(Insert clever chance thread title here)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everybody. </p>

<p>I'm a junior at a tiny Christian high school of about two hundred students. </p>

<p>Right now my class rank is #2 but then again that is not saying much seeing as there are only 57 students in my class.</p>

<p>My GPA after sophomore year is 4.0 unweighted, 4.38 weighted. Hopefully that will go up a bit this semester because I am taking 3 AP classes. My itsy bitsy school only offers 6 APs, all of which I plan on taking before I graduate.</p>

<p>I took the SAT sophomore year and got a 2110 (660 CR, 700 M, 750 W) but I am hoping to retake it and do a little better. I think I can at least bring my reading (oh reading) score up a bit, and I have since gotten an 80 on my math PSAT. </p>

<p>Random ECs and Such: </p>

<p>I have taken 8 years of piano, 4 years of flute.</p>

<p>I have run cross country for 5 years, track 1 year, tennis 2 years.</p>

<p>I participate regularly in my church by playing music.</p>

<p>I have a few (15-20) lovely hours volunteering by planting trees for CBF, which I loved but which is only available a couple times a year. </p>

<p>This quarter I am tutoring a student with a learning disability (2 hrs per week for 10 weeks).</p>

<p>I have 30ish hours of gardening mentorship with a very nice old gardener in my neighborhood. I plan to continue this. I also spend a good amount of my free time taking care of my own garden, but I'm not sure if you would call this an EC exactly. </p>

<p>I have 15-20 hours of making infographics for an environmental organization. Enjoyable but didn't really go anywhere.</p>

<p>I recently started making terrariums out of recycled jars and donating them to a local thrift store. (weird, I know, but fun) </p>

<p>I have a couple of national Latin exam awards, and I took Precalculus and an Essay class online with CTY at JHU. </p>

<p>I volunteered/worked with the Youth Conservation Corps for three weeks last summer. Awesome experience. This summer I'm going on a cross country science learning trip with my school. </p>

<p>BUT.
I have NO LEADERSHIP. This is bad, yes, but how bad?</p>

<p>Here are my reaaaach colleges that I would looooove to go to but I'm thinking acceptance would be quite a stretch. I intend to major in environmental science/biology. </p>

<p>Pomona College (favorite by far)
Bowdoin College
Dartmouth College
Middlebury College</p>

<p>Here are my slightly more realistic colleges:</p>

<p>College of William and Mary
University of Virginia</p>

<p>And I'm still working out safety schools... so thank you so much for your time and input. Any advice would be great!</p>

2

<p>Personally, I think the garden thing is very nice. If you don’t put it as a EC, it’s still a great experience in my opinion, and perhaps you can talk about it in your essay and how it relates to your interest in environmental science.</p>

<p>I’m pretty sure that there are a lot of people who don’t have leadership, but you do seem to have initiative, and I think that’s the more important part. Does there happen to be a gardening club on campus? Or an environmental club? If there is, you should join and strive to get an officer position, and if not, you can try and create one and spread the word. You may be a junior, but if environmental science is something you really love, go for it anyway.</p>

<p>So…</p>

<p>Pomona College: If this is your favorite, you should DEFINITELY apply for Early Decision, which should show that you’re actually serious about the college and that’s always a plus. Your GPA looks great, your SATs are most likely going to look great too, and it’s fine if you’ve only taken 6 APs if that’s everything your school offers. Taking all 6 still shows that you’re taking advantage of your opportunities. I personally really like your ECs. If you can write a great essay and get great recommendations, you probably have a good chance of getting your dream school. I’m pretty sure that mentioning somewhere on the application that this is your dream school won’t hurt either.</p>

<p>And I guess similar things can be said about the rest of your reach schools. They’re reaches, yeah, but showing interest and showing why you want your major is definitely a plus.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Middlebury: Reach</p>

<p>I chanced you for all other colleges…</p>

4

<p>Thanks so much kagami! </p>

<p>And thanks again Catria, and yes you did chance me before a couple months ago, good memory! Actually that’s a little concerning that you actually remembered me. Haha. Please tell me you are not a college admissions officer or anything. :slight_smile: Anybody know if I can delete this account?</p>

5

<p>No, I am not an admissions officer, much less Middlebury…</p>

<p>I normally don’t chance a person more than once unless that person provides additional information (be it a change in grades, test scores, ECs or just one more school to chance for)</p>