life at college, chances

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>props to anyone who reads this whole thing-
i'm looking for small lac personal atmosphere
international studies program
-open curriculum (altho i would be okay going
somewhere with required courses, i would infintely prefer
an open curriculum to make it easy to double major)
beautiful campus
great people, hopefully not too intense about grades and stuff
if anyone could either give me some guidance as to my chances or what life is really like at the schools i'm looking at or direct me to some other suitable places I'd really appreciate it. I know chances posts belong on the appropriate forum, but I also would like to hear anyones advice about college life as well.</p>

<p>I'm looking at
Vassar College, Hamilton College, Wellesley College,
Williams College, Brown University, Amherst College,
UPenn (have a family friend who is a professor there will that help), Tufts University, Bryn Mawr, SUNY Binghamnton, Georgetown
Standardized Tests: SAT I: Verbal: 800 Math: 640 Writing: 720
SAT II: English Literature 730 US History 770 French 670 </p>

<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.8 out of 4.33</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities: MY REAL GPA IS LIKE A 3.8 uw see below
Mock Trial Attorney11
MT Witness 10
Youth and Government member 10,11
Forensics -Extemporaneous Speaking
This is giving impromptu speeches on topics involving
world both world and domestic politics and economics </p>

<p>without having the topic until 30 minutes beforehand
9,10,11
Student Council 9 10 11
French Honor Society 10 11
Math Honor Society 10 11
Natl Honor Society 11
Science Honor Society 10 11
Solar Car Team- CoFounder 11
Young Democrats (in my town) Founder 11
FBLA 10
WInter Track 9 10 11 (JV)
Spring Track 9 10(JV)
Awards and Recognitions: 8th in State Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking (10)
1st in State Parliamentary Procedure Team FBLA (10)
Nominee to Council on Natl Affairs (10)
Alternate Nominee to CONA (11) </p>

<p>I'm going to Governor's School of Public Issues in the
summer- kids at my school say everyone from our
school who has gone to gov are pretty much guaranteed
at least one ivy ( i know that's just talk, but I thought I'd
put that in there)
Other Information: Under-represented Minority? no
Location: New Jersey
AP Calc AB (didn't get reccommended for BC)
AP Gov Pol
AP Lit
AP Euro History
AP French Lang
H Global Studies
Academic/College Prep Choir </p>

<p>i got 5s in ap eng lang and ap us history </p>

<p>my school doesn't weight courses- I have taken all
honors core courses only my music has been at the cp
level
an a plus is a 4.33
this year as a junior I may have exactly an a minus gpa
(yikes). my real gpa is about a 3.8 now. </p>

<p>my passion is public speaking
I also write poetry but it's only being published in an
ezine-does that count? </p>

<p>Some majors I'm considering are Internation/Global
Studies, IR, english Literature or speech and rhetoric
studies, French, Comparative Literature, Area or Regional
Studies
I'd like to study the people of the world and how they
express themselves through the written word </p>

<p>I see myself either as a lawyer working for a good cause
(what, I'm not sure) or as some other type of grad
student, maybe go to be a professor </p>

<p>i'll also apply to th coll of nj, rutgers nb (which are state
schools)
i really want to go to vassar or amherst of all those there, even if i
did get into an ivy i might pick vassar or amherst above it because it
has all the characteristics I'm looking for:
small lac personal atmosphere
international studies program
-open curriculum (altho i would be okay going
somewhere with required courses, i would infintely prefer
an open curriculum to make it easy to double major)
beautiful campus </p>

<p>ps I know amherst doesn't have is</p>

<p>recs from debate coach/eng professor, govschool teacher who got his phd from princeton, guidance counselor who i consider a personal friend,</p>

<p>if you all have any ideas about a school that would give
me good merit aid or might fight my criteria and stats,
please tell me </p>

<p>i just took june sats and they came out worse than the
ones here, largely due to having a huge fight with my
mom and being distracted and upset by that
is it worthwhile to take them again, or should i take more
satiis?
also, i think i'll try the act b/c i've heard the math is
easier</p>

