i feel like I don't know what to do

Student Lounge African-American Students
1

<p>I am a senior, an I have applied to Uchicago, Bryn Mawr, USC, DePaul, Umass Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Smith and Barnard. I am biracial (half white half black), but on common app I identified myself as "black", but explained that I was biracial in my essays. I have been rejected ED to Northwestern's Medill School, Tulane, and I got an "unlikely" letter to Wellesley College Early Evaluation. I feel like I do not know what to do. I was a bit surprised for Wellesley. I at least thought I would get a "possible". I had a good interview there too. Now I just wait til April for the other schools but I am very nervous.</p>

<p>I show a lot of passion through my application, even though I had less than stellar grades (those were explained in my recommendations from Guidance Counselor and teacher). My recommendations explained all that I have had to go through during my high school years, such as having a terminally ill father and a mother who has been intstutionalized three times, and also a breast cancer survivor. This is on top of my own kidney disease that I have been born with.It has been hard generally thoughout my life with both households, except before high school I was a perfect student getting mostly A+'s and always getting the best grades in my class, but as I got to high school, things had gotten worse. It has been hard throughout high school, especially last year, because there would be times in which both households were not exactly the greatest for me to live in, so it was really a struggle. I had even applied to boarding school last year with the help from my cousin, because I had needed to get away. (I didn't end up getting in, because they do not normally except seniors ever). So, my low GPA (3.0 out of 4, and 3.5 out of 5), has been explained, as well as my class rank of 190 out of 359. I have taken a total of 8 regular college preporatory courses, 17 honors, and one AP (World History). </p>

<p>I have excellent extracurricular activites, (Violin since third grade, part of string orchestra, pit orchesta for musicals, and full orchestra, also junior year I was member of the music honors society. I have also been a copy editor for the school paper in tenth grade, and contributing writer in 11th and 12 grades. Ever article I have written for the paper has been published, and our paper has won an Honorable Mention each of the last four years at the annual conference of the New England Scholastic Press Association. I am also president/creator of my high school STAND chapter, which is an antigenocide coalition) My volunteering hours have been about 220 altogether. I guess my point is that I believe that intellectually I am far above my peers at school, and clearly my grades do not reflect this, although they are explained. My SAT score was 1720 out of 2400, so that was not too great either, however my essays I feel are the strongest part of my application. </p>

<p>I show my mature and intellectual ability through my writing, and I hope the admissions officers can see this. My parents seem convinced I will not get in ANYWHERE. I also had interviews at Wellesley and an alumna interview for Bryn Mawr. My Wellesley inteview went well, and my Bryn Mawr interview went great and it lasted an hour! I also had a great Barnard alumna interview. I had a fantastic Smith interview with an alumna from the Black Alumni of Smith College Association and it lasted an hour and a half. She said she would really advocate for me, and I also had an overnight there. I have also had a fantastic uchicago interview. </p>

<p>I am took the Feb ACT (I scored perfect on the science section practice test, and 33 out of 36 on the math). I seem to do well on the act practice tests. Normally on standardized test practice I do the same on the practice as I do on the actual test. I will most likely be in the range of a composite score of somwhere around 31-33 out of 36. How much do you think this will help me? </p>

<p>My recommendations in general are very strong. I have my current Russian Lit teacher writing one, of whom I have one of the highest grades in his class, and my spanish teacher of whom I had for two years in high school. My Guidance counselor said she really advocated for me and wrote a very strong recommendation, and said that there is a lot of unmet potential that has been met during high school. She had written to the colleges that I would do very well at their schools.</p>

<p>My personal statement is very good as well. I had also written a letter to the schools explaining that I really feel that I am a great match and my transcript does not accurately reflect my intellectual ability.</p>

<p>Do you think that I am basically screwed for these schools? I am very nervous.</p>

2

<p>Which of the schools was meant to be your safety?</p>

<p>It looks like you applied to a bunch of colleges that do not match your stat profile. That is not to say that you should not aim high. However, applying to so many may not have been a good idea. I hope you also applied to as many safeties.</p>

<p>It is very hard for colleges to judge how you would have done had you not had to deal with the turmoil in your private life. Good grades in middle school don’t help the colleges guage your current abilities. In order for you to get into the colleges that you list, your essays have to be extremely well written and someone on the admissions committee has to be willing to take a chance on you.</p>

<p>So, are you “basically screwed”? I’d say you are only in real trouble if you didn’t apply to any real safeties.</p>

3

<p>Wow! As an AA parent, I am upset that your GC thought it wise for you to apply only to <em>extreme</em> reaches based on your stats. You need more than a difficult background and minority designation to matriculate at all the schools on your list.</p>

<p>Look for rolling admission schools or those with 3/1 or 3/15 application deadlines and put in as many apps as you can. The February ACT test date is too late fr all the schools you already applied to, but may arrive in time for your new crop of applications you need to work on ASAP–don’t forget to apply to a few public schools with low OOS tution.</p>

