Vanderbilt!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I feel that I am a very qualified applicant for Vanderbilt, except for my SAT score, which is alright. Anyway, I'm hoping somebody can tell me if the rest of my app outweights the damage my SAT score may cause me.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.78 uw out of 4.0, 3.96 weighted
School does not rank (probably not top 10%, more like top 25%; school is VERY competitive private with only 90 kids per grade)
6 APs by graduation--taken 4 so far, all 5's
Rigorous schedule</p>

<p>SAT:
670V 610M 800W (12/12 essay)
Writing is my strength, and I believe it will be apparent in my essays and grades in English/creative writing classes. My intended major will be Communications or English.</p>

<p>SAT IIs:
630 Math IC (ouch)
700 US History
730 Bio
700 French
taking Lit in October.</p>

<p>EC's:
-Football Team Head Statician - 9, 10, 11, 12
-Basketball Team Manager - 9, 10
-Girls' Volleyball - 9, won Best Sportsmanship
-Girls' Water Polo - 11, 12, 2 Varsity Letters, Captain
-Girls' Swim - 11, 12, 2 Varsity Letters
-Girls' Cross Country - 12
-French Club - 9, 10, 11, 12, VP (maybe?)
-Teen Leader at Catholic Church - 11, 12
-Teacher's Aid/Senior Leader American Lit - 12
-Student Senate Morning Meeting Planning Committe/Emcee - 11, 12</p>

<p>I hope to write my essay or somehow otherwise explain that I joined no sports teams in 9 and 10th grade for a fear of failure after I was terrible at volleyball (as you can see, I only played one year). Motivated mostly by envy of my friends' sports team sweats and unique sports team experiences, I finally overcame that fear to play water polo and ended up LOVING it, and went on to play 2 more sports.</p>

<p>Work/Volunteer Experience:
-Summer Camp Counselor/Swim Instructor for PreSchoolers and Kindergarteners - 2 Summers, approx. 40 hrs/wk for 10 weeks each summer
-Teen Leader for my Church (mentioned also in EC's)</p>

<p>Awards and Regocnition:
French Honor Society, Dean's List (3.7 w GPA or above) all 6 semesters of high school, National Merit Scholarship Qualifier/hopefully semi-finalist or finalist (don't know what happened on the SATs :/), National French Contest Chapter Winner</p>

<p>I will have great rec's from teachers that I have close relationships with. I interview quite well and my essays should be good.</p>

<p>Sorry that was so longwinded. So my SAT scores rule my out of all top 10 school admissions, or do I have enough strengths to overcome them? I am retaking it with lots of study, by the way, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high for the math.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I'm pretty impressed with your EC's... I think you should be very proud of yourself. I think that you have a pretty decent chance.</p>

3

<p>well except for ur SATs as u said they look all right. If ur asian u r an URM there btw.</p>

4

<p>Unfortunately, a top 10 school would be pretty much impossible at present. The volumn and quality of applications is such that they could fill the class over and over not having to make exception for someone with weak stats in a major area of consideration. If you have the bucks, take major SAT classes, scores can be raised lots.</p>

5

<p>That writing score will look cool, but won't help as much as raising your Math and/or Verbal. A lot of schools will be taking those two sections, combining them, and looking at that composite. Solid Vandy applicants will have high 1300s to mid 1400s. You're standing at a 1280, which is in the bottom 1/4 of the class that was admitted this year. Your ECs better pull through or you may have a tough time.</p>

6

<p>On a lighter note, I'm applying to vandy as well, and your ECs intimidate me :)</p>

7

<p>Yeah, I'm definately working to pull the M/CR scores up. I have a tutor and I'm studying several hours a week. I am National Merit Scholar Commended on the PSATs, and Vandy sent me a letter saying that if I made finalist, I would be eligible for a scholarship! That has to look good, right? Shows that I just had a bad day on the SATs. Let's pray I make finalist. :)</p>

<p>Anyway, I was browsing the website and Vanderbilt is opening a new Creative Writing major in their grad school--some SOMEBODY there has to care a good deal about writing!</p>

8

<p>How do u make finalist if your Commended? I do believe you must be top 1/2% (Semi Finalist to be considered for Finalist). I love your EC's Though!</p>

9

<p>I believe the top 34,000 (out of 1.4 million) people are commended. Of those, the top 16,000 are semifinalists and the top 15,000 are finalists. I did quite well on my PSATs, 780 CR, 800 writing, 690 math.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php#commended%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php#commended&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

10

<p>asians are NOT urms at vandy. we have a 7 something percent asian student body and all the ones i've talked to so far have been valedictorians.</p>