KVA420

I know there are a bunch of these, and they probably get pretty annoying, but I'd really appreciate it if someone could take a look at my classes, SATs, and such and tell me if Oberlin is too much of a reach.

3.77 ish GPA, unweighted
My school refuses to weight GPAs, or to put them on a 4 point scale (my transcript says 94.37, not 3.7) They also don't give us a class rank, so I can't really provide that info. It's a pretty small prep school in Virginia. Most of our classes are pretty rigorous (even the non-APs), definitely more so than at the public schools in the area. We don't have much of a reputation to out of state schools though - especially not those outside of Virginia. A pretty high percentage of people who graduate my school end up at UVA or Virginia Tech.

My SATs are kinda low:
math - 640 (just retook them, hopefully this went up considerably)
c.r - 740
writing - 690 (i'm hoping this went up some too - i'm a fairly good writer, I would say, so I'm not sure why it was so low in the first place)
National Merit Commended Student (commeded scholar? can't remember the official title)

AP US History-5
AP English Lang-4
AP Spanish-5
AP World History-3 (sophmore year)
(AP Scholar with Honors)

Freshman and sophmore years I was in honors math classes, junior year I took precalc and now I'm taking AP Calc (and struggling a lot - I'm an english person)

This year I'm taking:
AP Bio, AP Gov, AP Calc, AP Lit, and Spanish lit (this will my 6th year of Spanish)


ECs
band - all four years - i play the sax
spanish club - all four years - copresident this year
model UN - junior and senior year - president this year
national honor society - 10 - 12 (junior national honor society in 9th grade)
varsity field hockey - all 4 years
varsity lacrosse -all 4 years
I've volunteered with my area rec center and coached 10 - 12 year olds in volleyball (fall and spring) 9th, 10th and 11th grade
and I also volunteered at a children's hospice this summer
This isn't an E.C, but I also recieved a Scholarship Award from my school (Brian Slattery McCann Memorial Scholarship award, if the name is at all important)

hm I'm not sure if this actually matters at all, I have a feeling it does not, but it's on the common app so i thought i'd throw it on here: i also have a dual citizenship with canada.

any thoughts would be appreciated...is there any hope for me with my mediocre SATs?

also, I know the application says they only require 1 letter of recommendation, but I was wondering if it would be advantageous to send two. Some people have told me that you immediately go into the "idiot pile" if you send anything other than what the college asks for, but I was considering having an Oberlin grad write me a recommendation as well. This person didn't teach me in highschool (he taught me in 6th grade and is largely responsible for getting me interested in writing - he's also one of my friends' parents so I know him pretty well) so I can't have him write the one recommendation that Oberlin requires, but I thought that maybe it'd look a little better to have a recommendation from a graduate of the school.

thanks!

quibbler

@KVA420

some things: Oberlin looks at each applicant holistically -- it's more about fit than anything else (ie. SATs). Will you like Oberlin? Will you add to the community? The fact that you do so, so much is incredible! I'd concentrate more on how you can fit in with the Oberlin community.

Suggestions:
- Speak to the admissions counselor from your area.
- Visit campus, interview, hang out.
- Speak to coaches, especially if you want to play in college
- I don't think your SAT scores are a huge problem.

re: recommendations
I don't think it'd hurt. If it reveals more about you, that's the best. That said, if you want more answers, check out the Oberlin Hopefuls facebook group.
Oberlin Hopefuls | Facebook

KVA420

thank you so much!