Are we in the ballpark?

Colleges & Universities University of Virginia
1

<p>Our son is a legacy at U Va. (His dad went there undergrad.) We have spoken with the admissions office, and they’ve confirmed that he will be judged as an in-state applicant rather than an out-of-state one. This is an extremely generous policy, and we’re grateful for it. We’ll be visiting the school later this month. </p>

<p>We understand out-of-state applicants have a much tougher road, but don’t know precisely how hard it is to get in as a “Virginia resident”. Are his stats in the ballpark?</p>

<p>He goes to a small private school that just had its first graduating class. The school has less than 200 students. They have two college counselors (one used to be at an established local prep school)and the kids get a lot of personal attention preparing their aps. This year, they had acceptances at Stanford, Princeton, Tufts, Cornell, Vassar, Amherst, Wash. U., Northwestern, etc. so they are getting a good response. Still, it is a new school with no established track record. </p>

<p>His stats look like this:</p>

<p>GPA: 96.6% (equivalent 4.0) - Don’t know weighted but he has honors courses and as many AP’s as the school has
Ranking: technically they don’t rank but the materials submitted to the school will show he is 1 out of 42.
ACT 32 (English 34, Math 31, Reading 33, Sci. 29) Essay: 10 out of 12, with a combined English/writing score of 33
SAT II’s: Bio 720, World History 770, US History 780
AP’s: Junior - 5 US History, 4 Bio E, 4 Eng. Lit; will have Physics, Calc AB, English Language Senior Year
SAT I: Total 2020 (M - 650, W - 670, R - 700). First try; he will retake. </p>

<p>EC’s (projected through senior year): </p>

<p>Heavy involvement in theater…acting and singing. Has been in a production every semester, starting in the chorus freshman year and worked his way up to leads. Last one was Bottom in Midsummer Night’s Dream. The asses’ ears were quite stunning. Also Thespian Society. Involves about 250 plus hours of work per academic year.</p>

<p>Flute: 5 years lessons. Helped start the first musical group at his school his junior year…a jazz ensemble that was named after him. (No program existed before that.) “____ and the Jags” Has performed in school and community functions. Will have 2 years involvement at school. (about 6 hours per week including stuff in and out of school.)</p>

<p>Creative Writing: Literary magazine editor, 3 years. Involvement in local summer writing seminars. Some poems published in specialty mags and books. Regular participant on writing website with other young writers who craft fantasy stories.</p>

<p>Life sciences (summer activities) : Docent at Medical Musem after freshman year (25 hours). Summer prgram at Brown University in microbiology after sophomore year (non-credit); Currently enrolled in Summer program at U Chicago --Research in Biological Sciences (6.6 Univ credits) . Latter is a heavy commitment. Over 40 hours of lab work a week plus homework. Part instructional plus chance to work on ongoing research projects in Chicago’s labs. </p>

<p>Community Service:</p>

<p>A variety of things: One summer volunteered 100 hours at a veterinary clinic, 4 years tutoring elementary students, participation in community service weeks in mini-mesters involved about 75 hours of work. NHS - heavy but scattered involvement in various community projects (Habitat for Humanity, involvement at local mosque, MS run)</p>

<p>Jewish community: fluent in Hebrew (12 years in school), regular tutoring/study sessions in gemara and other ancient Jewish texts; assisted reading Torah at synagogue</p>

<p>Normal range of clubs and honors: NHS, will be National Merit commended., Dungeons and Dragons, Extreme Chemistry Club (they blow up things), Chess Club, Yearbook (just freshman year) (Since this is a young school, he helped found several of these.) </p>

<p>Involved with all the other students in two learning/exploration trips a year (1 week per trip), each with a special theme: wilderness hiking, following in the footsteps of immigrants in NY, the Sephardic Jews of the West Coast), three week exploration of Jewish heritage in Israel, etc.</p>

<p>Are we in the ballpark? Can we get into U Va. with a 32 ACT? How far off is his SAT score?</p>

2

<p>are you kidding?
if you’re not. I do believe he is very qualified, if not a very qualified scholar.
SAT scores…I have no clue why everyone freaks out about these. Don’t worry, just don’t let him slack his senior year and let him enjoy his High School years.</p>

3

<p>For in-state admissions, I think he is in…but to be sure, try raising the SAT score, but I think he will be fine even if he doesn’t.</p>

4

<p>sorry, I forgot he was in-state, those SAT scores are fine.</p>

5

<p>He’s in. Any instater with those stats and a clean criminal record would be in.</p>

6

<p>Thanks everyone! As far as I know, his criminal record is clean. I will just need to keep him from “murdering” any admissions people at various schools as he deals with the normal frustrations of this entire process. </p>

<p>We’ll be visiting in late July. They even have someone in the alumnae office who will consult with you individually to discuss the undergrad program and your application. We’ll see how things go, but this sounds like a tremendous opportunity.</p>

7

<p>If he has any questions about Virginia (whether it be social or academic), we would be happy to answer them here.</p>

8

<p>We’ve got our date to visit set up later this month. We’ll be visiting with the alumni representative as well as doing the usual tour and information session. Is there anything that we should make a special point of doing or seeing to get some feel for what the campus is like?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>