<p>hey im wondering about my chances rd at tufts.</p>
<p>to start- im not a "recruited athlete" but im pretty sure the track coach will write me a rec b/c my 400 m time is competitive for the school's relay team.</p>
<p>academics:
3.275 gpa, (rank: top 50%) 32 act, 6 ap's by graduation and many honors courses.</p>
<p>leadership:
freshman class vp, sophomore junior and senior class president</p>
<p>sports:
played 18u baseball since age 13, ranked 3rd in seattle area doubles, top 20 in metro league cross country, will be all-state in track, completed seattle marathon</p>
<p>debate:
state champion in LD debate, one of only five 1st team all-americans.
huge volunteer for debate activities. (very good essay on my volunteer work)</p>
<p>gpa: very low
test scores: average
recs: should be great
leadership: above average
debate: above average
sports: above average (possible rec)</p>
<p>Your ACT is good but the rest is not looking too great, man. A 3.2 average? You've got to be dreaming! Plus, your EC's are very average for a top-tier school. And you have no civic engagement/active citizenship component at all which Tufts is so big on (check out: <a href="http://www.activecitizen.tufts.edu)%5B/url%5D">www.activecitizen.tufts.edu)</a>... I mean, if you get in, it'll be by the grace of god or that track coach. And I have friends on the track team who've told me that most people on those teams aren't recruited.. only 1 or 2 a year and the rest are just walk-ons... And Im willing to bet there will be other prospective track recruits with a better GPA. Sorry to be harsh but look at the other kids on CC who want to go to Tufts and compare your stats...</p>
<p>first, look at the section where i talk about my debate volunteer work, that falls under active citizenship, also see my asb experience that falls under civic engagement.</p>
<p>second, look at my debate awards, thats not average. i understand my academic record is far from stellar but the ec's are above average, even at a place like tufts.</p>
<p>I think that if you were go check out other prospective Tufts applicants' ECs, as well as those of people already at Tufts or those who got in in the past, you'd see that volunteering for a debate society isn't very impressive in comparison, at LEAST because debate is one of the most common ECs for kids to top schools. Kofi000 was right to give you the link to <a href="http://activecitizen.tufts.edu%5B/url%5D">http://activecitizen.tufts.edu</a> -- I am a Scholar in the Tisch College of Citizenship & Public Service, and I've been amazed at the things my peers have done before getting to college (in addition to what we do now through the Scholars program). Their activities in h.s. include founding orphanages for kids with HIV, working with kids with diabetes, research on asthma in inner cities, raising 20,000 shoes to give to poor kids in Latin America, etc.</p>
<p>I don't think you'd have a chance in RD, and you'd still be reaching, due to your GPA, if you applied early. If Tufts interests you in a serious way, more than other schools you're looking at, I wouldn't risk applying RD, as it seems unlikely you'd get in, especially with a low class rank. We're not trying to put you down, we're just telling you how we see it. That being said, we're not admissions officers, and the only successful candidates' records we know of are our own! Good luck.</p>
<p>A top debater? That works well in your favor, but your GPA will hurt you considerably. It's impossible to predict how they will see how they will take the overall picture.</p>
<p>Well, that certainly is impressive, and you should definitely delineate the details behind your "debate volunteer" experience! I definitely would have chalked it up to being less.</p>
<p>That being said, your GPA is still rather low: if you're such a gifted invidual -- and your ECs would indicate so, then your GPA screams "underachiever." Apply early to whichever school is far and away your first choice and you'd have a far better chance than applying RD. Good luck! Let us know where your decision takes you...</p>
<p>OK, there are lots of kids here at Tufts who have done incredible things involving citizenship and community service, but not all of us are founding orphanages. I don't want people to get the idea that they won't get into Tufts if they haven't raised millions of dollars for a cause or anything. Don't feel intimidated! You should have community service on your application, most definitely, but it's ok not to be saving the world at the age of 16, too, if you have other stuff on your application that shows you're an engaged, intelligent, hard-working student.</p>
<p>I didn't mean that everyone has to start an orphanage; I was just responding to Chillax's comment that his community service ECs were above average at Tufts. Instead, at Tufts, something like being a debater is very average, as it would be at every top school, though that doesn't diminish the quality of what he may have done.</p>
<p>i totally agree. its like having a 2350 and applying to harvard. it will get you in the ballpark but not onto the field. my admissions chances at tufts will depend on two things 1) if my ec's can help outweigh the mediocre academic track record 2) the track rec/recruiting goes favorably.</p>
<p>Chillax, sorry but you have little chance for Tufts. Understand, People who apply to Tufts are generally the same folks that apply to the ivy schools. You need a REALLY stellar GPA and ACTs. Strong EC without the rest of the package, won't do it for you. For ECs to overcome a poor GPA and class rank, the ECs would have to be beyond amazing such as winning gold medel in the Olympics, writing a best selling book, winning a federal grant for research etc.</p>
<p>Understand, for undergraduate study, schools place great emphasis on GPA and SATs/ ACTs. This is a fact of life so live with it.</p>
<p>Click on "enter as guest," You would then click on college lookup, Tufts, and graphs. This shows admission/rejections of our high school kids by SAT and GPA. Just for the record, we used weighted grades. Honors and AP courses get an extra point for any grade of "C" or above. Thus, an honors grade of "A," will give 5 points instead of the usual 4.</p>
<p>You will note that with the exception of two aberrations, most kids that got accepted received a 4.2 or above weighted average. I think that the kids who didn't have this were accepted several years ago and had some special connections such as athletics, URM etc. Take a look at the majority of those who were accepted and rejected.</p>
<p>Just for the record, I personally know of three kids who got accepted this year from our high school and ALL of them had at least a 4.4 weighted GPA or better.</p>
<p>taxguy- thanks for your post. i don't think you read mine though. Let me make it clear, I agree, im not a great candidate but i am on the verge of being recruited for tufts and thus i concede that my app is contingent upon making the track coach's wish list.</p>
<p>i know of a kid from my school that was accepted last year with a 3.5/2150</p>
<p>Do DIII schools really make these big of concessions for athletes? I mean its not like UNC doing this for a stud bball player. You are a DIII track runner, how far do you expect the school to go?</p>
<p>i would expect the school to admit a student that will immediately contribute to the schools varsity sports while maintaing an above average academic record over a student that will just demonstrate "excellence" in a collge lecture room. </p>
<p>Thats the gist i got after speaking with tufts' track coach.</p>
<p>You should check out the admissions stats on the Tufts website. 80% of the admits this year were in the top 10% of their class. My son is a sophomore at Tufts and he had a 3.7 GPA at a rigorous private school and a 1490 on his SATs. He also had excellent EC's including a lot of community service and study overseas which I think Tufts especially likes.</p>
<p>If you want to apply to Tufts, then do so. But just make sure you have some backup schools that are a little less difficult to get into. Tufts only accepted approx, 27% of it's applicants in the last two years.</p>