Am I at competitive for CSOM

rchugh · July 20

Hello! I know that chance me questions are a bit annoying but I want to know if I'm at least competitive for Csom.
Indian Male DE resident (goes to private school)
ACT (32) Superscore maybe 33 (hopefully)
GPA 4.17 (cum laude member) (school has a weird GPA system)
6 total ap's (School offers only 11 and a maximum of 8 for a student)
3 sport varsity athlete (Captain in 2 of them)
founded a club and leader of the asian student association
Member of student judiciary
100+ volunteering hours at Ronald Mcdonald house
Worked the last 2 summers as a customer service representative
I would apply under the management and leadership conference (is it easier to apply under this concentration?)
Am I competitive or Nah?

jpm50 · July 20

rchugh:
Will your application be read and considered? Definitely.
Can anyone here give you any "chance" information? If they do, you need to consider it as reliable as throwing darts at a dart board.
Read through several previous years result decision threads for BC on this CC forum. You'll see many with profiles much stronger than yours who did not get accepted, and those with equal or perhaps weaker profiles who did.

You might want to look at last year's incoming student profile. It's around page 33 in the BC factbook:
https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/publications/factbook/pdf/18-19_factbook.pdf
With the cover page at https://www.bc.edu/publications/factbook.html
That will give you a sense of what the academic profile was for last year's incoming class.

I do have a question for you.
Why do say your ACT score is 32 here, but you say it's 31 in your Cornell post?
Also here you say you're Cum Laude, but on the Cornell page you say you're Suma Cum Laude.

All the best.

rchugh · July 21

I honestly don't know why I suma. Our school only has one distinction. And I just took the act last week, and I am confident that I got at least a 32 superscore, maybe even a 33. Sorry for the confusion.

T20hopeful2023 · July 22

What are the three sports? Are they something you could do at BC?

rchugh · July 22

I would def play intramural but im not good enough to play Division 1

CCSavant · July 23

@jpm50 The factbook link shows class of 2022 at an average ACT of 32, with a 31 -34 range (page 32). HOWEVER, this is the profile of those ADMITTED, not those ENROLLED (which is likely somewhat lower given yield issues). Still high numbers. I have never been able to find the stats for ENROLLED students as BC publishes its Factbook rather than comply with the standard Common Data Set disclosure.

Having said that, as you note, a lot goes into the admission decision besides test scores - though higher is clearly better (but not determinative).

evergreen5 · July 23

I'm pretty sure the factbook is enrolled. It agrees with the NCES SAT and ACT ranges and is always lower than the admitted numbers published the previous March. For class of 2022:
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=boston+college&s=all&id=164924#admsns (average ACT 32) vs http://bcheights.com/2018/03/26/bc-accepts-27-percent-2022-applicants/ (average ACT 33)
I wonder whether the factbook editors understand the mistake to title that part "freshman admission profile." The numbers come from the office of enrollment management.

CCSavant · July 23

@evergreen5 You make a strong case that the Factbook data is actually for enrolled students (despite the title). The NCES data is typically entirely consistent with Common Data Set enrolled student data, though I tend to only look at the latter (but for schools without a published CDS, it seems as if the NCES data would be very useful). The Factbook also reflects numbers below the admissions announcement, though one of the issues that I have come across is how schools treat superscored test results between "marketing releases" (probably included) and more official data sets which might mandate a different/more consistent treatment.

Anyway, thank you for correcting my comment. You have convinced me!

bluebayou · July 23

^^the Factbook is definitely enrolled/matriculated students. BC does superstore the ACT and can report the superscored number if it chooses to do so. (Since there is no reason why it would not report the superscored number, we should just assume that is what is published.)

As an aside, statistically, one cannot just average the 31-34 ACT interquartile range and assume the median is 32.5. The bottom quartile is likely to have a longer tail. It can also dragged down by athletic recruits.

CCSavant · July 23

While a little off point, I do love the granularity of understanding that so many contributors offer on this site. Long tails on the downside.................yes for many reasons, including, but not limited to athletes. Yes, best to assume that the scores are superscored, per BC protocol, though I do not know whether NCES or CDS or others provide any guidance/restrictions on this. Anyway, the bottom line on this for the OP is that a 32 is well within "the range" but not likely to move the dial in a positive way.

privatebanker · July 23

For a white or Asian student (especially female-not that this applies to OP) a 32 should have close the 4.0uw as possible, sos and exceptional essays recs and ecs. Etc Nearly 80 percent in the incoming class is in the top ten percent of their class.

Add in the other important admits at the lower end of the range. The non athlete, non urm, non legacy, non first gen, non development, non BC High candidates have to be stronger than averages. Which is a very high bar. It’s not a helpful tool to use averages to determine odds. It really depends.

Higher scores above the 34 level can see someone in the 3.8 and below camp but still not many obviously.

And the averages include nursing and lynch schools. Both are awesome but the common understanding is the csom candidates populate the highest competitive rung. MCAS especially science and premed types are really the most competitive profiles.

So of course you are an excellent candidate for many schools. But you should consider your app a solid reach for csom. Don’t take my word on it. Go to the decision threads and compare notes from last year.

The below 32 group is comprised to a very large extent of the groups mentioned above atheltes urm legacy first gen and roll eligible and development etc and the candidates for the other niche colleges.

Good luck and keep up the great work.

privatebanker · July 23

One change to my above post is to remove the part referencing that an Asian student may not get a modest admission preference.

BC is really trying to increase their AHANA numbers. Asian Hispanic African American Native American. It’s The biggest student club on campus and in admission focus. I was thinking in terms of the large and talented international Asian cohort would be the primary beneficiary. But I’ve rethought it a bit and got some great feedback from a widely respected BC parent here on CC. I would like to modify that point.

It’s a great option/potential for the talented US student of Asian background if that is OPs situation.

rchugh · July 25

I am Indian who also goes to a predominantly white school.

privatebanker · August 2

You definitely would receive a full review and certainly be considered. You have a great gpa. Solid act, if in the middle of the admitted student group at least. Three sports. You work and have maturity.

If you write well and are able to illustrate why you would make a difference as a student, it wouldn’t shock me that you would get admitted. However it would not be more likely than a 15 to 20 percent chance for all applicants without being a recruit or other big time preference. My stats, not the schools. But close enough directionally. So 8 out of ten roughly will not get in to the school. Your excellent profile will land you somewhere great in any case.

Good luck and let us know what happens. Rooting for you.

Am I at competitive for CSOM

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