Tom Chance-me

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston College
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<p>GPA: 4.005 W
SAT:2040, hoping for 2100+ in October
SAT II: Math II - 620, US - 690, Lit - 540 (if possible, NO ONE should see these haha)
Extracurrics:
Year round tennis with tournaments (since fresh) and varsity (junior)
Varsity Golf senior year
founder and president of debate club
Secretary junior year, president senior year for NHS
member of spanish, national, english, science, and business honor societies
FBLA regional reporter
President of the school Economics Club
officer for schools Ecology club
Key Club
100+ hours of community service
Insignificant clubs without leadership here and there</p>

<p>Senior Course Load:</p>

<p>AP Micro/Macro Econ
AP Gov
AP Lit
AP Spanish
AP Physics C
AP Calc BC
Accounting</p>

<p>Location: VA
Ethnicity: Asian (Subcontinental)
Income: >150k
Not asking for financial aid</p>

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<p>bumppppppp</p>

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<p>Virginiuh:
In another thread you said your UW gpa was around 3.5. Do you know where you stand in your class rank? As scottj often notes, 80+% of BC’s freshman class is drawn from the top 10% of their respective High School classes. Where are you?</p>

<p>Your SAT scores tend to be in the middle of the “middle 50%” of admitted students. There is room for a higher score to be in your favor.</p>

<p>You’ve also commented that you want to end up in finance/investment banking and you don’t care where you go to school. Will your application to BC come across as something you just “quickly filled out to see if you get a bite”? Or will you spend time looking to see what BC is all about (more than I want it to be my ticket to big jobs after I graduate). </p>

<p>The more you invest in learning what a school is all about to see if spending 4 years there resonates with who you are, the more your app will catch the attention of the adcoms.</p>

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<p>Not only will a higher SAT score help you with admissions to college, it will help with getting a job on The Street. (WS employers frequently ask for your SAT scores, particularly math…)</p>

<p>Suggest you do some serious studying for a retake. Undergrad biz schools typically look at the math score, and the stronger applicants have M2 Subject Test score 700+.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the input guys!</p>

<p>@JPM: I actually do want to go to BC. I’ve been looking into it more than some of the other schools and do in fact find it very attractive. I’m heading up to Boston in a couple weeks to tour the campus as a last check point before I start applications. What are some ways that I can “catch the attention of adcoms” with my application (besides essays)? And I’d say I’m in the top 10 or so percent, we don’t get rankings or percentile at our school but if I were to guess.</p>

<p>BlueBayou: I am doing a lot of studying (4 hours a day, 3 times a week with a tutor), but overall how does my app look?</p>

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<p>^^without a class rank, it is impossible to say. My experience tells me that a 4.0w is not top decile, at least not in the high schools with which I am familiar. What is your uw gap? ~3.6?</p>

<p>A 4.04w at TJ is a whole lot different than a similar gpa a Podunk High. Other than that, average scores, average ECs = average applicant.</p>

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<p>Virginiuh:
I think my words “catch the attention of adcoms” were poorly chosen. Rather, you want to give them reasons to keep reading it, rather than the picture I was getting from your posts, which seemed would give them reasons to simply go to the next application.</p>

<p>You will be filling out an application to invest in a place that will heavily shape your life over the next four years. The more your application can show that you know why you’re applying there, how it aligns with who you are, and how you can add value to the student body - the stronger your application will read.</p>

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<p>UW GPA is ~3.5-3.6</p>

<p>JPM- I totally understand what you’re getting at, but how will I show, for lack of a less chiche term, passion in my applications?</p>

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<p>Virginiuh:
Here are some questions you should be asking yourself. I’m not looking for any answers, so you don’t need to answer them. But if you’re serious about trying to get in to BC, especially with an academic profile that would benefit by being beefed up, then it’s time to do some legwork. </p>

<p>How much homework have you done about BC? How badly do you want to go there?</p>

<p>Can you articulate what it is about the school that attracts you (academics, philosophy, student life, Jesuit culture, …)?<br>
What legwork have you done to learn about that?<br>
What legwork are you willing to do? </p>

<p>What qualities does BC value in its applicants?<br>
Do your ECs support them? Can you fill in any of the voids in the fall of your senior year? (Caution, adcoms are very good at spotting ECs created just to make a student’s app look good.)</p>

<p>What are your plans to pull your grades up this fall? Are you willing to study an extra 10 hours per weekend, stay after classes for extra help - all with the intent to get straight A’s.</p>

<p>Does your school have Naviance, and if so, where do you stand in the scatter-gram for BC?</p>

<p>Have you taken several hours to read through the many threads in this CC BC forum? There is a wealth of valuable information here. It shouldn’t be your only source of information, but it’s well worth pouring through. You’ll gain insights about BC here that you’ll likely not gain elsewhere.</p>

<p>Are you willing to give up a month of your summer to seriously self-study for the SATs or take private courses? I say that because I’ve seen students do that, resulting in a nice bump in their SAT scores.</p>

<p>Remember, I originally replied to your opening post because your previous CC postings gave the strong sense that you didn’t care where you went to school, as long as it provided you the ticket you needed to get into investment banking or finance.</p>

<p>You need to make the investment if you’re serious about increasing your chances with your reach schools. There’s no guarantee they’ll work out, but you’ll come out stronger in the end for having done that homework.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

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<p>Dear Virginiuh : Our colleagues here on College Confidential (jpm50, bluebayou) have carefully examined some of the same points that I would have highlighted in a review. The juxtaposition of relatively low SAT II scores when examined through the lens of advanced placement courses seems odd; this starts us to question whether we have a testing issue here or a more lax delivery of advanced placement coursework.</p>

<p>Your profile could use a solid dose of “so what?” thinking. There are many wonderful activities listed here covering sports, clubs, honor societies, and leadership positions. Our question to you is whether you can articulate how any of these engagements actually touched the community or student body in a positive manner. For example, with 100+ hours of community service, what was the focus of your activities and more importantly, what were the outcomes?</p>

<p>My feeling is that your GPA might be Top 25%, but not Top 10%, in your High School class which will represent a hurdle in terms of competition. Your SAT scores are on par with acceptance, but by no means over the top in terms of qualification.</p>

<p>In closing, jpm50 points to some very interesting questions for you to consider. As I often write, it is completely unclear from your profile why you want to attend Boston College. Answering the “Why BC?” question first in private (to your own heart) and then in writing will better help you articulate why your profile is in fact something that Boston College would or should approve. Please feel free to ask for further information as needed.</p>

<p>Best wishes.</p>

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<p>Super bump. Asked my counselor yesterday about my GPA and he said that it is just in the top 10% (i think ~9%). Again, I really appreciate all the help. I just wanted to see some feedback on the objective parts of my application, my essays and whatnot are a whole other story. Does having my GPA in the top 10% change anything?</p>