<p>Francis, my daughter got into Barnard during one of their tougher years for admissions with an ACT score below their median and with academics that I am sure you would consider to be very weak. (My d. had no math at all beyond algebra 2 her sophomore year, and a 23 subscore on the ACT math – how’s that for “weak”?).</p>
<p>And no, churchmusicmom, my daughter did not take the “most rigorous” academic path offered by her school… not even close. She took high-rigor (AP) classes when she was able to fit them in, bypassed them when they didn’t fit. In my daughter’s case, her desire to spend a semester abroad threw her course planning off track, in drusilla’s case, it’s obviously band.</p>
<p>The problem with CC advice as to college admissions is that most view the process as a linear contest, where the ones who are at the head of the pack have the best chance of admissions. That results in adcoms being flooded with applications that all look alike. One is indistinguishable from the other – the ad com can’t get a sense of the person from looking at their transcript, the test scores are so uniformly high that they don’t tell much of a story either —so those kids get into the type of schools that are more numbers based in admissions, and some (not all) will get into colleges like Barnard… but the ad com that votes to admit them won’t remember them a day later. </p>
<p>Drusilla’s coming in with a different pattern, so it stands out. Contrary to the view of a linear race, college admissions is much more like selecting the cast for a movie – sure they need handsome and photogenic actors to play the romantic leads, but they are looking for something different when they fill out the rest of the cast. </p>
<p>We don’t know why drusilla could skip a year of math and go into AP Calc – but that might be a good story in itself. Maybe she self-studied and passed a math aptitude test given at her school, just because math is her thing. </p>
<p>College ad coms like “well-lopsided” candidates in part because they stand out. If drusilla knows how to accentuate her strengths and passions, she can have the kind of college application package that will stand out and be remembered by the admissions staff whether or not they decide to admit her. </p>
<p>I do think that her chance of admission would be better RD than ED – and she needs to pull an A fall semester in AP Calc. At least, if I were the ad com, with that gap between algebra 2 & calc, I’d be very curious to see how she does. </p>
<p>Again – she certainly should look at Barnard as a “reach” – but Barnard was a reach for my d. too. An applicant like drusilla needs to showcase her strengths, let her g.c. explain weaknesses if possible. If drusilla is a particularly strong musician – if the truth is that she is in all those band classes because the band instructors are dying to have her – then she might do well to also get a supplemental letter of recommendation from a teacher saying how amazing she is. Or, one of her other LOR writers can mention it – my daughter’s English teacher wrote about seeing my d. at dance performances, and it got the message across. </p>
<p>This is all ancient history for me, at this point, but people made the same type of comments to my d. My d. was told by a so-called “expert” in college admissions that Barnard would never even look at her with her test scores, and we were certainly aware that my d’s lack of higher math was a glaring weakness. But colleges like Barnard don’t make decisions based on the numbers – they make their decisions based on the individual. They aren’t trying to build a class of students who are all very good at being the same; they are looking for diversity. If drusilla is interesting enough to appeal to them, and seems to offer something that other candidates don’t, then they will accept her; if not, they’ll pass.</p>
Your courseload and class ranking seem pretty impressive. Obviously, no one can tell you for sure, but you definitely have a chance.</p>