<p>So, I find myself on the brink of my senior year, getting ready to apply to colleges. My dream is to attend Brown University, but I find that I have this issue...</p>
<p>My school has very few of the opportunities that seem to set others up for acceptance to ivies. </p>
<p>I attend a mid-range public high school.
We have no school paper, no debate team, no mathletes, no academic awards, no science fair, VERY few AP classes, and a team of counselors and principals that is on the whole, not at all supportive.
At my school there is no such thing as "weighted GPA." We have a club for people who manage to make over a 30 on their ACT, and entrance into the club is considered a huge deal. (Needless to say, their are few students in the club.) As far as I know, we have had one student admitted to MIT and one to Duke. That's the best we've done ever, since my school opened, around fifty years ago. </p>
<p>I know most schools look for those who are able to create the best out of any situation, so I've begun taking classes at my local university. I should have about twenty hours by the time I graduate. I know this isn't spectacular, but I'm hoping it shows that I've taken some initiative for my own education. Outside of this, I've taken all honors or gifted (a selective program we have at my school a step above honors) classes. I've participated in extracurricular activities outside of school. </p>
<p>The question is, despite the lack of opportunities provided by my school, will I be expected to have the same classes, ECs, APs, etc. that someone from a nice private school with opportunities like I described above has?
How will admissions know about the issue I've faced? My school is not a "poor school" by any means; we just spend MILLIONS on athletics, like most southern schools, and next to nothing on academics. My counselor will not write about it because she is entirely worthless. (She doesn't know my name!) I'll be lucky to get her to write my recommendation at all. </p>
<p>Has anyone else experienced something similar? What do I do?</p>
<p>Your counselor sends a profile of your school indicating this information. If I were you, I’d also attach an additional info sheet explaining your circumstances.</p>
<p>Most colleges don’t factor ECs into admission The ones that do tend to be top colleges like Harvard that use ECs to pick and choose from among their overabundance of high stat applicants. Public schools especially have stat-based admissions.</p>
<p>Colleges that factor Ecs into admission also care about community service, jobs, music/dance lessons, activities with one’s church/synagogue/temple, etc. If you’d like to have a shot at top schools, you also could consider becoming involved in things like that that interest you.</p>
<p>dd1993- Thanks. I just wonder about whether my counselor will even bother sending the thing in… she isn’t a fan of doing her job. </p>
<p>Northstarmom- I am actually planning on applying to top schools. (Brown is my first choice.) I have actually participated in loads of ECs outside of school, I just wonder if the fact that I have few school clubs will hurt my application. </p>
<p>And thumperr, I suppose I’m not in eleventh grade, really. I’m going into my senior year.</p>
<p>The top colleges don’t care where you pursue your interests. They care about the impact of your pursuit of your interests – the impact on you and on others. Depth, not breadth is what’s important.</p>
<p>My high school is similar to yours. There were about three AP classes and in my view, none of them should have been named AP classes. I mostly took classes at the local university too. I’ve learned of the existence of things like National Honor Society, Intel, Siemens, etc. when I found CC at the end of my junior year. </p>
<p>Yet I was accepted to your dream school Brown and other highly selective schools. Don’t lose hope and just do your best with what you’ve been given. It is definitely more difficult to be noticed by colleges if you come from a no-name crappy high school like I did but it’s not impossible.</p>
<p>You will be expected to be at the very top of your class, have good scores, and have taken the most rigorous courseload available to you. EC-wise, whether you participate in or out of school doesn’t matter (my school has quite a few clubs, but my most meaningful activity–creative writing–has been pursued outside of school). Like NSM said, it’s the depth, not the breadth, of your activities that will play a role in your acceptances.</p>