Dear ch0iminy : Your class rank and overall GPA performance certainly ranks in the desired sweet spot for Boston College. Based on your advanced placement courseload count, it would lead us to conclude that you are executing on the strongest possible academic path possible in your High School. (Need to confirm that you have English, History, Core Sciences, and Calculus as part of that sequence - would also help to see your AP scores in terms of class placement.)
Your ACT score is your first major stumbling block - particularly if you have applied as an EA student. As this is a bottom quartile score, we would have recommended that you apply into the regular decision pool sporting a cumulative 28 rather than the early pool. (The middle range on ACT scores now appears to be in the 30-32 range.) None the less, what is done is done. You have gone after your first choice school which is exactly how an EA program should be used - you have demonstrated your desire to attend Boston College above and beyond all other options.
We do question your GPA versus your ACT scores and also why a battery of SAT scores have not been made available. In your case, you are apparently going to need one set of improved scores to come from somewhere.
Your work experience is heavy and to some extent overshadows your contributions to your High School environment. Your honor society participation seems strong as do your leadership positions within your class activities. To some extent, your activities do come across as narrow - largely focused around tutoring. Now, this is not a bad thing provided you can articulate how this goes above and beyond just helping students get through their next test.
The next place where I see your resume runs into a problem comes back to some principles expressed by Fr. Michael Himes during his orientation discussion covering the three aspects of a great university : a great library, a great faculty, and a great student body.
Boston College Front Row - The Last Lecture Series: Fr. Michael Himes
Clearly, you are academically prepared, perhaps gifted, and the university will supply great library and faculty for you. The question is what are you adding to the student body? How do your student council and class board activities translate into something appealing for any university considering your application. We hope that your essay helped to bring to the foreground a human face to your otherwise impressive statistics.
While some will argue that sports, music (ensembles), fine arts, and such experiences do not substantially add to an application's fabric, we respectfully disagree. Students who understand the team aspect tend to find their niche in university settings more successfully than narrowly focus academic-oriented individuals.
So, where does this leave us? Honestly, your application is no better than 20% chance of EA acceptance. Our expectations is that you will be deferred into the main pool with a slight chance (10%) of rejection at the EA stage - this would depend on the depth of the applicant pool for the Class of 2014. Good luck.
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