Please Chance Me? Amherst, BU, and others :)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi! I wanted to know if you guys could chance me for:</p>

<p>Amherst College (ED - maybe)
University of Chicago (EA)
Boston University (EA)
Vanderbilt University (EA)
New York University (RD)
McGill University (RD)</p>

<p>And if anyone (current or former students) have any information about the financial aid at any of these schools, that would be welcome as well. Thank you!</p>

<p>Also, I attend an extremely competitive high school with a difficult course load that is ranked highly everywhere, but had no test preparation at all for reason I'd rather not go into:</p>

<p>AP Exams:
U.S. Government - 3 (sophomore)
World History - 4 (junior)
Spanish Language - 5 (junior)
English Language & Composition - 5 (junior)
Biology - 5 (junior)</p>

<p>SAT Scores:
January - M 680, R 660, W 720 (total: 2060)
June - M 630, R 690, W 740 (total: 2060)
Superscore: 2110</p>

<p>ACT Scores:
Composite: 31
English: 31
Math: 29
Reading: 29
Science: 35
Writing: 10</p>

<p>GPA: 3.4 (Unweighted), 4.04 (Weighted). Let me explain this - I did very badly freshman year, and okay sophomore year, but my junior year GPA is about a 3.8. So I did slack off at first, but I improved significantly throughout high school, and am continuing to do so.</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule:
AP Spanish Literature
AP Literature & Composition
AP AB Calculus
AP European History
Honors Anatomy & Physiology
Senior Seminar - required for the program I'm in at schol
Honors Marching/Symphonic Band</p>

<p>I am an active participant in my school's Humanities & Arts program, which requires participants to take extra credits in the humanities/arts depending on their focus (I am a humanities focus and so am taking six total years of Spanish, including 2 APs, and four years of history, including 2 APs, along with four years of music, all honors), and also requires senior participants to write a Senior Independent Project, which is an extended research paper of eighteen to twenty pages.</p>

<p>I know my scores and grades are not exactly fantastic, but I have other things working for me:</p>

<p>Extracurricular activities:
Private piano lessons 10 years
Marching band 3 years
Spanish Honor Society 2 years
Softball 3 years (JV captain 2 years)
Class Planning 3 years, Freshman Class President
Over 200 community service hours - 50 hours working at the Residency & International Admissions Office this summer (where people go to register their children in my county's school system), 46 hours working to teach children how to use computers before high school, and a bunch of other stuff here and there. </p>

<p>I am an African-American female from Tunisia (immigrated to the US as an infant, and visit Tunisia every year), and I am writing my essay on the Tunisian political revolution and how it affected me and my country. I speak fluent Arabic and French as well as English (I am basically quadrilingual, my Spanish is almost fluent).</p>

<p>I am planning on majoring in Biology or something related, and going on to vet school after undergraduate school. </p>

<p>Thanks everyone :)</p>

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<p>Oh, and my teacher recommendations should be excellent. Sorry for writing a novel…</p>

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<p>bump…? D:</p>

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<p>You really shouldn’t have too much trouble getting in to any of these schools. I do suggest only submitting your ACT though. :)</p>

<p>Good luck! You’ll definitely get in to at least one of them. (:</p>

<p>EDIT: Actually UChicago is hard to get in to, so maybe not that one, but the rest of them are fair game. :)</p>

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<p>Thank you so much!</p>

<p>Should I not submit APs? </p>

<p>And also, I’m taking SAT IIs in October (Lit, Math 2, Bio E) for anyone who cares haha.</p>

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<p>The 3 is a bit low, but I don’t think it’d be totally bad if you do.</p>

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<p>Took that with a 102 degree fever…hah. Would it look bad if I omitted that one and put all the rest?</p>

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<p>amherst has a 15% acceptance rate, lesley. how is that not “hard to get into?”</p>

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<p>I thought it was 19%. But yeah…</p>

<p>Jake, what do you think? (About Amherst and the rest)</p>

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<p>Amherst, given your scores and GPA, is a significant reach. ED would help, I’d imagine, but it’s still one of the most selective colleges in the nation. So that’s really a crapshoot. UChicago is difficult to evaluate without knowing you personally. It seems like they, more than a lot of other schools, really want to find out about you, the applicant, as a person. Their essays are infamous. In terms of pure numbers, I’d say that’s also a reach, and I don’t know how much EA will help. BU should be fine. You’re on the lower end of Vanderbilt’s stats for SAT/ACT, but you’re still in the middle 50%, so I would say it’s perhaps a “low reach/high match.” But I don’t know too much about Vandy, to be honest. NYU should also be fine. McGill seems to be pretty numbers-based simply because it’s so huge, so you can check your stats against this: <a href=“http://www”>www</a>. mcgill. ca/applying/standards/unitedstates/ (remove the spaces)</p>

<p>Hope that helps.</p>

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<p>I doubt you have much of a chance at either Amherst or Chicago.</p>

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<p>I agree–Amherst and Chicago are a crapshoot for anyone, and your grades and scores aren’t so good. But maybe your ECs will help. I mean, you have a right to apply to any school you like, so if you’re interested in them, try it! I think you need some more safety/matches, though. What about your state university, for instance?</p>

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<p>Thank you, everyone! And Endicott, I’m applying to both University of Maryland CP and UMBC as my safeties, but didn’t put them on there because I’m not really interested in knowing if I can get in.</p>

<p>The thing is, I’ve kind of changed my mind over the past week and I really, REALLY want to go to Vanderbilt, but I don’t know what kind of financial aid they will offer me. Will I have a better chance of getting in because I’m African-American? And does anyone know how their financial aid is?</p>