National science honor society (2 years)
National honor society (2 years)
Student Leadership Cadre (prestigious group for my school that takes 20 kids to train them to be leaders) (2 years)
Alpine Ski Racing team (9 years)

Job experience:
I babysit
I will be doing a year long internship at Johns Hopkins with an Infectious diseases doctor

Volunteer:
I volunteer at an assisted living facility near my school
I do about 40 hours (80 as a freshman) a year helping disabled students participate in sports through allied sports
Various other one day activities and things specific to honor societies

Summer Activities:
I spent 7 summers at UVA’s Summer Enrichment Program (yes, I spent 7 summers at nerd camp and they were the best weeks of my entire life). As I was too old for UVA’s this summer, I attended Vanderbilt’s summer academy, VSA, for three weeks and was taught by medical students in the Vanderbilt hospital.

Essays (rating 1-10, details):
My personal statement is about my love of spirit week and school spirit, and it is one of my favorite pieces of writing I have ever written. The topic sounds mundane but when I read it I feel like it’s the truest piece of writing I could write. Maybe 8/9. Haven’t finished any others yet
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
(Predicted)
Teacher Rec #1 7, My calculus teacher and also one of my favorite teachers. I sat next to his desk and about four of us in my class talked to him so much to the point it bothered other students. He knows me really well and I often had above a hundred in his class; however, he is a math teacher so I’m not sure how well with words he is.
Teacher rec #2: 7, He is my AP chemistry teacher and literally crazy, but he knows me well and I’m one of the few people who got an A in his class. I think he likes me and would write me a good rec, but I’ve heard horror stories of him writing negative recs for people. He has no reason to do that for me though so I think it will be okay.
Counselor rec: 8, knows me pretty well and is very nice. I also filled out a survey for her very in depth so hopefully she will pull things from that.
Additional rec: She was my independent research teacher, and will be my intern mentor teacher. The IR/IM program at my school is small and “her kids” typically get into great colleges. She watched me do hands-on research and will be observing my internship at Hopkins, so she will have a lot of unique things to write about. She is one of the teachers I have connected with most in high school and genuinely made my high school experience better. Vanderbilt doesn’t consider her to be a core subject teacher though so I will be turning in 3 recs.
Interview: hopefully

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: double major in Medicine, health, and society and latin
State (if domestic applicant): MD
School Type: wealthy medium public school
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: ~200,000, but with a twin brother my parents don’t have enough saved up for Vanderbilt tuition
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none

2

Keep in mind you have 10 spaces for all your ECs, including work, volunteering, and summer stuff

3

@XCjunior2016 Lol I saw… I dedicated so much time to those it makes me sad I’ll have to cut some out:( I’m going to upload my resume though so if I’m on the bubble hopefully they’ll see those

4

You can combine like things. I put cross country and track in the same line

You could put “honor societies (x,x,x) —x hrs” for example

5

You have a shot at vandy for sure, but there’s no big draw. ED helps a lot. There’s not much to say other than that I hope to see you on campus !

6

I’d say you should definitely ED. Your scores are pretty weak compared to applicants Vanderbilt has been accepting. RDing would definitely prove much more difficult with scores on the lower end of the spectrum.

7

Thank you for the help!

8

first of all, I always advise seniors to never use an ID with their real names. Also try not to post enough details so you can be ID’d here. Stick with your home state and a description of your high school…ie attend high school in an exceptionally high functioning school system, public school. I say this in kindness, not criticism. So, consider a new handle unless this is not your handle in real life. You will feel less exposed if you are chatting on three college boards or five! in the winter. If you go RD or ED, things get so intense! You may want to use this board to vent or to say or ask things and you need your privacy intact. Also it is perfectly normal for a strong student like yourself to love many schools and to apply to schools where outstanding is the Norm. protect your privilege to be interested in multiple schools.

I am so glad you loved Vandy and Nashville. And UVA where you should evaluate the OOS costs and ponder that as you might get in there too. Even so, if you have any plan to attend a very expensive grad school, think twice about your parental resources. I speak as a parent who paid full price for Duke and then the recession hit…(we could have used UVA just as well). This doesn’t matter so much if your student has plans to go immediately to work and can assume their graduate school costs fully. PhD tracks can be subsidized but are very competitive. Business schools like you to have worked a while first. Law and Medicine are hugely costly and top schools require your parental income stats. Again. These are all things to weigh before turning down an offer at a great state university’s honors program. Or going somewhere less expensive than Vandy.

You def need to look at examples of resumes to help you lay that out more concisely and there is no need to lay all that out here as most applicants to Vandy will have tons of ECs.

My first reaction is to ignore your SAT (which is excellent)…and to go full on for the ACT in October. You need to get the 10 Real ACTs and work it. Our Vandy son aced it but he did prep. His ACT was better than his SAT which was the same both times he took it. He was so busy as a senior that I told him to just study the answers and to not time himself but to focus on comprehension of the test. He did a couple of timed ACTs at home after that. This is the best thing I can tell you to do for yourself…not just for Vandy but for the RD rounds you may be entering later. You still have time to tweak this. Also you need to be very intentional about your references. You probably are in a HS with a lot of strong students in Howard County. But in reality, you are super ready and qualified, so it will be up to you to focus your application with essays and references.

it is hard to get very realistic about $. We weren’t. Get your folks to do the two financial statements early…like now. And be shrewd. Vandy routinely rejects equals to those they admit. It won’t be personal if that happens. Show major respect to a couple of other schools in your mind now. Neither of our sons attended the schools they had as top choice in fall of their senior years. Also one of them upped his test scores in October. Even so, he was crushed when he didn’t get in his first choice. You guys are only human. And the college run is kinda nuts these days. You can succeed at many colleges so take the Long View. Both of my sons are in graduate school. It was hard not to make emotional rosy glasses decisions with them on costs because they were hard working and so on…but the recession of 2008 helped!

When looking at colleges online, type in Common Data Set to see the real numbers of who applied and who put down deposits.

best wishes