<p>SAT I: M750 R760 W650 Total2160 (composite); retaking it in Jan</p>
<p>SAT II: took USH + Math II in Dec</p>
<p>GPA: abysmal (well, 3.83 for Gr 11, and the average from Gr9-11 is ~3.5). The strange thing is, I get great marks for hard courses, while I scrapped by in those pesky electives. </p>
<p>AP: (self-studied) USH 5, Calculus AB 4, Macroeconomics 4, Microeconomics 4; taking AP Chem this year</p>
<p>EC: president/leader of a bunch of clubs; personally hosted (thru my debate club) a debate in the local elections; 320+ hr volunteer work</p>
<p>University Courses: taking a few university/college courses this year:</p>
<p>1st year Philosophy (university)
2nd year International Political Economy (community college)
2nd year Globalization/Economics (university)</p>
<p>Recommendations: all great, incl one from uni professor</p>
<p>It has been my observation over several years that a stellar high school transcript is the single most important quality Swarthmore looks for. It is going to be a challenge for an international applicant with a 3.5 GPA unless we are talking about a world-class high school.</p>
<p>I think there would have to be an outstanding package of passionate ECs, essays, and recommendations to have a decent shot. Swarthmore gets some killer essays and some applicants whose enthusiasm for their ECs is palpable.</p>
<p>yaa..swarthmore is tough as it is and with the GPA and even the writing score...i dont know. I would say it is a reach + for you. but heck what do any of us know?</p>
<p>julia 2013 is correct in asking what any of us actually know, but i will take a stab at this. the first thing i noticed was ed2. this usually means that there was a rejection somewhere. as such, i took a peek at your other posts and voila, there it was. your first choice school is oftentimes compared to swat and its admission statistics aren't as high as swat's, so you have some issues there. your low writing score is troubling in that it may translate into weak application essays. the excerpt of your essay posted on the other site was pretty ugly. you have to start from scratch on the why swat essay and not recycle the other (unless of course, you have a death wish.) unless swat considers you a urm as an asian, i wouldn't get my hopes up. since most guidebooks post the 25th to 75th range of sat scores of its incoming class (actually, one class behind), it is my belief that non urm's tend towards the upper range of that set and reside usually in the highest quartile scores. so good luck to you, but i don't think you're going to make it. you could always look into haverford. did you know that they have an honor code to keep their students in line?</p>
<p>I was kind of hoping that the original poster could read between the lines when I wrote:</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think there would have to be an outstanding package of passionate ECs, essays, and recommendations to have a decent shot. Swarthmore gets some killer essays and some applicants whose enthusiasm for their ECs is palpable.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I, too, had read the UChicago essay excerpt.</p>