Hi all, I am currently a junior in high school and I would love to major in special education. I know Vanderbilt is ranked the number one special education program in their school of education. However, I know that it is a very selective school (13% acceptance rate) and that it’s more of a reach school for me. My GPA so far is subpar due to slacking off badly sophomore year which was terrible because I had a very heavy course load, but I’ve been maintaining a 3.89 GPA so far this year (weighted and unweighted). I do not know my freshman year GPA or current class rank because my school doesn’t stay up to date on that stuff but I think I’m in the top half percentile of my class. I have not taken the SATs yet but I have been studying and taking practice courses so I’m planning to score fairly well on them. As far as my course load goes, I mostly take honors or college level classes along with a few AP classes (AP Gov. and AP English Lang.). I’ve doubled up a lot in subjects my sophomore year and because of that, I will graduate with extra credits in each subject. For example, I already have 5 history credits and 4 math credits. I don’t know if colleges really care for that though.
As well as the rest of my resume goes, it’s pretty sparse. The only clubs I’m in are the school newspaper and key club. I’m planning on to volunteer for my school’s unified sports team this upcoming spring and I was asked to manage the baseball team. I’m also planning on joining the yearbook club (my school only lets seniors join the yearbook club). I have a good amount of community service and spent last summer volunteering at a special needs camp in my town. I loved working there so much and had such a great experience as a volunteer counselor. The camp really helped me see that I want to teach special needs kids and I am applying for a job there this summer since I’m old enough to now. I played on my school’s JV softball team freshman-sophomore year and I have been on my school’s varsity cheerleading team since freshman year to junior year. However, I got a back injury and wont be able to play softball or join cheer next year which was devastating because I love these sports and would’ve been a captain for cheerleading. I was wondering if that would affect my college application since they will see that I’ve stopped doing sports my senior year?
I wish I could give more information about my test scores, overall GPA, or class rank but that’s all I’ve got sadly! Vanderbilt is my dream school because I heard the special education program there is amazing. I already have some experience with working with special needs kids because of the wonderful camp I volunteered at and I have a special needs brother as well. It is something I definitely can see myself doing for the rest of my life and I think a school like Vanderbilt would be perfect. However getting in is the hardest part lol. What are my chances so far of getting into this selective school? What SAT score should I aim for? Should I apply early decision or not apply there at all? What could I do to pad up my resume to increase my chances of getting into this school? Any other advice for getting into Vanderbilt would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for taking your time and reading this!