Second Tier Chances

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I have already once posted a chance thread but now would really appreciate a more targeted response to some specific questions of mine concerning my stats.
This is all of course in regards to schools in or around Northwesterns caliber (ie. Tufts, Johns Hopkins, UVA, USC, Vanderbilt) </p>

<p>UW: 3.8
W: 5.0 (On a 6.0 scale)
PSAT: 209
SAT: M: 760 CR: 740 W: 690 Composite 2190
ACT: 33 (I May retake and shoot for a 34+, worth it?)
Course load:
All Honors core classes (Except when AP)
APs:
(Not Allowed Freshman Year)
3 Sophomore Year
5 Junior Year (One Self Study-- Euro)
6 Senior Year--will be--(Bio, Calc BC, Physics B, English Lit, Government, Micro)
Art History (3) Environmental (3) European History (3) Calculus AB (3) Statistics (4) English Lang (4) Human Geography (4) Psychology (4) US History (5)
School only offers about 15-16 of which I will have taken 14</p>

<p>Beyond that I will have enough credits for my AA through dual enrollment by graduation
College GPA: 4.0</p>

<p>ECs:
Science Honor Society (10,11,12) Treasurer 11-12
Mu Alpha Theta (10,11,12) Through which I've done a good amount of tutoring
Student Government Treasurer 11,12 I'm extremely involved in this and my school takes it very seriously (ie. Create budget discs for all school clubs, petition for funding etc.)
As a Student Government Board Member at my school you are not allowed to be President of any other school club because its THAT time consuming.
Various other clubs with minor role, as the above take up a large amount of my time.
Somewhere between 500-600 hours tutoring and supervising young children, mostly 2nd graders. Love it and spend alot of my free time doing so :)</p>

<p>National Hispanic Recognition Scholar
National Merit Commended Scholar (thus far, although I most likely will not continue on, FL cut off was 210 last year)</p>

<h2>Ventures Scholar (For URM or First Generation's, both of which apply to me)</h2>

<p>My questions are specifically:
While I doubt my EC's are spectacular does my heavy involvement in dual enrollment classes possibly offset there average-ness?
Does being Hispanic and First Generation largely increase my chances at these schools? (Until recently I had no idea my being hispanic was any sort of "hook")</p>

2

<p>bump… :D</p>

3

<p>Those schools (minus USC and UVA) are big ED schools ( ED helps a lot and they want you ED). If you apply to one ED you’re chances are pretty good! If not, I’d still say you’d get into USC maybe Tufts and UVA and probably one other (at least)</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1177043-do-i-have-enough-good-ecs-ill-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1177043-do-i-have-enough-good-ecs-ill-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>So your GPA translates to about 3.04 UW on a 4 point scale. About 91% of students admitted to UVA have a GPA of 3.75 or higher, so I think UVA might just be a little bit out of reach. John Hopkins and USC will be a low reach, and Tufts and Vanderbilt will be a reach. Raise that GPA!!!</p>

5

<p>To answer your questions:</p>

<p>Your stats are quite good, though ECs are very weak. You have a chance at all the schools you listed, and between the lower ranked ones eg. Tufts & USC you will almost certainly get in to at least one.</p>

<p>Regarding minority status, while I don’t have the link to the study that proved this at the moment, basically as a rule the minority advantage works as a function of the number of otherwise qualified students in the applicant pool for each school. Each institution has a “soft” quota for each racial identification (hard quotas are illegal) where it basically commits to admitting, say, 10% African-American or 15% Hispanic students. When there are insufficient students to fill these quotas based upon the school’s regular admissions standards, they relax the qualifications necessary for admission for students fitting the specific desired characteristic until the racial target is filled. This is the “URM hook” you hear about on College Confidential, and it varies by race. The advantage accorded to Hispanic students has traditionally sat at the equivalent of around 100 points on the SAT, though it has been falling recently as the number of high-achieving Hispanic students increases.</p>

<p>So will it help? Yes. Will it get you in? No. You have to be a developmental admit or star football player for that to happen.</p>

6

<p>Sorry for the delayed response.
Seattle Dog, just to clarify that IS my unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale. I don’t know if that wasn’t clear :confused:
And yeah I figured it wasn’t too much of an advantage…</p>