Cornell, Columbia, WUSTL, Tufts + more

wikipedialove · January 29, 2006, 6:34pm

White female. My GPA is 3.6 UW (4.37 W) with a rank in the top 10% (45/475) at a large, competitive high school. I’ve taken the hardest classes possible, 11 AP’s , 4 years of French, 8 science classes, etc.
ACT- 32
SAT- 700 M 690 CR 680 W
SAT II- MathIIC 740, Chem 710
My Mid Year Report- I’m taking 6 AP’s this year- 4A’s/2B’s

My “Hook”- older autistic brother. Essay was about him and his impact on me, the reason i want to be a teacher

My EC’s
Civinettes Service Club-9, 10, 11, 12-President
National Honor Society - 10, 11, 12 
Model United Nations- 10, 11, 12- Secretary for 2 years
Chemistry Competition Team- 11, 12- Co-Captain, Founding Member
Psychology Club- 11, 12 Founding Member
School Spirit Club- 11, 12 (must be junior/senior)
Ultimate Frisbee Club- 12 Founding Member
Marine Biology Club- 12 (my only year of eligibility, must be in APES or marine)
Inter-Club Council- 12 SGA type club, you have to be a president of another club
Tennis-10- Member of JV Team; tryouts required

My awards are few and far between:
Most Dedicated for Tennis (yea, i see the irony… lol) (10)
Honorable Mention for Regional History Fair (project on autism) (11)
AP Scholar
Honor roll, etc (all the easy, generic academic awards… nothing individual/special)

Community Service:
Autism Research Center-50 hours 
Relay for Life Walk-Captain of a team for 2 years; raised over $4,000
County Heart Walk-Captain of a team; participant 3 years
Breast Cancer Walk- Captain of a team; participant 4 years; raised $2,000
Habitat for Humanity- Civinettes Chair Project Leader (our county is building a house in april)
Ronald McDonald House- 50 hours
Kids Voting-15 hours-Operate a voting booth on Election Day
A Church- Running a Halloween carnival for 3 years
An Elementary School- 35 hours
Christmas Connection- 45 hours

Hope that was long enough/andor/not too long.

So what are my chances at:
Cornell- Legacy
Columbia- Legacy, Did an Interview
Vanderbilt
Emory
Duke
Tufts- Did an interview
BC
Carnegie-Mellon
WUSTL (Did NOT apply for financial aid here, I know they are not need blind so this might be good to mention)
(And yes, I applied to several safeties as well.)

Thank you!

system · January 29, 2006, 7:13pm

Courseload & Community Service look great for you!

If your schedule is tougher than most of the 44 kids ahead of you in rank(11 AP’s are a lot!). Rank won’t matter so much.

Your SAT’s are competitive for most of the schools you are looking at.

Cornell:Match
Columbia:Match
Vanderbilt: Match
Emory: Match
Duke: Reach
Tufts:Match
BC:Safe Match
Carnegie Mellon:Match
WUSTL: Slight Reach

Good luck with your application adventures, :)

wikipedialove · January 29, 2006, 7:18pm

To the question of my schedule being harder than those above me- Yes. It is.

My school ranks using weighted GPA’s. And Honors and AP are given the same weight. So a schedule of 6 honors classes gets the same weight as a schedule of 6 AP’s. (I think this is kind of dumb… but my GC explained it in her evaluation.)

Thanks for your optimistic opinion!

system · January 29, 2006, 7:54pm

No problem. My school actually has that same weighting issue… crazy. But my GC already told me that taking 6 AP’s in Junior Year (even if my GPA goes down a little bit) will actually help me with top schools.

Yet again, best of luck!

JuiceboxHero · January 29, 2006, 8:17pm

Cornell: Moderate Reach
Columbia: Less Moderate Reach, about the same chance as any other qualified applicant.
Vanderbilt: Safe Match
Emory: Match
Duke: High Reach
Tufts: Slight Match, although with interview, it’s a solid match
BC: Safe Match
CMU: Because of MCS…Match, otherwise safe-match
WUSTL: Slight Reach

intherow1250 · January 29, 2006, 8:47pm

vanderbilt and tufts are slight matches in my opinion.

