*Lots of goodies for CC pros who love to answer noobie questions :)*

Applying to College
1

<p>Please commit to reading and answering :)</p>

<p>Do ivies (and schools like Stanford) consider you a competitive applicant if you haven't received regional/state/national awards or recognition? Is my stuff enough to be considered part of the Waitlist/yes pile?</p>

<p>*I have designed a logo for a company in Ohio(globally-held contest)-->I mean I competed with professional Indian and Swiss designers and I won!, held a job in gd(graphic design), will hold an internship in gd, and have been involved in graphic design for 5 years -->started with Neopets (essay topic?). </p>

<p>*In addition, I have the title of KHS ambassador, where only 10-20 students were selected from the whole school based on leadership ability, where we gave tours and did other stuff at our school's dedication ceremony (my hs is brand new).</p>

<p>*I am also PR and Treasurer for my school's Interact chapter (division of Rotary), where I direct and maintain social networks, relations with the community, financial matters, publicizing the club and our fundraising events (for global causes)and where I book events.</p>

<p>DO I SOUND LIKE AN APPLICANT ADCOMS WOULD LIKE TO ADMIT beside my verbosity and disorganization?</p>

<p><em>BTW, I am taking several APs, (not taking bio/physics b/c I want room to take adv. graphic design & speech and debate II; taking physics at a community college) have a couple occasional Bs (in Ingles), have a 4.35 W GPA, and received a *lowers head</em> 2050 on my practice sat (taking in May). Subject tests in USH and Math II soon.</p>

<p>*BTW! Should I report my 3 on the AP World History Exam...? Will they like to see that a got a 3 soph year and got a 4 or 5 junior yr in APUSH (improvement)?</p>

<p>THANKS again. I'm not usually this obnoxious, btw<--are you getting sick of that phrase?</p>

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<p>And I’m white (Afghan-American) by the way, and I attend a public HS in CA (low-medium income; I can be considered an unpriveleged kid b/c mi padre is not here and my mama works hard to make ends meet…& yeah)</p>

<p>BTW (there it is again), would an arts supplement help?</p>

3

<p>First of all, I had a nostalgiagasm at the Neopets mention. Oh god, my poor Bori is dying D:</p>

<p>Ahem… back to the topic…I think you have a fair chance. For the ivys it’s mostly luck once you’ve reached a certain level of qualification. I’m no expert, I’m an international junior. But I’ve been on CC long enough to get the gist, and basically, you need a buttload of luck.
I’d say that you don’t necessarily need awards, but they do look very nice and shiny on your resume. But the global contest thing might make up for that. Also, you need to get your SAT score a bit up, because now I think you’re kinda on the borderline. So good luck, I’m taking in may too (scared ****less.) </p>

<p>Schools generally don’t want any form of supplementary material unless you have a truly unique gift. But if you say you’ve won that digital media contest, I’d say sure, give them your best work. </p>

<p>Also, love thy teachers so they love you back in their recs. </p>

<p>All that said, I wish you good luck :slight_smile: And don’t get bummed out because of CC.</p>

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<p>Also, omgggg I’m gonna have so much fun on neopets today</p>

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<p>Those sound like some outstanding EC’s. WTG!</p>

6

<p>It certainly doesn’t hurt to mention it, but I doubt if the KHS ambassador thing will matter much to anyone.</p>

<p>However, your graphic design experience is impressive and shows accomplishment in a specific area. I think it will come across very well for you.</p>

<p>You have a good shot.</p>

<p>I can’t believe how many ads neopets has now. I remember back when there was one little static banner and that was it. Now there are more ads than actual content :(</p>

7

<p>anothergalaxy, </p>

<p>You sound positively delightful, but I’ve got to ask: Have you sat your parents down and talked about how you are going to pay for your education? You absolutely need to know how much money is available. That is going to determine how deep you will have to dig in order to come up with your financial safety schools. Unless you have a college fund in the $240,000 range what your parents (and you) don’t know about the financial aid process can hurt you. Spend some time at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and in the Financial Aid forum here so that you are better prepared for the money issues.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone for the responses! happymomof1, I was hoping I would get into one of the top-25 privates, which offer generous aid to students with low incomes, like me (<45k with a single parent supporting 7 people), so I was depending on that. If I attend a UC, hopefully the Reagent’s scholarship or calgrant would help.</p>

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<p>Since you mentioned UCs, you can check the [UC</a> statistics on applicants and admits](<a href=“http://statfinder.ucop.edu/]UC”>http://statfinder.ucop.edu/) for the various UCs (including UC GPA and SAT scores of applicants and admits, and various other things).</p>

<p>For in-state UC students from lower income families, the [Blue</a> and Gold Opportunity Plan](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/paying-for-uc/financial-aid/grants/blue-gold/index.html]Blue”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/paying-for-uc/financial-aid/grants/blue-gold/index.html) sets a floor on the amount of grant aid to the UC systemwide fees, but the floor does not include living and other expenses.</p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“Financial Aid : Stanford University”&gt;Financial Aid : Stanford University]Stanford[/url</a>] and [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/index.html]Harvard[/url”&gt;http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/index.html]Harvard[/url</a>] offer free rides to students from low income families. Of course, getting admitted is the hard part.</p>

<p>Maybe others more familiar with admissions committees can comment, but if your work is visible on the web, perhaps including a URL to view it in your essay may help?</p>

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<p>I can’t tell if your being serious or not</p>

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<p>You have a decent shot. Certainly include some top schools on your list. But first thing to do is to get a list of schools that will fit your academic needs and wants that you can afford that is very likely to take you. That is the real work in putting together a college list. You can cherry pick off the top all you want once you have a bunch of choices that are pretty sure thing financially and academically. It’s fun rolling off the names of all of those top schools, discussing the merits of Duke vs Dartmouth, but that should be done.</p>

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<p>Since money is a big issue, take a look at [QuestBridge</a> Home Page](<a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/]QuestBridge”>http://www.questbridge.org/) There is a section of the Financial Aid forum devoted to it as well.</p>

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<p>Definitely send in an arts supplement, particularly if Yale is on your wish list. Princeton and Harvard have more limited visual arts program, so if your specialty is commercial graphics, I’m not sure how significant that would be.</p>

<p>What is your unweighted GPA? Class rank? You will want your SAT I over 2100 (plus your two SAT II s for the Ivies. And the World History AP 3 might show your school has grade inflation if you received an A in the class.</p>

14

<p>Would you be a first generation college student? (Meaning your parents did not attend college). On the applications you are usually asked to list your parents’ level of education, so this becomes evident. This would make you a more interesting candidate to plenty of schools. Also, if you have a lot of commitments at home due to having only one parent here you would want to communicate that to schools (it can be included in the “additional information” area). Good luck.</p>

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<p>3.88 UW 10-12, 3.94 9-12; Class Rank: 7/345 (top 1.9%); So I shouldn’t report my scores less than a 4? I am not a first-generation college student, although my parents emigrated here in the '80s.</p>

<p>For Stanford, will it make any difference if I mention in one of my essays (tie it into my topic) that my sister is a regular patient at their medical center? (kind of like legacy advantage) haha this might sound silly.</p>

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<p>I imagine that most unhooked applicants are competitive at the state or national level.</p>

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<p>You do not need state or national awards and your graphic designs concentration sounds interesting. In the general concept of “Why ____”, a mention of your exposure to Stanford through repeated contacts with the medical center is reasonable. You should strive to make an effort to make each school feel like you put thought into why you are applying and a little customization like this can help. Certainly this is more difficult if you are applying to 10+ schools. Agree with happymomof1 to check out Questbridge and to find financial safeties.</p>