i want to go to tufts, dammit! what are my chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tufts University
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<p>i'm going to be visiting the campus soon and i'm really excited; the more i read about tufts, the more apparent it becomes that it is my dream school. i've considered applying for early decision but i'm afraid my low SAT scores will hold me back. anyone care to evaluate?</p>

<p>here are my academic stats:</p>

<p>class rank: 25/450
-GPA: about 88 unweighted, 4.0 weighted.
-grades have had an upward trend since freshman year.
-i'm a senior. i've been an international baccaluareate diploma candidate since my junior year.</p>

<p>-junior year classes: IB Psychology HL year 1, IB History of the Americas, IB English HL year 1, Algebra 2 Pre-AP [i'm terrible at math], Constitution Team [counted as AP Government], IB Chemistry SL, Spanish 3.</p>

<p>-senior year classes: IB Psychology HL year 2, IB World History, IB English HL year 2, IB Math Studies SL, IB Spanish SL [taken a spanish every year], IB Theory of Knowledge, AP Economics</p>

<p>-i have 1 C on my transcript...in spanish.</p>

<p>-SAT: 1790 :( i haven't taken any SAT II's.</p>

<p>stuff in my advantage:
-hispanic.
-i'm from what is perhaps the poorest region in the United States, once referred to as the 'third world country' of the US by some national acclaimed magazine. i think its alright though. haha.</p>

<p>extracurriculars...i'm not going to list them all, just the ones that i think will matter the most since tufts seems to have a hard on for civic virtue.</p>

<p>-Heavily involved in the National Hispanic Institute's Young Leaders Conference...basically, its a competition where high school freshman go and debate about issues important to the Latino Community. before the competition, there are about 2-3 months to prepare. when i competed i got 2nd at the state competition and 1st at nationals. since then i've put 2,500+ plus in helping to prepare hs freshmen, my official title being the sole Director of Mock Trial for the Rio Grande Valley Young Leader's Conference. i'm very passionate about this.</p>

<p>-Co-founded and holds position of Director of Public Relations in the federal non profit corporation F.R.I.D.A. its aimed at showing 4th-7th graders what community and culture are, and how they can have a say in it. art is used as an expressive outlet. i actually started this with a friend of mine that is already attending tufts. </p>

<p>-i competed in "We the People - The Citizen and the Constitution" competition and got 1st place at state, 4th place at nationals.</p>

<p>-i have a lot more extracurrics but i dont want to make this too long, go here if youre interested:<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=237590%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=237590&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Your EC's are really impressive, but your C and low SATs are rather disheartening. You better write one hell of an essay and apply early. Can you re-take the SATs? A score above 1950 would make you golden though I know it's rare for people's score to jump that much. And why did you get a C in Spanish if you are of Hispanic background? That may be confusing to the admissions committee especially if you're going to be playing up your Hispanic background so much.</p>

<p>Yes, Tufts is very interested in civically-minded kids such as yourself, but they also want the best students academically as well. You'll have to prove you'll be a good student at Tufts, among kids with higher stats than you, in addition to being an upstanding citizen (and it's clear you are).</p>

<p>I also noted in your other posts that you're calling Tufts [Fletcher School] your no. 1 choice. Please note that the Fletcher School is a graduate school only. That being said, Tufts' IR undergraduate program is still top-notch.</p>

<p>If it's IR you're looking for, and it seems you are, you could look to other schools with higher acceptance rates, who might overlook your relatively low stats, and that still have sound IR programs like GWU and American (plus, they have the advantage of being in DC). Tufts' peers like Georgetown and Johns Hopkins are as much of a reach as Tufts is.</p>

<p>That being said, I don't mean to discourage you. If Tufts is your absolute no. 1-choice, dream school, apply early and show them just how much you'd like to go here in your ED "Why Tufts?" essay. The downside to applying early however, is that if you're not too financially secure (and you seem to hint at this in your post), no matter what Tufts offers you in terms of financial aid package, you'll have to take it and make do. Tufts is not yet a need-blind school. However, I do have friends who go to Tufts for nearly free, but they certainly are a percentage of the kids here who would qualify for a full-ride at a school with a more capable endowment (such as Harvard's $22B).</p>

