For pretty much all of my school life, I’ve been the kid who easily pulled off straight As, and mostly As once I hit high school honors classes that I tested into with no issues. I was still a pretty diligent worker, and was easing myself into improving that starting with an honors class and 2 APs my freshman year, one of which was online outside of the school day. Approaching junior year, it occurred to me that my “slacker” sophomore year was going to hurt me. While I didn’t stop with the hard courses, I got lazy and decided not to ever turn in my WHAP homework, dragging that grade down to a pathetic looking C among my top grades, and actively pissing off my parents, which was the goal. Approaching junior year, I also realized that I really had no idea what I wanted to do. Sure, I had aspirations of going to an elite school, but that was about it.
Knowing it would help to pad my resume, I signed on to be in the second cohort to go through my school’s new IB Diploma Programme. I spent junior year looking into what classes I was taking that I really loved, and history seemed to be my favorite always; I excelled in it and found many of the ideological and political issues fascinating, especially analyzing documents, historians, and the effects of events. This, ultimately, led to my discovery that I wanted to study political science to learn more about how world leaders think and make choices. Once I figured out the major I wanted to pursue, it was time to really look into schools.
I realized that DC was the place to be for me. I had already known that I wanted to look into schools away from home, and I knew that our financial situation put my family in a position of not being able to afford OOS tuition somewhere without decent merit aid, which made private schools seem like a valid option. I toured schools in DC with my parents (I live in Michigan) and loved them all, as I had fallen in love with the city in the 3 or 4 times we’d visited prior.
I ended up applying to 10 schools: 6 safeties, 3 matches, and 1 reach. I had a 32 ACT/1910 SAT, 3.7W GPA when applying, extensive dedication to musical extracurriculars, good essays mostly about music and how it shaped me and my leadership abilities, glowing recommendations (counselor rec and teacher rec from AP Calc teacher), minimal work experience (youth softball umpire for 2 months/year and paid to give music lessons), lots of volunteering, church involvement, a political campaign internship, founding member of a successful MUN team, and my hook: a first generation college student.
Reach:
Georgetown - Deferred EA, Rejected
Match:
University of Michigan - Waitlisted
George Washington University - Accepted w/good FinAid
American University - Accepted w/good FinAid
Safety:
James Madison University - Accepted
Michigan State University - Deferred to Spring Semester
Saginaw Valley State University - Accepted w/full scholarship (in November)
Grand Valley State University - Accepted w/scholarship
Lake Superior State University - Accepted w/scholarship
Oakland University - Accepted w/scholarship
I took a chance and declined all of my scholarship/admission offers from my safeties before receiving my decisions, which was a leap of faith for my family, especially knowing that we wouldn’t be able to afford full cost at my matches (except UMich). I was schocked to be deferred from MSU and shocked by the lack of FinAid from James Madison. Ultimately my decision came down to American or George Washington, with American seeming to be my only option as they had offered me FinAid that would cover a third of the CoA each year. To my surprise, I not only was accepted to GW (where I was sure I had a smaller chance of acceptance than UMich), but my merit aid would put the CoA at the same number as American. I chose American (which I had discovered accidentally when I was touring other DC colleges and scheduled a tour on a whim) because it made me really feel at home with a real campus, very friendly and outgoing people, and just a certain air about the campus.
My advice to future applicants:
- If studying for a standardized test will stress you out too much, don’t focus on it. I didn’t study at all because of my lack of time for it with my full IB courseload and huge commitment to music, and only took each test twice.
- Don’t feel pressure to apply to 10 reach schools, and don’t be ashamed of applying to 10 safety schools if it makes you feel more comfortable.
- If you feel confident taking a leap of faith when declining admissions offers, discuss with your parents and do it.
- Don’t apply to schools you will truly be unhappy at.
- Don’t do things in HS just to pad your resume. I opted not to do NHS because I hate demanding recognition for community service, and felt that it would not hurt me to opt out of the group.
- Don’t expect your safeties to come in clutch. The school you least expect can reject or defer you for a multitude of reasons.
- Be organized! Start early, keep a spreadsheet of things you need to do for each school’s application, get your recommendations done early, start your essays with time to share with a teacher or two and edit, and be sincere in anything that goes on or with your application.