rd chances for athlete/debater

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
1

<p>im applying to upenn ed but ive recently become very interested in swathmore, can any of yall evaluate my chances.</p>

<p>I attend the second most competitive public school in Washington state.</p>

<p>gpa- 3.45uw 3.8 w
(6 ap's and 4 honors classes so weighted is close to a 3.9)
sat 2110 (760 v 680m 670w)
im also taking the september act and will likely send in that score rather than the sat.</p>

<p>EC's</p>

<p>Partial debate record:</p>

<p>National Honors
-One of only 18 debaters (nationwide) selected to attend the Team USA All-American qualifier</p>

<p>-Member of Team USA A-Team. (One of only five 1st team All-Americans)</p>

<p>-Represented America as Team USA’s 1st speaker at the Pan-American Championship (western hemisphere debate tournament held in Southern California, October 2006)</p>

<p>-Will represent America as Team USA’s 1st speaker at the European World Championship (held in Germany, February 2007)</p>

<p>-Will represent America as Team USA’s 1st speaker at the World Championship (held in South Korea, July 2007)</p>

<p>-One of the nation’s first 25 to fully qualify for the Tournament of Champions.</p>

<p>-Finished 5th out of juniors nationwide at the TOC.</p>

<p>-Two time national qualifier in debate (finishing 27th Junior Year)</p>

<p>-Invited to 8 round robin tournaments in 5 states</p>

<p>-Member of top lab at Victory Briefs @ UCLA 2006 and varsity member in 2005 (receiving a merit based scholarship to the camp)</p>

<p>-One of only 6 debaters (out of 300) to participate in camp-wide demonstration debate.</p>

<ul>
<li>National Forensic League speech and debate All American</li>
</ul>

<p>State Honors</p>

<p>-Washington state co-champion of Lincoln-Douglas debate.(first junior to with the 3A state title since 2001)</p>

<p>-First speaker honors at state (first junior to receive award since late 1990's)</p>

<p>-First Junior in history to win 3A title, Top Speaker award, and clear as top seed at the state tournament.</p>

<p>-Only junior from Washington state to qualify for "the tournament of champions".</p>

<p>-First debater in Washington to fully qualify to the TOC</p>

<p>-Only debater to clear at all three "Washington TOC bid tournaments"</p>

<p>-Received "top speaker" awards at numerous tournaments</p>

<p>-2nd at state in extemporaneous speaking (2006) 2nd (2005)</p>

<p>-3rd at state in impromptu speaking. (2006) 4th (2005)</p>

<p>-3A Washington state record for both impromptu and extemp state bids (8 and 6 respectively)</p>

<p>-Only junior in recent memory to win the University of Puget Sound's Charles Battin award for outstanding speaker. (Most prestigious speaker award in the state)</p>

<p>Team Honors</p>

<p>-Two time team captain</p>

<p>-Three time speech co-captain and two time debate captain</p>

<p>-First and only debater from my school to qualify to TOC or Nationals in debate.</p>

<p>-Four year varsity lettermen</p>

<p>-Selected to attend the national qualifying tournament all four seasons</p>

<p>-Voted “rookie of the year” for the 2003-2004 season (my freshman year)</p>

<p>-Voted team “MVP” for 2005-2006 season (my junior year)</p>

<p>I have also done a huge amount of debate volunteer work (500+ hours)</p>

<p>Student Government positions held:
-7th grade class senator (one of only four)
-8th grade class senator (one of only four)
-9th grade council representative
-Freshman class vice-president
-Sophomore class president
-Junior class president
-Senior class president
-During my three years as class president I have lead the c/o 2007 to huge financial success. We are far and away the wealthiest class in history of the school due to our vast amounts of fund-raising and dedicated leaders.</p>

