I Fell in Love Today.. do I even have a chance?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
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<p>I visited Brown TODAY. Perfect school in every way for me. Beautiful. amazing programs.</p>

<p>I feel bad when I see other people’s stats on here. I thought mine were pretty good compared to others in my school. But ALAS seems I don’t compete THAT well with the rest of the country.</p>

<p>I go to a private college prepatory school in Stony Brook, NY.
Low Income (around 60,000, but it doesn’t really matter for financial-need-blind Brown)
Female
1st gen. college student</p>

<p>My intended major is neuroscience- pre-med track.</p>

<p>GPA:
3.9 freshman, 3.1 sophmore, 4.1 junior [senior year I will shoot for a 4.0]
yea I messed up 10th grade, I was being an apathetic idiot.</p>

<p>Courses:</p>

<p>10th:
Honors english B,
humanities A,
geometry B+,
chemistry C+,
Latin III B+,
Painting B+,</p>

<p>11th:
Honors english A
European History A
Algebra II A
AP Biology A
AP Psych A+</p>

<p>Plan to take 12th…
AP English
AP US History
Pre-Calculus
Honors Physics
Bible (we are required… easy A though)</p>

<p>SAT II
Biology -680
Lit- 630
[should I retake?] Also… Should I take any math ones? Which do you reccomend…</p>

<p>I’m going to take an SAT course n study like mad before the test in October. Honestly no idea what my score will be… guessing LOWEST 1850 HIGHEST 2100</p>

<p>And Now my dad is making me take the ACT too. Plus a course beforehand.</p>

<p>EXTRA CURRICULARS</p>

<p>Sports/Theatre:
(we need 2 semesters of sports out of three semesters because we don’t have gym. The play counts as one.)
9th grade: backstage work for the school production, Varsity track,
10th grade: volleyball managing…does it count? Varsity track.
11th grade: Varsity Sailing (we can have this boating sport because I live on Long Island… unique huh?), Kickboxing</p>

<h2>Plan for 12th: Varsity Sailing, TWO semesters. AND a prominet role in the school’s production.</h2>

<p>This summer I attended a Neuroscience Program at Northwestern College.</p>

<p>The description: Campers participate in electrophysiology and neuropharmacology experiments. They dissect a sheep brain, use computer simulation to dissect a human brain, and record the electrical activity of their own brains. Northwestern Neuroscience Camp also includes a field trip to the University of South Dakota’s Sanford School of Medicine to visit the gross anatomy (cadaver) lab and active neuroscience research labs.</p>

<h2>We watched research in action, participated in college lectures, and did many labs. An enriching experience.</h2>

<p>I Volunteer at the Hospital-- I now work in the Cancer Center at Stony Brook University Hospital. I file and fill out medical information, assist nurses, help out patients when ever they need me</p>

<h2>Every year I donate blood, do the ‘Walk for Beauty’ marathon for breast cancer research, and World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine. and more comm service later</h2>

<p>worked at Quiznos summer of 08…</p>

<h2>I am HOPING to work/intern in a lab summer of senior year.</h2>

<p>For something interesting, I started Motorcycling at 16. I’m part of the ‘chirstian motorcyclist association’ Its a suzuki katana. I don’t know if that will stand out? I go on ‘charity runs’ a lot. (Such as guardians of the children ride to protect victims of child abuse and the pediatric brain tumor foundation’s Ride for Kids)</p>

<p>I’m also a talented writer (won a 50$ prize in 9th for creative writing contest out of the grade) and photographer (published in schools art mag) Im into ART. The admission essay will be great.</p>

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<p>Should have let me know you were coming, could have given a special tour/met up.</p>

<p>Glad you fell in love, I don’t do chance threads on principle. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Your arc is in the right direction, EwE. Nice recovery going from 10th into 11th. Do not dismiss the possibility of being admitted. Honestly, Brown takes a completely holistic approach to their admissions. If you were asking on the MIT or Yale forum, I’d say you are wasting your time. But Brown can look at your story and see one that makes them want to learn more. As part of your application process, I would be prepared to explain the sophomore slump. But showing that you learned the importance of getting on track carries weight.</p>

<p>Good luck. And enjoy your senior year… It FLIES.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the chance!! Now, for my chance back, I’m gonna assess different parts of your app individually.</p>