2

<p>Hmmm, I'm not really good at analyzing chances, so I'm not going to bother, though I will comment on gov school kids, and for the most part they tend to be very successful in their college endeavors. My one friend goes to Tufts and she has a very long list of her friend sfrom gov school who are all attending Ivy's so I can vouch for the gov school Ivy connection [though obviously there's no guarantee]. Also, after reading the characteristics of your ideal college I would definitely say go for Amherst, though I am also very fond of Williams. Also, if you applied to TCNJ and Rutgers would you still go knowing that merit won't be there as well as higher tuitions [just a thought], though I think TCNJ is exceptional school, especially for a public. So good luck with everything :)</p>

3

<p>wow thanks for all the great info
if i didn't get the merit aid, rutgers and tcnj would still prolly be the cheapest
i'd say hamilton is the closest i have besides that to a safety, but i'm a little bit stumped for safeties because thye'res not too many international studies programs out there
thanks a lot</p>

4

<p>I do domestic extemp too! did you go to nationals this year in dallas?</p>

5

<p>um no i suck</p>

6

<p>hey--I'm going to be an incoming freshman at Wellesley this fall, and I can offer that your stats (with some slight tweaking of SAT II and some ECs) were quite similar to mine. Wellesley has a lot of what you're looking for--it's famous for having one of the most beautiful campuses of any college or university, it definitely has a small, tight-knit community atmosphere, and, even though I'm not personally interested, I've heard that the international relations and economics programs are particularly excellent. I myself intend to study English, and chose Wellesley because I felt confident in the English program. What it doesn't have is the open curriculum; there are breadth requirements that students have to satisfy. These can be satisfied in a variety of ways, though--for instance, you must take a certain amount of a "math course", but you can do that through taking traditional math, or opting for something more like computer science. My point is that while there is a closed curriculum, there's wiggle room. Wellesley does not give merit aid, but is extremely generous with need based aid. If you think you can deal with the all-girls thing (or if like the all-girls thing) then I would definitely suggest looking into it : )</p>

7

<p>thanks for the info
a friend of mine who's visited wellesley suggested i might not like the setting (meaning rural and all girls) but I think i could hack it
i'm more interested in internation al studies, which is more of a multidisciplinary major, than international relations, but it is reassuring to know wellesley has a good program
could you give me some more specific info about your stats and ecs vs mine, and just how much higher my scores need to be "tweaked"?
thank you so much for responding</p>

<p>ps if i did a tour of new england with tufts, amherst, williams, and wellesley, are they in close proximity?
thanks again</p>

8

<p>my own stats were: 650 M, 800 CR, 730 W SATI; 700 French, 750 English Lit, 5's on AP English Lit + USH (when I said very similar, I was emphasizing the very) I was the head editor for my school lit mag, I both wrote and edited for the school newspaer (both school newspapers...long story) was a part of the school bellchoir, and had absolutely zero community service. I think you have a fighting chance, but I would suggest visiting campus and really having something to say in your Why Wellesley essay--I know that my specificity really helped my case. </p>

<p>About the all girls thing: I personally am not a fan, and part of my reason for going to Wellesley is that it's not all-girls all the time. We crossregister with Brandeis, Olin, Babson and MIT, and they with us, which means that you can either take classes with guys in their schools, or they can take classes chez Wellesley. "Rural" conjures up images of cows and farmers for me, so I woudln't really describe the setting that way...I'd suggest visiting and deciding for yourself.</p>

<p>I did almost the exact tour you did, minus Williams. Tuft ans Wellesley are fairly close (was travelling to them from Boston--Wellesley is 25ish minutes from Boston, Tufts I think is shorter). Amherst is a ways out in western mass, and I wish I could remember properly how far it was, but all I can really tell you definitively is that it's less than...two hours...from boston, which is really no help at all. Williams is even further away, though.</p>