URGENT!My counselor is sending a letter to admissions office regarding my app? HELP?!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
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<p>I am sorry for spamming different forums with the same thread, but this is really important to me.</p>

<p>So, I am an international student and my school has never send any kids to a US college for undergrad. infact, i am amongst the only 3 people in a class of 250+ who is applying to colleges in US. However, i belong to a country which is literally “feeding” students to the ivies and other top institutes. </p>

<p>My counselor, whom i have known since i joined the school, really wants me to get into one of top unis in States(obviously, who wouldnt) and my application as a whole looks great as well. only one major drawback? i have a 26 (27 Super-scoring, if they do that) in the ACTs, but fairly decent Subject test scores (790 in one of 'em). i have good essays (reviewed and critiqued by present college students and many others), in the top 2% of the class, gooooood EC records, great LORs, etc.
BUT THAT ACT SCORE!
so i told my counselor, who is like friend to me, about this score and that shall crumble my entire app since that score isnt even in the lower 25% of the scores that the college class of 2016 had (of top unis); source- college profiles. infact, i read, that top 20 colleges in US had just 1% applicants with a score below 28 (ACT) and i told this to my counselor. </p>

<p>He has already sent a recommendation letter as a counselor, however, today he told me that he will be emailing the colleges and request them to have a careful look at my application?
obviously colleges do their best job possible and sometime tend to overlook one bad score and that counselor sending a letter to the adcoms shall not make a difference but only annoy them more. My counselor, however, really wants to send this letter to request them to have a scrupulous look at my application and tell them that i am amongst the best students the school has every produced and bla-bla, stuff like that, which, i think, he has already sent in the LOR. he said, he will also be adding stuff like saying that standardized testing don’t really portray myself as a proper candidate, but my grades and my ECs show that i am a good candidate for their college and more such stuff on similar lines?! I am pretty sure he’ll definitely send that, even if i request him not to?!</p>

<p>so, the question is, will the adcoms read such email and pay heed to it? or will it annoy them? will it make them skip that one terrible part of my app or like, have a proper look at my app as whole? or make ANY difference? will that letter/email matter much?
or should i ask my counselor to not send it and somehow convince him that it’ll only decrease my chances? or just let him send anyway? :X</p>

<p>[edit: dont be like, oh they’ll overlook that score. well, coz they wont!. just please suggest?]</p>

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<p>This is an interesting situation haha…I wish I knew the answer. </p>

<p>Sent from my XT907 using CC</p>

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<p>I think it is okay to send it… because your ACT score is VERY low for any of the Ivies. Not sure if you applied to any schools where your score is more in the 50% range, but honsestly… this email could add a teensy bit of help. But you need to be prepared to not be accepted to any Ivy league or top colleges. Hopefully you applied to a match or two and a safety as well.</p>

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<p>In this case, you have nothing to lose with the addl letter. How did you do in the sub areas of the ACT? Ie, for the major you indicated on the app?</p>

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<p>@intparent. i am prepared to get rejected from almost everyplace I applied to :\ i applied to ivies, Duke, Williams, Middlebury, Amherst, Colby, WPI (Accepted EA2) and northeastern (Accepted EA). My list comprises of just the highhhhhh reaches, but i made that decision with all conscious. I will only be attending the top institutes, because of my parents.</p>

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<p>@lookingforward- i will be a science major (Biology), and i did fairly well on the ACT Science section (28 Section score).</p>

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<p>I expect you most likely will be attending Colby, WPI, or Northeastern… Middlebury is possible. Unless you have a hook that is not clear from your original post.</p>

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<p>For the record, the 25th percentile ACT composite scores for the colleges you mention are as follows:</p>

<p>WPI: 27
Colby: 28
Northeastern: 28
Brown: 29
Amherst: 30
Dartmouth: 30
Duke: 30
Cornell: 30
Middlebury: 30
University of Pennsylvania: 30
Williams: 30
Harvard: 31
Princeton: 31
Yale: 31
Columbia: 32</p>

<p>Congrats on WPI and Northeastern. Those are very good options for you, especially considering that you were in the bottom quartile of applicants at both schools.</p>

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<p>Right… just so the OP does not misunderstand this, though. The 25% percentile and below is almost entirely made up of students with a “hook” (athlete, under represented minority, legacy, etc).</p>

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<p>^^^what you said. Although we don’t know what country the OP is from, so he/she could be a URM.</p>

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<p>I don’t think the letter from your counselor is going to hurt you, but I doubt it is going to help that much either. Your application will really stand on what it is so far. The only way it might make much difference is if the admissions committee at what ever schools his/her letter is received by has a long standing (at least a few years) record of working with that counselor. It will also help if students from your school have attended that college before to use as a comparison for how you measure up in potential to do well at college. In addition, hopefully the counselor has not written the same letter every year about some student, so that it really carries some weight when he or she goes out of their way to write a letter like this.
From your post, while you have very good English skills, you are not yet at the level of true fluid fluency. That might be what is reflected in your “lower” ACT score, and if so that is actually better than if your score is the result of a weaker academic background or potential than the top US high school students. However,the very top schools you are applying to (Ivies etc.) do seem to take mainly foreign students who are already more fluent in English.(Consider that you will have exams where you will have to write in English, without anyone’s help in correcting them.) Congratulations on the schools you have been accepted to, and you may want to consider that a school where you can relax a bit, while becoming fully and easily fluent may give you a better education.</p>

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<p>@arcadia, i am not a URM, i checked.</p>

<p>@intparent, i am in love with Middlebury and will happily enroll there, that is, when they accept me.
theres nothing much i can do right now.
i read that hooks for international student’s dont usually work. if they do, what all can be considered a hook, again?</p>

<p>@brownalumparent, thank you for your response. however, i may not be at a perfect, true, fluid fluent in English skills, but i dont take any help to write english and hence, writing assignments and exams would definitely not be a problem.</p>

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<p>^^^my first post showed that Middlebury’s ACT scores are on par with other top LACs and the same or better than some Ivys. I’m not sure why intparent thinks you have a better shot there than at the other schools you mention.</p>

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<p>^i Know right? I am so not bound to any top institute! (._.)</p>