Demographics
Gender: F
Race/ethnicity: Black and Latina
Hooks: URM and First-gen
Intended major: Poli-sci/econ
Stats
GPA: 3.85 (upwards trend, 3.6 freshman year to 3.95 junior and senior year)
Full IB diploma, 4HLs 3SLs
Test optional because all tests were canceled for 2020 in my state
ECs
Intern for congressional campaign (12th)
Founder of fundraising organization for students in Latin America (11th-12th)
DECA member(11th-12th)
YMCA Youth and Government (11th-12th)
Varsity golf member (10th-12th)
Member of volunteer trip- yearly fundraising and work in the summer (10th-12th)
Family responsibilities- have to watch younger sibling after school, breaks, weekends, etc. Takes up most of my time (9th-current)
Volunteer tutor- Tutor kids in the summer and member of my school’s tutoring program(9th-12th)
(Paid jobs) After school babysitter (11th), Summer job as a secretary (9th-11th)
Member of youth team for congress member (12th)
(mentioned during interviews)Lobbying for bill in my state- weekly meetings and being in contact with state reps (12th)
Extra info
Extenuating circumstances- One of my parents and one of my grandparents passed away the summer before my freshman year.
Schools (Already got into safety and U of Richmond ea)
-UW
-Georgetown
-Vassar
-Boston College
-Boston University
-Tufts
-Barnard
-Fordham
-Macalester
-Northeastern
-American
-Williams
-Colgate
-USC
-Duke
-Brown
-Columbia
-Yale
-UPenn
-Dartmouth
I’m just trying to be realistic about my decision in March and April. Thank you guys!
Thank you! For more info I have a 4.4 w (I think, I had to self calculate), I took the hardest possible course load offered at my school (I took all the offered honors courses and I did full Ib plus an extra ib class and 4 HLs instead of 3). I also did research with a school advisor that connects to my perspective degree. And finally my school usually sends about 1-3 ib students each year to both Brown and Penn. Thanks again:)
I would modify slightly - I think there may be one admit in the last group of Duke + Ivies, and at least one among the WAITLISTs will be an ADMIT, but I also think that a couple of the group of Northeastern, BU, BC, USC, Tufts, and Colgate may be WAITLIST or DENY.
In any case, I am pretty certain that there will be at least 4 or 5 admits, aside from UW, American, and Fordham.
I would recommend, though, that you save your mental and emotional energy for when you need to choose which college to attend. You’ve done all that you could for admissions, and now it’s time to move on to the next stage.
imo you have a good number of hooks and good stats too, you would have a shot at some unis in the T-20 fs but it’s all unpredictable after a certain point - essays, fit, the class dynamic
Update: I was losing a lot of hope because I got waitlisted at Bc, Northeastern, BU, and American… but I got into Williams College, USC, and Tufts!! Still waiting on Barnard, Vassar, Duke, and the ivys
Somebody at American must have had a bad hangover or something (I’m being nice here), because I simply cannot imagine why an applicant with your profile wasn’t accepted.
The rest fall within the weirdness of applications at colleges with low acceptance rates. Still, you have some great acceptances, and I think that you would have a difficult time deciding between the colleges where you have been admitted. In any case, i would have recommended that you would select any of the colleges where you have been accepted over the colleges which waitlisted you.
In all honesty, I would generally recommend Williams over any of the rest except Georgetown, since you are interested in poli-sci. However, prestige does matter in Poli Sci, so if you are accepted to one of the Ivies, they may be a better choice, long term.
A lot of schools waitlist bc they can guess by stats of some students that they will likely not attend their school so give the spot to someone who perhaps may accept. For example, one student I know got into Cornell, Notre Dame but waitlisted at Tulane and BC