What are my chances? What kind of scholarship(s) can I get?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey! I’m a white female, blue ribbon public high school in a MA suburb, really competitive school, grades aren’t just handed to you.

Schools:
Purdue - West Lafayette
Cornell (ED)
Brandeis
BC
Villanova
Washington & Lee
William & Mary
McGill

NUMBERS
GPA: 3.75 W (our school only does weighted GPAs)
ACT: 33 Comp. (35 Math, 31 English, 33 Reading, 33 Science) (“SuperScore” would be 34 Comp, due to previous test date)
Subject SATs: 750 Math II, 740 US History (will take Spanish in Oct.)
APUSH(4), APCS(3)

COURSES
-Freshman: Honors Geometry, Honors English, Honors Biology, CP History (no honors available), CP Spanish II (no honors available), Honors Web Design I
-Sophomore: Honors Trig. + Algebra II, Honors Chem, Honors Writing Lab +American Dream, Honors Spanish III, Honors Web Design II, Teachers Assistant for PE
-Junior: AP US History, AP Comp. Sci., Honors Pre-Calc, Honors Spanish IIII, Honors Physics, Honors Shakespearean and Modern Drama, Teachers Assistant for History
-Senior (coming year): AP Economics, AP Spanish, AP Calculus AB, AP Physics, Honors Masterpieces (english)

P.S.: School doesn’t allow students to take AP’s until junior year

ECs:

-Founder and President of high school’s Red Cross Chapter (2015-present)
-President-elect of Harvard Model Congress chapter, participant since 2014
-National Honor Society
-National Spanish Honor Society
-Tutor (volunteer) @ local middle school (homework help and test preparation to students struggling in school, '15-present)
-JV Soccer ('13-'14), JV Lacrosse ('14)
-Varsity Track and Field ('15-present), Nominated for League Championship, Nominated for State Relays

WORK:

  • Intern at Harvard University- Lichtman Lab (neuroscience/brain analysis, summer '15 and summer '16, paid)
  • Participant at Social Justice Institute @ Rosie’s Place (women’s shelter in Boston), and current volunteer
  • Senior Referee (soccer) @ town, club, and state level (2010-present)
  • Youth Volunteer Assistant @ local farm (summer '14)
  • Associate @ Panera Bread ('15-present)

AWARDS:
-President’s Award for Educational Excellence ('13)
-Silver Award-National Spanish Exam ('14)
-Bronze Award-National Spanish Exam ('15)
-Bronze Award-National Spanish Exam ('16)

Super interested in Economics, potentially Political Science & Government.
GPA has improved every year, and courses were extremely challenging both Sophomore and Junior year.
Comments (reach, match, safety) would be greatly appreciated, especially regarding the econ and poli sci. programs at each college.

Thanks!!!

2

You should be good. McGill doesn’t really care about extracurriculars or anything related to that unless you are a borderline applicant. Your scores are above what is usually needed to get into McGill. Although your GPA is a little bit on the low side.

3

EC’s have no bearing at all for admission. If you ae borderline you may be waitlisted.

Here are the minimum requirements for American applicants, they vary by program.
http://www.mcgill.ca/applying/how-we-make-decisions/minimum-grades-used-admission-previous-years/unitedstates

4

@TomSrOfBoston do you think I’m borderline? What are you’re thoughts on my chances?

5

We’d have to know your unweighted GPA. If it’s around 3.5, I think Brandeis would probably be a high match.

Consider:

  • Last year their acceptance rate was 34% (3582 out of 10528 applicants were admitted according to their CDS). So for an average applicant, it’s a high match by default.
  • GPA is very important, while test scores are “considered”

Your unweighted GPA is probably below the average for admitted freshmen. Your test score (33 ACT) is above average, and it will likely help, but we can’t really know how much.

Brandeis has issues with yield – the percentage of admits who enroll is in the low 20s% – so demonstrating interest would probably help.

