UPenn, USC (Cali), NYU

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I always told myself I’d never do one of these threads but oh well lol I’m trash

I’m applying to safeties btw, no worries, these are just the schools I’m most concerned with

GPA: 4.58 W, 3.98 UW
Rank: 1/292
Course load is most demanding; I’m in the IB diploma program
SAT I: 1420 (760 reading/writing, 660 math)
ACT (only sent to USC but I self-reported it as well): 31C; 36E, 30M, 32R, 27S (ouch)
*it should be noted that I did worse on my retake for both the SAT and the ACT… June was a rough month but these are my highest scores ^
SAT II: 710 Literature, 570 Spanish (ouch again but I got a 6 on the IB test so)

I don’t know if schools look at self-reported AP/IB scores at all but mine are all quite good with the exception of AP World (2… it was freshman year) and BC Calc (1 with an AB subscore of 1 haha!! I’m not a math person but I worked really hard in that class and got a well-earned A, I’m just worried colleges will think “grade inflation” rather than “bad tester.” I made sure to have that teacher write me a recommendation for that reason)

All of my recommendations should be very good, I have an excellent counselor and group of teachers

AP Scholar with Honor! (would have been Distinction if I had gotten a 3 on AP World smh)

Activities:
Captain of debate team; done well in my state’s annual tournament; been debating since freshman year
NHS, Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (vice president!), and Mu Alpha Theta
VA Summer Residential Governor’s School for Humanities
EF Tour of Ecuador (community service included)
And a lot of little volunteer things including a fundraiser I held for my local SPCA

White female, income bracket for 2015 <20k, not first gen but not legacy or anything fancy, applying as an anthropology major, and I write good essays imho lol (I work so so hard on my essays, I love writing)

2

Bump

3

you’re the valedictorian at your school? gurl you in.

On a more serious note, your application is nice but slightly average, I think it mainly depends on your essays to highlight any peculiarities in your personality.

All the colleges you’re aiming at are competitive no doubt, but you stand a decent chance overall. Focus on bringing out one really strong aspect of yours. I read somewhere that colleges don’t want an all-rounded, diverse student but rather a diverse student body. Therefore if you have a ‘Unique Selling Point’, make sure to really highlight that in your essays since, like I said the other aspects of your application are more or less average.

As for the APs, I’ve genuinely worried they’ll take the ‘2’ and ‘1’ in a negative way so if possible comment on that in the Additional Comments Section on Common App? Or maybe mention in one of your essays?

4

Hmm anyone else have any input on the low AP scores? Maybe I should comment on them/remove them from my Common App for UPenn and NYU? (haven’t applied to them yet)

5

You’re more likely to get into nyu and usc based on your test scores but upenn is definitely a reach as it is for every applicant. good luck!

Chance me back please?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1946256-chance-me-for-brown.html

6

Remove the low AP scores if possible. They will definitely think it’s grade inflation, which it probably is even if you did earn your A.

7

@jennacwa Again, it isn’t, but thanks for the input

8

I just feel like removing the low scores will paint me as a dishonest person and make adcoms assume I got bad scores, which, well, I did. Thoughts? Feelings?

9

Remove the scores. There’s not requirement to report all AP scores and since you’re low income schools are less likely to expect you to pay $90 for each test. Schools like UPenn with exceptionally difficult curriculum are looking to see if you’re prepared to handle the rigor of college and those scores could make them question that.

10

Bringing this thread back to life now (with special emphasis on USC) because the wait is unbearable!!!

Some extra info for reference:

-I was recently accepted to UCLA (OOS)
-My UW GPA is still a 3.98 but my W is now a 4.63; rank still 1/292 (valedictorian status confirmed)
-I’m in a couple more clubs that I didn’t list in my original post for some reason (privacy maybe?), just Key Club type stuff
-I go to a not-very-highly-ranked school in a low-income area (+ I am low-income myself), so considering my circumstances and the stats of other people in my school, I’m more impressive than I am if you compare me to other College Confidential kids, if that makes sense.