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<p>is it even possible to apply early, considering that i can't take the SAT II's until November? I'm going to re-take the SAT on October 14.</p>

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<p>The ED I application is due Nov. 1; you wouldn't have your scores by then. However, depending when you get your scores, you might still be able to apply for ED II; that deadline is Jan. 1. The downside is that you will have to apply to all your other schools RD at the same time and still pay for all those application fees because the EDII and RD deadlines are one in the same.</p>

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<p>ah, okay. thank you very much for that evaluation.</p>

<p>anyone else?</p>

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<p>amcantu if u work ur ass for the next month or two u can get a huge score increase. i went from a 1770 to a 2090 after hitting the books. trust me, if you're determined to work ur butt off not only for october's sat but possibly december's, you may have a legitimate shot. don't lose faith just yet.</p>

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<p>Lolabelle is wrong...The deadline for Early Decision is Nov. 15th, and you can apply early even if you take the October test, you will have your scores in time. You can even take the November test as long as you have your scores rushed.</p>

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<p>sweet, i hope my score can jump that much. i just enrolled in one of those stupid overpriced Princeton Review SAT courses, so hopefully that will help a lot too.</p>

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<p>Consider EDII. </p>

<p>Run a search on the CC forum for Xiggi's SAT posts. He has fantastic suggestions for studying for the test and increasing your score.</p>

<p>Generally, public school kids need to be in the top 5% to be strong for Tufts. Obviously, kids without those stats get in, but it's a lot less likely and its usually when they bring something special to the table. I don't know how much race helps, although interesting life experiences (living abroad, etc) are a huge boost. They also really like the active citizenship thing.</p>

<p>I have several guesses as to where you are living, and here's a bit of info on each:
-Appalachia. Applications from Virginia, Tennessee, and NC have tripled in the past few years. If you're from West Virginia, I don't think you would be part of that - which would help. Otherwise, geography won't help much because you would be competing against private school kids in those areas. (A lot of the kids I interviewed went to expensive private schools.)
-South Dakota. They are ALWAYS looking for talented kids from South Dakota. :) Seriously. They told our incoming class during matriculation to encourage anyone we know from South Dakota to apply.<br>
-South/Southwest (Alabama through Arizona/Utah) - usually only a few students from Alabama, Mississippi, Utah, etc every year. </p>

<p>All I can say is... if your SATs go up, you have an admissions ticket. It might be a bleachers seat, it might be behind home plate, but you're in the stadium. Write a killer essay. Explain both why you'll add to the Tufts community and why you want to go there. Active citizenship is becoming more important to them, and they really want kids who add to their communities and become leaders. I just got back (like two hours ago) from an "active citizen" alumni event. Sitting here at my comp, with my blue Tisch Active Citizenship T-shirt.</p>

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<p>i'm actually from deep south texas, in what is called the rio grande valley. i suppose it will help more than 'just' being from texas, because the culture here is seriously a hybrid between mexican and american.</p>

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<p>did anyone else find lola's "why are you bad at spanish- you're hispanic" comment hysterically ignorant? </p>

<p>dog, ish don't think so</p>

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<p>chillax -
i'm of latin american background -- granted, i was actually raised in latin america -- so it just always surprises me when parents don't teach their kids their mother tongue. i wouldn't have said anything if it hadn't been that the OP seemed to want to play up his/her hispanic background and involvement w/ the mex-am communtiy so much; if i were on the admissiosn committee i would assume spanish would be an easy A. but i was wrong.</p>

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<p>yeah, but i have to agree wtih lolabelle that would strike me as odd too, but amcantu maybe you can play off that and say you're really interested in perfecting your spanish at tufts.. to get in touch with your roots even more.. i think that would be a really interesting take on your one bad mark! good luck</p>

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<p>well my spanish isnt too great--but it can pass. the thing is that down here the meshing of the mexican and american cultures creates this weird spanglish so theres a lot of slang/made up words. and my spanish teacher is militant about cracking down on improper spanish. its working, but i couldnt get through 1st semester jr year without recieving a 79.</p>

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<p>Don't worry about 1 C! Sheeeeshhhhhhhhhhh. (That is really aimed at those people who said TO worry about it!) You are more than your grades and test scores!!!!!</p>