nyctempo

1) My magnet school has extremely high standards for acceptance into AP courses, so it's difficult to gain any. Due to a bad freshman year, a lot of things got shut out to me and now I'm afraid that my "course rigor" is lacking. I raised myself dramatically (like, 10 points on my average dramatically) since then. Would this upward trend help with the lack of AP courses?

2) Does Wesleyan really care about SAT scores? I have extremely strong SAT's, and I've got recommendations from my english teacher/biology teacher.

3) Is interest level actually important? I've visited once and stayed over night (loved it), have done an on-campus interview, and plan on sitting in on courses when fall comes around. If it actually matters, how should I let the admissions office know that I'm sitting in on classes? Is there any place I need to go before I sit in on classes?
Thanks in advance for the help.

johnwesley

Those are all good questions. I'll try and answer them in order of difficulty. 3) To sit in on a class, I think all you have to do is check in at Reid House (the admissions dept) where, I believe, they can direct you to what classes are meeting at that hour.

2) Does Wesleyan care about SATs? Well, yeas and no. Rumor has it that ED is one of the avenues they use to admit a lot of high scorers on the SAT, and if some of the replies to this year's thread on EDI results are any indication, there's certainly some truth to that. However, that leaves a lot of room (not to mention the rest of the RD pool) with which to make all sorts of evaluations. I still take the website at its word, that rigor of course load and gpa are the primary drivers.

1) If your magnet school has extremely hgih standards, chances are the adcom knows about it and will take it into consideration. Everything else is water under the bridge, as they say.

Hope this helps.

nyctempo

Thanks! I was actually hoping you would respond when I made this thread haha. Was really worried about the AP thing, and it's good to know that early decision applicants often get more use out of their SAT's. Though there are still two things I'm still not too sure of (my mistake for not highlighting them in my original post).
1) Is an upward trend legitimately useful or is that just something guidance counselors say to make you feel better?
2)Is interest level important? Will sitting in on classes even do anything? Appreciate the advice about going to the admissions office first by the way.
And I'll just throw another question out in the air since you seem quite knowledgeable about the school - are Asian considered a minority when applying? I know for a lot of colleges in this day and age, Asians don't really count, but I saw on the website that the school is only 10% Asian and I was hoping for any extra edge. Thank you!

johnwesley

Those conversations really do occur, particularly if there is something else that is piquing the adcom's interest. You should read, "The Gatekeepers" by Jacques Steinberg.

Probably not. All that stuff is there in order to keep you interested in Wesleyan, not the other way around.

That's a really interesting question. There was a time when Asians *were* considered URMs; I've seen the promotional material; lots of glossy photos of smiling Asian and Asian American students. Ordinarily that would mean, Asian applicants would be competing chiefly with other Asians for the privilege of attending Wesleyan; their files would be tagged for their race or ethnicity in the same way that African-Americans and Latino/as and Chicano/as have their folders tagged.

Not sure if that happens anymore with Asians, but let's assume it did. Chances are that you would be competing with other Asian kids, kids from Stuyvesant, Bronx High and Brooklyn Tech (a lot like magnet schools) and their equivalent in other parts of the country. It would be virtually the same degree of competition if you were in the same selection pool with white kids from private prep schools; the bar would be set pretty high in either case.

Hope this helps.

nyctempo

Haha, I go to [a school with] mostly white kids applying, so who knows. Thanks a ton for all the help, it was very useful. I'll check out that book, looks a little outdated though.

vonlost

^ The book's message remains current; it tells how the process works at selective schools (not necessarily at the most or least selective).