Chance me: Rising senior applying ED

annabel101
Tue, 11 Jul 2017 07:01:02 +0000

Hey guys! Super excited/nervous to start applying for colleges this fall! Vanderbilt is my top choice (I plan to apply early decision) and it would be absolutely phenomenal to get in. I am a white female from Illinois.

GPA weighted: 5.5 (my school uses a 5-point scale, it’s weird)
GPA unweighted: 4.95 (again on 5-point scale)
I’ve taken all honors when I can and gotten all A’s, except 2 B’s in math, one freshman year Geometry and one sophomore year Algebra II.

Class Rank: top 5% out of about 650
I go to a suburban public school where the majority of students are slackers, so top 5% here isn’t that much of an accomplishment.

ACT Composite: 33 (no writing)
ACT Math: 27
ACT English: 35
ACT Reading: 36
ACT Science: 34

Clubs/EC’s: NHS, National English Honor Society vice president, News Editor for my high school newspaper, Future Educators Association, head of a tutoring program at local middle school, peer writing tutor, summer intern with local newspaper, camp counselor during the summer, going to start/lead an Interact Club chapter next year (high school volunteering organization related to Rotary Club)

Awards: National Spanish Exam Bronze Medal, Rotary Youth Leadership Award, Human Relations Award (school-wide award), First Place at a speech competition for Future Educators Association including multiple schools

AP’s:
-Sophomore year, AP Euro (5)
-Junior year, AP Lang&Comp (5), AP U.S. History (5)
-Senior year, AP Stats, AP Biology, AP Lit and AP Government (second semester)

Weak Spots: My ACT math score is super low (27), I have 2 B’s on my record and I was forced to take standard physics my junior year (my school didn’t offer honors physics)
Hooks/Cool stuff: Summer after my freshman year, I bought a plane ticket with babysitting $ and traveled on my own to Brazil. Maybe that shows independence? Idk. I’ve bought a DNA kit to deepen my understanding of genetics for bio class, so I’ll definitely get an excellent rec letter from that teacher.

Rec Letters/Essays: One of my letters will be from aforementioned biology teacher, but I’ve never really clicked and had a close relationship with another teacher yet. I’m thinking my second letter will be from my AP Literature teacher next year. Hopefully we can get off on the right foot soon enough for him to write me a letter! A bit worried about my counselor, since she has to handle so many students at once in my big school. As far as essays go, I have quite a lot of ideas. I’ll probably write about my Brazil experience.

I want to major in Secondary Education, so that would be through Peabody College. I’m thinking education isn’t as popular of a major at selective schools like Vandy, so maybe that would give me an edge…?