What are my chances of getting in?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
1

<p>Hey everyone.</p>

<p>Here are some details about me:</p>

<p>Nationality - Indian
Gender - Male</p>

<p>I went through a CBSE high school. While not as internationally recognized as the IB or not as supposedly tough as the ICSE board, CBSE is supposed to be quite demanding and intense.</p>

<p>Class 10/Sophomore Year - 95.4%
1. English - 91
2. Sanskrit - 99
3. Math - 98
4. Science - 95
5. Social Sciences - 94</p>

<p>Class 12/Senior Year - 87.4%
1. English - 95
2. Computer Science - 95
3. Math - 86
4. Chemistry - 84
5. Physics - 77</p>

<p>SAT Reasoning Test - 2280/2400
1. Math - 780/800
2. Critical Reading - 770/800
3. Writing - 730/800</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests - English Lit: 760/800 and Math (Level 2): 790/800</p>

<p>TOEFL - 120/120</p>

<p>Extra-curricular activities:</p>

<ol>
<li>A total of 4 first prizes in debate/extempore/speech events in high school.</li>
<li>Participated in the school's Table Tennis and Soccer teams. Have certificates.</li>
<li>Very, VERY highly ranked in two international-level Olympiads - one English, the other Cyber (by a privately-run organization, though.)</li>
<li>Doing a writing internship with AOL India at the moment. Will be doing it for some time.</li>
<li>Am teaching street kids in an organization. Will have logged in 50hrs by the time applications are due.</li>
</ol>

<p>I plan to study English there, by the way. Alongwith a minor/something in Film & Media Studies.</p>

<p>So, thoughts? Please be honest!</p>

2

<p>Bump, please! </p>

<p>Also, the above post doesn’t really all my bases that well. So, I’m pasting a reformatted version below this. Kindly assess my chances from that -</p>

<hr>

<p>Hello, </p>

<p>Here are a few details about me -</p>

<p>Nationality: Indian
Gender: Male</p>

<p>I went through a CBSE high school. While not as internationally recognized as the IB or not as supposedly tough as the ICSE board, CBSE is supposed to be quite demanding and intense.</p>

<p>Sophomore Year - 95.4% (English: 91, overall school topper)</p>

<p>Junior Year - 78.4% (Rigor of course increased DRASTICALLY. A dip in the scores in this year is par for the course in Indian education systems) [Please see the PS to this post]</p>

<p>Senior Year - 87.4% (Topped the high school in English: 95)</p>

<p>SAT Reasoning Test - 2280/2400 (CR: 770, M: 780, W: 730)</p>

<p>SAT II - English Lit: 760, Math Level 2: 790</p>

<p>TOEFL iBT - 120/120</p>

<p>I already graduated from high school in May 2011 and hope to enroll in colleges from the Fall 2012 session. Right now, I’m taking a gap year. I moved out of my parents’ house, came to a new city and started living alone. Basically, my parents were always hesitant about sending me to a far-away country to live by myself at the age of 18 itself. This was sort of acid test to prove my independence to them. Now, while living alone, I am volunteering at a nearby orphanage for street kids. I teach them, play with them and hang out with them. Should have 50 hours by application time.</p>

<p>I am also writing for AOL India. I don’t have to go to office or anything like that. I sit at home, write articles and submit it to them. The articles are posted on their site and I get a stipend + byline credit.</p>

<p>Here are some other ECs I could put in my application. These are the ones I had in high school:</p>

<ol>
<li>INDIVIDUAL: Four first prizes in intra-city debate/extempore/speech competitions. </li>
<li>TEAM: Two first prizes in debate competitions (one was Rotary Club’s intra-city, one was inter-city)</li>
<li>OLYMPIADS: Ranked 4th Worldwide in International Olympiad of the English Language. Ranked 274th in the country in National Cyber Olympiad.</li>
</ol>

<p>I wish to major in English, by the way. With a planned minor/emphasis/concentration is either Creative Writing/Communications or Film (depending on what the college has, among other factors)</p>

<p>So, please tell me my chances. How much will they be affected if I apply Early Decision/Action? How much will it affect my chances if I ask for need-based aid? (I won’t ask for it if the acceptance rate reduces drastically).</p>

