Vanderbilt Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
1

Hi guys…I posted this in the ED thread but I thought it would be more appropriate to post it here. Sorry if this is poorly formatted…I’m absolutely in love with Vanderbilt, and it has been my dream school since I was about 12 years old. I’m also applying ED1.

SAT: N/A
SAT II: N/A
ACT: 30 (Math: 21, Reading: 34, Science: 28, English: 36)

GPA (Unweighted) - 3.46 (Weighted) - 4.03 (NOTE: my classes are all honors or AP, and I had one slip up with a C in pre-cal. Everything else looks stellar, and my AP classes all have 100s or near 100s. I’m also like the 2nd highest ranked black male in my school, I may be the 1st but there’s one guy who rivals me)
Class Rank: 154 out 506
Attending: Public School in Tennessee (NOTE: my school is the most highly regarded public school in Tennessee and has an insane amount of competition at the top; just this year we had 18 of the 22 national merit semi-finalists in the entire city…)

AP scores:
Psychology (4)
Language (4)
Seminar (3)

Senior Year Courses:
AP Government
AP Japanese (NOTE: I have been taking japanese classes since the 6th grade)
AP Research
AP Literature
Honors Physics
Honors Intro to College Math
Honors Economics/Study Hall (Teacher’s Assistant for AP Language)

Extracurriculars:

  1. School Magazine (10th - 12th) one year as regular staff, one year as social media director, current year as editor
    (NOTE: i made it my mission to save our school’s magazine bc it had fallen into obscurity after 52 years; even some admins had forgotten it existed, so i worked really hard to get it back on track these last 3 years. we host coffeehouses monthly to create a space for student expression, and celebrate student art/writing/etc in our yearly magazine)
  2. college prep program designed to help underrepresented kids get opportunities outside of the city (10th - 12th)
    (NOTE: i am on this programs student executive board, and I was selected to do a special program where I helped lead 9 bright kids on a wilderness expedition for 2 weeks. many of them hadn’t ever left the city and i had to step up and be their role model. now I meet with these kids monthly and help mentor them through their freshman year of highschool to make sure they stay on the right path)
  3. Student Council Executive Board, Senior Commissioner of Activities (12th) (i organize all events for the senior class including community service and work with the administrators and class officers to help push policies/petitions. the presidents and the sponsor say I’m the best senior commissioner in the last 4 years)
  4. Church Soccer (from 9th to 11th grade I played a season every fall; had to stop because of how busy my senior year was)
  5. Work (Party Bus; my sister’s dad took a bus and recreated it. He knew I needed help with money so he offered me a job to manage the consoles on the bus; i’ve been working weekends and partial summers there since 9th grade.)
  6. Japanese Club (9th -12th) (we interact with exchange students and learn and celebrate japanese language/culture)
  7. a leadership organization designed to help keep young black boys on track, help them succeed to college, and help them become leaders within their community. lots of community service through this organization. (11th/12th)
  8. links organization - this is actually for women but they created a special section that has an emphasis on black male youth because theres a big problem with them not succeeding in my area; they help us with leadership as well.

Volunteer:

  1. Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 11th/12th
  2. local zoo’s halloween function 11th
  3. school’s green team, cleaning the school and collecting recyling every week 11th (had to stop because student council took the slot)
  4. Martin luther king jr day of service cleaning up the poorer portion of the city 11th (plan on doing it this year as well)

Honors:
National Honors Society (11th/12th)
Distinguished Honor Roll (9th - present)
Citizenship Award (9th - present)
Honorable Mention in Tennessee’s Letters About Literature
AP Scholar

How I Spent my Summers:

  1. Vanderbilt Summer Academy (writing course) , local college honors camp, local high school’s honors camp (writing course) (2014)
  2. Vanderbilt Summer Academy (writing course), Rhodes College Summer Writing Institute, Kenyon Young Writers Workshop (2015) (NOTE: i was gone almost all summer doing all of this)
  3. Vanderbilt Summer Academy (writing course), Deer Hill Expeditions (this was the expedition thing I was talking about) (2016)

Race: African American
Sex: Male
First Generation College: No, mother went to college. Father dropped out of college and is currently unemployed. I rarely see him.
Family Income: 61k
Household: 3 (my mom, my sis, and me)
Intended Major: Sociology
Hooks: URM, single parent household, love for writing/expression(?)

2

shameless bump

3

guess people aren’t really all that helpful here? it’s cool it’s cool

4

I would say you have solid chances for EDI; I think you’ll probably get in. Good ACT for a hooked applicant, solid ec’s, and good that you spent all that time at the summer academies, which shows you know what the campus is like. Just make sure to write good essays and have good letters of rec.

You might be getting less responses because a lot of what is strong about your app are the “soft” factors that are harder to quantify numerically. Although no less important, it can be harder for people to make a determination based off of them without actually seeing your full app.

5

I think his ACT is a little bit low even for a hooked applicant.

That being said, I think he has a 60/40 shot of getting in ED 1.

6

@AnnieBot @fdgjfg thank you to both of you! I’m hoping my October ACT went a bit better…if not, then I hopefully do well in my interview.

7

Vandy is now a reach for everyone. Your ACT and ACT math scores are outside their 25-75 range and they like students in the top 10% of their class. Otherwise you have a strong application. Write a great letter and stress your love of writing/expression. This may help separate you from the masses of pre-med & engineering apps.

8

Check Naviance if you have it. For our school, it seems to be a safety for anyone in top 10% or with SAT over 2300.

9

@bud123 I hope I do stand out, I know there’s tons of STEM people but not as many people like me (at least I’m pretty sure)

10

thank you all that helped ease my anxiousness–I truly appreciate it! I have come to terms (finally) with the reality of my poor chances, but it never hurts to dream!

11

I don’t know what their GPA was but I’ve met/know 30-33 ACT kids at Vandy who applied ED1 and got in

It helps you have a bunch of hooks. I don’t know how they evaluate income but you could qualify as low income which would be a plus for your app

I’d say you have a shot esp since you applied ED

12

At my son’s school the only admissions to Vanderbilt were 35/36 on the ACT. No information about ED vs RD. About 40% of the class are minorities. You need to check Naviance to see if your GPA/SAT band is acceptable to Vanderbilt. They are very data driven.

13

@Suffer I know there’s a small chance! I’m just not expecting very much at this point. As @TooOld4School mentioned, at some schools they only take 35/36 candidates. I will live and move on I suppose