<p>BU is honestly my dream school. I just want to know what college officials look for in an applicant. Does leadership count or make a difference? Is being involved in the community a big factor? How many APs/Honors Courses should I be taking? I’ve taken 1 AP course and 6 Honors courses. I’ll be a junior at my high school this fall. My school only offers 1 AP sophomore year. </p>
<p>Please help me out!
Thank you!</p>
<p>I took one AP sophomore year. I had zero leadership positions but I did try to demonstrate an example where I showed leadership. Schools don’t want to see that your involved in a million clubs and are president of all of them they want to know what you accomplished with said club or activity you did. I can’t say I was particularly involved in the community I had only a 100ish hours of community service. Test scores (31 ACT), rigorous schedule (9 AP’s 1 sophomore year 2 junior year 6 senior year), and an upward trend and a decent class rank (top 11 percent when I applied) and decent essays allowed me to get in (class of 2016) fairly easily. (UT Austin, Case Western, Northeastern acceptances,… BC waitlist).</p>
<p>Read this thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1507588-inside-admissions-process-event-bu-last-night.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1507588-inside-admissions-process-event-bu-last-night.html</a></p>
<p>Challenging yourself with difficult courses (and doing reasonably well in them) in high school counts for the most. I also got the sense that spending too much time on extracurriculars at the expense of academics was not good.</p>
<p>as with any school, the most important factors are going to be the grades and SATs/ACT. Try to get very high grades and get around 1900-2000 on the SATs or like 28-30 on ACT. SAT subject tests are not required I think, but depending on your major, maybe taking one related to it would be nice. Extracurriculars are a good plus too especially leadership positions. Challenging courses like APs show that you really worked hard to attain high grades.</p>
<p>It’s important to have a reason for everything on your application. Why did you work so hard to get into a good college? Why did you join certain clubs? Did you take AP’s because you wanted to look good, or because you wanted to challenge yourself? Maybe you were drawn to the subject because you actually wanted to learn it.</p>
<p>I worked hard for my 2310 SAT and 3.7 GPA. But so did many kids who got denied. I am in the class of 2017, and I can tell you that from the selection, it seems the admission officers were looking for students with conviction and drive. It certainly wasn’t just about numbers. There are plenty of students that snobs on CC would deem “average” academically, but they show a will to learn for higher reasons than a grade or a score.</p>
<p>Write a great essay, this is often overlooked. And build a relationship with a teacher, get recommendations from people who you feel a connection with. These are often the most powerful. Don’t get them from AP teachers or ‘smart’ teachers that you <em>think</em> will write good ones (without getting to know them). </p>
<p>Good luck! Work at it, and you will get accepted.</p>