Crack baby all grown up! lol jk, but URM :)

Chance Me / Match Me
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<p>Hey boys and girls lol</p>

<p>2150, 800, 790. 3.9 wGPA @ prep school (3.65 uw)- advanced mathematics student. Student Body President, Varsity Soccer Captain + MVP. Possible URM (half-black)- great essay, recommendations.</p>

<p>I’ve got some strange statistics and I’m wondering if you have an idea how admissions committees might look at these.</p>

<p>I attend a private high school in San Diego that sends 100% of students to 4-year colleges. School’s average GPA: 3.2 (uw). Average SAT is 2000. I’m saying this because my school doesn’t rank students. Ok, here goes (pay attention to the nonacademic stuff and weird acadamic stuff, yo):</p>

<p>Soph-Junior-Senior GPA: 3.9 (weighted)/3.65 (uw). 6 APs/6 honors classes (see below for detail)
SATs: 2150 Math IIc- 800, Bio 790
ECs: Student Body President (Four years student gov);
Varsity Men’s Soccer Captain (not playing in college) (four years on varsity, two MVP awards, league honors);
Worked entry-level analysis for a medical office
One other job, mostly to make money (dog-walking lol)
Other clubs that are more community service-y
Essay- trust me on this one, it’s good. I also have two good rec’s: i got a chance to read both of them, and one was really spectacular (i didn’t believe it was about me at first lol)</p>

<p>Important Academic stuff: I’ve gotten pretty much straight, solid A’s in more advanced math classes at my school (like Multivariable Calculus and another class in Differential Equations). I took BC Calculus Sophomore year (5 on AP) and have been taking more advanced mathematics ever since (I took AP stats as an elective at the same time as Diff Eq.). I’ve also got a couple mathematics awards (like AMC school champion and AIME) I’m applying undeclared, and I’m not planning on becoming a mathematics major.</p>

<p>My mother is african-american. My father is white. Should I put this on my application- will it help me?</p>

<p>Recap: 2150, 800, 790. 3.9 wGPA @ prep school (3.65 uw)- advanced mathematics student. Student Body President, Varsity Soccer Captain + MVP. Possible URM (half-black)- great essay, recommendations.</p>

<p>Schools:</p>

<p>Stanford (1st choice uh oh), UCs : Berk, LA, San Diego, Davis, Cornell, some Lib. Art colleges (safety first!), Columbia, Brown, Yale, G-town.</p>

<p>I have the UCs on there for safety. What are my chances? I know some of these look ambitious, but my stats are pretty weird, so I need help figuring out what kind of school will take me. Even my school’s college counselor tells me Yale one day and UCSD the next!</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>I think you have a decent shot. Good luck.</p>

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<p>i dont find your post to be funny at all, nevertheless i think you have a good shot at all of those schools.</p>

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<p>I didn’t find your post about being a “crack baby” funny either. If that’s an example of what you find funny, I think that your high scores may not open the college doors that you’re expecting. I’ve seen high stat students rejected from colleges because they had a rep for making the kind of “jokes” that GCs, teachers and interviewers found to be tasteless.</p>

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<p>studyordie3:</p>

<p>UCB/UCLA: Match
UCSD: Safe Match
UCD: Safety</p>

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<p>Stanford: Reach
UCB/UCLA: Match
UCSD: Safe Match
UCD: Safety</p>

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<p>Thanks hairy, ryan, northstarmom [hey you said my scores were high!- read on if i offended you earlier], flopsy, batman- anyone wanna comment on the non-UCs? I’d love to get out of So-cal for awhile.</p>

<p>I’m saddened if you were offended by my thread title, but I’m happy about your responses to it. About “crack baby”: it’s an inside joke I share with my high school friends, who introduced me to this site- I might as well tell the story so as not to incur more of CC’s senior members’ wrath (I find it to be a very educational story about subconscious assumptions about race): A couple of my friends (both African American), told my math teacher on the second day of class that I was adopted because my mother was a rock-cocaine addict. The teacher had only met my father (my dad is a typical Swede- blue eyes, blond hair, looks nothing like me) and the teacher was quick to believe the story. When my mother (who’s black) came to my school to take me to a dentist appointment, the administrative assistant called the school’s security officer, thinking that my biological mother had come to kidnap me. It turned out that my longtime friends’ practical joke was more alive than when they first created it- even the school principal believed that my mom had given to birth to me while a crack addict and that I was adopted. Until this year, there were still some teachers who assumed the story were true. You’d be surprised how weird it is being biracial at my school- some white kids will use the n-word when singing along to rap songs, but “apologize” quickly when they say it out of habit around me, while my neighborhood friends’ parents view my family as some unholy anomaly and probe secretly into my family history trying to figure my parents out (good thing they didn’t hear my friends’ crack-baby joke). I use humor that pushes the boundaries to get people to be more open about things, and that’s made high school a hell of a lot easier (as anyone on this board knows, it’s not grades and tests that make high school challenging). In an anonymous forum like this, people can show their true feelings. I’m glad that there is anger towards racism and insensitivity- I just felt that this was an informal place where I could gauge reactions. I use language like this with my friends and classmates all the time, not out of insecurity but more as a measure of their true character. In response to Northstarmom’s post, rest assured that this aspect of my personality will not hamper my admissions chances- My teachers (who are my good friends) have trusted me enough to show me their recommendations, and my school makes the college counselor’s letters public for all students to view. If you find the joke tasteless, then I applaud you, but I don’t criticize those who pardon or enjoy it, either.</p>

