What are my chances

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Thank you so much in advance! I’m super nervous about colleges, and I’m eagerly awaiting to hear back from my ED school.

State: AZ
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male

Major: Business/Information Technology

Scores
ACT: 31 (E: 29, M: 27, R: 36, S: 33). 7 overall on writing. I’m not a great writer on the fly, often I like to take time to revise my piece to make it better.
SAT: 1370 (R/W: 650, M: 720). 6 on writing.
A-Levels: Business Studies (B), AS Global Perspectives (a), and English (D - I got an A in the class overall, but I think I just bombed one of the heavily weighted papers which caused my score to bomb. It was about theories of language development, not even related to writing skill.)

Grades
3.6 UW GPA
Weighted GPA: Not offered at my school, even though A-levels are rigorous courses.
Class size: 13 (its a super small school!)

Extracurriculars:
Interact District Council (2 years, member then District Governor. I planned and led a 100 person leadership conference)
Another Interact District Council (1 year, Assistant Governor/Webmaster. These two Districts are merging. I made a new website and managed the social media for both districts.)
Interact Club (2 years, President/Founder, completed a plethora of service projects such as raising money for a well in South America and food drives)
Moot Court (2 years, member then Internal Executive Director. Was accepted to the National High School Moot Court Competition at Duke University two years running)
Sunday School (volunteer teacher’s aide, then was offered to be paid as a head teacher’s aide. I worked with 5th/6th graders, and also worked in the office)
Library Volunteer (2 years, helped arrange tai-monthly bookstalls that raised over $10,000 for the library)
Internship at Children’s Hospital (2 years, only high school intern they’ve ever had, working on Information Technology/Business Administration)
Robotics Job (1 year, worked at a robotics club, teaching kids coding, engineering, and chemistry)

I do have more extracurriculars, but I only mentioned those here because they are what are on my application and what I consider ‘most important.’ I’m a member of NHS and Thespian Society, but not very involved in either/didn’t do them for very long. I was also on our school’s Robotics team, but only did that for a year and we didn’t do much.

Additional Information: I had a chronic disease (basically Chron’s Disease) for most of my high school career. This caused me to miss about 130 days of school to date.

Letters of Rec:
Psychology/Business Teacher: I haven’t seen her recommendation, but I’m sure that she wrote me a very strong one. She’s basically a second mother to me. 9/10.
History Teacher/Principal: 8/10

Additional: My mentor I work with in Interact. He had a very high ranking in the military, and a very impressive resume himself. He wrote me an absolutely stellar recommendation (100/10)

Common App Essay: 9/10. I wrote about my experience in the hospital (Without going into too much detail) and how the volunteers there inspired me to become an intern at the hospital and volunteer more.

Writing Supplements: My Babson one is probably 9/10.

Schools applying to: Babson (ED, first choice school!), Brandeis, ASU Barrett, Claremont McKenna, Wesleyan, Boston College, Colgate.

College information: I had my interview for Claremont, which went alright. My interview for Babson went well. I also went to their information session and preview day, where I presented my group’s mock business in front of about 100 other kids and my interviewer. I was talking over e-mail to an admissions counselor for a while about getting credit for my A-Levels.

Thank you for all your help!

2

Your ED is Babson? I don’t know anything about that school but your chances are only about 50/50 maybe slightly better. Sorry, but your SAT is considered low (less than 50th percentile) and your GPA has to be near 4.0 these days. Your small class size will actually be seen as a negative. Your ECs seem to be kind of varied and all over the place - from court to robotics. What’s the common thread? Your health story might be a good angle but it isn’t that unique. I have a friend who was shot and spent 2 months in ICU and wrote about that in his essay, still managed a 4.4 GPA and a 1460 SAT and didn’t get into Northwestern. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. You might get the right admissions reviewer on the right day to stamp you in. But I recommend you have about 6 other schools closer to your SAT and GPA range and learn to accept them as possible choices. Good luck.

3

Make sure your GC notes your medical absences in the LOR.

