URM Chances at Columbia, UChi, Reed

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello, I'm posting final chances now that I've got all my test scores in. I'm certainly willing to chance you back, if you'd like, just let me know. </p>

<p>I see my primary weakness as UW GPA, and I want to know if my other factors mitigate this enough to make Columbia feasible enough to apply ED, as well as chances to other schools on my list. Thank you very much in advance.</p>

<p>African-American Male</p>

<p>Objective Stats:
GPA<br>
-3.6 UW, academic courses only (upward trend = 3.78 Jr. Year)
-3.97 W</p>

<p>Rank
-9\95</p>

<p>SAT I
-2250 Combined
-1450 CR\M
-780 CR
-670 M
-800 W</p>

<p>SAT II
-800 U.S. History
-790 Literature
-740 Biology M</p>

<p>APs
-EngLit-5 (Self-Studied)
-EngLang-5
-APUSH-5
-Bio-5</p>

<p>Other Stuff
-Small Private Christian School (~100 kids per class)
-Sends about 3-4 kids to top schools every year
-Literally the most difficult courseload in my school's 10 year history</p>

<p>ECs\Awards
Theater
-Three Shows a Year (huge time commitment: 8-10hrs\wk, 20+ wks\year)
-International Thespian Society Individual Event Competition
-Two-time National Qualifier
-African-American Read-In (featured role on one of the largest stages in my city)
-Officer in my school's theater troupe
-Co-writing and Co-directing the student-run revue show this upcoming spring.</p>

<p>*TAPPS Academic Competition<a href="like%20UIL,%20but%20private%20schools">/i</a>
-Regional winner (Literary Criticism)
-State 3rd Place (Literary Criticism)
-Two time state qualifier (Ready Writing)</p>

<p>*Future Problem Solving<a href="writingresearch%20competition">/i</a>
-Two-time state qualifier
-2nd Place at State Scenario Writing competition</p>

<p>Band
-Concert Band 3yrs
-Pep Band 4yrs</p>

<p>Poetry
-Entered Kenyon and Princeton writing competitions
-Including Short Sample as Supp. Materials</p>

<p>National Spanish Exam
-Silver Medal Winner (92nd percentile)
-Gold Medal Winner (97th percentile)</p>

<p>Work Experience:
-Two summer-long internships, one in the TV Dept. of a local “megachurch,” one at my father’s company
-Wrote ad campaign for one of their conferences
-Wrote marketing materials for father’s A\V company
-Miscellaneous writing (short commercials, church announcements, reports, client emails, etc.)
-Miscellaneous Freelance Video (positions include production manager, live shoot director, spotlight operator)
-Submitting a reel of my work</p>

<p>**Schools<a href="not%20all%20the%20ones%20on%20my%20list,%20but%20the%20ones%20I'm%20concerned%20with%20chances%20for">/b</a>:</p>

<p>Yale University (is this worth an app at all?)
Columbia University (ED?)
University of Chicago
Northwestern University (applying to school of communications)
Johns Hopkins University
Southern Methodist University (applying to theater program)
Reed College
Kenyon College</p>

2

<p>Cool, a fellow Texan (my school is in TAPPS too). Anyway, these are your chances.</p>

<p>Yale University - Reach, but I wouldn't be surpised if you got in.
Columbia University - (ED) Good chance.
University of Chicago - Low Reach
Northwestern University - Low Reach
Johns Hopkins University - Low Reach
Southern Methodist University - Safety
Reed College - Match
Kenyon College - Match</p>

<p>You'd be in at all if you had a better GPA, but still great chances. Good Luck!</p>

3

<p>Yale University -yes, apply...its a crapshoot, but weird things happen with HYP....mid-high reach
Columbia University - i would ED University of Chicago, but u are a strong candidate for Columbia (low reach)
University of Chicago-low reach/match
Northwestern University-match
Johns Hopkins University-match
Southern Methodist University (applying to theater program)-safety
Reed College-safety
Kenyon College-safety</p>

<p>IMPROVE GPA....it is very low, since W is 3.97 and should be over 4 for the ivys, but other than that write a killer essay, have great recs....and u're in at most if not all. good luck</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the chances! Yeah, I'm going to work really hard senior year on the GPA to see if I can't improve my chances at really tough schools. </p>

<p>@bigweight. I'm worried about the W GPA as well. On the other hand, that W GPA is based on my schools weighting system, in which you have to have an A+ for a 4.0, and an A- is a 3.5, etc., so hopefully I have a 4.0 in the scale where an A is a 4.0 and an A- is a 3.7. I believe that scale is more common, but I don't know for sure. Can anyone confirm\deny?</p>

<p>I'd love to hear any more opinions. Thanks in advance.</p>

5

<p>I'm going to be honest, and please don't be offended. The fact that you are African American will be a huge boost. I'd say that although some of them are reaches, you have a good chance at every single one, including Columbia and Yale.</p>

<p>And your weighting doesn't make any sense to me. Weighted courses should be worth more grade points, but it seems like they are worth almost the same. Seems unusual, so you can't really compare to people with 4.6s and 4.4s. The colleges should know what your school is doing.</p>

6

<p>Great shot at all of the universities, considering URM status</p>

<p>Wouldn't be surprised if you got into Yale EA (i say 50% chance, but i'm just guessing...)</p>

7

<p>@jptoor-AH! Sorry, I completely failed at explaining my school's weighting system. Sorry. That A+=4.0 and so on is the basic system that my school uses, and then they add weighting on top of that. honors = +.5, AP = +1.0. Wow, I explained that really poorly. Thanks for the chances. I don't want to rely too heavily on URM stuff, but I know that it'll make an impact; thanks for being honest, and I'm not offended at all. </p>

<p>@azngod1992, thanks for the chances.</p>

8

<p>no you are not a reach chicago, JHU, and northwestern- id say your a low reach/ high match</p>

<p>definitely apply to yale- u have as good a shot as anyone</p>

9

<p>Results:</p>

<p>Applied ED to Columbia College and EA to University of Chicago. Accepted ED to Columbia College, and I'll post when I find out about UofC EA, although I'm obviously going to Columbia!</p>

<p>I hope that my results provide a little bit of encouragement to people who aren't perfect academically, i.e., those of us without 3.9-4.0UW GPAs. I'd be the first to say that I don't have the best transcript in the world. But I think that I've worked hard to develop my intellectual capabilities, and I've pursued theater and writing wholeheartedly throughout high school. That really counts for something with colleges. Of course, I'll confess that it also doesn't hurt that I'm a URM applying to one of the most diverse colleges in the nation. But if I just had my transcript without significant passions, I doubt even that would have been enough to get me in.</p>

<p>Also, I submitted a ten-page writing sample with my application which included six poems that I wrote, and some of the commercials and marketing materials that I've written over the years. I know colleges discourage supplemental material, but I feel that in a case like mine, where I didn't have any awards for my writing (although I believe that it is of high quality), submitting the supplement helped give definite shape to my professional work as a writer and (hopefully) demonstrate my current skill and potential development as a poet. So, the moral of the story is, don't be afraid of supplements, but make sure you have a specific purpose for including them in your app; they have to tell a part of your story that isn't told elsewhere. I think that my supplement really helped my application.</p>

10

<p>Yale University (is this worth an app at all?)- yes, worth an app
Columbia University- reach (as it is for anyone)
University of Chicago- low reach
Northwestern University (applying to school of communications)- match
Johns Hopkins University- match
Southern Methodist University (applying to theater program)- IN
Reed College- IN
Kenyon College- IN</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/612877-please-help-chance-me-i-m-nervous.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/612877-please-help-chance-me-i-m-nervous.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>