How bleak are my prospects? Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Emory

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey Everyone. I’m currently a rising High School Senior. I’d like to know what you guys think of my prospects at the following schools:

Vanderbilt
Georgetown
UNC Chapel Hill
UGA
GA Tech (their liberal arts school)
Emory

Hispanic Male
Public GA Highschool

GPA UW: 3.67
GPA W: 3.78
Numerical W: 94.24
Rank: 62/628 (barely top 10th D:)

APs: (anticipated scores marked with ) World History (3), *US History (4-5),Physics (3),*Macroecon (3-4), *English Lang (5), *Spanish Lang (5)

Dual Enrollment Courses: Chinese I (1st sem Jr. Yr), American Government, Precalculus (Summer before Sr. Yr).

Senior Year Courseload: AP Comp Sci, AP English Lit, AP Spanish Lit (first year offered), AP Euro Hist (first year offered), AP Psychology, AP Stat or AP Calc AB.

Biggest flaw in my course load is that I have taken the most basic math classes every year so far, but I’m taking precalculus over the summer right now in an effort to work my way into Calc AB

SAT Highest Single Sitting: 1890
SAT Superscore: 1940 (across 2 exams)

I plan to take the New SAT in October

Subject Tests: Spanish (800), US Hist (just taken, anticipating 670-720).

ECs (Positions marked with *):

*Beta Club Webmaster

*Juntos Treasurer (a Latin-American focused service club)

*Indian Cultural Exchange Treasurer

National Honor Society Normal Member

Violin for 6yrs (only 5 in the school’s orchestra)

Distinctions:

Questbridge College Prep Scholar

Recommendations:

-World History Teacher who is also the department chair of both Gifted Education and Social Studies. She also wrote my QB CP recommendation.

-Physics Teacher: I did not excel in her class by any means, but she is also the sponsor for Indian Cultural Exchange and has supported me as I dealt with the declining state of my grandfather’s health.

Feel free to request any additional info.

2

Here are my estimates of your chances:

Emory: very low
Georgetown U: extremely low
Georgia Tech: decent
UGA: very good
UNC-CH: very low
Vanderbilt: extremely low

The real problem is your GPA, although your SAT (even superscored) doesn’t help either.

What are you interested in studying? What financial constraints, if any, do you have? Why have you identified the particular schools outside the State of Georgia that you list? You would probably be competitive for Mercer University (if you wish to stay within Georgia), or the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL (if you wish to stay in the Southeast).

3

I’m interested in pursuing a degree in International Relations. For that reason I chose UNCCH and Georgetown, schools that both have pretty respected programs. I have Vanderbilt on the list because I’ve always liked the school and have many friends attending. Coming into Senior year I should have a 3.7 by getting As in my current summer classes. If I can manage to not get Bs in my first semester of senior year, I think my GPA could get into the lower realms of acceptability at these schools. I’ve been studying for the New SAT and also the fact that I will have Precalc under my belt finally should boost my score substantially (710R,560M). Financial constraints are pretty significant–my single mom is an illegal immigrant so the only employment she can get is with a house-cleaning service.

4

If you’re looking for good schools for IR that are more realistic for you check out George Washington and American. Both have good IR programs and are in DC so location wise you couldn’t get any better. GW is expensive though and American has put in work to become more elite as evidenced by their 25% acceptance rate. Both are more in your range than some of the schools you listed though. Best of luck!

5

^ I concur with the recommendations of GW and American.

6

Does GW offer any significant financial aid grants? I’ve looked at American and don’t really like its vibe.