<p>Independent Academic Study:
-Took sixty hours of arabic composition at the Seattle Academy of Languages (Spring 2004)
-Practiced arabic speaking skills independently for 15 hours/week (April-June 2004)
-Enrolled in independent Old Testament studies with local biblical doctorate holder Steven Swanson. Six hours/week. (September 2005-May 2006)
-Completed an American Studies honors portfolio (wrote five essays on American historical figures and their influence on contemporary America) six hours/week. (March-June 2006)
-Read from Frank and Bernanke’s Principles of Macroeconomics in preparation for May 2007's AP testing. Four hours/week (September 2006-May 2007)*
-Read from Kleiner, Mamiya and Tansey’s Gardner's Art Through the Ages in preparation for May 2007's AP testing. Three hours/week (September 2006-May 2007)*
-Read from Mahler’s Comparative Politics: An Institutional and Cross-national Approach in preparation for May 2007's AP testing. Four hours/week (September 2006-May 2007)*</p>

<ul>
<li>I met with a HS faculty member once-twice a week and we would have a seminar or lecture on the material I had just read. The times given are for reading, seminars and homework/week.</li>
</ul>

<p>Baseball:
-Member of Peninsula Baseball Academy (18U All-Kitsap County Team) since age 13.
-Member of American Legion Post 68 Baseball Club (18U All-Kitsap Team) since age 15.
-Member of the 13U, 14U, 15U and 16U Traveling Teams (City-Wide All-Star Team)
-Led the 14U, 15U and 16U clubs in Batting Average and On-Base Percentage.
-Attendee at multiple baseball clinics (both pitching and infield)
-Awarded “first team honors” at both Stubbs’ Infield Clinic and Bainbridge Infield Clinic.
-Led the Freshman team in batting average (.535)
-Hit safely in all 8 Metro Division games sophomore year.
-Was an offensive leader in multiple categories (batting average, slugging percentage, RBI’s, Doubles, Hits, On-Base Percentage)</p>

<p>Tennis:
-One of only two individuals in the Metro Division to finish the 2006 regular season with an undefeated record. (11-0)
- Played as high as number 4 for my high school squad.
-Finished 3rd in the Metro Tournament (Greater Seattle Area) knocking off the 2nd 3rd and 10th seeds at the tournament.
-Finished with the highest winning percentage on the tennis team, (14-1, .9333) dropping only 2 sets all season.</p>

<p>Running/Cross Country:
-Member of xc team's “500 Club” (ran 500 miles over the summer)
-Ran number two consistently for the xc Squad.
-Averaged nearly 50 Miles a week in pre-season training
-Trained for and competed in the Seattle Half-Marathon
-Trained for and will compete in the Toe-Jam half-marathon
-Was a top-finisher for my age group in the 2004 and 2005 Winter Solstice 5K’s in seattle.</p>

<p>thanks again!</p>

2

<p>Your ECs are very impressive. (Just don't present them in such boa****l way on your application...)</p>

<p>Your GPA is quite low for Starthmore (and Penn, probably, as well), unless your school grades very hard, and you are still in top 10% of your class. The SAT is probably good enough to have a shot, but you need to take SAT IIs.</p>

3

<p>hmmm... the word was b o a s t f u l. I don't know why it got censored...</p>

4

<p>no chance. sorry.</p>

5

<p>im not in my class' top 10% (more like upper 30's in terms of rank) </p>

<p>im taking the act in lieu of the sat 2's</p>

<p>and how can i present them less boa****lly? </p>

<p>any other views on chances? thanks a lot</p>

6

<p>Statwise, you are probably low for Swarthmore. However, you have a really strong passionate EC that fits great with Swarthmore. Also, your baseball might be strong enough to be recruited player at Swarthmore.</p>

<p>Advice?</p>

<p>Figure out a way to combine and condense your debate stuff into something that is more digestable on the EC list. Then, write a whale of an essay that features it. Think about ways that your love of debate would fit at Swarthmore, both on the debate team and in discussion-based seminar classes.</p>

<p>Learn about debate at Swarthmore. The debate team has a very long tradition, a big endowment just for the team, and throws the best parties on campus when other schools visit for tournaments. The team does very well in high level competition. Do some searches on the Swat website and in the school newspaper (The Phoenix). My daughter has several friends on the team. I could put you in touch, but they all just headed overseas for study abroad. You should definitely contact some debate team members and get together with them if you visit campus.</p>

