Is Vanderbilt totally unrealistic for me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
1

<p>Hi!
So I was just calculating my GPA for this year, and when I saw it my heart stopped. I do a lot out of school, but my grades aren't all A's. I was wondering if any of you could give me a good idea if I'm striving too high or what I should do to improve to get into any of these schools. I'm stressing out because I feel like I'm slacking and I could be doing so much better and I want to go to a school I would love. I was wondering if any of you guys might be able to guide me and help me out to get into Vanderbilt.</p>

<p>I want to major in Bio-medical engineering and minor in psychology</p>

<p>The schools I was to apply to: Carnegie Mellon, University of Michigan, UC Berkeley (<-Top choice), Purdue University, UConn, UC San Diego, NYU, Syracuse Univ, Vanderbilt University, University of Southern Cali, and Georgia Institute of Tech.</p>

<p>Some of these are my strive schools, but I'm hoping that by the end of junior year and I can get into some of them. UC Berkeley is my top and dream school, and after that comes UMich, Vandy, U.Southern Cali, and NYU.</p>

<p>My Grades:</p>

<p>9th:
Java/ntwking (Reg): B
World Hist (H): A-
Alg II (H): B+
Geometry (H): B
Biology (H): A-
English (H): A-
Drawing&Painting (Reg): A-
Latin 2 (Reg): B</p>

<p>According to my school, my unweighted gpa that year was 3.54 and weighted was 3.84</p>

<p>10th:
CAD&Web Design (Reg): A
European History (AP):B
Pre Calculus (H):B
Chemistry (H):B-
Biology (AP):A-
English (H):A-
Latin 3 (H):B</p>

<p>I don't know what my gpa is this year, but I think the unweighted is about a 3.3ish :'(</p>

<p>Junior Year course load:</p>

<p>Advanced CAD
AP US Hist
Honors Calculus
Honors Physics
Honors English
AP Studio Art
Honors Latin 4
(AP Art History and Environmental Science out of school)</p>

<p>AP Exams I plan to take:
AP Bio: (a 3 or 4 I think, results havent come yet)
AP Euro: (4 I think, results havent come yet)
APUSH (jr yr)
AP Art (jr yr)
AP Art History (out of school)
AP BC Calc (sr yr)
AP Literature (sr yr)
AP Gov (sr yr)
AP Latin (sr yr)</p>

<p>EC's (as of now)</p>

<p>Girls Varsity Basketball (2 yrs) (this will be my last year on the team)
Latin Club (2009-present), 2nd Vice President (2013-2014), 1st Vice President (2014-2015) State Latin Club Treasurer (2014-2015)
Drama Crew (2013-present)
ACYOA Youth Organization (2011-present)
I work as a Swim Instructor (2013-present)
I work at an Art Museum (2013-present)
I'm half way through writing a novel that I'd like to publish in the next year or so
I plan on doing Speech and Debate at school until I graduate starting next year.</p>

<p>Community Service:</p>

<p>54 hours at an Art Museum
Starting my own organization later this summer
Hopefully going to be volunteering for all summer next year at a hospital in Boston</p>

<p>Awards:
Magna Cum Laude on the National Latin Exam</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Middle Eastern-white</p>

<p>Potential Essay Topics:
Being an immigrant to the US
Tearing my Achilles tendon and MCL in freshman yr and how that affected me</p>

<p>PLEASE HELP A FELLOW STUDENT OUT HERE. I FEEL LIKE IM STRIVING TOO HIGH AND I WANT TO BE REALISTIC. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT I NEED TO IMPROVE ON.</p>

2

<p>It’s hard to say. Your class rank is more important than your GPA (if your school ranks). You need to be at least top 10%. With great grades in your Junior year and a 2200+ SAT score, all of those schools are well within reach.</p>

3

<p>My school doesn’t rank unfortunately, since it’s a very difficult high school, the guidance department purposely chooses not to report class rank other than valedictorian. Thanks though!</p>

4

<p>Hi frogdragon, I am a current freshmen at Vanderbilt and got accepted into Vanderbilt regular decision I may not be the best person to give you advice, but anything to help out a fellow student!
Like you I didn’t start out with all A’s; in fact, I had several B’s to begin both my freshmen and sophomore year. However, due to helpful peer guidance and self-review and maturation, I realized where I had to focus my attention on, and improved. Freshmen year GPA: 3.5, Senior year GPA: 4.25 W 3.9 U/W. I attribute my acceptance mainly to two key areas: improvement and personality. Looking at my transcript it was easy to tell that I continued to challenge myself by taking difficult classes and improve continuously (grade-wise). However, I cannot emphasize enough how personality can definitely prove your worth to college admissions. For example, I knew of several of my classmates who had much better SAT scores and class rank, GPA, etc. but there essays were lackluster, both common app and supplemental. I wrote mine using a play on words. Titled “The Best Thing I Ever Made” I recounted a story about playing an open piano in downtown before hearing a stranger tell me I “made their day.” To me, that striked me as a significant moment, and one that I believed truly represented me. I wrote my essay on this because I knew that not only was the topic unique, it was also an easy way to translate both my personality and virtues.</p>

