<p>I just learned today that i was waitlisted at BC. Im concerned because ive yet to hear back from other schools, and i fear that my decision from BC foreshadows the decision i will get from other schools. What do you guys think my chances at vandy are, given this and my reseme. Please be honest, and dont feel bad if you think i dont have a chance.</p>
<p>AP english: B
AP CALculus AB: B-
AP History: A-
Spanish: B
Honors Chemistry: b+ </p>
<p>Midyear Senior: </p>
<p>Ap English: A-
AP Stats: A-
Ap Econ: B+
Honors Physics: B+
Ap Spanish: b+ </p>
<p>I go to a very competive prep school. All these grades are not weighted. I think my courseload is amoung the top 10 percent of my class. My overall grades/ courseload qualifies for the top 25-30 percent. There is no class rank in my school. </p>
<p>SAT info: </p>
<p>Math: 760
Verbal: 620 </p>
<p>SAt 2 MAth 2c: 660
Sat 2 Writing:620
Sat 2 History:660 </p>
<p>Extracuriculars: </p>
<p>Editor of the School Newspaper and Literary Magazine
School Tour Guide
Member of 3 clubs (debate, a community service club, and Math)
4 years on the cross country team ( running)
2 years on the ski team
4 years concert band
i attended a harvard/stanford summer school programs for hs students in between my softomore and junior years:
Grades: Harvard, Goverment B, Pre-Calc B-
Stanford, Linear Alebra and Calc: Pass, Human Physciology: B
I designed a website for my church's school </p>
<p>ejed02 - I've been helping my son with his application process - happened to see your post - my recommendation is not to let BC upset you - you did get waitlisted - a lot more people get rejected. Putting someone on the waitlist is very tough for college admissions officers since these are people they know are fully qualified for their school. I think you have a good shot at Vanderbilt. I think Vanderbilt is a backup for a lot of Ivy applicants and the admissions office has to think about yield. </p>
<p>By the way I'm thinking about sending my daughter to the Stanford Summer program - was it worthwhile for you?? fun?</p>
<p>thanks for you insight. I hope your right about Vandy! I really like the school, and i know i would be happy going there. </p>
<p>As for the stanford summer program, i had a really good time at the program. I met alot of new kids from all around, and got to take some cool courses. The program itself, offers alot of cool opportunities for HS juniors. Despite the fact there is a curfew, and you have to check in with student advisor b/f you left san pablo, its almost like going to college for 2 months. It was really cool.The year before that i did a summer program at harvard. It was really similar to the one at stanford, but there was alot less group activities planed. At the stanford program almost daily there was trips to San Fran, San Cruz, baseball games, ect....At harvard you did stuff on you own with friends. I actually had a better time at the harvard one, but thats probally because im a new englander :). Either way, i totally recommended your daughter try one of those programs.</p>
<p>Boston College is the most popular school to apply to out of my HS. Out of a class of 170 kids around 45 applied there. Needless to say, many people got rejected. Several of them still got into top 20 schools.</p>
<p>i'd say your grades are a bit low, kind of erratic (there doesn't seem to be much consistency.) But since there seems to be a positive trend in your grades, they might overlook some of the C's you got. Your SATs are good for Vandy and your ECs are very good, so I'd say you have a relatively good shot of getting in. But I wouldn't call you a shoe-in.</p>
<p>Until your senior year, you have as many C grades as A grades. My guess is that Vanderbilt would be a reach, but not out of the question. Good luck. What are your safety or match schools?</p>
<p>BU generally has a better faculty than UCONN and BC. I would choose BU over UCONN or BC in any event. Cornell is very difficult to get into, but NYU is probably a little easier than Cornell, though not much.</p>
<p>Good luck. You are already accepted into an excellent school.</p>
<p>to clear it up...or if you're just weird and interested in words like me</p>
<p>[Q] From Holly Young: I love your site and have found it most helpful in many instances. I was wondering if you could possibly find out the origin of the term shoe in, meaning someone will win for sure.
[A] This one is spelled wrongly so often that its likely it will eventually end up that way. The correct form is shoo-in, usually with a hyphen. It has been known in that spelling and with the meaning of a certain winner from the 1930s. It came from horse racing, where a shoo-in was the winner of a rigged race.
In turn that seems to have come from the verb shoo, meaning to drive a person or an animal in a given direction by making noises or gestures, which in turn comes from the noise people often make when they do it.
The shift to the horse racing sense seems to have occurred sometime in the early 1900s. C E Smith made it clear how it came about in his Racing Maxims and Methods of Pittsburgh Phil in 1908: There were many times presumably that Tod would win through such manipulations, being shooed in, as it were.</p>
<p>ejed- I think you have a good chance if you are not from TN, TX or some state that has a high number of applicants that apply to Vanderbilt. Your scores are fine. Unless your essay is mediocre, it will probably end up based on:
1. Your location-how many people applied from your state, school, etc, and how you compare to them and the cap they plan to accept from that state/school.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Are you male or female? If you are a girl and applied to engineering, you will most likely get in even with 1200 SAT score. </p></li>
<li><p>How much interest you showed. Did you contact the regional rep? Do they have any sort of record that indicated your strong interest?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Scores 1200 and above are fine at Vanderbilt. Grades don't have to be spectacular as long as your courses are challenging and top 10% of class would be safe. Essays are important. They mark your mistakes in red and count the number of mistakes you make. That's what I heard, not for certain. Extracurriculars are very important. Vanderbilt likes well-rounded students. They are not really into the nerds that are just know how to make high grades and get high scores. When you think of Vanderbilt people, think gorgeous on the outside, very intelligent with high social skills (strong leadership), and strong athletic ability.</p>
<p>I forgot to add, they also check how well previous students from your school did. Also, if you have relatives/siblings that went there, they also check how well your relatives/siblings did at Vandy.</p>