I have so much anxiety I just want to know what my chances are:
ACT: 32
(I go to one of the top 50 private schools in the country)
9th grade: B+ B+ B+ A A
10th grade: A A A- A- A-
11th grade: A A- A- A- A- B+
(In 9th and 10th grade I was taking the 2/3 highest classes)
(In 11th grade I took 2 APs and 2 Honors which is the most any junior can take and one of those APs is an additional class so I’m taking 6 classes, and even though my school doesn’t offer it I’m taking the AP english and lit exam, and next year I’m taking 3 APs, FYI all of these classes are ridiculously hard, not to sound snobby I just want to know my chances)
Awards: my poem got published in a book and on a website, also I was one of 10 essays chosen out of 250 as a runner up to an award and publication for an essay
ECs: I have a blog on social awareness (I talk about gender equality, sexuality equality, social norms, superificalness of the society and how we should all change it, and the environment), I also have a blog where I give people advice (ever since my dad was diagnosed with cancer and got better I have wanted nothing more than to help people so I offer advice on depression and many more things since I have OCD, anxiety, and depression, and it has been a great experience), I am an editor for our newspaper, I am on varsity cross country, I am on varsity spring track, I am self-publishing a novel, I am a sailing instructor during the summer which is fun because I’m interested in psychology and I like learning about kids and watching them interact, I am contributing in a charity my parents started to give money to kids to go to college, and I’m very into kiteboarding which is a water sport ( I don’t know if this is considered an EC but yeah)
Comments: I think I am a pretty good writer since I’ve written three novels in the past three years and I think I can definitely sway admissions in the application
pleaseeeee let me know!!! thank you so much!!!
you sound super qualified!! if the admissions process was truly fair, i definitely think you’d get in. you have everything (i think) middlebury wants in a student. however, as a senior who has just watched so many friends get rejections they don’t deserve, remember that this process is SUCH a lottery.
you should also make sure that you have really strong recs from teachers in different departments (english and science, math and history)
I definitely will apply ED and I will interview, thank you!
Very good chances and I think you will be accepted. Most colleges don’t even care about freshmen year, so don’t worry about that too much.
Middlebury had 8,894 applications for the class of 2019, an 8.5% increase over last year. The vast majority of these applicants are top students. They have room for 590 freshmen (fall)/100 freshmen (spring). They admitted 17% of the applicants.
My advice is to visit multiple times, and apply ED soon after the common app opens up. Do not write about depression, OCD or anxiety in your essay. And also fall in love with 4 or 5 similar schools where admission is a little less selective. If you want to be a writer, for example, check out Kenyon and Sewanee.
Why can’t I write about my OCD or anxiety?
An admissions counselor at one of the colleges we visited–I think it was Kenyon–strongly advised students to avoid writing about the 4 D’s: divorce, depression, drugs & death.
I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with these topics. I think his point was that they tend to get a lot of “overcoming adversity” essays on these topics, it’s very hard to write well about these topics, and they all start to run together after a while. If a school like Kenyon gets 7,000+ essays, you want to differentiate yourself from the competition, and in a very positive way.
The other thing is that, unfortunate as it is, some people have a prejudice when it comes to mental health issues. You don’t want to have the misfortune of getting a reader who thinks “the last thing this campus needs is another student with anxiety” even if you have overcome it.
The admissions person who warned about the four D’s also mentioned that the best essay he read that year was about a girl walking along the beach with her grandfather, the conversation they had and the things that they observed.
Okay thank you! What about my dad’s cancer? Can I write about that?
I think the cancer is probably best avoided, as well. I agree with midwestdad3. These topics are overused and hard to captivate an adcom with because their sympathy only goes so far…
Since you teach sailing, which is very cool by the way, why not write about what it is like to be out on the water? Or about a meaningful interaction you had with one of your students on the boat? I would think there would be lots of opportunity there for an interesting, positive essay that highlights your expertise in a great light!