<p>PS - I know my Junior Year grades will raise eyebrows. But, in the Indian education system, it’s par for the course for Junior Year grades to be much lower than Sophomore Year (because the school holds the exam in the former, whereas the board holds it in the latter) and the rigor of my workload increased DRASTICALLY. That still doesn’t excuse my low score, I know.</p>

<p>But the thing is, I’m going to address this in my Common App essay. Junior Year started with a death in the family and a fracture in my right (and dominant) hand. Both these things had a huge impact on me. I was meek and indecisive and ended up studying subjects picked by my parents and, surprise, I was neither passionate about them nor talented in them. I’m going to write my essay on how all these things debilitated my performance a great deal and brought me down. But they also taught me life lessons (even if it was the hard way) and how they helped me grow as an individual. And that’s how I’m going to find a spot to explain my uptick in Senior Year scores.</p>

3

<p>Swarthmore admissions is extremely competitive even for applicants with great SATs and top grades. You will need to understand what differentiates the college from other LACs and undergraduate university-based programs, and make a compelling argument for why you want to attend (the “Why Swarthmore” essay is actually really important). You have a shot.</p>

4

<p>Bright and successful students are a dime a dozen at Swarthmore. Higher grades or a higher SAT score than you have would not increase your chance of acceptance. You’re fine with the grades, so the really important thing for you is the Why Swarthmore essay.</p>

5

<p>Okay, so what you guys are saying that my statistical profile exists in the “safe” region, but because this is the 3rd best LAC in the country, there are tons of others in the “safe” region too…and hence, my admission just depends on how much I can stand out to the officers with my essay.</p>

<p>I got that right, didn’t I?</p>

<p>By the way, what do the admissions officers expect in the “Why Swarthmore?” essay? I mean, in the Common App essay you’re supposed to reveal more about yourself and everything, cool, but in this essay are you just supposed to wax eloquent about how great the college is and how much you could o if you just got one chance to study there?</p>

6

<p>lazygarfield,
I see that you have posted the same question in many different forums…Harvard, Princeton, Pomona, Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Haverford, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, etc. etc. etc.
Are you just using the US News rankings to think about schools? What do you really know about Swarthmore that would make you want to apply?</p>

7

<p>Hi momof3sons,</p>

<p>You hit the nail on the head. The thing is, I’m fickle. Last year, I had decided I’d major in film and hence had clearly outline the best film schools in the country.</p>

<p>But sometime last month, after talking to a person working in the film industry and other not-insignificant evidence, I realized that restricting myself to film in undergrad itself was equivalent to submitting myself to a crap-shoot.</p>

<p>Since then, I’ve moved on to thinking of majoring in English or Communication Studies (See? Can’t even decide the major yet.) Now, with these majors, all my research went for a toss and I din’t know what to do. I already had some colleges in my eye (Amherst, Vassar, USC etc) and a friend told me (maybe a bit too optimistically) that with my profile I had a chance at the Ivies so I began considering them too. Then, this year’s versions of the US News Rankings came out and I came to know of so many colleges from it too. All their websites look so pretty and the campus pics are so beautiful that I behave like a kid in a candy shop. And yes, because I live in India it’s not like I can visit the campuses and decide which one I want to study in. Nor do I have ready access to counselors or consultants - they are either of shady expertise or are jaw-droppingly expensive.</p>

<p>So, ultimately, it comes down to this - I really don’t know where I stand so I ask people to chance me on the forums of multiple colleges. I have few ways of nailing the college I dearly want to go to so I just flit about on multiple boards. And I have no other way of getting help/opinion/discussion so I post frequently (spam?) on the College Confidential boards.</p>

<p>Help me?</p>

8

<p>lazygarfield,
Can you get access to some college guidebooks, such as the Fiske Guide (there are many others) or guides written by students such as the Yale Insider’s Guide to Colleges? Can you buy a couple through Amazon or a similar place, or do you have access to a library where you might be able to sit and read them? You might get a better feel for the different schools if you did some reading about schools rather than posting randomly on these message boards.</p>