I’ve pretty much come to terms with the fact that Penn isn’t happening but I really really really want USC you guys. Do you think I have a chance?

11

your EC’s are very weak for USC and other schools.

USC - accept/reject honestly it’s a 50/50 (I think you’re a great candidate but your EC’s are very sparse and USC is pretty big on EC’s along with NYU) If you look at the decisions thread for class of 2020 I noticed that a lot of them were really strong in that department

NYU - accept

chance me for usc?

12

Hey!! Valedictorian here too!

I think you are in NYU for sure. But on the other hand I find a big red flag in your stats: as a valedictorian, how did you get less than 750 on sat 2? In my class, the top 5 got more than 750 on three sat 2 tests (school tradition to write physics, maths and chem). Personally, I got 800 in everything. You should seriously consider rewriting the same tests, otherwise, the guys might doubt the competiton you are facing in school and may overlook your valedictorian status. Your sat 1 might be lower for upenn, but we could never say…
I think the rest is fine. IDK anything about USC

13

@softiestudies Thanks so much! I left out a lot of my ECs for the sake of privacy; the “little volunteer things” are like a slightly bigger deal than I made them seem lol. But even taking that into consideration, I think you’re right about them being kinda weak. Hopefully USC will take into consideration the lack of resources I have access to compared to someone from one of those rich counties in SoCal lol. Hope that doesn’t sound excuse-y, just being realistic y’know? Like, schools with more money tend to do better in debate because they can afford to buy more evidence, etc… sorry I’m rambling! I’ll try to chance you but I suck at it lol

@Thebestintheworld They would be right to doubt the competition because my school isn’t competitive lol. My scores on both the SAT I and the SAT II are comparable to those of everyone in the top, like, 5 maybe? The vast majority of people at my school did not even take any SAT IIs. Also, SAT IIs tend to be more compatible with AP curricula than IB curricula, and my curriculum is (obviously) more IB-oriented, so I had to decide at the last minute that I wasn’t prepared enough to take the biology one - just an example. Another example: I got a 570 on the Spanish SAT II but a 6 on the IB test. My school just doesn’t prepare students for the SAT II. Congrats on your scores and all, but remember that not everyone has access to the same resources you do :slight_smile:

Argh I wish I could tell you guys what school I go to without completely compromising my privacy lol. I wish I went to one of those schools that consistently sends kids to Ivies but I just don’t, unfortunately. And like, I understand that there are certain people who can push through and get 800s on their SAT IIs despite their circumstances, but let’s be real, it’s just not very common and I’m not a prodigy or anything lol. Just a person who could probably do better than she’s doing if she had access to more/better resources. :slight_smile: I just hope USC can recognize that like UCLA did.

14

Just thought I’d update y’all on my decisions…

Penn: waitlisted
NYU: waitlisted
USC: accepted for spring 2018!!! :slight_smile:

Also waitlisted at UCB and accepted at UCLA, UVA, W&M, and GMU! I’m thinking I’m probably gonna accept my place on Penn’s waitlist (not Berkeley or NYU though) and submit my intent to enroll for USC. Fight on!!! :slight_smile:

15

Hey again guys. Sorry to revive a dead thread, but I thought I would just give you guys one last update now that everything is finalized, in case anyone who wants to attend the schools listed above happens to stumble across this. Below is a c/p of my comment on the big “can more graduated seniors do ‘actual results’ threads?” thread:

Accepted:
-College of William & Mary (will be attending)
-University of Southern California (spring admission)
-University of California, Los Angeles
-University of Virginia
-George Mason University (Honors College)

Waitlisted:
-University of Pennsylvania (later rejected)
-University of California, Berkeley (did not accept place on waitlist)
-New York University (did not accept place on waitlist)

Rejected:
-Stanford University

I also applied to George Washington University, but they lost my transcript and never considered my application. I called them multiple times well before the submission deadline, but they never bothered to respond. Lol.

