<p>Hey, so Barnard is my first choice, and I would have applied ED were financial aid not a huge concern (I live in a town where everyone who graduates from one of the public high schools gets full tuition paid at an in-state public university of their choice and I was just admitted to the University of Michigan). </p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (CR/M/W): 800, 760, 700 (2260)
[</em>] ACT: 32, but I only took it once
[<em>] SAT IIs: 800 U.S. History, 730 Literature
[</em>] Unweighted GPA: 4.32 - my school doesn’t tell us the unweighted. Probably 3.9.
[<em>] Rank: 3/225
[</em>] AP: 9th: Lit (5), Lang (5) 10th: U.S. History (5) 11th: European History (5), Computer Science (3), Physics B (2 - our teacher told us at the start of the year that he didn’t teach to the AP curriculum and that we’d all probably fail)
[li] Senior Year Course Load:[/li]AP U.S. Government
AP Calculus AB
AP Statistics
Basic Arabic I/Basic Arabic II - Western Michigan University
HIST 3015 History and Cinema/ENGL 3700 Writing Creative Non-fiction - WMU
Geology/Astronomy</p>
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[li] Extracurriculars:[/li]- Gay Straight Alliance (9-12, executive board 11-12)
- National Honors Society (11-12, elected Communications Officer/Secretary)
- 170 hours as volunteer field staffer for successful local campaign to pass queer-rights ordinance (10, I ran canvass training sessions and was a “poll captain” on election day)
- Organized local Walk for Choice (11)
- 4-year research paper grader for a professor at WMU
- 8-year judge for local writing contest
- 2 poems published by the Lee Honors College literary magazine (part of WMU)
- Math League (11, 12)
- Computer Science team (10, 11)
- Internship for local progressive nonprofit (summer after 10 - summer after 12)
- People to People Student Ambassador (10)</p>
<p>[<em>] Job/Work Experience: Above mentioned internship + 2 years as a janitor for a landscape architect
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: Above mentioned campaign + various activities with the NHS
[<em>] Summer Activities: Mostly spent working. I went to Europe for two weeks with People to People after 9th grade. I also went to a weekend for women interested in political activism at Eastern Michigan University that landed me the internship.
[</em>] Barnard Essays + Common App: Pretty good (I hope!). I wrote about Matilda (of the Roald Dahl variety) for the women in fiction/history and talked about why Andrea Gibson wants me to become a social justice poet for another one. My Common App essay was about how my experience visiting a concentration camp changed the way I see the idea of heroes and villains
[<em>] Teacher Recommendations: Excellent
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Pretty good - she knows me well but is a little scatterbrained.
[<em>] Interview: Went excellently. She said I reminded her of her roommates at Barnard and encouraged me to join the marching band (I’ve played electric bass for ~6 years). She also told me about their collection of queer feminist 'zines that had me about drooling.
[/ul]Other[ul]
[</em>] State: Michigan
[<em>] School Type: I spend half of my day at a pretty average urban public school (1400 students) and the other half at a competitive magnet school for math and science (~65 kids in my class). I’ve also been dual-enrolled at Western Michigan University since spring 2010.
[</em>] Income Bracket: Was ~$80k, but my Dad lost his job two years ago and hasn’t gotten a new one and my mother just lost her job and was forced to take one at much lower income, so I’d guess about ~$50-60k
[li] Diversity Status (URM/legacy/first generation college, etc.): I’m queer, but I don’t suppose that counts.</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Reflections[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: Test scores, essay, rigorous curriculum (for a hopeful English/History double major), unusual ECs (I hope)
[</em>] Weaknesses: 9th/10th grade I got B+s in my hard science classes and last year I got a B+ in AP Computer Science, my ECs are a little all over the place - I want to study all of the things
[li] Where else you applied: Princeton EA (deferred), U Michigan EA (accepted), NYU Global Liberal Studies RD, Smith RD, Wellesley RD, Columbia RD (for the financial aid, if I got accepted to both schools and money weren’t a factor, I’d go to Barnard in a heartbeat)</p>[/li]
<p>[*] General Comments: I think I have a pretty good chance, but it’s my favorite school and I really don’t want to end up at Michigan with everyone else at my magnet school (they’re nice people, but there’s a reason everywhere else I applied is halfway across the country). Thoughts? [/ul]</p>