Hi there - Smith is my top school and I’ve been dreaming of going there since I was a sophomore. I am very anxious waiting for my decision and hoped this might ease my nerves.
I have a 4.1 GPA and scored a 1440 on my SATs. I have taken all honors/AP classes. Last year, I took AP U.S. History and scored a 5 on the exam. I am currently in AP Statistics and AP Literature. My lowest letter grade is probably a B from when I took Honors Algebra 2 (I’m more of a humanities person). I am the stage manager and publicist for my school’s drama club, and I also am the president of our chapter of the National Honor Society. I’m a team captain for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life as well.
I wrote my essay about how my love of literature helped me to cope with my anxiety disorder. My counselor wrote me an amazing recommendation letter too, which I am very greatful for. In addition, I was given the Smith College Book Award last spring. I interviewed with an alumna in my state too.
I have been working since my sophomore year- once at a kindergarten before the owners retired and it closed, and once at a toy store for summer employment. I also had an internship in my school’s performing arts center where I helped run shows for outside rental companies.
I think that’s about it- am I overthinking it? I worry because I’ve only taken 3 AP classes and I only have 2 main extracurriculars, theatre and NHS. Any input or words of encouragement would be appreciated!!
Personally, I have no college experience. But I think you have a good chance. I think you have had a very well rounded highschool career and should calm tf down bc I think you got this
I’d think that a student as bright and as talented as you are would have no problem getting in. And I say this with the authority of being the first and only poster on this forum.
With all due respect to the others who posted, having no problem getting in is not accurate. My daughter last year got 1450 SAT 8 ap’s including Ap Calculus as a Junior, and was a competitive dancer, English honor society vice president, math team 3 years, and was on a team that won the MIT science trivia challenge. 4.25 w GPA.
She got waitlisted.
What I think worked against her is she is from Massachusetts, and needed a large amount of financial aid.
Smith is not need blind, even with their large endowment.
We heard through the grapevine that needing financial aid plays a more important role than what they portray, so from our experiences, you left out the most important fact, do you need financial aid?
I agree with @Akqj10
It is a big factor with many schools. Having high need can work against you unfortunately. Best of luck to the OP. You have great stats and any college would be lucky to have you.
My D is from Massachusetts and needed financial aid and she was accepted ED with a STRIDE Scholarship. She did not submit her ACT or SAT scores by choice. She took 8 APs and scored 5’s on all her exams ( AP’s were- Lit, Language, AP US, AP Euro, AP Calc AB, AP Stats, AP Bio and AP Psych. She did all honors classes beyond that. She was in Band, Drama, Mock Trial (Capt JR & SR Year), involved in church, worked, tutored- no sports. Her GPA was around a 4.7. She was 4th in her class of 96 at a public high school.
When schools like Wesleyan, Mt. Holyoke and Smith state their application process is “holistic”- I think they really mean it. My D has a lot of friends at Smith and they are all very different. The main things Smithies seem to have in common is an interest they are passionate about.
After watching my D and her friends go through the excitement and heartbreak of the college acceptance process last year I can honestly tell you this- it will all work out and it will be okay.
Good luck and try to enjoy the next few months!
violetbee, I think how much financial aid you need is a factor. For the endowment Smith has, they should really be need blind by now. I believe Barnard is need blind with a much lower endowment.
@Akgj10
Portray where?
In the past, Smith stressed on their website that at least 95% of students are admitted without their financial aid need being a factor. However, ~1%–5% of the remaining admits may be reviewed with financial need as a consideration.
In other words, Smith was need-blind for 95-99% of those admitted.
I wasn’t aware until now that Smith’s website no longer makes any mention to what extent financial aid need affects admission decisions or even that Smith is in some form need-aware versus need-blind.
I’ve been a supporter and Smith advocate for decades. However, intentionally failing to be upfront regarding the role financial need plays in the admission process is disappointing. It would behoove Smith to emulate the integrity of Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr and include the nexus between financial aid need and admission decisions on the website.
https://www.brynmawr.edu/financial-aid/faqs-first-year-applicants
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/sfs/first_year/prospective_faq
To be fair, Smith isn’t the only college that is less than forthcoming. Although Haverford recently switched from need-blind to need-aware admissions, there’s no mention of that fact on their website.
Hamilton purports to have a need-blind admission policy when in reality the college is need-aware for the large cohort of January admits.
CrewDad, Portray to us during the information session for Smith. My daughter is happy where she goes to college, so I have not ax to grind, we could not be happier. But with her stats, we were a little surprised she got wait listed at Skidmore for example with 1450 SAT. So I go on this site to inform others of our experience so others may learn. I could almost guarantee that if we were were full pay, her waitlist at Skidmore would have been an acceptance ( the admissions guy pretty much told me so ). Maybe for Kenyon and Colby, and possibly Smith as well where she got waitlisted.
Hamilton, where she also got wail listed seemed pretty upfront to us. They list some acceptance rates for SAT ranges on their website, and in the information session they were pretty information as far as athletes, URM, geography diversity and first generation, we knew it would be tough. But I didn’t know the January admits were need aware. Learn something new every day.
I would prefer schools just be more honest about how much needing financial aid affects admission, for us Colby and Skidmore pretty much lied to us at the info session. When I learned Colby has more students from the top 1% than the bottom 60% per family income, I was pretty surprised, and I thought I did my homework. At Skidmore my daughters SAT were in the top 10% or so for attending students, at the info session they told us they only look at financial aid for students on the margins.
Lafayette, while looking for donations, said they have to decline 150 to 250 qualified applicants a year because they could not meet their financial needs, so this gives some good information on the reality.
My daughter receives a huge amount of financial aid (as in full tuition), so I wouldn’t discount acceptance based on needs.
When only about 30% of applicants are selected, and applicants tend to be self selective anyway due to the nature of the school, it’s not a shoe in for anyone- but I think Smith does a good job at looking at the much bigger picture of each applicant. You have the stats to be a possible yes, fingers crossed for you!