Newbie here- any estimates of chances greatly appreciated!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
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<p>Hi all. I'm going to apply to Swat and am currently flailing between gloomy depression and tentative optimism about my acceptance. Any estimations would be greatly appreciated:</p>

<p>SAT- 800 Verbal, 670 Math = 1470
SAT II's- 800 Writing, 770 Literature, 760 US History
High School Average ~91. (My school doesn't convert to 4.0, nor does it have weights. The only practice is that honors and AP courses recieve +3 points to marking periods and exams)</p>

<p>My school doesn't rank, fortunately. I am still probably in the ~15-20th percentile in my class, however. Not good.</p>

<p>VERY heavy courseload, with 10 AP or honors courses over 4 years. Limited selection of honors and AP's. Basically, I took honors or AP in every language course (Latin II through V as honors, Italian I through III, with only III available as an honors), english course, or history course, while taking regular math and science courses. For my junior and senior years I took 7 major subjects instead of the usual 6, which meant that I had no free periods and toughened my courseload considerably.</p>

<p>2 extraordinary reccommendations (par for the course at Swarthmore, I'm sure)</p>

<p>1 very well-written essay, 1 yet-to-be written Why Swat essay- ideas appreciated...</p>

<p>EC's:
NHS
NMS Commended
Model UN participant, elected president
Forsensics Speech and Debate participant, award winner
School Newspaper
Rugby
Boy Scouts (Eagle Scout)
Italian and Celtic Clubs
Spent a week at Georgetown, on campus, over the summer for a Foreign Relations Program</p>

<p>Job:
Intern at JP Morgan for 5 months now, at $10 an hour</p>

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<p>So, do I have a shot? My Achilles heel is my average, I know. I have some ugly math and science grades which pull it down. I come from a relatively tough Jesuit school in Jersey City, but not extraordinarily difficult. I am demographically crap: white, suburban, upper-middle class male. Sorry, Affirmitive Action Gods.</p>

<p>PS- I saw a thread here a while back about classic rock at swat. If I got in, I'd love to have a classic rock hall. Tales of Brave Ulysses rules.</p>

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<p>I don't know. Your test scores are OK. But, I would be surprised to see SWAT bite on a class rank out of the top 10% unless it were a really hot-stuff prep school or unless there were an outstanding special interest hook.</p>

<p>I don't see a "home-run" EC. You could focus the app on debate. Lots of debaters at Swarthmore; so the field is crowded. Eagle Scout might be the best bet.</p>

<p>All in all, I'd say that it might be uphill climb, but I would stop short of saying "no chance" if you put together a killer app that grabs their attention.</p>

<p>PS: Williams would probably be impressed by interning at JP Morgan!</p>

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<p>Interesteddad said, "I don't know. Your test scores are OK. But, I would be surprised to see SWAT bite on a class rank out of the top 10% unless it were a really hot-stuff prep school or unless there were an outstanding special interest hook."</p>

<p>I know I am probably one of the few, but I was also outside the top 10% of my class (even though we don't technically rank) at fairly but not extremely competitive all girls parochial school in NJ. We did GPA on a 4.5 scale, and mine was a 3.98 weighted (the highest was a 4.5). I had approximately a 91.5. So, it can be done if you show that you are extremely into Swat :)</p>

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<p>What about a JP Morgan Internship would appeal to Williams more than any other college?</p>

<p>tkdgal- you're like a female version of me. All boy's parochial, 91, 1470. Odd.</p>

<p>Now I need to figure out how to show that I'm super interested in Swat. Would applying winter ED help, or do you think that they won't really care?</p>

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<p>I think they'd definitely care. If you understand and are ready to commit to the binding agreement of EDII, it definitely can only help your chances of admission.</p>

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<p>One of the things that makes "Chances?" questions so hard to answer is that evaluating class rank requires knowledge of a specific school. For example, my daughter went to a decent regular high school. Top four in her class are at Williams, Swat, Ga Tech, and Bowdoin. But, it drops off quickly from there. Basically, no prayer of Swarthmore at the 10% cutoff, although those kids still got into good schools like Gettysburg, Skidmore, etc.</p>

<p>However, if you are talking about an elite prep or large East Coast magnet school, the cut-offs are going to be very different. What I recommend is sitting down the GC at the particular high school and see where people with the same class rank have been accepted. It doesn't have to be Swat. I mean, if kids at the 10% cutoff are getting into Amherst, Brown, Duke, then I think you can establish a general range. (note: be careful to identify if an admission was athletic or URM, because those can throw off the scale!)</p>

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<p>It was kind of an inside joke I guess. From my experience at Williams, it has a long tradition of educating sons of Wall Street investment bankers and corporate lawyers for careers as Wall Street investment bankers and corporate lawyers. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of Swatties at JP Morgan, too....but, overall, I think career path is a key difference between Swarthmore and Williams. Swathmore produces a somewhat higher percentage of academics, teachers, public policy, social service careers. Quirkier students with quirkier careers. It's not a function of what you can do with a degree from either school, but rather what the grads choose to do.</p>

<p>I'm not talking about huge differences, but enough to make a difference in the flavor of the student body and alumni.</p>

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<p>Applying ED is an ultimate "demonstration of interest", so it helps, but you'll still have to convince them that you are a good fit for Swat.</p>

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<p>"One of the things that makes "Chances?" questions so hard to answer is that evaluating class rank requires knowledge of a specific school. For example, my daughter went to a decent regular high school. Top four in her class are at Williams, Swat, Ga Tech, and Bowdoin. But, it drops off quickly from there. Basically, no prayer of Swarthmore at the 10% cutoff, although those kids still got into good schools like Gettysburg, Skidmore, etc"</p>

<p>That's the thing- my school doesn't rank. So how could they know what the 10% is?</p>

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<p>A lot of times, when a school doesn't rank, the counselor will still put the percentile on their reports. You could always ask them not to and see what happens.</p>

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<p>Often schools that don't rank directly still send in a "school profile" that shows approximate rank ("Out of 300 students, 30 students have GPA 3.95-4.0; 30 have GPA 3.85-3.95", etc.), since colleges need to see the students in the context of their HS.</p>

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<p>Ahhh... I see. I have to check that out. Oh and by the way, what's the procedure for Early Decision Winter? Are all the non-accepted applicants rejected? Or is everyone deferred? Or both?</p>

<p>Also, can I push 700 words for my Why Swat essay?</p>

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<p>Never mind- checked the website, it's deferrals and rejections.</p>