<p>Now, before you ask “Why is this ‘atu567’ just blabbering about himself,” I strongly recommended you look over this, and try and compare yourself to my experience. I cannot say that I was in the same boat as you, but I can say I understand where you’re coming from, and I think you HAVE the potential to be accepted. HOWEVER, it all depends on how you present yourself. Obviously your track record isn’t as desirable as you’d like, and I can understand that. That being said, I think that it’s fairly obvious you have challenged yourself, and you want to show you are worthwhile. Looking at your “CV,” I can say that you have the “goods,” it all just depends on how you present yourself. If you come out boasting about having a 3.3 GPA, most schools will tend to ignore you. However, show them that you are unique, that you can provide a different vibe to the school.</p>

<p>At this point I may be dragging this on forever for you, but I just want to provide all I can.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>focus on academics. Make sure you strive to continue to improve and push yourself, BUT</p></li>
<li><p>Know your limits. It’s hard to say this, but overshooting can be your ultimate downfall. I applied to UMich early action and got accepted. Early action schools tended to be more lenient when accepting students vs. Regular decision, but still understand you need to know what is realistic and what isn’t.</p></li>
<li><p>Stand out. I cannot emphasize this enough. Make your personality shine through in your essays and your teacher recommendations. I wouldn’t recommend your two essays topics, but if I had to pick I would do the immigrant one. I suggest something that’s new, something that would immediately stand out and bring interest to the reader. Have many peers and adults read over and edit your essay. The more, the better.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>If you have anymore questions, feel free to reply and I’ll do my best to help you. I wish you the best of luck.</p>

5

<p>^Well said!</p>

6

<p>Above all, choose a financial safety college where you would be reasonably happy to show up and attend in August of your 18th year. Financial Safety does not mean Vanderbilt and other No Loans colleges with low admission rates. It means a college that has an admission profile that with good essays and good reference letters is very likely to admit you. Schools with huge endowments that are need blind/no loan in their financial aid packages are very likely to have low admission rates that reject fully qualified individuals. </p>

<p>Second “above all”. Prepare for your standardized exams. I think this is necessary for all but the truly savant test takers. My Duke grad son “thought” he had prepared junior year, and I know he took some practice exams in his room on Sundays and he had a little free instruction on the exams but he did just “well enough” to get into Virginia’s fine flagship schools if he was lucky. Summer after senior year he started really studying for the SAT and he brought it up 200 points fall of his senior year. I think a lot of it had to do with maturity. You can be a great kid with a lot of potential and yet just not hit your stride on things like standardized exams through not fault of your own…everyone has their own trajectory. But never underestimate timed exams at home with breaks similar to test conditions. One son aced the ACT. The other did better on the SAT. That means considering prepping for them both and seeing what suits you. This goes for AP exams. And SAT Subject exams if you want to play those cards as well. It is HARD to prep for the AP exams if you are also doing sports, music, working part time in high school. But give up something to prepare. Buy the books. Buy the Real ACT Red book. Buy the Testmaster SAT answer book and study the answers. </p>

<p>Lastly. Don’t go crazy on a prestige college name. My friends’ kids who went to UVA or Wm and Mary are achieving just as much as Duke and VAndy grads. Pay respects to your state schools…graduate schools are super expensive unless you are a Physics PHD grad student or a hard science PHD student. Don’t over spend on undergrad school. Keep your head re your match college in state being a good place to be.</p>

<p>PS, I agree with the Vandy freshman above. Essays matter in a field of academic equals. Read the slim classic on college essays by Harry Bauld. Don’t wait. Do the exercises and let your ideas percolate. My sons didn’t finish their essays till December 31 deadlines. But they had plenty of drafts going! It’s not easy to get yourself across when you are “in transitions” at your age. Read a lot of successful essays and stay open hearted.</p>

<p>best wishes</p>

7

<p>“Summer after (BEFORE, sorry) senior year he started really studying for the SAT…” </p>

8

<p>I agree with the above but would add the most important aspect of your application is your HS transcript. Your top 5 are all very selective and rigorous universities. You need to show them you can handle the engineering work load and all your math and chem grades are B’s. Get your GPA up then focus on SAT/ACT.
In general not many engineers also write novels or minor in psychology…maybe there is an essay there that could stand out from the engineering crowd.</p>