My chances of getting into barnard?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Barnard College
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Hi everyone! I’m currently a junior at an IB high school in Florida. I plan to apply to Barnard ED in the fall, it’s been my dream school for 2 years so fingers crossed. I already drafted the supplemental essays (won’t be sharing either of those on here lol!) and just need to edit them once it starts getting closer.

Here are my stats, roughly:
SAT: 1350 - 760 RW, 590 Math. *taking it a 2nd time in June to up my math score, and also doing the essay so I will update this again once those scores come out!
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0 so far): 3.2 (it’s very low, I know, but keep in mind I’m in IB, and I’ve had careless teachers that I plan on talking about somewhere in the application)
Weighted GPA (so far): 5.0 expected to be higher
AP: European History (4), Human Geography (4), US History (4)
IB scores: n/a, take exams next May
Senior Year Course Load: IB SL Biology, TOK, Math Studies, HL Art, HL History, HL English, SL Spanish
Major Awards: n/a

Extracurriculars:

  • President of my school’s chapter of Students Demand Action (10, 11, 12)
  • Digital Media Coordinator for my city’s chapter of March For Our Lives (11, 12)
  • Wrote a full-length novel, planning to self-publish it this summer (9-12)
  • Acting and improv classes at my city’s conservatory (10, 11)
  • International Thespians Society (11, 12)
  • National Honor Society (11, 12)
  • Key Club (10, 11, 12)

Job/Work Experience: n/a
Volunteer/Community service:

  • volunteered at a local theatre for all of 11th grade (80 hours), hopefully will do it again in senior year
  • have been volunteering at a low-income elementary school in my city every summer since 8th grade, where we help kids with their reading and math skills and keep them out of trouble
  • loads of other volunteer activities, not as prominent as the 2 above, but I love volunteering and have been doing so since middle school and really love helping people

Summer Activities:

  • attended the ACLU Summer Institute in 2018
  • attending Running Start’s Young Women’s Political Leadership Program this summer

My intended major is English (surprise surprise), and I want to minor in Political Science. I’m white, straight, and cisgender, so nothing new. I go to a public IB high school in Florida, and there are about 80 kids in my graduating class including me.

I’m most passionate about politics, literature, volunteer work, and acting/film. My greatest strength is English and writing, it always has been and always will be. I think the fact that I wrote a novel and am planning on self-publishing it speaks great volumes to this (I didn’t write it for the sole purpose of looking good on college apps - I’ve always been a writer and avid reader and wanted to write one!)

Thanks in advance if anyone decides to read this and respond!! My stats aren’t the best but I think my extracurriculars and essays will show that I’m a hard-worker and a good student beyond school smarts.

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I can’t figure out how to edit this post so I thought it’d be worth noting that I’m also planning on taking the SAT Subject Test for Literature in August, and plan on upping my math score to in the low 600s with more practice.

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bump

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  1. Here is the class profile – you can see where you stand. https://admissions.barnard.edu/sites/default/files/class_of_2022_profile_-_final.pdf

  2. I don’t think it will serve you well to complain about “careless teachers” in your application.

  3. Unsolicited advice: I’d recommend that you give up the idea of a dream school and work to create a solid college list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (find out your parents’ budget and run the net price calculator for each school) and that you would be excited to attend. The people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one or two schools and then don’t get in.

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Looking at this year’s admissions, the only realistic answer for anyone applying is: about 10% – which should tell you to approach Barnard only as a “best-case scenario”, while making a genuine effort to find a few other schools you could love, realizing that it’s more likely than not, one of THOSE will be your future home.

Year after year individuals with superior test scores and (unweighted) GPAs have been denied. You should also assume that any applicants with lower scores that do apply all feel they have other convincing arguments making them an ideal fit for Barnard, maybe because of their deep engagement in causes or because of an exceptional talent.

So the good news is that Barnard appears to look beyond the numerical scores and does try to identify outstanding young women by other criteria. But with the acceptance rate being what it is and the overall caliber of all applicants being comparable to your own, you and everyone should proceed with the attitude that there’s a 90% chance you’ll be attending college elsewhere.

PS: I understand you’ve taken IB, AP and Honors courses, but I’m still surprised by your HS’ weighting scheme propelling a 3.2 to a >5.0. I’m only mentioning it, so that it doesn’t raise false expectations. For comparison, in four years of high school my daughter’s “worst” grade was the occasional A-. In every subject she took the AP class where available, otherwise Honor’s level. All AP tests were 5s. Yet, no one in her school went beyond a 4.2 weighted.

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@DigitalDad IB is weighted the heaviest out of all the honors courses, and a lot of colleges will also superscore your GPA if you were in IB, so if I received a B in a course, some might give me an A instead because they know the IB courses are harder.

Also @Happy1, thank you both for the advice! I’m stuck on this idea of a ‘dream school’ because I have a very high chance of getting into a public state school, which I love and would be more than happy to attend (and could also afford) if I don’t end up getting into my ‘dream schools.’ But thank you both again for the advice, I’m trying to not get my hopes up too much!

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Did you get in?

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@isabelagaleano i’m only a junior, so i apply this year!

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Oh well good luck, and work hard!!!