STRESSED senior, please chance/suggest schools for me?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>• SAT/ACT: 720 CR, 660 Math, 650 Writing
• SAT IIs: 740 Math 1, 650 physics ( I had to take it for some engineering programs)
• AP Scores: AP World History (5) AP Statistics (5) AP English Language (4)
• Senior Year: AP Physics B (school doesn’t offer C) AP Calc BC, AP Gov, AP Spanish, English 12…
• GPA (UW): 3.95
• GPA (W): 4.3
• Rank: n/a top 10% though We don’t have smaller than top 10% as far as rankings go
• Leadership Positions: President of Spanish Honor Society (vice president junior year), Officer for Math Honor Society
• Awards/Honors: Top Physics Student, Top Stat Student, AP Scholar, Girls State Delegate, Scholar-Athlete( 1 person per sport), Ventures Scholar, MVP(for 2 years in both indoor and outdoor track), coaches award, State-qualifier, all-region, all-district, but I’m not getting recruited so I think the fact that I do a sport is kind of moot…
• Work Experience: Tutor a teacher in statistics. She is going for her masters in biosciences or something.
Summer programs: Girls State, summer track, cross country training</p>

<p>Subjective: THIS IS MY PROBLEM.
• Essays: eh, I liked them. I didn’t show it to too many people. Parts probably clichéd (talking about immigrant parents) but oh well.
• Teacher Recs: Probably general praise, no specific antidotes to be honest, I’m not expecting anything amazing from them
• Counselor Rec: Alright, just a rehash of my ec’s but she has like 600 students. The only people who get to know the counselor are the people who get in trouble. (damn public schools) She didn’t even spell my name CORRECTLY! She also messed up the name of some of my awards and extracurriculars.
• Hooks (if any): umm. Don’t know. Female URM, who wants to be an engineer? But my interviewer said the college does not consider race or major so I guess it’s not really a hook….</p>

<p>• INTERVIEW(Dartmouth): Eh… he asked me a lot of political questions that I didn’t know. It lasted for an hour and half . He asked me what research I did outside of school….. Is that a requirement for Dartmouth/other schools if you want to be an engineer? I haven’t done any. He also asked me what I have done to change my school…and that question didn’t go well either. OTH said he was “rooting” for me and “would write a good report” and would "celebrate" if i got in but honestly, I think he was just trying to be funny. I felt like he was being sarcastic, laughed at (not with) one of my responses to his question, sort of belittled my intelligence, made weird facial expressions while I talked…. Overall, it was a negative experience. I should have been more prepared, interviewing and charming people definitely isn’t one of my fortes. </p>

<p>• Location/Person:
• State or Country: United States
• State: Georgia
• School Type: Public
• Ethnicity: African-American
• Gender: Female
• Income: <40,000 (not many people know of my financial situation so this doesn’t matter)</p>

<p>Other Statements:
I went on a trip to Dartmouth that was paid for by the college (but apparently doesn’t mean anything.)</p>

<p>Question: Am I just being overly insecure because decisions are coming closer? Are any of you guys feeling like this? Like I don’t even know… Should I just calm down? </p>

<p>Schools:
Dartmouth ED
Cornell
Upenn
Carnegie Mellon</p>

<p>UVA
GATECH
University of Maryland
Villanova
Tufts
Middleburry
Drexel</p>

<p>Any college suggestions?
I’m sort of new to this whole CC game. The posts on here are definitely not helping my confidence</p>

2

<p>All testing, I only did once
not that it matters but ehh. I probably should have done it again</p>

3

<p>Schools:
Dartmouth ED - reach
Cornell - reach
Upenn - reach
Carnegie Mellon - low reach, you have everything the admitted freshmen had but just 20 points lower math scores</p>

<p>UVA - might actually be a match, out of state might hurt, not sure
GATECH - you have the 25th percentile of math scores on the SAT, every other requirement you meet… I’ll say match
University of Maryland - match
Villanova - match
Tufts - reach
Middleburry - match
Drexel - safety imo</p>

