What can I do to improve my applications

Applying to College
1

Hey guys, I’m a high school junior in Baltimore, MD. I’ve been a lurker here for a while, but I wanted some advice into how I can improve my application and what I should focus on most. I was wondering what sticks out in a bad way that colleges might see and think that my application is lackluster. I’m interested in studying business in college, preferably finance but maybe general business administration, I’ll take classes to find out what I truly like. Here are my stats:

GPA: 3.8 UW/4.0 W
A few things to note, I go to a pretty competitive private school. Unfortunately, my school does not offer AP courses, but I’ve taken almost all the honors classes available, including those that prepare for the APs but are not AP classes in name. My school also doesn’t rank but from what I’ve heard from the counselor I’m probably top 10-15% maybe a bit better. There are only about 100 kids in my grade.

Testing:
SAT I: 1520 one sitting (780 reading/writing 740 math) planning on retaking this in August just to see, not sure how much better I can do but I might as well try because I can study over the summer.

SAT II: Taking Math II, Literature, and Spanish exams this coming Saturday the third, hopefully I do well.

ACT: Haven’t taken yet, taking it June 10. I’m getting around 32 on practice tests, though, so I think my SAT is better.

ECs:
Baseball: Rec freshman year, starting pitcher varsity sophomore, junior. Will continue senior year.
Debate Club Leader: freshman not leader, sophomore, junior. Will continue senior year.
Model UN: Sophomore, Junior, will continue as a senior.
Founder/Leader business club: junior, will continue senior.
Politics Club: Freshman, Sophomore, might do senior year. I don’t take so much of a leadership role, just do it for fun but was busy this year, might do it next year.
Engineering Club: Again, completely for fun, I don’t take a leadership role at all.
Acted in two plays at a professional Shakespeare theater company, might do another at the same theater this coming year.
Tech Crew: Junior, will continue senior. In this I try to continue to show interest in theater, generally, tech crew builds sets for the school productions.
Volunteer tutor at Kipp: only started as a junior, however, will continue as a senior.
Kipp Junior Board: Junior, will continue as a senior. Funny story, I literally just emailed a representative to learn more about tutoring at Kipp and I guess it was a nice email because they immediately offered me a spot on the board. Apparently, it’s hand picked.
1-month internship at Carbiz, business development and operations. Did this sophomore summer.

2 more things, I’m planning on getting a job this summer, is this a bad idea, will it not show continued interest in business?

Also, I’m not quite sure how this fits into my ECs but I manage a large (for high school) investment account with my dad acting FBO me though he never Vetos my investments or divestments. For reference, I guess it’s done pretty well 53% increase in value over 3ish years. Since I know someone will ask it’s current value is around $115,000. It’s something that I really work hard on, but I don’t know how I would fit it into my EC list. I’m incredibly privileged to have it though, and I don’t want to come off as a twat including it but I think it really highlights my interest. What do you all think?

Anyway, that’s pretty much it if you’ve made it this far you have my sincerest gratitude. I’ve always been worried about college and so I guess that’s why I’m here. Anyway, thanks for reading this and taking the time to help me.

Also, my list of colleges right now is this for reference.

Reaches (some bigger some smaller):
Upenn
Washington University (I have a major hook in that my parents are both alums and my dad is a distinguished alum. We also give some money, though not so much that we’d have a building named after us.)
U.V.A.
U Chicago (maybe, though I liked Penn more and I don’t want too many extremely competitive schools, same thing with Columbia, might apply to neither)

Reach/match (match - ?)
Northeastern
Richmond
Lehigh

Match/Match +
Tulane
Wake Forest
Syracuse
Bentley
UMD (resident)

Safety:
Ithica
Butler

Thanks!

2

When you say Washington University do you mean Washington University in St. Louis (I’m attending the school this fall)?

It seems like you are a bit hard on yourself for the kinds of schools you expect to get into; I had pretty similar stats and was accepted to Northeastern with a $16,000ish scholarship per year. For UVA as long as you have a good gpa they don’t really care about anything else; I had three friends in my school get into UVA and they had improvable SAT/ACT scores (as in 1380 and 26, etc) and they were top 5 in the school. Basically that’s all they had and were rejected everywhere but UVA, so the gpa really counts here.

Definitely take the subject tests – these are real game changers. If you do well on these, you will surely stick out with the Lit subject test. I got an 800 on the math IIC and saw that I’m only in the 87th percentile; I assume that that many people get perfect scores :/.

Getting a job is a good thing. I have a friend who was really addicted to games; she worked basically every day to pay off something in the game called “skins” or the like and by the end of junior year she made over 30,000 bucks. She applied to Harvard and got in! I guess when interviewing and writing the essays she omitted the gaming part but working shows colleges that you are more independent and have world experience interacting with customers and such. She was maybe top 15% and was asian, so yeah, speaks for itself.

3

Thanks so much for the help! I apologize for the confusion with Wash U, I did mean Wash U. in St. Louis. I’m glad to hear that you think I’m being hard on myself, I’m trying to keep my expectations down as the competitive schools are wild cards, or at least seem to be. The UVA thing is interesting, do you think I should work hardest on raising my GPA as it sticks out as low? Thanks for the response.

4

Getting a job is almost as important as volunteering or other activities over the summer, IMHO. Also, the investment interest is great, you could discuss that under hobbies or other activities. If your passionate about something, then its important to your college app. Can’t help too much on college list since I don’t have any experience with business majors (both kids are engineering majors). Good luck. You seem well rounded and motivated.

5

Thanks so much for the response!

6

Be absolutely certain that the school profile lists no AP courses offered AND that the counselor records that you have taken the “most rigorous” offered. That means taking every course at the honors level.

Develop a relationship with a teacher who will write a thoughtful, comprehensive evaluation. Do not rely upon the guidance counselor to be your only letter of reference.

Take community college courses this summer.

Your EC’s are good, but add a more well rounded community service activity.

Remember, for your reach schools, you will be competing with students who have taken numerous AP classes and scored 4’s or 5’s, and have GPA’s of 4.0 or higher. Most colleges do their own GPA calculations and often are much lower than even your unweighted GPA. Extra points are given for AP and college courses.

Write, revise and revise again your essays. Have an outside counselor review your essays. You need to "stand out " in your essay and that doesn’t mean simply repeating your accomplishments.

Apply early. If you are positive that one of your reach schools is where you want to attend, AND IT IS AFFORDABLE, consider one of the following choices: Early Decision and Early Action – Counselors | College Board

Some of your choices consider “demonstrated interest” in their decisions. Contact your schools directly, get to know and communicate with your assigned admission counselor. Meet with them at college fairs or info sessions held in your area. If at all possible, tour the school and meet the counselors. Follow up any meetings with at the very least an email within 24 hours. If you meet with any professors or sit in any classes, also follow up with either an email or hand written note.

7

I agree with most of the posts except that I don’t think there is a need to take CC classes over the summer as suggested above (especially if you can find something more interesting/productive to do). You are at a competitive HS that doesn’t offer AP’s. Colleges expect you to take the most rigorous schedule you can manage at your HS and you will not be penalized for not taking classes that are not offered. A number of rigorous schools choose to not offer AP/IB classes and at least in our local public HS (which eliminated APs a while ago) it has had zero impact on college admissions. It might well be that the honors classes at your HS are at least as rigorous as AP classes at many schools.

8

Thanks so much to everyone who has replied, it’s really helping me a lot!