<p>1) Being a Low Income/1st gen student helps a bit. Not vastly, but it does.
2) GPA: Freshman year is great, sophomore year (as you are well aware) is not great, however your junior year GPA shows an AWESOME recovery! Congrats! I cannot say the adcom will totally forgive you for the soph year grades cuz I don’t know if they will for sure, but they could and I hope they do!
3) SAT II: Retake Lit, that may hurt you. Bio is not going to help, but it shouldn’t hurt. Just take Math I and see how you do. Prepping for the SAT I should help you prep for Math I. It covers relatively similar topics. Your goal should be 700+.
4) SAT I: This is critical. One of the best ways to make up for a “sophomore slump” (pun totally intended :wink: ) is to get a high SAT score. Now, sadly, a “high” score for Brown is the absolute top echelon. That means 2200+. With a lot of prep this could be possible, and if not then your chances would not be as high as if they were. 2100+ would be okay, but not ideal considering your sophomore year.
5) Extracurriculars: You took the quality over quantity approach, which is good…as long as you can make your ECs shine. I would write your EC essay on the hospital volunteering, because the sports/theater thing seems kind of forced. Also, the Northwestern class should help a bit!</p>

<hr>

<p>Overall you have okay chances, but I cannot say more until I hear your SAT scores. Really work on that! You should be able to do well based on your grades during frosh and junior year.
On a different note, I too had a rough sophomore year. I got two Bs, a B+, two A-s, and an A. Even though this isn’t terrible, it was an inconsistency. Best of luck to you!</p>

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<p>Thanks a TON for the replies! One more question, should I send in my AP scores to Brown? I was sooo close to getting a 5 on Bio… :frowning: (did on mock) but got a 4. Got a 5 on Psych, but everyone knows its uber easy. I feel like the AP Bio 4 will just look bad compared to others with 5’s?</p>

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<p>Your sophomore GPA does hurt but the upward trend will make up some of it. I do suggest you try to take Math II (if you think you can do well, try some practice tests). Also I really do suggest you take the ACT. ACT is a thumbs up for a lot who don’t do well on the SAT.</p>

<p>Also AP scores will not hurt at all. They don’t really evaluate your AP scores.</p>

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<p>EwE: You self report your AP scores. Don’t pay to have ETS send them.</p>

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<p>Only pay ETS to send a score report to the college you’re going to (though if you took advantage of the option to send your scores to 1 free college of your choice, that wouldn’t hurt, either). There’ll be a spot on the Common App to include additional info like AP scores, as fireandrain said.</p>

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<p>Not going to chance you since I’m terrible at that but I was at the tour/info session today too!</p>

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<p>Cool! How’d you like it? Are you from the east coast?</p>

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<p>Wow I want to major in neuroscience too
Anyways, I think you should try taking math 2, study some and make sure you pay attention to what the question is asking (i know this sounds dumb, but it really helps)
your “highest” sat seems a little low
Your EC’s are really unique definitely a good thing</p>

<p>I would say you have a good shot ED, but I’m not sure RD</p>

<p>Chance me back?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/754520-chance-me-please-will-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/754520-chance-me-please-will-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Why do you have a better chance early decision? Is it because they know it is your top choice and you value the school?</p>

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<p>I don’t think I would have a good shot ED at all. Then the school would only see my transcript up until the end of 11th grade. The “sophomore slump” would look the admins right in the face.</p>

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<p>@EwE</p>

<p>It’s worth noting that, as discussed here (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/750395-advantage-early-decision.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/750395-advantage-early-decision.html&lt;/a&gt;), we believe that applying early bears little or no advantage. In addition, if your application would look stronger adding senior fall grades, it may be preferable to apply regular.</p>

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<p>I didn’t have 2300+ SATs, I was barely in the top 31 of my class, and I didn’t cure cancer. Using this site to compare yourself to others is folly.</p>

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<p>I’m so excited that I just read this! I’m going into my senior year too! I was about to do my first post but I was interested in yours because I wanted which college you fell in love with. I was so excited that it was Brown! I’m about to visit it, but I’m in the same situation, I dont know if I have a chance or not and a lot of things about you remind me of myself! I wanna major in neuroscience or women’s studies. And I had one really bad year too! I would love to get in though, it’s like if there was one thing I could do like last minute to be able to get in, I so would. I think you have a good chance!</p>

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<p>So you go to Brown?</p>

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<p>Jubles wow, so we are in the same boat! The visiting experience will really motivate you to work hard for the school. Definately apply. Imagine if we both were accepted… how amazing would that be! I started my SAT and ACT prep course today. I’m getting on track. Maybe you can do that too? One more thing, out of those two majors, do neuroscience! I honestly don’t know that much about women’s studies, but I feel like there are better/more interesting opportunities with a degree in neuro. Just my opinion :slight_smile: Only downside is that I heard orgo @ Brown is a B*tch. Good Luck! I would like to hear from you after you go to Providence.</p>

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<p>Uroogla, may I ask what your SAT scores were? You can PM me them if you want.
I know you said the HIGHEST scores aren’t necessary, but certainly they carry weight. I’m going to do the best I can. What would say is an Ivy League ACT score? (Well, for Brown anyway. I know it is the oddball of the Ivies, which I love.)</p>

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<p>In my opinion, a good ACT score is around 33-34 (in which all subscores are higher than 30) and a good SAT score is around 2200-2300 (where all the subscores are higher than 700). Just my thought</p>