<p>Ok so heres the deal. I am applying to Barnard RD, even though its my number one choice, because if you apply ED you cannot defer which i want to do. THe problem is that I attend a very small school - my grade is 50 students which is their biggest graduating class so far - but right now 12 people are applying RD to Barnard! Of those 12 people I would say at least 5 or 6 of them have better stats than me. On my own, my stats are good enough to get into Barnard, but I am worried that the overwhelming number of applicants from our tiny school will hurt my chances. I mean, there is no way they are going to accept 12 students from one tiny private school is there??
Anyway here is a brief summation of my stats - if that will help you in answering my question.<br>
SATs - 2210 (750V 720M 740W)
SAT IIS - 730Lit 710Math I
GPA - 92.075 UW(with a big upward trend, ~96 UW in 11th grade)
EC's -
Newspaper - reporter, World News Editor - 11, 12
Drama - actress - 9,11,12
Student Ambassador Committee - 9,10,11,12
Religous Publication - writer, managing editor - 10,12
Charity Committee - member, Chair of committee - 9,12</p>
<p>Anyway thank you so much in advance, I would just like some input over how real my concerns are, and what steps I can take. I was thinking also about writing in the "additional information" section about how it is my number one choice, but why I can't apply ED. Is this a good idea or am I just making excuses? Any imput is appreciated - thanks!</p>
<p>All you can do is be who you are. Write knock-out essays. You have teachrer's recs and your counselor's opinion - it's not all about the numbers, and your numbers are good. You aren't just competing with kids at your own high school, but with those all over your region.</p>
<p>That said, it wouldn't hurt to tell them they are your number one choice. I don't think you need to go into why you didn't apply early. (Lots of kids aren't ready to make that committment so early in the game.)
Good luck. I hope there are other schools on your list you would be happy to attend. You certainly have plenty of great choices in the northeast.</p>
<p>assuming your tiny private school is a good one, your guidance counselor will have some sort of personal relationship with people at barnard. How badly do the other kids want to go there? He can express to them that they are indeed your first choice, and you will matriculate if accepted. Also, if your counselor is like mine was, you will have given him a finalized list of your order of preference. Now lets say the 6 people with better stats all have barnard near the bottom. When its close to decision time, he will call all many of the schools you kids applied to. Say all 6 of those kids got into schools higher on their list than barnard. He will then call barnard and say "yo, did you accept any of these 6 kids" Barnard says they took 3 of you, he'll then say "well I know for a fact that those 3 kids will not attend, why don't you push them onto the waiting list, and take cool2bars instead?"</p>
<p>Express your situation to your guidance counselor, they deal with this stuff all the time, and its one of the advantages of private school, they will be able to make a difference.</p>
<p>Also, just because their numbers are better than yours doesn't mean they're what's needed to compose an interesting class. I'm sure you've done something they haven't, and that might be just the thing Barnard's looking for. Best thing you can do- make it VERY clear that it's your first choice. I like the idea of including a short statement on why you want to defer, so they understand you have good reasons for not applying ED.</p>