<hr>

a d m i s s i o n c h a n c e s . c o m

wikipedialove · January 30, 2006, 3:14pm

Thanks Juice.

Anybody else?
All opinions welcome!!

BingCold · January 30, 2006, 4:15pm

Cornell: match/reach
Columbia: reach
Vanderbilt: match
Emory: match
Duke: reach
Tufts: match
BC: definite match
CMU: match
WUSTL: match

dolce1314 · January 30, 2006, 4:19pm

what’s your ethnicity and where do you live? those are major factors. but just looking at what you have your ecs are really great.
Cornell: Moderate Reach
Columbia: High Reach
Vanderbilt: Very Safe Match
Emory: Match
Duke: High Reach
Tufts: Match
BC: Very Safe Match
CMU: Very Safe Match
WUSTL: Slight Reach
the only reason why i think some of the schools are high reaches for you is b/c of your SAT score. very good score overall, but these schools will be flooded w/ applicants who have better or equally good scores. you the region you live in and ethnicity could help w/ acceptance in these cases. otherwise i think your app looks great.

lollipop27 · January 30, 2006, 6:37pm

Cornell: reach
Columbia: reach
Vanderbilt: match
Emory: match
Duke: reach
Tufts: match
BC: definite match
CMU: match
WUSTL: match

ECs are really nice, so are SAT scores, but GPA is a bit low, even for 11 AP’s.

wikipedialove · January 30, 2006, 7:03pm

To Dolce- I’m a white female from Florida.
I doubt the whiteness helps… haha… but maybe Florida does? Who knows…

Thanks for the responses dolce and lollipop!
Any others?

The.End · January 30, 2006, 7:24pm

SAT doesn’t look too good for Columbia and Cornell, otherwise you seem fine.

wikipedialove · January 31, 2006, 6:23pm

Thanks, Bump.

wikipedialove · February 4, 2006, 6:47pm

Anyone else?
Please?

habdragon08 · February 4, 2006, 7:00pm

Autistic Brother is defnitely a hook. A girl from my school got into Princeton last year with one, and she had to take care of him eeryday and stuff.

She was Hispanic, with slightly higher SAT that you (1420)

yougotjohn · February 7, 2006, 9:32pm

I think you have a great chance with all of those schools, but is it really a “hook” to have an austistic sibling? It seems like of selfish, to use a brother like that, like he’s your ticket in.

habdragon08 · February 7, 2006, 9:55pm

It seems kind of selfish to have a sibling who isnt totally dependent on you for social interaction, and take it for granted.

Yes having an autistic sibling is hard. Mentally ■■■■■■■■ children can interact with others, but autistics are completely dependent on you for social interaction.

bobbobbob · February 7, 2006, 10:04pm

Cornell Slight Reach
Columbia Reach
Vanderbilt Slight Reach
Emory Match
Duke Reach
Tufts Slight Reach
BC Match
Carnegie-Mellon Slight Reach
WUSTL Reach

wikipedialove · February 9, 2006, 7:12pm

Dragon and John-

A hook is something that sets you apart from the 30,000 other applications.
So yes, having an older autistic sibling makes me different. So yes, this is my “hook.”

Somebody else could say their “hook” was having an odd EC, or being from a different country, being deaf/blind, or being a first generation high school graduate. These are all hooks. (and there are a bunch of others as you know)

Please don’t make such hurtful judgements about me or insinuate in any way that I am exploiting my family.
You really have no idea.

(And BTW- Those with autism generally are mentally ■■■■■■■■ too.)

KRabble88 · February 9, 2006, 7:30pm

I agree that having an autistic sibling is a hook by definition, but it’s a bold statement to say it’ll be the factor getting you into colleges. A friend of mine applied ED to a slightly less selective school than Columbia and was flat-out rejected. He had slightly stronger scores, grades, etc, and he was physically handicapped (his situation is very rare and if you want details on it, then you can PM me about this). Can a hook help? Certainly. Will it get you into colleges? Well… none of us are adcoms so there’s no real way to evalulate its ‘importance’.

Nonetheless, having an autistic brother is definitely a hook, but it really comes down to the essay as to how it had affected you. Good luck during this stressful (and suspenseful) time!

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