<p>Definitely contact the baseball coach now. NJPITCHER, a guy here on College Confidential, worked his contacts with the coach and campus visits to a "t" this past year and got accepted, probably with a boost from the coach. He's at frosh orientation already, but you might PM him and get some advice. He did a great job communicating his interest in Swarthmore and I'm sure that made a difference.</p>

7

<p>awesome- thanks for the advice!</p>

8

<p>"how can i present them less boa****lly?"</p>

<p>You can avoid statements like:
"Only junior in recent memory to win <strong><em>"
"First and only debater from my school to qualify</em></strong>_"
"first junior to receive award since late 1990's", etc.</p>

<p>Also, I am not sure that ACT would replace SAT IIs at Swarthmore, though it does at some schools.</p>

9

<p>i know that all the parents on this board are really nice and pc, but noone should be led on about their chances. this person's sat scores are too low. the gpa is too low, the ec's are all about me, me, me. njpitcher had pretty nifty numbers to go with his baseball talents, so i wouldn't get too excited because he's here. he probably could have gotten in without baseball, but with it, i believe he was still waitlisted. i reiterate, no chance</p>

10

<p>Duhvinci:</p>

<p>I don't disagree about the class rank and so-so SAT scores.</p>

<p>However, if the state, national, and international debate stuff is as impressive as it sounds (and I don't know because, as others have noted, the EC list sounds a little puffed up), then I do think that is a very strong EC, particularly well-suited for Swarthmore, and could be the basis for a successful application. As you know, Swarthmore encourages students to debate ideas!</p>

<p>It would take a full-court press in the application process. That's one reason I suggested chatting up NJPITCHER. I think NJ did everything he could do to "work" his application, express his interest in Swarthmore, and sell his ECs by making personal contact with as many people at Swat as he could. I feel like my D did the same thing. I think most successful Swarthmore applicants do a good job effectively pitching their enthusiasm for something that would add to campus life. For any applicant short of "walk-on-water" stats (a pretty lofty standard), that's what it takes.</p>

<p>At the end of the day, the class rank could blow the original poster out of the water, no matter what. I don't know enough about his school to know for sure. It would certainly help if either the SATs or the class rank were above Swat's medians.</p>

11

<p>i'll keep it short because there's a ton of stuff going on here, but one comment on expressing enthusiam for swat...this kid starts the thread by saying he's applying ed to penn. my crystal ball says penn...state would be more realistic.</p>

12

<p>duhvinci- i understand you are trying to be honest and express your opinion as straight-forward-ly as possible, but that doesnt give you license to be a douchebag. your latest comment isnt very funny and is kind of mean spirited.</p>

<p>to everyone else- my ec's are in no way "puffed up". the only reason i include "only junior..." "first from my team..." is to show that what i have accomplished is actually meaningful. i think i need to pursue that angle because most adcoms dont know very much about hs debate.</p>

13

<p>dude, classes haven't begun yet, so all we're doing at swat right now is chillin and laughing, mostly at your chances posting. there are about eight kids in my room right now and if you were here you would have the lowest sat scores in the room by about 130 points. there are two kids in the room that spent all of july in darfur. one kid played lincoln center two weeks ago and another turned down a part time instructor job at some bolleteri tennis camp in florida (whatever that is, you play tennis right?) this summer to help rebuild parts of mississipi (or was that missouri? i can't hear, there's too much noise here) that still hasn't been rebuilt from katrina and you're going on and on about debate? also it seems from an unscientific head count of the hall that ed's way outnumber rd's here, so stating that swat is your also ran to penn isn't all that popular with my homies or myself, so if you can't take the heat, get your next "chances" opine from your guidence counselor.</p>

14

<p>I'm not Davinci, but seeing as how he hurt your feelings, a couple of us threw some of his underwear from his dresser out the window and he's out there trying to retrieve them. He's a little course, but he's not far from wrong. what makes swat students different from other schools is the level of committment to humanitarian causes. Gotta go, Davinci is almost back and he's soaked.</p>

15

<p>don't come to swarthmore, go to a school where there is a modicum of respect for other peoples stuff!!! i will say this, don't believe the publications, the girls here are super cute and really adorable....and psychotic.</p>