ED would potentially move Brandeis into a solid match range for you, but you should only apply ED anywhere if it is your #1 choice and if you can afford to attend without taking on too much debt.

6

@prezbucky I had an interview that went very well… the interviewer gave me his card and urged me to stay in touch. Do you think that’s a plus?

7

Probably it is a plus, assuming the interviewer holds some sway in the admissions decision.

8

Hi becca15! I will be attending Brandeis this fall! From my experiences with admission, I would say that you have a very, very good chance. Your EC’s are strong as are your ACT’s. A weakness I might point out would be your GPA, but I think your activities would definitely help. I went to a large tech HS (white female, but my area is mostly minority) and my weighted HS GPA was around 4.4-4.5, with the all of my AP classes except for one taken during junior and senior year (including AP Spanish, same as you). My SAT was not good and I really did not work on it. I got around a 2050 super-scored. I don’t remember my SAT II scores but I believe they were all in between 600-700. I took Spanish, Bio (molecular), and Math II. I am a pre-med student planning on double majoring in Chem and hispanic studies, but we’ll see. I hope this helped :slight_smile: I really think you have a great chance but make sure to always have back-ups!

9

Not a reach at all, not quite sure if a safety, but you’ll probably get in. Nursing, Engineering and CS are the three programs where Purdue gets very selective. Political Science is taught in the College of Liberal Arts so I can’t see it being very selective at all. Economics is in School of Management, so it may be a bit more selective.

I had a slightly lower GPA, but slightly better test scores and I got a Presidential Scholarship, so you could get one too. But the review is holistic, so it is anyone’s guess what Purdue will say due to you being an out-of-stater. There are rumors that Purdue favors International students because they pay more, though.

10

Well, Cornell isn’t a safety for anyone, once you get below 20% or so in college admissions, it really does turn into luck as much as anything else. That being said, with the credentials you have presented here, you do stand a great chance of being admitted.

11

^ I second the possibility for a Presidential scholarship, although from the people I’ve talked to, they seem more abundant among in-state students. (But this could be solely perception.)

Your GPA is on the lower side, but the rest is spot on for Purdue, so I believe that you would get in.

12

Anyone else?/?

13

Anyone out there with input?

14

Does your school have Naviance? I would think given its status and location your high school would have a good number of BC applicants in past years. That data is a fair predictor for your chances.

15

I wrote this on your BC thread: check your school’s Naviance. Probably not as many past applicants to Cornell as to BC but should still give you some useful data points for comparison. Also, do you know your classmates who will be applying this year? Any with National Merit recognition?

16

Match

17

You have an excellent chance! What school within Cornell are you applying ?

18

What is your unweighted GPA? Weighted gives us a limited perspective because different systems are used and class-rigor is not always apparent.

You can calculate it by hand, if necessary. I’m sure there are tutorials to help you out with that.

19

You have sufficient academic rigor and standardized test scores to be competitive. I would wonder about your unweighted GPA / class rank. The MA public school system is one of the best if not the best in the country so you would not need to be valedictorian but I would wonder with a 3.75 weighted GPA what your unweighted GPA is. When you look at the profiles of students admitted to the Ivy League schools there is a pretty big bump in admissions rate as your unweighted GPA goes from 3.6 up to 3.9 or 4.9

20

The extra-curriculars are solid. You do a good job of painting a picture where you can handle the stress and course-load. You need to get that GPA as high as possible. I know people who have over 4.0’s weighted and still didn’t get in. Good news though, GPA isn’t everything and you’ve definitely got a lot of other things to counterbalance it. When you write your personal essay, always ensure you write it about yourself and not about how much you love W&M, or anything else. Use the essay to paint a picture about your struggles achieving what you have. Good luck.

Edit: one more thing, just noticing your first sentence about you being from massachusetts. W&M has regional deans of admission that look at your app and can recognize the level of rigor your school and your area (Massachusetts) demonstrates, so they’ll know whether or not you’re competitive compared to other folks in your region. Still, get that GPA as high as possible, whatever you gotta do.