So I fell in love with Williams College on a visit, however I am unsure if I should even bother applying due to my low stats. I will be a junior next year. I got a 1330 on my PSAT sophomore year, and I currently have a 3.77 unweighted GPA, with taking 3 Honors core classes sophomore year, one regents core class, and 2 honors bands. Junior year I will take 3 honors core classes, 1 AP math elective, 1 regents science elective, 2 honors bands. I will take an AP psychology over the summer at a community college(it’s a college class). My school offers loads of APs so I feel like my transcript lacks a lot. For my extracurriculars I row(not good enough to be recruited for d1, not sure if I can get recruited for d3), I play the saxophone well and play the violin decent. I have volunteer hours at a hospital I haven’t counted yet, and I started my schools psychology club, along with doing some psychology research as an intern at a local college. I took my Bio SAT and got an 800, so I was hoping to take an AP bio, read a textbook, and try out for the bio okympiad. Is it possible for me to get in? What would I need to do? I can possibly take more APs over the summer, depending on how much money I make. What else would I need to do to ensure I can get in? Also what would be some good colleges to look at for my level?
You don’t have enough of high school finished to worry about your stats . PSAT is a practice test. Study for SAT and up your scores.
Look at other LACs like Reed College in Oregon, Oberlin College in Ohio , Haverford College in PA, Cornell College in Iowa. Those are all good in sciences.
Just don’t get set on any one small LAC like Williams College. Williams is very athletic, so you may fit, but you may need to find a new sport, I don’t imagine you can row much in freezing/snowing/grey Williamstown MA.
Be sure to do a lot of activities over the summers that you can write essays about, and explore academic, music
and sports interests.
Can you simply take more AP classes in junior and senior year? Are core classes required, or can you replace them with AP classes? If AP are the harder classes at your high school, take more AP classes.
Heh. Williams may be the all-time top women’s rowing program in NCAA Division III. They won 8 national championships in a row from 2006 to 2013. They were 6th nationally in 2018.
If you could specify what you loved about Williams, it might be possible to suggest other schools with similar qualities, including some that might be easier to get into.
It’s early to say about your stats, but Williams is a very high-stats school. It would be good to shop around a bit more and perhaps even find some colleges that have attributes you like that Williams doesn’t have.
Connecticut College might be a good one to look at. Terrific liberal arts curriculum, stronger and more pervasive music than you’d find at Williams, and crew, with a truly lovely environment for training on the Thames River. That’s just one example; there are so many great options! Don’t fall head-over-heels in love with any one school at this stage - stay open to the possibilities! Maybe start by looking at all the D3 rowing schools?
With respect to other colleges, look into fellow NESCACs such as Hamilton, Colby and Middlebury. Colgate might be appealing as well. Though these colleges all fall into a high selectivity category, they’d provide you with more choices. For a school with more lenient admission criteria, look into Denison.
Welcome to College Confidential, @BB1224!
Williams practices holistic admissions, so no score is disqualifying per se… but you are first entering junior year, so it is way too early to know what your scores on the real SAT will be. From the experience of the kids I know personally, your 1330 on the sophomore PSAT is likely to grow into a score over 1400 on the junior PSAT and an even higher SAT, even without studying, just from learning in school and growing. Add in a little prep on Khan Academy, or whatever other method you choose, and you should have good scores. The grades may be more important. Take the most challenging courseload with which you are comfortable and excel in it. You will be viewed in the context of your school and opportunities, so the top colleges will want to see how the rigor of your courseload compares with that of your classmates.
That said, you should look into a bunch of colleges of varying selectivity levels that have some of the same qualities that attract you to Williams. Figure out what those qualities are (Small liberal arts college? Rural college in the mountains? Intellectual environment? Close knit community?), then start reading up on colleges in Fiske, Princeton Review, Ultimate Guide to Colleges, and other college guides, finding those that have the qualities you seek. You will be able to find many such colleges, some of which have much better odds of admission.
P.S. Williams has active crew teams, Division 3.
@TheGreyKing @merc81 @Corbett I also really like Boston College, is that more within reach?
Placements in these analyses correlate roughly with selectivity, @BB1224: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-smartest-colleges-in-america-2016-10#46-middlebury-college-average-sat-1379-6; https://amp.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9. Note that the score averages reported, however, are those for the prior version of the SAT.
Stay positive and explore something that you can be passionate about in way that make its clear you are a creative learner in the best sense of a liberal arts education, although you think your background and interests are not unique, there must be some facet of your experiences that you can hone in the next two years. It’s not all about scores, its about the sum of your experiences and learning.
Hey man, I got into Williams and I got a 1260 on the PSAT. That score is nowhere near what translate to the actual ACT score I sent it and my stats from my underclassmen days are completely different from my academic performance junior and senior year. Don’t count yourself out, don’t spend all your time worrying about your stats in comparison with everybody else. Go forth and be confident, you never know what the admissions team wants. I’m sure all students admitted to Williams would agree with my sentiments because they all saw faults and weaknesses in their own applications.