Chance me, unusual situation

sfjohson
Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:49:32 +0000

So I am applying for a transfer as a sophomore to some top schools hopefully from Loyola College in Maryland.

College GPA: first semester 4.0, second semester: will be around the same
course load is the hardest possible offered at my school, I am currently undergoing 21 credits (over 20 costs extra tuition which I am footing the bill for. The norm is 15.)
ECs: Dean’s List, volunteer at a hopsital for 3 hours a week, work a soup kitchen twice a month on the weekend, copresident of the club in charge of the volunteering at the hospital, Black Student Association (I am white however, I wanted to diversify coming from a small, homogeneously white town), Justice Club/International Affairs Association (raising social issues awareness around campus), National Speological Society, OAE, and a few other odds and ends. I also have been a Unitarian Universalist all my life and continue to attend services each weekend.

High School:around a 3.2-3.4 GPA unweighted, 3.6-3.7 weighted
Courseload was hard considering my conditions (I was being cured of cancer throughout high school. I wasn’t in school half the time since I was so sick. I even completed freshman year simultaneously with my first half of sophomore year).
many HS extracurriculars but nothing spectacular. varsity soccer for 1 year, in charge of Interact Club (branch of Rotary Club), created a school dance with 3 fellow peers to fundraise money which is now an annual event, Peer leaders, AP Scholar with Honors, Spanish Honor Society

ACT: 31 - retook them recently as a freshman in college.
letters of rec and essays will both be very good. My essay will be about my cancer.

I dont have any job experience though since I was sick all throughout high school so I wrote a little addendum on my “Additional Information” about how holding a job while I was so sick was out of the question. I am not sure if this will affect my decision or not.

I have very strong reasons to transfer i.e. I go to a jesuit school and there is too strong a religious presence (they force all students to take catholicism which I believe runs incongruent to my tolerant Unitarian beliefs), I want to place D3 soccer since I am off chemotherapy and back in good physical shape, I wasnt allowed to go to school further than 2 hours from my oncologists and thus my school prospects were very, very limited, and I also want to major environmental studies which isn’t offered at my current school.

Schools I am applying to:
Tufts (the school of my dreams)
Brandeis
BU (got in RD but parents told me I couldnt attend there since I had to be close to my oncologists)
JHU
UPenn
Cornell
Lehigh
Oberlin

Since I am such an unconventional admissions case I’d like any insight at all if anyone can offer any about how my application will be perceived. Chance me if you can too please.