<p>The approaching admissions date is making my hopes soar higher and higher, but I’d really like some honest opinions on my candidacy. Feel free to be brutally honest; my brain is rather ambivalent as to whether or not my hook is unique/strong enough to give me that extra boost.</p>
<p>My unweighted GPA is a 3.67. It would be well over a 4 if weighted; I’ve taken 8 AP classes, and all others (with the exception of 2) have been either gifted or honors. I have a 1980 SAT.</p>
<p>About the hook…I’m like supergirl with languages. I want to double concentrate in Linguistics and Russian and minor in French. I’m currently studying French, German, Spanish, and Russian. I became fluent in French after 2 years from teaching myself. I’ve been awarded 2 scholarship trips to France (one by the Georgia dept of education and one by the French gov’t) because of my proficiency. One was to study environmental issues and the other to attend a French high school. I’ve made almost straight 100’s in my language classes (I got a 110 in AP French last semester…), and I’ve hosted French students 5 times now. I’ve done multiple presentations about the importance of studying languages and have been featured in several French newspapers and journals throughout France. I was a guide and translator for Haitian refugee at my school, and I take Spanish classes outside of school. I could go on and on with my list, but I’ll stop there. I clearly showed these things on my application. </p>
<p>I absolutely love what I want to study, and I’ve worked SO hard in this field, but do you think it will be enough to overcome my mediocre GPA & SAT?
Thanks! (and good luck to everyone :D)</p>
<p>A hook is being an athlete, an underrepresented minority, children of a celebrity or a development case(willing to donate a building). Nothing else is a hook.
What you’ve described is just you your academics and your ec’s. Good luck on Mar 29.</p>
<p>"you do have a strong passion for your potential major, which most certainly helps in the admission process. "</p>
<p>Not necessarily. Many people apply and get accepted into top schools decidedly undecided. They are just hungry learners that schools are looking for. They don’t need legions of pre-poli sci or pre-psychology or pre-bio majors. They actually want people to come to their buffet line and try several dishes.</p>
<p>Just clarifying because I am a little confused, a legacy is someone who is directly related to you and went to the school, right? And did that person have to go to undergrad, or does grad count as well? Thank you!</p>
<p>You are a legacy if someone closely related to you went to the school. For most admissions, this includes a parent/legal guardian or sibling. Other relationships (cousins, grandparents, aunts/uncles) don’t count for as much. I know Brown only asked if a parent or sibling attended.</p>
<p>Typically, I think they’d count undergrad or grad. Maybe less so for business/law/medical school.</p>
<p>^ Many schools only count parents. Grandparents are important at some and siblings are even less recognized. Schools differ as to whether graduate legacy status is counted. You can ask a school if you would be considered a legacy but it’s not like you can do anything about it so why bother? At very selective schools like Brown your legacy status will not get you in if there is a weakness in your application (ie. a <2000 SAT). There are too many qualified students on the edge who are turned down that all you can hope for is for that status to tip you into the admit pile. Perhaps ironically, the first generation college, financially disadvantaged students who could not be further away from the privileged Ivy legacy applicants are more advantaged in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Thank you very much! I understand that a legacy will not get me in; I was just making sure what a legacy was because some student in my school was talking to me about legacies but I didn’t think he was right.</p>
