I’m currently a sophomore studying in a well-known international school in Shanghai. Vassar has been my first choice for a very long time and I’m thinking about ED1 in the future. Haven’t toured Vassar yet but fell in love with it from their website, introductions and comments from current students, and their instagram. Planning on touring either in winter 2018 or in summer 2019. Since it’s almost end of year and I need to seriously decide what to do next year, I would really appreciate your help and advises here.
Stats:
- Race and gender: Asian-Chinese (US citizen in NJ), female (I know.)
- current GPA: uw 3.75 (our school grades VERY harsh and colleges seem to notice that…the average gpa of the admitted students from our school to Vassar is 3.69 including boys & girls)
- current ACT: 30 total-math 34 english 30 science 30 reading 26. Predicted progress is getting 32 next year spring
- courses: already took AP Human Geo exam and I’m planning on taking AP cal bc, econ(micro+macro), comp sci A, physics 1 next year. Planing on also taking rigorous online courses and IB English Lan Lit SL as an IB course/certificate.
Extracurriculars & services:
- school’s TV program (secretary + floating exec)
- high school fashion club (getting exec next year)
- piano lessons since when I was 4. Plays in school’s jazz band. Tutored a kid (yes, that’s an internship)
- JV softball (won third place in a tri-cities game competing with varsity teams. won this year’s jv tournament.)
- teaching local underprivileged kids every week.
- giving English lessons to Chinese workers in the community
- planning on : joining LGBTQ rights club next year, applying for an internship for an NGO that designs curriculums for teachers in the rural areas, starting my own blog
Biggest concerns
- I’m better at maths and sciences but my interests are in sociology/education… I found reading and writing my weaknesses but I’m pretty sure I won’t be interested in sciences. What should I do?
- I have a B- in English this semester b/c my English teacher is very strict (never gave out grades above 90 and the best people in my class are getting 85-87). Considering that I’m thinking of social sciences/humanities, by what degree will it affect me in the future college application?
- I am involved in extracurriculars and services. However as you can see from the above list they are EXTREMELY diverse and none of them are directly related to sociology…and also I have no awards at all, not even something like best xx student/xx of the year b/c my school doesn’t seem to be very into it…
I really need advises in 1) what should I do and learn in order to be suitable and competitive for sociology/eduction majors (especially if I’m applying to Vassar) and 2) overall advises in course selections, extracurriculars, and grades/standard tests. It would really mean a lot to me if you could just provide me with any amount of information. Million thanks to those who have finished reading my looooong post!