<p>You also shouldn’t worry about being “fickle.” Many students enter college as “undecided” majors. You need to decide whether you are interested in a university or liberal arts college setting, whether you want a large or small school, urban, suburban or rural environment, etc. Do you need financial aid?</p>

<p>Virtually all of the schools you have mentioned would be “reach” schools for you, as they would be for virtually every other student! Finally, to say that Swarthmore is the “3rd best LAC in the country” is only the opinion of the US News reporters based on statistics they chose to use. Please understand that it actually means nothing, just as the other schools’ rankings are also just the magazine reporters’ opinions. What matters is which school or schools would work best for YOU, regardless of what US News thinks.</p>

9

<p>Yes, you should figure out what you want. All of the schools you’re looking at are distinctive and several are quite different, so it’s unlikely that you would like all of them.</p>

<p>In the Why essay, be honest and say why you really want to attend that college. Swarthmore’s is fairly long with a 2000 character limit. I can tell you that you do NOT want to just tout how good the school is. Identifying what you want from college and why you are therefore looking at Swarthmore would be a better approach.</p>

<p>If your honest reasons for wanting attend are along the lines of “prestige” or “ranking,” then you either haven’t done enough research or aren’t actually interested in the college.</p>

10

<p>Thank you so much. While getting books from Amazon to India is a huge pain, I did find the Fiske Guide and the Yale Insider’s Guide for purchase in an online bookstore here. Both of them are similarly priced and will ship to me in a week at max. So, now, could you help me decide which one to pick? Your point about reading about the schools makes sense and i’m hopeful that this will help me form a clearer picture as to which college I want to attend. But, which book should I prefer?</p>

<p>And yes, your point about not worrying about being undecided in my major makes sense. Seeing as how I’ve picked up, fantasized about and then dropped one major within a year…and am flitting between two other majors right now - it’s quite apparent that my mind is prone to changing its opinion.</p>

<p>I guess I must admit the sad truth that almost all the schools I listed are on the upper cusp (or out of it) of my range. I really wish I knew whether or not I had a good chance at Amherst. I would apply there Early Decision in a second.</p>

<p>But, coming back to ground, I guess I should temper my expectations and do some ground-level research before just adding colleges left, right and centre to my Common App. $60 + score reporting is no measly amount on its own two feet, but multiply that by 12-15…and you have a bloated mass of unnecessary expenditure that’s just plain sad.</p>

11

<p>I would probably go with the Fiske Guide if you could only pick one. I must comment on your statement that you would apply to 12-15 schools. You are correct that it is quite pricey to apply to each school, and that’s exactly why you should do as much research as possible, using whatever books you can get your hands on and devour as much information as possible on each college web site. You should then be able to narrow down your applications to no more than 8-10 at the maximum, choosing at least two “safer” schools you would be happy to attend. Those type of schools would be schools that you honestly stand well more than a 50% chance to be admitted to. Then choose a few matches and a few reaches. Best of luck!</p>

12

<p>One of the challenges of choosing schools from guide books is that the distinct personalities of the schools often don’t come through. Subsequently, on a campus visit, one discovers that the school that seemed like a strong fit feels very wrong up close and personal. In the absence of a campus visit, my favorite guide is “Students’ Guide to Colleges: The Definitive Guide to America’s Top 100 Schools.” ed. Jordan Goldman and Colleen Buyers. For each school, three students answer a set of questions about the school. In the absence of a campus visit in which you could immerse yourself in the ethos of each campus, this book is a great substitute. In my review of the schools in the book with which I am familiar, most of the student contributors to this book have an uncanny ability to be “spot on” in their description of student experiences on their campuses. The reports ring true (Amazon reviewers are largely extremely positive). The book needs a second edition (2005) but colleges tend to keep a similar profile from year to year, even decade to decade. Good news about the publication date is that used copies are cheap, cheap, cheap.</p>

13

<p>I think that there’s no such thing as a “good chance” for a top 20 school. I’m certain that thousands of students with higher grades than me and very interesting, unique stories were denied or waitlisted by Swarthmore. There’s no such thing as a perfect Swarthmore student. I’m sure that many less students are accepted than are capable of thriving here. There is an element of randomness to it all. Luck, if you will.</p>