Chance me ED 2 Boston College, US[+Canada] citizen from small Canadian town weak ECs[4.0 UW, Test optional]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US Citizen living abroad
  • State/Location of residency: Canada
  • Type of high school: Public, Graduation class size: 325
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Male/Mixed/Caribbean
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): Adopted, Geography

Intended Major(s)
Chemistry

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: N/A
  • Class Rank: My school does not report class rank, but the school counselor said he believes I’m in the top decile.
  • ACT/SAT Scores: Waiting for Dec SAT results but planning on going test-optional

Coursework
My school does not offer AP or IB classes. Grade 12 courses include Physics, Chemistry, Calculus (equivalent to AP Calc AB), English, French, and Indigenous studies (Graduation requirement). 97% average grade 10 and 11 in similar classes (Grade 9 does not count toward graduation credit). French immersion since Kindergarten.
Planning on self-studying for AP French and AP Macroeconomics

Awards
Double Dogwood (Completion of High school in French and English)
School does not have honor classes.

Extracurriculars
AAA Baseball (Travel Team)
Brazilian Ju-Jitsu
Purple belt in Karate (No longer competes, though)
Volunteer at Canadian Blood Services and leader of the blood club at my high school (Youngest active volunteer)
Volunteer at Soap For Hope, an organization that collects hygiene products and distributes them to shelters. (Youngest active volunteer)
Wharton Global Youth Summer Program (Essentials of Finance)
Accepted to Boston College’s Summer Program but did not attend (I don’t think that will impact their decision)
Social Justice Club: Joined in Grade 9, Interviewing homeless people at shelters and making presentations on their stories to spread awareness, hosting school events to raise money for charity
Youth and Philanthropy Initiative: Research and interview local charities and advocate for more funding to charities to a committee. Presentation won 1st in our class but did not win nationally.
I worked a job at McDonald’s during grade 11.

Essays/LORs/Other
Common App essay about the learning challenges with ADHD I’ve faced but mainly focused on how I’ve changed as a person and what I’ve learned. BC’s Writing Question was very strong; I had multiple English teachers look it over.
LORs: Strong, One from my math/Chemistry/Physics teacher (Yes, I know we have a teacher shortage, lmao). I have known him since grade 10. Second from my Marketing and Promotion Teacher, Strong

Cost Constraints / Budget
Income ~ 150k

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For reference, I’m 1 out of only 5-10 people at our school who applied to US schools.

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What does the NPC indicate? On the one hand, for 150k income I imagine BC would cover nearly all to half tuition. On the other hand, they are lethal wrt real estate assets.
Would 30-42k be affordable for your parents (that’d be the logical amount if your parents only own their home and have no secondary properties) ?
No sense in applying ED2 if you can’t afford it.

You are what is called here “an average-excellent” student (copyright @Lindagaf )… that is, you’re excellent, but in the way most excellent students are. On the plus side: your grades are terrific, especially for Canada, you followed the national curriculum but were in French immersion (especially useful if you indicated you planned on a minor in it), sounds like you’re in one of the Northern Regions so you’d bring geographical diversity, you’re clearly engaged with your community. As such, BC would be lucky to have you because you have a profile they want. On the minus side… lots of kids will have that same profile, minus Northern region/First Nations class and French immersion is good academically but doesn’t help BC if you’re not going to do anything with it there (and they’ll prioritize kids who bring something they want/need).

Did you apply anywhere ED1?

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Thanks for your response. I was worried about my ECs since I always see these kids saying they founded multiple companies with 100k+ revenue and interned at NASA, etc. I haven’t tried using the NPC yet, but price is not my main focus as there are many in my family who could assist as I’m an only child and have no cousins. I applied ED 1 to Cornell Hotel School and await their decision on Thursday. I live in a small town. I wouldn’t say it’s rural; it has about 80k people, so I’m not sure how much that would help for geographical diversity. My friend (The only other person who applied for ED at my school) was just accepted to U Miami Business School with similar grades to mine and less community service, so I’m optimistic people from our school can be admitted to more selective US schools.

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I’m confused as to why you applied to the hotel school at Cornell if your intended major is chemistry?

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Haha, thanks for the shout out MYOS. I’m milking my 15 minutes of fame for sure!

OP, I don’t think your ECs are weak. They are fine. Average excellent, I’d say. Plus, you indicated that you are of Caribbean descent. If that means you’re of African descent, that might work in your favor. And you’re from an uncommon place. Those factors might help you.

I’m a little concerned about your second recommender. Can you get another teacher from a core subject to give you a rec? BC recommends recs from teachers in cores subjects. I would enquire about that asap, as I don’t feel a rec from a marketing teacher is going to help your app.

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I applied to Cornell Hotel School since Travel is one of my biggest passions. I travel 10+ times per year. Aside from science, I love Finance, entrepreneurship, and marketing. Cornell’s hotel school is world-renowned, so I thought I would give it a chance.

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The marketing Teacher is also our Engineering teacher. I forgot to clarify that in the original post. I also got him to do it because I had previously called him to write LOR for my summer programs, and they worked. I was also thinking of getting my other science teacher or my French immersion teacher to write LOR as well. I’m hoping that my ethnic background can help me out a bit, but I don’t want to milk the whole diversity stuff, as I feel it is sort of wrong.

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I could not agree more with you. Just from the post here this young man tells a compelling story. As an African American BC alum I can attest to the fact that BC struggles with Black students even though they have been very intentional in diversity efforts the last many years. Not to get OP’s hopes up but I think he has a great chance and is the type of student the school is looking for.

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It’s not wrong to milk diversity stuff. The system is wrong for not admitting more students like you.

Frankly, I’d ask your French teacher for a rec. It’s a core subject.

Not to demean your summer program engineering teacher recs at all, but most summer programs don’t hold a lot of weight to admissions officers. Your recs were good, I’m sure, but for most summer programs, the rec isn’t that important. Colleges that recommend two recs are generally looking for one from a STEM teacher and one from a Humanities teacher.

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Thank you for the advice; I will ask her to do it. I’m sure she would write an excellent one for me as she is the teacher who has known me the longest, since grade 9. It’s hard for me to talk about my background in some of these applications since I was adopted; I don’t know much/anything about my birth parents other than my bio dad was from the Caribbean. However, I have been able to write about the various perspectives I’ve been a part of, as my adoptive family is Sikh and Jewish. I’ve heard that AOs like that kind of thing, but I’m not too sure.

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I hope that you’re right about that! As an African American, how would you say you were treated at BC? I know Boston has a stereotype of being not too kind to minorities, but I’m not sure if that’s true. Also, how diverse is BC? I grew up in a city where 85% of people are white and less than 5% are black, so I wouldn’t mind somewhere a little more diverse.

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I think you have a chance.

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Is the quoted income in Canadian dollars or did you convert it to US dollars ?

Annual COA for Boston College will be about US $90,000.

Your grades & ECs are excellent.

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OP is a US citizen living abroad.

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Yes that value is in US dollars as my parents both file their US taxes each year, and I’m a US citizen so I am filling the CSS and FAFSA. I’m mostly concerned about getting admitted rather than figuring out how to pay for it. Would you say that not having AP/IB/Honours puts me at a large disadvantage though?

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No disadvantage if those courses are not offered at your school.

In my view, your profile is very strong for BC. I hope that you are admitted.

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Thank you! I hope so too.

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I am getting my SAT scores back on Friday. What is the minimum score I should report for BC? I was thinking 1470? If not I’ll just go test optional.

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College Navigator - Boston College says 14% Pell (i.e. relatively few from lower to lower middle income families) and 58% from the largest racial/ethnic group.

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