<p>Hi everyone,
So I’m a sophomore at a large public high school in Miami, Florida and I’ve been doing research on colleges and I’ve pretty much fallen in love with everything I’ve read about Haverford.</p>
<p>My grades have always been pretty good, more A’s than B’s anyways and I’ve never taken anything lower than an honors class in any of my core subjects. I’m also involved in a pretty good amount of EC’s such as cheerleading(school and competitive), yearbook, social science honor society, key club, photography, and am also a counselor and am very involved at my summer camp in north carolina.</p>
<p>unfortunately, i went through some very difficult times this year when a close friend of mine passed away, and my step father had to go to Iraq. My family also went through a very difficult time with my twin sister who suffers from various anxiety disorders such as OCD, depression, bipolar disorder, and school phobia. She ended up dropping out which was a big blow to our already rocky family.</p>
<p>As a result, my grades suffered a little bit, and I ended up with a 3.3 GPA uw and 4.1 weighted. Luckily, I still have junior year and part of senior year to make up for it. I just wanted to get some advice and perspective to see what you all think I need to do to be able to get into HC, or if you even think it’s possible.</p>
<p>sorry for rambling :)</p>
<p>hi Kati</p>
<p>It’s hard to predict these things. In general, the people who apply to HC are very strong candidates and are usually in the top 10%, have great ECs, test scores, interesting life experiences, ect… and you probably fall in to this group. For LACs, they also consider “fit” and what unique talents/diversity applicants can bring to the small community as well. For example, about 2 years ago, there was a lacrosse goalie who applied ED to HC and was rejected out right (article in the NYT that i’ve linked before)… probably because there were several current HC students already lined up for goalie and another ED applicant (who was a goalie) was also accepted… so other than his strong academics (which most applicants have), his EC talents (being a star goalie) was viewed as less “unique” and less in demand. So, this kid wound up going next door to Swat under RD because they needed a goalie as per the coach and his academics were good too. By itself, this isn’t that ununsual but the example illustrates that a significant part of admissions has to do with chance… whether the college has an opening (or “need”) for a student with a “particular” talent/interest… and such things are difficult to assess… unless you are a prize winning accordion player.</p>
<p>You do have 2 things going for you… 1) geography and 2) strong interest in HC. I’d clearly express and emphasize the latter in any communications you have with the college. Also, it’s my experience that HC looks for a threshold of academic ability and then weighs heavily experiences and challenges students either bring to themselves (the toughest course load) or is given to them such as your experiences… and how the students respond to these things. I’d write a supplement describing your challenges and, rather than writing how such things affected your grades, I’d concentrate on writing about how they made you stronger as a person and what lessons you learned from these struggles. good luck</p>
<p>wow thanks so much! i know that i have a hard road ahead of me, but that was really encouraging.<br>
thanks again!</p>