Only four more days! I was curious as to see whether the predictions I get are accurate based on my admission decision. So just predict whether I’ll be accepted, waitlisted, or rejected, and I’ll answer back on Thursday with a real result!
ACT (breakdown, superscore) : 34C (36E 33M 31R 34S) 30W (32 single)
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.79
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): none
AP (place score in parenthesis): 4 on Lang and APES (self studied; school doesn’t offer APs)
Senior Year Course Load: full rigor all years
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): none
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): freerunning (highest ranked athlete), chair on International Olympic Committee for Freerunning, piano, student gov all four years (student body president freshman year and senior class president this year), jazz band (pianist and vibraphonist), photography club (president), improv team (team captain), astronomy club (vice president)
Job/Work Experience: coach for freerunning (paid, over a year), internship with city newspaper, internship with environmental science company
Volunteer/Community service: Heal the Bay, Tree People, volunteer to teach freerunning to the disadvantaged (free lessons)
Summer Activities: community service, work, internships
Essays: original; CA essay about freerunning and how it has satiated my curiosity. Tufts supplements were definitely the best supplements I wrote for any school. My ‘What makes you happy?’ supplement received very good feedback.
Teacher Recommendation: Honors Environmental Science teacher: 9/10. Honors World History teacher/ Cross Country coach: 10/10.
Counselor Rec: 9/10 – she spoke about freerunning in my rec
Additional Rec: none
Interview: none
Supplementary Material (portfolio, etc.): freerunning video
Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: public charter
Ethnicity: white
Gender: male
Income Bracket: 250,000+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none
Hey! ED accepted student here:) Your grades and scores are within (if not above) Tufts range, and I would definitely say you have a unique set of extracurriculars that will impress them. Then again these days, college admissions are truly a crapshoot so who am I to really give you a definite answer. Best of luck to you!
I probably should have considered the limitations of this media and been more sensitive to the fact that this is a high stress time for applicants…
In any event, it appears that you took my message almost the opposite way that I intended, but that is more my fault than yours.
I am quite familiar with freerunning and the level of athleticism required to excel at it. I am also very familiar with the Tufts campus and have always thought that the library (which is built into a hill, with many flat surfaces of different elevation) could be a great (but probably dangerous) place for free-running. I thought you might have noticed that on your tour, and might respond along those lines…
@Mastadon oh, ok! My bad. It’s just that I’ve gotten messages like that before about it not being a “real EC” or one that adcoms will not care about. But the roof of the library does have a few spots haha.
As an accepted ED2 applicant, I’d you’re definitely at least a waitlist. Besides your average to above average stats, from your ECs, there’s a passion and consistency for freerunning and that’s def a good sign. Just depends on the essays, GL. No matter what happens, hope you’ll join us this fall to teach us some of your skills!
Every school has a different culture. Depending on the culture, adcoms will either consciously or unconsciously assign different weights to different types of activities. I believe Tufts was the first school to encourage students to provide videos with their applications (many years ago - before it was mainstream) and the culture tends to embrace activities that are outside of the mainstream more than other schools. So, I would say that is likely that your freerunning activities are more likely to have a positive impact on your admission to Tufts than most schools…
