Hi! I’m a current high school junior in California. Stats are GPA 3.7UW/4.2W with upward trend and very high rigor, and ACT 36. South Asian Indian male. I want to demonstrate interest in Vassar, Grinnell, Hamilton, and Colgate, as demonstrated interest seems to be important to LAC admissions. The best way to do this right now, as these colleges haven’t bothered to send reps to my West Coast school, seems to be e-mailing admissions officers through Naviance.
My main and not-so-unique interest is the combination of computer science and the humanities to solve Big Issues like mental health, education disparity, and xenophobia. I’ve got a few rudimentary extracurriculars in this area: At school, I’m a board member of the Creative Writing and Quiz Bowl clubs, and I attended the selective YYGS humanities program at Yale. As for the CS side, I’ve won quite a few hackathons and am currently contributing code to a well-known nonprofit that helps create educational opportunities in 3rd world countries. I also teach CS classes at my local library. For what it’s worth, I’m also a certified yoga teacher and teach in my neighborhood, which might be unique enough to give me an edge.
With these colleges in mind, how do I structure the e-mail to demonstrate my interest and establish a rapport with admissions officers? I don’t want to come off as cloying or artificial. If these schools were big universities, I’d just ask to do research, but LACs aren’t really big on that.
I know this question is very broad, so I’ll try to divide it into more manageable parts so you fine people can answer each one separately.
Do I state my stats or not?
How should I spin my ECs to fit each college? (eg. since Grinnell is more STEMy and Vassar is artsy, should I lean into the CS and humanities sides respectively for those two?)
Is it possible to do work for a prof at any of these colleges? I’ve heard that LAC profs are more teachers than researchers, but it would be great if I could do work for one.
Should I ask to get involved in yoga teaching (esp. at Vassar) in an admissions-officer email, or is it too early for that?
What kinds of questions are admissions officers looking for? I don’t want my email to sound like boilerplate.
Don’t overestimate the importance demonstrating interest at these colleges. Concentrate your efforts now on your school work and on your activities. Keep on researching colleges so that you will be ready begin your applications ten months from now. These colleges do not expect you to introduce yourself to them now, so I would recommend holding off on emailing them, unless you have a very specific question to ask.
As a junior, go to these schools’ websites and sign up to get on their mailing list.
The common application is where you share your grades, ECs, awards, etc…not in emails to adcoms.
Also do not ask questions that you can easily find the answer to yourself.
Remember that right now admissions staff are very busy with this cycles applications. Now is probably not the time to be demonstrating interest for next year.
If you reconsider your ideas on LACs and research, you easily should be able to align your interests with the programs of these schools. At Hamilton, for example, research represents a core aspect of its CS curriculum:
I would not send an email to admissions officers now. They are focused on the student's from this year's senior class until things are settled (May/June).
I would not send an email to admissions officers unless you have a specific question about the school that cannot be answered by reading the website. They are busy people and don't need an email just to introduce yourself.
If you send an email I would not try to spin it to match the college. Be yourself.
4, For colleges that care about demonstrated interest there are things you can do such as : join the mailing list, next year you can request an alumni interview if those are available. you can look to see if there are any online chats with admissions you can participate in. you can go to a local college fair if they send representatives etc. Admissions officers understand that visiting would be difficult and expensive from the West Coast and it is not a requisite.
Don’t overestimate the differences between them. The distributions of majors are mostly pretty similar. A sampling:
[ul][]Area studies - 3% Grinnell, 3% Vassar
[]English and Communication - 8% Grinnell, 7% Vassar
[]Foreign languages - 9% Grinnell, 9% Vassar
[]Math - 4% Grinnell, 4% Vassar
[]Philosophy and Religion - 3% Grinnell, 2% Vassar
[]Physical sciences - 7% Grinnell, 5% Vassar
[]Psychology - 5% Grinnell, 7% Vassar
[]Social sciences - 24% Grinnell, 25% Vassar[/ul]
The main difference is that Grinnell has more biology majors than Vassar (17% and 11%, respectively), whereas Vassar has more arts majors than Grinnell (12% and 5%, respectively).
@merc81 so is it possible to get research work as a HS student with LAC professors? I’d love to do that but I don’t know if it’s possible. How would one accomplish this?
And now you have your question to your AO. First off see if the school does have research in your field of interests… (website). Then email the AO for your school. Introduce yourself but don’t state stats. “Hi, I am a Junior from X school in X state. I was wondering… Etc etc.” Can you recommend a professor that I can reach out to, to discuss "
Yes, I see from your original post that you were suggesting an interest in an early foray into college-level research. I haven’t heard much about this approach, particularly since opportunities for research specifically oriented toward high school students tend to be available. (For a historic exception, you might be aware of Ramanujan’s relationship with Cambridge.)
In general, I think your main avenue for demonstrating interest would be through activities that simultaneously offer you valuable insight into campus culture. In your case, arranging for off-campus interviews at the appropriate time should appeal to you. If you can get to know regional representatives through college fairs, this could enhance your insight and create relationships as well.
You also could write to regional representatives of these schools introducing yourself as an interested student and prospective applicant. You do not need to have an immediate question for this to be appropriate.