4

<p>Being an AA female will take you a long way. I wouldnt be surprised if you got into one of the top 4 schools listed.</p>

5

<p>^it doesn’t help that much if you dont have the scores for it. If it’s her vs another white guy with the exact same scores then of course she will get priority</p>

6

<p>thanks for the posts. To be honest, the Dartmouth interviewer was rude and if that is any indication of the people there, they can keep their school. A rejection or a defferal would not be unwelcome</p>

<p>As for scores, when I talked to admissions officers they told me that they would consider anyone with a 500 (on each section) or higher as long as it was good within the context of their school.
They made it seem that once you passed the threshold they did not care about your scores and went on to the subjective. If they had told me otherwise, I would have gladly taken the test again.</p>

<p>However, I don’t understand why admissions officers can’t tell it like it is.
Is it that they saw some black girl and decided give her some lower standards to urge her to apply?</p>

<p>So scores aside, how do you think the rest of my application fares; like ecs, awards, gpa</p>

7

<p>James1G underestimates how much a female URM going into engineering can help.
He also listed Midd as a match yet CMU as a reach, which really doesnt make any sense to me. </p>

<p>To answer your question, everything else does look ok, although I do not see many compelling EC’s. </p>

<p>Colleges definitely put pretty good weight on standardized test scores, but they also put your scores in context and realize that they may also be subjective in nature (some people are just good test takers).</p>

8

<p>alright, thanks for the perspective.</p>

<p>and I forgot to add some Ec’s</p>

<p>Varsity Indoor track/Outdoor track/Cross Country ,Spanish Honor Society, Math Honor Society These three are my top time commitments, I have others but not super substantial</p>

<p>It change anything you said though, but thanks for the perspective.</p>

9

<p>@kai the lower math score for CMU will indeed make CMU harder to get into</p>

<p>she meets all of the average SAT’s for midd</p>

10

<p>yea, I’m retaking in January so hopefully I can get those scores up.</p>

11

<p>If the college paid for the trip, it’s a big deal, IMO. But maybe I’m wrong. And being an URM is also a big deal, your interviewer is being an butthole. An low-income African-American female going into engineering is laden with hooks. But if you aren’t qualified, you can’t hook your way into college (which I’m sure you could have guessed). And yes, you are being a touch insecure. </p>

<p>Objectives:
ACT/SAT/SAT IIs are a bit low, yet APs are great. GPA and rank are good. This could just mean your school is crappy, but the best way to redeem this is to take community college courses to supplement your learning. Lots of awards, but they only pertain to your school. Athletics are good whether or not you’re being recruited. Tutoring a teacher=lovely.</p>

<p>Subjectives:
You’re the first person on here that didn’t say MY ESSAY REEKED OF WITTY CHARM WHILE BEAUTIFULLY PORTRAYING A YOUNG (WO)MAN’S STRUGGLE IN A CLASS-OBSESSED SOCIETY AND RECS WERE GLOWING ABOUT MY GOOD LOOKS AND CHARM AND INTELLECTUAL PERFECTION or something of the sort (over-emphasizing here a bit, but everyone here is a little too self-confident or they really are brilliant). I’m sure your essay and recs did the trick. And about the interview… he may have just been racist to be quite honest with you. It’s the only thing I can think of if he’d be so rude. Dartmouth will probably note that he does not recommend nearly all black applicants and disregard his opinion. If he’s not racist, and you guys just didn’t click, then, well, I’m sorry. He doesn’t sound like a very good interviewer. The interview is supposed to be a conversation, not an interrogation.</p>

<p>I have no idea what kind of impact being a low-income, female AA student has, so I can’t rate you on each school. However, good luck and I actually will celebrate once you get into your colleges ;)</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1025558-h-n-3-m3-0r-w-ll-thr0w-v3g3t-bl3-y0ur-f-3-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1025558-h-n-3-m3-0r-w-ll-thr0w-v3g3t-bl3-y0ur-f-3-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;