Major:
-Anthropology (first choice)
-Human Biology (second choice, where available)
-Biology (third choice, where available)
I also indicated interest in the pre-medical track where available

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1420 (760 reading/writing, 660 math); single sitting
ACT (breakdown): 31 (36E, 30M, 32R, 27S); single sitting
SAT II (place score in parentheses): Literature (710), Spanish w/o listening (570)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.98
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1

AP (place score in parentheses): in rough chronological order: World History (2), U.S. Government (4), Psychology (5), BC Calculus (1; AB subscore of 1 lol), U.S. History (4), English Language (5), English Literature (TBA), Biology (TBA)

IB (place score in parentheses): Spanish B SL (6), Anthropology SL (5)

Senior Year Course Load: IB English Literature HL, IB History of the Americas HL, IB Biology HL, IB Anthropology HL, IB Math Studies, IB Film SL, TOK (semester 1), Honors Debate (semester 2 - retaking at my teacher’s request so I can assist the newcomers)

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): these aren’t super major but:
-AP Scholar with Honor
-Quarterfinalist at VHSL Debate Championships

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses):
-Debate (Captain)
-Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (Vice President)
-Key Club (Social Media Manager - I run an Instagram page, lol)
-National Honor Society
-Mu Alpha Theta
-Girl Up

Job/Work Experience: N/A

Volunteer/Community Service:
-Organized a small fundraiser for local SPCA
-Junior volunteer program at local hospital
-Regular volunteer position as an exhibit interpreter at a local “science museum”… can’t be too specific here without losing my anonymity lol
-Lots of little things (blood drives, feeding-the-homeless-type events, etc.)

Summer Activities:
-VA Summer Residential Governor’s School for the Humanities
-EF Tour of Ecuador - made for a really cool essay that probably helped me get into UCLA lol

Essays (rating 1-10, details): Ehh, not going to give my essays numerical ratings, sorry. I worked very hard on all of them. Most were pretty “quirky” and a couple dealt with the kinds of “serious” topics people usually advise against writing about, but I made sure to tie them back into myself and my growth as a person. My Common App essay was about Governor’s School and how it helped me, you guessed it, grow as a person. My “why ___” essays were also pretty good, I think (I think my Why Penn essay is what got me waitlisted instead of rejected); my advice for those is to do your research and mention specific things about the college that the average Joe wouldn’t know so that adcoms know you’re interested… I think that the fact that I didn’t really do this for NYU might be why I got waitlisted instead of accepted, lol, so.

Teacher Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): Didn’t read, but I have very good relationships with all of my recommenders, so I’m assuming they were pretty good!

Counselor Rec (rating 1-10, details): see above

Additional Rec (rating 1-10, details): N/A

Interview: Stanford one was pretty ehh, Penn one was really good. A lot depends on your interviewer. Luckily, interviews don’t matter a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

Other
Applied for Financial Aid? Oho u bet ur buns I did
State (if domestic applicant): VA
School Type: Public (federally designated “low-income” public that qualifies for Title I, more specifically)
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: ~$40k now, but in 2015 my mom only made ~$19k so that’s what colleges saw
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I’m kinda poor lol? I would have been considered first gen until 2014, which is when my mom got her degree… so that would’ve been a boost, but hey, my mom has a degree (and crippling debt) now!

Reflection
Strengths: Essays (except the Why NYU essay lol), recommendations, Penn interview, GPA, rank
Weaknesses: TEST SCORES and lack of super major awards and super cool extracurriculars
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I mean, see above lol
General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: I was very close to choosing USC, one of my dream schools, over W&M, the school that gave me a full ride. Think very carefully when making this decision. Is your dream school worth the amount of debt it requires? If you find yourself ultimately leaning toward your dream school because you’re worried about other people’s opinions, please reconsider. I’m not in college yet, but I’m pretty sure you won’t care about those people’s opinions once you actually get to college. Also, please don’t pull a me and stress constantly over your applications once they’re submitted. What’s done is done. You are lovely and you will find your home. Good luck!