4

1370 was the new SAT, out of 1600. Not out of 2400. 25th percentile for Babson is 1230, and 75th is 1430. So I would probably be in about the 50th percentile or so. The 75th percentile for Babson is a 30, which I am above (albeit, slightly). Could you explain to me what the issue is with my varied EC’s and why my small class size is seen as a negative? It isn’t like I only touched the surface of a few things, I am highly involved in Interact, my internship, and Sunday school. The common thread to all of these is probably the idea of ‘service above self’ and improving the world. Some I did to satisfy personal interests (like robotics).

5

He did! I also wrote about it in my ‘additional information’ section on the Common App, and basically said that I didn’t allow it to affect my GPA (I’m at a very rigorous school, a 3.6 is definitely on the higher scale).

6

FYI: Wesleyan does not offer either of the majors you are seeking.

7

I know, but they offer Economics and Computer Science. Business/IT are just generally what I’m interested in, my specific major depends on the school, what they offer, and their strengths. Wesleyan also has the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship which I am super interested in. I also just loved the student life there and the campus.

8

If you don’t get into Babson, you should definitely apply ED2 to Wesleyan (assuming financial aid is not an issue.)

9

Brandeis and Wesleyan are my second and third respectively. I liked Brandeis slightly more due having an actual Business major. The campus was so modern and unique, and has a high Jewish population. I liked the social justice atmosphere of Wesleyan, but I’m a bit concerned that it could be a bit overwhelming for someone who isn’t extremely passionate about it.

10

I love Brandeis!!! Sorry just had to throw that out there.

11

And I’m sure you’ll be fine with Babson ED if it’s true that you’re on average or above for their stats with your in depth EC’s (I think they’re really good!) and if you have strong essays.

12

Haha, thank you! My only concern is that they will see my chronic illness/absences as a massive negative, which is understandable. However, I tried not to let it affect me, as reflected in the EC’s I tried to do and my alright stats. I easily could’ve maintained a higher GPA had it not been for being sick.

What did you love about Brandeis? I think my favorite thing was the restaurant they have for students to meet professors at. That, or the freshly made cookies after the tour!

13

@DrummerGenius : Don’t get me wrong, Wes is a great school (my son graduated from there). But, Economics is not Business and Computer Science is not IT.

P.S. I’m a Brandeis grad and I’m surprised it’s on your list. Brandeis and Babson get pretty much zero cross-applicants.

14

I know that Economics is not Business and Computer Science is not IT. I think that I was a bit too general in my original post. Those are the two fields I am interested in. If there is a specific major for it, fantastic! If not, it isn’t a big deal. I’m just as interested in Computer Science and Economics. I could still easily go into those fields based on those majors.

Just curious, why do Babson and Brandeis not get many cross-applicants? I know that they are two very different schools, but they each have their own set of appeals for me.

15

Babson is pretty much exclusively a business-admin-accounting-pre-professional school (albeit a very, very good one, one of the best in fact).

Brandeis is a research university with liberal arts focus and a distinct historical commitment to social justice.

They just simply attract very different sorts of applicants. I’ve been an alumni admissions interviewer for Brandeis for 20 years and I can’t recall a single applicant ever mentioning that they also applied to Babson.

16

Would I have a chance at either school with my stats? They both interest me for different reasons.

Is it frequent that applicants say what other schools they are applying to in an interview? I would think that saying that they are applying to a potential competitor would be a negative (i.e, talking about how you’re applying to Harvard and really want to go there in a Yale interview).

17

I think you have a chance at both. I think all the schools you mention are somewhat reaches except perhaps for ASU. I think Wesleyan frankly is out of reach for you, but being from AZ certainly helps there.

Most students when asked on interviews are very forthcoming about where they are applying. Potential “competitors” are not an issue. What I use that info for is to access how likely an applicant is to enroll if admitted. For example if someone says that they are applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Brandeis (this has actually happened) I would likely draw the conclusion that Brandeis is probably not their first choice.