OOS W&M Chance?

Colleges and Universities A-Z College of William and Mary
1

<p>Alright, so I am a Mexican male that goes to a competitive, private high school in Houston, TX with about 200 people in my graduating class. My step-dad (who lives in Virginia with my mom) told me about W&M and when I checked out their website, I fell in love. I will be applying ED.</p>

<p>School does not rank.
Weighted GPA: 3.86
Unweighted GPA: Unsure (It's probably around a 3.5 - 3.6)</p>

<p>My school only lets you take 3 AP/Honors classes per year (starting sophomore year) and I have taken/am taking:
Honors Algebra II
AP Biology II - AP Test: 4
AP Spanish Language - AP Test: 5
AP Calculus AB - AP Test: Due in 2012
AP Statistics - AP Test: Due in 2012</p>

<p>EDIT: Senior Year Schedule
Choir
World History
Physics
AP Statistics
English IV
AP Calculus AB
World Religions
Art History</p>

<p>Test Scores:
PSAT: 186 (got me National Hispanic Recognition)
ACT composite (with writing/first time (Feb 2011) without studying): 28
ACT composite (with writing/second time (Sep 2011)): Coming Soon
SAT on a 2400 scale (first time (Jan 2011) without studying): 1690
SAT on a 1600 scale (first time (Jan 2011) without studying): 1150</p>

<p>I am retaking the SAT on October 1st because I REALLY need to get the score up. </p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
NHS
Hispanic Student Union
Ecology Club (Secretary)
Basketball Manager
Cultural Enrichment/Foreign Language Club (We had a Chinese lesson once - really cool)
Choir
Miscellaneous Volunteer Service</p>

<p>My recommendations are coming from my AP Biology II teacher, my English III teacher, and my counselor. </p>

<p>My essay should be interesting, haha, and hopefully entertaining. My counselor will be helping with those and my step-dad (a college professor at VCU) will also be revising them to give some advice.</p>

<p>I'm really nervous but I'm optimistic that I have a good chance. Suggestions that would help my chances?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

2

<p>Are you applying as in-state? With one of your parents living in VA that may be a possibility for you. If you are eligible to apply as in-state do so as it will increase your chances for admission.</p>

<p>Hard to assess your GPA without a class rank or more info on your school’s grading scale. If you have mostly As than it’s a good GPA. Your classes look strong although a bit lopsided towards science and math. You’ve got the big 3 (calc, physics and the fourth level of a foreign language) so that’s good but is your only humanities AP, AP Spanish?</p>

<p>We would recommend taking the SAT again as it can only help you. Right now your ACT is much stronger than your SAT so you may want to send your ACT for now and then see if your SAT improves.</p>

<p>Applying ED will benefit you as it’s easier to stand out in the smaller pool and again, see if you’re eligible for in-state as that will also increase your chances.</p>

3

<p>Yes, when my brother was applying for colleges we found out he could apply in state to Virginia schools, so I will be applying in-state ED. </p>

<p>Also, looking back on my high school career, I know I was eligible to go into AP World History or AP Government, but I was afraid that the precursor classes that qualified me to get into those classes were giving me the wrong impression as to if I was good at social studies or not. Basically, in my social studies department, the regular teachers are easy but then the AP teachers were polar opposites in regard to their difficulty. </p>

<p>I don’t know if there’s anything I could do now to fix that lopsidedness?</p>