<p>My D, with an UW GPA of 3.67, considers most of the schools on your list as HIGH matches & LOW reaches–DePauw & USC are matches, but not safeties due to cost. </p>

<p>A safety school is one where you’re in the top 75% of students admitted, unfortunately for you, those may be tier II-III schools.</p>

4

<p>I agree with the other posters. I feel that you didn’t establish safeties or targets at all. Many people want to go to highly selective schools, but you have to also apply to lesser selective schools that fit your stats so you won’t have anything to lose.</p>

5

<p>If OP is a MA resident (4 of the schools she listed are in MA, 3 are in western MA, he post also references a New England award), UMass-Amherst is a reasonable safety in terms of grades and finances. </p>

<p>I would not have advised OP as her GC did - - Smith and MHC are test optional, so her grades which are a little weak, will factor more heavily than her strong test scores. Still, I suspect OP will receive good news from both schools; even test-opt schools like to report high scores for their common data set profiles. Both are also serious about racial diversity, and while I’m not sure about MHC, but Smith meets 100% of need, so if OP is admitted, it should be affordable (though not necessarily w/o some belt-tightening).</p>

<p>My advice: follow up with the interviewers, make sure they (and thus the schools) know how interested you are. Also, forward your test scores, even though the app deadlines have passed. And consider applyig to addit schools, as suggested in post #3.</p>

<p>(PS: I haven’t yet met a student w/ low-ish grades who DOSEN’T feel that the grades fail to reflect his/her ability. Also, what the heck is "unmet potential that was met during high school? And how can GC be so sure you will do well at each of these competitve colleges when you didn’t blow the doors your local high school?)</p>

6

<p>if you do not get into any colleges (i really hope you do) there is always community college which is great.</p>

7

<p>I can’t, for the life of me, understand why schools send out “unlikely” letters.</p>

8

<p>me neither^
likely and possible is fine, but unlikely is totally uneccessary</p>

9

<p>@nyc: The OP does not have “strong test scores”. “1740 out of 2400” is less than 600 in each section. That coupled with his/her grades made most if not all schools on her list highly unlikely. UMass-Amherst would not be a safety.</p>

<p>I think you were told awful advice and am truly sympathetic to your situation. You are right to worry. You need to quickly find schools that are truly in your range as far as test scores, price range, and GPA. Maybe an HBCU?</p>

<p>Your personal story is tragic, but the schools will not matriculate someone if they feel they will not graduate or will not be able to keep up academically. Your test scores and your grades show that you may struggle at the schools on your list.</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

10

<p>“I can’t, for the life of me, understand why schools send out “unlikely” letters.”</p>

<p>I don’t think they usually do. As OP indicated, this was for Wellesley’s early evaluation system.</p>

11

<p>“The OP does not have “strong test scores”. “1740 out of 2400” is less than 600 in each section.”</p>

<p>I was referring to the ACT scores; I thought 33 composite was similar to 1450/1600 or 2200/2400. And even w/ 1740 SAT, if she is a MA resident, UMass-Amherst is a pretty safe bet. </p>

<p>Also, b/c the women’s college admit twice as many applicants as their coed peer schools, more modest numbers don’t necessarily mean the kiss of death - - especially for a URM applicant. Check the posts on the Smith board from Lost in Translation; I believe her D, an int’l applicant, rec’d a merit award with SAT M scored in the 400s. Her experience was, indeed, unusual, but it does give you the sense that the schools are accepting a range of students. </p>

<p>My own D, currently a senior at Smith '11, was no more than a B student (82 average), with no honors and only one AP (though she did attend prep school w/ which the admissions committee was very familiar). D’s high school did not rank (many of the private schools don’t b/c it’s a disadvantage for everyone except the students at the top), but if OP’s school is rigorous, the ranking might not be a big problem.</p>

<p>Since OP has already applied to a number of selective school, the only thing to do, with respect to those apps, is make sure they know she’s interested and and keep her fingers crossed.</p>

<p>In terms of damage control, OP should send out the good ACT scores and look less competitive schools with late application deadlines.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

12

<p>@nyc: The OP does not have actual ACT results yet. She got 33 in one section on a practice test. To go from a 1740 to nearly a 2200 converted from the ACT is a HUGE jump that does not exist in actuality yet…I agree that she should definitely put in extra time to show her remaining schools love and look for late applications.</p>

<p>I’m a realist when it comes to these things. Unless you are in the top 25% of scores at a school (or at least close), it is NEVER a safe bet. She falls in the lower half of the middle 50% at UMass Amherst. That simply was not good safety, even in-state IMO. It’s too risky to assume you’ll be the exception the way admissions is these days.</p>

13

<p>My bad - - I misread the post and thought OP was reporting actual ACT scores. As for UMass, even though D is in the lower-middle for SAT scores, that’s probably good enough for an in-state applicant (the higher scores are heavily from oos applicants) - - so while I wouldn’t go so far as to call OP an admissions exception, you are correct, her admission is by no means a sure thing.</p>