16

<p>chillin:</p>

<p>In my humble opinion, the best applications find a creative way to use modest language in describing impressive ECs and sell them through essays that bring the adcom into the action. Don't feel bad. 9 out of 10 EC lists here sound "puffed up".</p>

<p>duhvinci:</p>

<p>I am inclined to agree that ED might well be chillin's only real shot at Swarthmore. Like you, my gut says that if he applies as a back-up to Penn, he's probably toast. Whenever you have an atypical application (i.e. strong ECs but median or below stats), the best shot at selling it is in the ED round. Swarthmore probably gives him his best shot at an athletic tip, but that's something that would have to be pursued like right now.</p>

<p>In any case, I find "chances" scenarios like chillin's interesting because they don't fit the mold.</p>

<p>ps: I hope those mean girls didn't throw your underwear out in the Mertz mud bog.</p>

17

<p>Chillax88:</p>

<p>I have no idea what your chances are, and I do think that early decision might make a big difference for you. However, I've done enough debate to know that your record is extremely impressive. You are obviously exceptionally bright and talented in some ways that may not fully show up on the SATs, and I think a small school like Swarthmore might recognize what you can bring to their community. Make sure you really love the school, though. I feel like people with unique kinds of intelligence might do better at bigger, and therefore more diverse, schools. As Duhvinci has shown, it's not the place to go if you want your debating prowess to inspire awe.</p>

<p>As for the "puffed up" list, I think this might actually be a side effect of your debating training. In most debates, you have to use every bit of information available to you to set up an ironclad case. When you're actually trying to convince people of things in real life, though, even in as competitive a setting as college admissions, some well-placed modesty and moderation can go a long way. The sheer number of debate honors that you list gives the (probably false) impression that you are being confrontational and defensive. Once you've said that you were one of a very few All-Americans, adding that you were fourth in impromptu in your state in 2005 (or whatever it was) doesn't really add much. Stick to the big points. Let them know you're good at what you do, but don't waste their time with everything you've ever done. </p>

<p>Oh, what am I saying. Don't apply to Swarthmore, you'll never get in, and you'd hate it if you did. That goes for anyone else with great stats or ECs on this board, too. I hear Swarthmore is famous for the awful hazing they inflict on debating baseball players. If you do apply, send them a complete transcript of every debate you've ever been in, to show them just how good you are. :)</p>

18

<p>duhvinci (sp?) like i really dont think ive gone on and on about debate. really, like my only response was that you were being a jerk. maybe i have no shot but that doesnt mean im arrogant for some unexplained reason.</p>

19

<p>the weather here really blows, maybe i should have listened to my mom and applied to pomona. anyway, hey chill, don't worry about how i spell my handle and worry more about your math and grammar, that's the real reason you're not getting into penn, swarthmore, williams and harvard (get real!). also, i might be a jerk, but i didn't waste all my time on stuff i am mediocre at, at the expense of my sats.</p>

20

<p>god, you're a moron duhvinci. i have this lurking suspicion you're one of those people tim burke wrote about in an essay about being good at academics but completely unprepared for the real world. for whatever it's worth, chillax, i was outright rejected from a ton of schools as a freshman, b/c i went to a competitive public charter school and didn't make the perfect grades that for some reason everyone now thinks students should have (and we /wonder/ where grade-inflation comes from?). then doing less work than i did in hs i did much better than most people in college and suddenly was accepted to a bunch of places as a transfer. whether or not you get into one of your top schools, i really think the grades thing is trivial. there's so much you could have learned and be capable of that isn't reflected in the <em>gasp</em> B+ you got in a particularly boring, poorly taught class... </p>

<p>That sort of goes for real life too -your success in life is based on /so much/ more than where you went to college, especially if you don't decide to spend the rest of your life playing the weird political/intellectual game that is academia. (and hey, i might) Anyway, I just felt compelled to respond b/c I think in hs I was sort of in your position, where my stats were mediocre but circumstantial and my ECs were pretty cool. Good luck.</p>

<p>You might check out some other small LACs, if you like that vibe. I think Wesleyan University puts (slightly) more emphasis on ECs and less on class rank than does Swat.</p>