<p>Honestly, if I don't get into this school, my hopes and dreams will be totally crushed.</p>
<p>But I just feel like I WON'T GET IN</p>
<p>at all</p>
<p>My GPA isn't great- 3.8
and my SAT and ACT scores are only okay, too.</p>
<p>But I know I belong here!
Are Swarthmore admissions really as holistic as everyone says? Or am I screwed because I'm a 4.0-2400 on my SAT genius ?</p>
<p>If you don’t get in, you don’t get in. That’s all there is to it. It’s not that you’re a bad person nor does it necessarily mean you were a poor applicant. I’m not an admissions person, so I can’t answer your question about admissions being holistic, but at a small school things like personal traits and whether you’re a good fit at the school are probably very important. If you really like Swarthmore you might as well apply and see what happens. If you don’t want your hopes and dreams to get crushed, then you should find a few more schools that you really like and that you’re more likely to get into and apply to those. It really doesn’t have to be as dramatic and stressful as you’re making all of this seem.</p>
<p>As someone who was similarly hell-bent on coming here, it’s okay to fall in love with a school- don’t feel badly about that! Sometimes getting your hopes up can’t be helped. Perhaps (from my own experience!) it isn’t entirely healthy, though, so I echo dchow in having other options. Channel your energy in Swat admissions by developing “the whole package” that will show Swarthmore what’s fantastic about you. Hobbies, personality, and background are all enormously significant in admissions, and just because your GPA and SAT scores may not be perfection won’t necessarily prevent you from getting into the school. Admissions are, in the end, looking for folks that will really contribute to a stellar class. No, they don’t ignore SAT scores, but for what it’s worth, they look for a LOT more. My GPA and SAT scores certainly weren’t perfect by any means. </p>
<p>My constant advice can be summed up in one word: visit! Visit Swarthmore, if you can, and find out what you love about it! That’ll help you in cementing why you think you belong here and, by extension, in writing your “Why Swat?” essay. Sooo… relax and investigate Swarthmore a bit more- that’ll also help you find some similar schools you might be happy at. (Ah, the practical side of things…)</p>
<p>feelok: protect yourself, the prognosis for 83 percent of the applicant pool is no, there’s a great chance you will be disappointed. on the other hand, if you do get in, you may still be disappointed, only a little later. no place can ever live up to the expectations you place upon it with your posting. that said, don’t screw around. you must go ed. you must have a compelling essay for why swat and don’t regurgitate all the reasons you love this place, who cares. that said, if your sat’s aren’t up to snuff and you’re not a diversity student, you not getting in. so get into a swat frame of mind and start putting in 16 hour days on getting your sat’s up this summer. ok’s not cutting it here. i don’t know what they look for here, but my friends who aren’t diversity or recruits have really high sat’s. so are you screwed because you don’t have 4.0 and 2400’s, i don’t think so, but it would make it easier if you did.</p>
<p>I’m not a diversity student, and my SATs weren’t perfect. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in that, either. So duhvinci does have a point in that, yes, Swat is highly selective and there’s a high chance you won’t get in, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.</p>
<p>Duhvinci is just a huge cynic judging from his other posts.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, Swat really looks at the whole student. I had a dismal GPA (3.6) and i got into Swat and 3 ivies plus a lot of other top LACs and universities. Its all about how you present yourself and how well-rounded you are and the luck of the draw.</p>
<p>I’m a senior (graduating in 6 days. Crazy). I had solid SATs (15…50? Maybe?) and I was somewhere in the top 20% of my high school class—but def. didn’t have a 4.0. Admissions does seem to look seriously at essays and activities. They’ve got more 4.0/2400s than they need.</p>
<p>IMO, the key is to present a consistent story. Admissions wants to get a picture of who you are, and <em>every</em> part of your application should be working to tell that same story.</p>
<p>BTW—Duhvinci is right in that the vast majority of people don’t get in, and more than 17% of the applicant pool could academically perform here. At some point it is a crap shoot.</p>
<p>That said, Swat did live up to most of my expectations (and I was/am a big Swarthmore fanboy).</p>
<p>arador, congratulations on your upcoming graduation! Have enjoyed reading your posts for the past 4 years. Amazing how time flies!</p>
<p>sonjanicky: 3.6 is not terrible, the op’s problem seems to be his/her sat scores. so what was yours? that would be a fairer comparison.</p>
<p>arador: will miss you, walked past your room almost every day this past year.</p>
<p>SAT:1890 (reading 800,writing 630, math 460)
[ *] SAT IIs: Bio 680, Lit 800 US History 700</p>
<p>SAT scores^ Not awesome(besides reading) but i still got into a lot of my dream schools!</p>
<p>^ 460 M? What schools did you get into, out of curiosity?</p>
<p>Swarthmore,Amherst,Bryn Mawr, Vassar, Mt. Holyoke, UC Berkley, UCLA,Stanford, Brown, Cornell,Weslayan and NYU. I was also waitlisted at Harvard and a few others. </p>
<p>Rejected= Princeton,Penn, Wellesley, Barnard,Dartmouth, Chicago, Duke </p>
<p>My strong points were my reading scores and my essays. I was a QB finalist and had a very well-rounded resume. Top in music,sports and academics at my school (my school is very hard to get a 4.0 at, My only grade below an A was two years in math in which i got two B’s and a C hence why my GPA was so low. Otherwise, straight A’s.)I am also a proficient violinist and superb writer(hence the strong essays) I was president of several clubs and was active in my local/state government. Basically, i was an all around well-rounded student with a couple of stumbling blocks.</p>
<p>My point is, that scores and numbers, while very important, are not the only factor. As my Harvard interviewer said " So you are smart, so what?" They care more about what kind of experiences you will bring to a school too.
Math was always my major weakness. It was something i wrote about in essays too. I was worried that it would stop be from getting into top schools. In all honesty, i am surprised i did with my math scores. However, i think colleges TRY to look at everything. Sometimes it works out,sometimes it doesn’t.It really is the luck of the draw.</p>
<p>while many may get encouragement from sonjanicky, i believe that her ability to gain admittance to many of those schools are a bit illusory. while the 800 in reading is a significant accomplishment (there are way many more 800’s in math than in cr,) her main hook into those schools is her diversity status which, much like a star recruited athlete, shields a candidate from a lower gpa and a sub 500 sat score. so feelo, are you screwed with sub 4.0, 2400? no, but unless you have a significant hook, you can’t score much lower.</p>
<p>sonjanicky29, that’s a really inspiring story. Congrats and good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks! Now this is not the norm like someone above posted. I showed a lot of passion for my chosen major and such but even than, there is NO guarantees. At my school, the entire top one percent is staying instate(our number one didn’t get ANY money for college at all)and yet i am number 6/549 or 7/549 and i got into top schools and we applied to a lot of the same schools.Another example is someone with lower SAT than me and less ECs and awards but higher GPA at my school who got into Chicago whereas i got rejected. So there is an examples of someone with all the numbers, but not the luck. Basically, try your hardest on your academics/application but take it with a grain of salt because NO ONE is guaranteed a spot at these schools.</p>
<p>And also in full disclosure, i am also a URM and my reading score was so impressive because i did not learn to read till VERY late in life. Those were also big factors too.</p>