I am a white male student from a suburb of DFW, Texas. I go to a reputable public school and am in the top 25% and might be in the top 10% by the end of the year. I have taken 11 AP classes so far and plan on taking 5 or 6 more next year as a senior. All other classes I’ve taken have been honors classes with the exception of on level Spanish and a year of theatre. I got a 32 on my first ACT and a 31 the second time and they super score to a 33 (I don’t know if Wes does this or not). I am an officer of National Science Honor Society at my school and have been involved with several clubs such as Chemistry club and Model UN. I also am a State Science Fair Participant. I have a 4.75 GPA out of 4 but my school does GPA weird and I’d say that most of my grades fall in the B+,A-,A range with few B-s. I also have done a varsity athletic sport my freshman, sophomore years and plan on returning next year. I have also been on the national team for this sport since 2011 (I’m including this because I feel like it will demonstrate commitment in my application). I took subject tests for world history and chemistry last year and scored 560 and 580 so I don’t feel like I should send those. Would it be worth it for me to retake them? Wesleyan is my dream school, what are my chances of getting in?
Wes is standardized test optional, If you do submit scores, they superscore. I found this out on the FAQs page:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/apply/faqs.html
They have a class profile on this page:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/apply/classprofile.html
They don’t have a lot of kids from the south but the percentage has been increasing, so your location would possibly be a plus. Also, Wes accepts a slightly higher percentage of male applicants than female, so your gender will be a plus. Your ACT is right on the median so it won’t be a plus or minus.
According to Naviance, most important is Curriculum Rigor / School Record which you have. Very Important is:
Character / Personal Qualities
Class Rank
Essay
Ethnicity
GPA
Recommendations
Talent / Ability / Competency
Test Scores
How are your relations with your teachers? Wes wants two academic teacher recommendations, specifically one from a science/math teacher and one from humanities. I suspect that if you get stellar letters of recommendation that speak not only of academics but also about good character and talent, then your chances are very good. No college at this level is a certainty, of course, but you sound like a good candidate, especially if you apply early decision. ED seems to be a very big boost for Wes.
(caveat, I am not an admissions officer, I’m just a parent reading info from the websites)
whats Naviance?
If it’s a sport that Wesleyan recruits for I’d say your chances look good. I doubt that most recruited athletes at Wesleyan are in the top quarter and very few in the top 10%.
Definitely do not submit those scores. I think they’re probably below the 25th percentile. Have you taken the AP exams for all those AP classes? How did you do?
Just out of curiosity what makes Wesleyan seem like it would be a good fit for you?
To be clear I meant don’t submit the subject test scores. The ACT is fine. All of ninacaterina’s points seem valid. The very things that would make you perhaps not the strongest applicant at Vanderbilt or Duke, namely being a southern white boy athlete, will definitely work in your favor at Wesleyan, especially and it’s unfortunate that this has become a consideration once again, if you don’t need lots of financial aid. But even if you do and a coach takes an interest in you I think your chances are much better than even. Wesleyan has for better or worse made athletics a priority in a way that they had not been before. Again, I’m not sure why you have taken a particular interest in Wesleyan. Make sure you research the prevailing social and political atmosphere of the schools where you apply. While some people like to venture out of their comfort zone, others like to be surrounded with people more or less like themselves.
I’m really interested in Wesleyan because it seems very liberal, which would be a nice change from yeehaw conservative Texas. I also really like how laidback the school seemed while also being academic. I really appreciate an environment where people are wanting to learn in contrast to the school I am at currently where kids don’t really care about learning and its just a cutthroat GPA game. I wasn’t really considering doing athletics in college but I will consider it if it helps me get in. I really like the attitude of what I’ve seen at Wesleyan online because it seems like it would be a good school if I want to pursue the arts as well as the humanities.
I got a 4 on World History and a 3 on Chemistry. These past two weeks I took: Physics C, English Language, US History, European History, Seminar, and Psychology. I wouldn’t be surprised if I got 4s and 5s on all except Physics.
@kevintocollege sorry for the delay on reply. Naviance is a software suite that some high school districts use to manage college applications. They keep historic data about who from their schools are accepted to which colleges, and they collect the requirements from most colleges into data sheets.