Please Chance me for these schools!

Student Lounge African-American Students
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<p>Hey! I'm finishing my junior year this week with a HUGE downward trend :(. Its so unfair because I think that I am smart, but my grades never reflect it. My Weighted GPA is a 4.8 (9 APs, 14 by senior year) and unweighted is a 3.7. Basically, I'm counting on affirmative action at this point..:(</p>

<p>Location: Rural North Carolina
Gender: Female
Race: Black
Income: 100,000? (not really sure actually) but 3/5 family members are currently in school so that strains us a bit
SAT: 1930 (RETAKING October )
GPA: 3.6-3.7 UW 4.8 W
Other Facts: Diagnosed with general anxiety and misophonia (rare disease where I hate certain sounds lol)</p>

<p>Other stuffs:
-Parents are both UNC Chapel Hill Alumni; Mom is also Duke alumni
-for the downward trend I'm going to list the anxiety and misophonia. I ended up skipping chemistry a lot or showing up late because my anxiety makes me unable to breath properly (its a form of hyperventilation). Also, during tests and quizzes, people would chew gum in my ear, tap their pencils, etc. and I often had to circle random answers or just leave due to my misophonia. My SAT will probably be 2100 ish because I didn't study for the 1930 and I like the SAT because everyone is QUIET! Oh and the only cure for misophonia is "noise eliminating headphones" which don't work when you're trying to listen to the teacher.
-I've taken an extra class every semester starting sophomore year.</p>

<p>EC's
Here are just some, I realize I won't have space on the common app for everything so these are my best:
-Summer Ventures in Math and Science 5 week, state funded (free), program for juniors and seniors (like governor's school but for math and science only, and we complete a research project unlike gov school)
-Stem Cell Research Program (only 5 in the country) acceptance and completion
-Student Body President (previously served as Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior class president)
-I serve as the first and only student member on the school board
-SADD Club President
-National Honor Society Vice President
-Spanish Club Vice President
-Quiz Bowl Captain
-6x Varsity Letter
-AP Scholar, with honor, with distinction, hopefully national
-Freshman orientation super guide (only 2 in the school, chosen by GCs)
-lots of other small awards and nominations</p>

<p>APPLYING:
UNC Chapel Hill (early action)
Johns Hopkins University (dream school, RD)
UNC Wilmington
Duke (dream school, RD)
UNC Greensboro
Georgetown
American University
George Mason
SUGGESTIONS? </p>

<p>THANK YOU</p>

2

<p>@AlexHarper‌ - Hi Alex. Let’s start with your statement about counting on affirmative action. I assume by your emoticon that you were just being cute, but let me say that you are a very good student. Some people will take statements like yours the wrong way, so just be ready for that.</p>

<p>Next, while it is nice to hypothesize a 2100, we don’t really know at this point, do we. But I am sure you will raise your score if you did no prep the first time and this time you will. So we will go ahead and assume that 2050-2150 is where you end up. Obviously, the higher you get in that range the better your chances at any of these schools (duh!).</p>

<p>I think one question schools might have is that with this disorder (misophonia, have to admit I had to look it up. Interesting, but so sorry you have it) how did you manage to do something like Quiz Bowl. So you might want to use some personal statement to address that. Just trying to think like an admissions person.</p>

<p>You also don’t want to be quite so self-deprecating when it comes to your grades. An unweighted GPA of 3.7 is still quite good, and 14 AP’s is amazing. And since you have a good talking point about why you had some difficulties this year, that will help a lot. Just be sure they understand that you have the anxiety disorder and the misophonia under control, assuming you do.</p>

<p>Having said all that, I doubt anyone needs to tell you that Duke and JHU especially are tough for anyone. No question these are reaches for you, even with your mother’s connection to the school. I think your chances at UNC-CH are very good, since you are in state. I think you have a good shot at Georgetown as well. The rest you should get in with 90% probability, I would think. Again, that is assuming you get that SAT into that 2100 range.</p>

<p>Chancing is not worth a lot, of course. I think the more important part is just to present everything as positively as possible, be clear and concise regarding your particular challenges, and while no one wants to have someone be overly immodest, don’t go too far the other way and make it sound like you are some terrible student with no chance anywhere. You have a great resume that should take you far. Best of luck.</p>

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<p>Wow you are SUPER helpful, thank you so, so much!!! Very reassuring</p>

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<p>If you crack 2000 on the SAT, I’d say JHU and Duke are in reach.</p>

<p>JHU standards are not as high as the Ivy League. A 2000 SAT and 3.7 GPA in the top 10%-15% of the class can get you in without affirmative action. When we took a tour at JHU, someone asked the tour guide what she got on the SAT. She had an 1900 (she may have been rounding some since it wasn’t our business to know.)</p>

<p>Don’t let the downward trend continue.</p>

<p>Apply early action/decision to your dream school-It doubles the chance of getting accepted.</p>

<p>Don’t rely on a hardship to get you over the hump. Highlight what you bring to the school, your successes and leadership. Don’t mention your limitations except to talk about how it helped you to overcome limitations, empathize with others and keep you humble. IMHO.</p>

