Chances for SFS (Please)

Colleges & Universities Georgetown University
1

<p>Since my first ill-fated day on CC, i’ve been too embarassed to post a chances thread. well, here goes:</p>

<p>Grade: rising senior
Sex: Female
Location: Iowa
Ethnicity: Biracial (Asian/White–not a very helpful combo)
School: Good for the state, but not super-competitive (still on NCLB). Sends 3-4 grads to HYPSM each year, a few others to northwestern, washu, etc. 450 in class.</p>

<p>Rank: School does not rank
GPA: 4.0 (School doesn’t weight, either)
PSAT: 228
SAT: 780 CR, 740 Math, 760 Writing (first try, will retake) 2280 composite
SAT IIs: 680 Spanish (ouch), 750 Bio, 780 Lit
ACT: 35 (first try, won’t retake)</p>

<p>APs:
European History–5, sophomore
Calc BC–5, junior
Spanish–5, junior
US Gov’t–5, junior
Biology–5, junior
Senior year will take Physics, Chem, Spanish Lit (self study), English, Macro/Micro, and US history.</p>

<p>Other classes:
Chemistry @ community college (prolly not even worth mentioning)
Intro to Int’l Relations @ University of Iowa (A)
Will take “Writing in Spanish” and “Spanish Literature” @ UI</p>

<p>ECs:
Board of Directors at city youth center (only youth rep, center is a multi-million dollar organization)
Chair, city youth advisory commission (elected position, youngest member, secured thousands of dollars in grant funding)
Community youth leadership program grad
Certified as Youth Facilitator (long training program)
Founded an Asian student association @ school
Teen advisory board at library (200 volunteer hours, but did not begin documenting until last year–have been volunteering since 8th grade)
Varsity cross-country (3 years so far)
Piano lessons/piano composition (11 years)
City council campaigning (2-3 hrs per week, canvassing, etc)
School newspaper (design editor and doubletruck editor–lots of out-of-school work during publication week)
The usual…NHS, student senate, prom committee</p>

<p>Work:
Waitress at local retirement home
Intern, Congressman’s office, five days a week (plan to continue during school year–may thus have to drop AP physics)
Communications Intern, area Chamber of Commerce, five days a week (will not continue during school year)</p>

<p>Awards/Scholarships:
National Winner, Letters about Literature essay contest (library of congress/target scholarship)
State Winner, United States Institute of Peace essay contest (and scholarship)
Wellesley book award (does this even help?)
Freeman Scholar, Asian and Pacific studies institute at gifted/talented center
McCue Scholar, Arabic institute at gifted/talented center
Rod Vahl scholar, Ball State journalism workshops (ixnay on this one, maybe?)
Selected for city youth salute program…for GPA or whatever
Selected for Herbert Hoover uncommon student award, declined due to scheduling conflict
Other things…state piano, honor roll</p>

<p>I plan on continuing spanish for fluency, but i’m very interested in chinese and arabic. my mother is chinese, so i’ve heard the language before…might make it easier to learn?</p>

<p>Currently interested in the Regional and Comparative Studies major, with a focus on Asian studies. Also like the Int’l History major. </p>

<p>Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!</p>

2

<p>You’re in. End of Story.</p>

3

<p>oh…wow, that’s very flattering, kornpopz. thanks for taking the time to read my ginormously long post!</p>

<p>what i would really like to focus on are specific shortcomings. i would also like to take some things off the list. are there any further suggestions? i really appreciate anyone’s help.</p>

4

<p>haha, your EC’s are, in my opinion, exactly the variety and magnitude of EC’s the SFS school is looking for in any student. My own roommate is a SFS’er and his SAT was below 2000, so I"m pretty sure stats won’t be a problem. Just start early on your app (and don’t wait until a holiday weekend aligning with the app deadline to submit like me!)</p>

5

<p>Sub-2000 SATs are low for Georgetown in general, and very low for SFS… he was probably an outlier in the SFS crowd as far as SAT scores, he must have had something else going for him/her… 2200 is probably a good start for SFS… this is only as far as SAT scores are concerned…</p>

6

<p>thanks for the advice, kornpopz and sophomore! i’m not entirely worried about my scores at this point, but just like anyone else, i can’t help but be anxious about a few things (i.e. slightly dismal spanish score). but your news about the sub-2000 SFSer is quite encouraging.</p>

<p>since i live in iowa, good ECs are kind of hard to come by (does detasseling corn count? lol). some of my ECs/honors might be a bit superfluous if i’m applying to SFS. any further advice?</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

7

<p>I would strongly recommend that you apply Early Action, of course. I wouldn’t worry about your school status; my high school was a NCLB-Phase IV school, and I was admitted to the SFS (granted, this was two years ago, but I don’t think the admissions standards have changed since).</p>

<p>Your geographic location will help you, and I think admissions officers understand that there’s not a whole lot in terms of regionally-recognized extracurricular activities. Still, your extracurricular background is rather impressive. That, and your ability to balance work, school, and extracurriculars is also impressive. Your academic credentials, needless to say, are strong.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t say that you’re in automatically, only because it is nearly impossible to say with certainty whether someone can get in or not. However, you seem like a very strong candidate for admission.</p>

<p>As an aside, I assume you work for Dave Loebsack or Leonard Boswell or one of the other Iowa Members of Congress… how long have you worked for the office?</p>

8

<p>wow! thanks! you can’t understand how happy i am to hear that someone from a NCLB school was still accepted at Georgetown! We’re currently the only school in the city that is still on the list–a real embarassment for some of our administrators. your news is encouraging, to say the least.</p>

<p>additionally, thanks for the honest comments on my ECs/academics/scores, etc. I’m definitely planning on EA, because I realize that although I might be a strong candidate coming out of my school, I’m sure to be overshadowed by super-geniuses from the coasts. Hopefully, my Iowa residency will help me, and all my years of living in the glorious corn state will pay off!</p>

<p>Yes, you are correct–I work for Dave Loebsack. How do you know about him? A lot of our constituents don’t even know about him, since he’s a freshman. I’ve only worked here since the beginning of June…but I had been following the Leach/Loebsack election since September of last year for a research paper. i could talk about this for ages, but i’m afraid i’m getting a little sidetracked, lol.</p>

9

<p>I work for a high-ranking/high-profile Member of Congress, and I followed the 2006 election (did a last-minute stint for one of the candidates, who is actually now in office). </p>

<p>As for Mr. Loebsack, I crossed paths with him a couple of weeks ago (our office is near the floor), and I remember thinking to myself, “Is he Dave Loebsack?” I thought it was him, but couldn’t actually recall, so I looked him up in the House Members Directory. Sure enough, it was him.</p>

10

<p>Dave has a pretty distinctive look…he looks like a real professor, to me.
one of our constituents actually came in the other day and suggested that the Congressman either “grow a real beard or shave it all off, 'cause right now, he looks like a pimp!”</p>

11

<p>No chance at all. Not in a schmillion years. Your SAT and GPA are anything but stellar. I’ve seen monkeys with better ECs. And those AP scores? What’s up with them? Keep dreaming. See you at a community college, terrapin7.</p>

<p>Okay I’m just kidding lol. You’re in great shape (for SFS and physically since you run CC). Unless your PR is like 29:21 for the 5K.</p>

<p>Sorry I’m bored right now I had to do that.</p>

12

<p>Don’t retake SAT.</p>