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<p>I’ll also make one comment which is an off shoot of the original question.</p>

<p>Do not rely on affirmative action for anything. It’s days are numbered and we need to prepare to live in a world without.</p>

<p>There are many forces causing this. I think the biggest one is the loss of our number 1 status as the majority minority. Blacks are 12% of the population. Hispanics hit 13% a few years ago. There are roughly 30-32 million Blacks in the country. If Obama gets an immigration bill passed, that could legalize 10-20 million Hispanics on top of their current numbers. Hispanic immigrants will flood into black neighborhoods and elect representatives that put their needs first and who look like them and speak their language. Black representation in the Democratic Party will fall along with influence and power. </p>

<p>This is already happening. Even the gangs see their rivals moving in from Mexico and taking over territory from the Black gangs. Their unity in struggle but once the struggle is overcome, it will be a fight for political relevance and dominance that Blacks will lose (actually already lost but the realization is slow to come).</p>

<p>Just my thoughts…get your kids ready for a world to compete solely on merits.</p>

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<p>@AlexHarper - just to examine one of Madaboutx statements

followed by a specific statement about JHU, I think that is a bit misleading. A 2000 certainly doesn’t mean you won’t get in, but the odds are certainly low. If you look at the latest JHU Common Data Set <a href=“Registrar - Homewood Schools (KSAS & WSE) | Office of the Registrar | Johns Hopkins University”>Registrar - Homewood Schools (KSAS & WSE) | Office of the Registrar | Johns Hopkins University, in section C9 you will see their latest data for the last incoming class. Now while the following method isn’t perfectly accurate, by taking the middle of their 25-75% scores and adding them up you get a reasonable estimation of the average SAT. For JHU that is 2140. Now because students scatter within those ranges, that usually turns out to be about 20 points too high, so call it 2120. Similarly lets add up the 25% for all 3. It turns out to be exactly 2000, but for similar statistical reasons that is usually about 40 points too low. So about 25% of students get less than 2040, so probably about 15% get less than 2000. Modestly encouraging for you, but still a low rate. So Madaboutx wasn’t wrong, I just wanted to give some more specific feel to all that. In fact, if you look a few lines farther down you can see that for the ACT composite range of 30-36, only 13.5% are below a 30. A 30 ACT is equal to a 2040-2090 SAT. So my guess was pretty spot on. Duke is usually thought of as being tougher than JHU, but their CDS shows pretty similar numbers.</p>

<p>Just to keep things real.</p>

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<p>I don’t even know where those percentages came from, I don’t have any inside information to give me that but I think the bottom line is 1. don’t be afraid to apply as you are. 2. Early decision/action improves your odds. 3. Don’t bank on AA to carry you through. 4. Don’t continue in a downward trajectory.</p>

<p>And whatever your exact odds of admission are, they are what they are.</p>

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<p>@Madaboutx‌ - They come right off the common data set for each school. I gave the link to the one for JHU right there in the post. Section C9. It’s not inside info.</p>

<p>Anyway, I am essentially agreeing with what you say, I just “posted the odds”, so to speak, at least with respect to the stats. Obviously it is about more than stats. I probably just interpret “within reach” a bit differently than you. To me it represents that there are decent odds, maybe better than 50-50, which in this case means better than half the typical applicant pool. I would have trouble saying that is the case for Alex. Certainly just a minor quibble, but I do think students are better off being aware of what is what.</p>

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<p>Thank you both so much for taking the time to answer my question. I will not apply ED to JHU because they are binding and I am not yet sure if I can afford it. Other than that, I will take into account all of the advice you both have given me.
Thank you very much!!</p>

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<p>@AlexHarper - regarding applying ED even if unsure about finances. You can do one of two things that might help. You could either send all the financial paperwork to JHU early, like in September or early October, and specifically ask them to give you an estimate of what your package would look like if you were accepted. They should be able to get you an answer quickly enough to allow you to get in your ED app. Or you could go ahead and apply ED and send in the financial paperwork early, telling them you need an answer before the ED notification deadline. Then if the package doesn’t look like enough to make JHU work for you, you could withdraw your ED application. There is nothing unethical about that at all. Most schools will accommodate requests for early financial evaluation under these circumstances.</p>

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<p>And ED is not binding if you don’t have the money. Even if accepted in ED, you can say you can’t afford it and they will either help you to afford it better or release you. It’s not a big deal but you have to be smart about it. You need to be more aware of your financial situation.</p>

<p>The only thing truly binding is cash money. You’re not truly bound until it leaves your wallet and goes into theirs. And few people will argue with you over something you don’t have to give.</p>

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<p>100% what Madaboutx said. I will only add that there is no record of any school taking anyone to court over breaking an ED for any reason, and certainly the school doesn’t even get mad if it is because of money. So you are really covered three ways in terms of how you might approach this. If you are definitely sold on JHU as your top choice, go for the ED. It does help your chances, apparently.</p>