<p>Anyway, on the topic of race, should I put biracial/black on my application? I’m not here to argue politics, but I am generally against affirmative action as a government policy- I find it demeaning and racist, and when I heard of it for the first time in 8th grade it made me feel inferior and weak. I’m not a “means justify the ends” kind of guy. Nevertheless, checking both the Caucasian and African American box (and writing biracial) might help the admissions officers better understand my personal statement (which comments a bit on race but doesn’t talk about my racial background at all). Do adcoms use race in the same way as Affirmative Action systems, or is it to get a picture of the student in their environment? And then- is it really fair for them to make assumptions about me based on my racial background? While I don’t want to sell my soul while selling myself to the admissions committee, I’m thinking f*** them, if they want me because I’m African American, then I’ll let them have what they want if it gets me what I want. If anyone wants to change my mind, please do so.</p>

<p>But I’m really here to predict where I might be in 9 months (or 21 months- i’m thinking about deferring admission for a year… maybe), so, does anyone else wanna rate my chances? I doubt think my college counselor went to college, and my parents underestimate my desire to get a really good undergraduate education (they don’t care where I go as long as I go to graduate school, but I’m not patient enough to wait four years lol). Should I be trading in my surfboard for a snowboard, or buying a new wetsuit?</p>

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<p>Stanford (1st choice uh oh), 20-45%
UCs : Berk, LA, Probably accepted
San Diego, Davis, Accepted
Cornell, 40-75%
Columbia, 25-45%
Brown, 25-55%
Yale, Probably rejected
G-town. 25-55%</p>

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<p>" A couple of my friends (both African American), told my math teacher on the second day of class that I was adopted because my mother was a rock-cocaine addict. "</p>

<p>My thoughts are that with friends like that, you don’t need enemies.</p>

<p>I actually know an adopted biracial former crack baby. He’s a wonderful child, gifted, a delight to know.</p>

<p>I also know a 6-year old adopted former crack baby who despite very loving parenting from her adoptive mom has a variety of problems directly connected to her biological mom’s crack use.</p>

<p>And I know a teen former crack baby, another adoptee, who’ll be going to college next year.</p>

<p>As for your question about how to describe yourself, feel free to check “other” and then put – “bi-racial, black mom, white dad” or to check “black,” which, frankly, is how most people in the US would view you.</p>

<p>As for your chances, they are decent at all of the places that you’re applying to. Being black with extremely high scores would make you stand out in any college’s pools. Regardless of affirmative action, most colleges want diverse student bodies – and that includes all sorts of diversity, not just racial. This particularly is true of the most select colleges, which are in the enviable position of having such an abundance of highly qualified applicants that adcoms can pick and choose to create a well rounded, diverse class.</p>

<p>Check out this article in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education to see how few blacks have SAT scores as high as yours (probably fewer than 300 in the country): <a href=“http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_college_admissions-test.html[/url]”>http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_college_admissions-test.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>A snippet:
"On the math SAT, only 0.7 percent of all black test takers scored at least 700 compared to 6.3 percent of all white test takers. Thus, whites were nine times as likely as blacks to score 700 or above on the math SAT. Overall, there were 45 times as many whites as blacks who scored 700 or above on the math SAT. </p>

<p>If we raise the top-scoring threshold to students scoring 750 or above on both the math and verbal SAT — a level equal to the mean score of students entering the nation’s most selective colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, and CalTech — we find that in the entire country 244 blacks scored 750 or above on the math SAT and 363 black students scored 750 or above on the verbal portion of the test. Nationwide, 33,841 students scored at least 750 on the math test and 30,479 scored at least 750 on the verbal SAT. Therefore, black students made up 0.7 percent of the test takers who scored 750 or above on the math test and 1.2 percent of all test takers who scored 750 or above on the verbal section. "</p>

<p>It’s important to remember that not all of those few blacks with very high SAT scores are applying to elite colleges. Many prefer to stay close to home and go to noncompetitive public or private colleges or they prefer HBCUs.</p>

<p>Others may have mediocre grades or weak ECs. Consequently, black students with the kind of scores, grades and ECs that you have are in great demand. That doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteed entry to all of the colleges that you applied to (Check CC’s archives and you’ll read about some high scoring, strong EC, strong gpa blacks who were rejected by top colleges last year), but it does mean that your chances are stronger than most students’.</p>

<p>What’s the breakdown of your SAT I? That’s important because some colleges are disregarding the writing portion this year.</p>

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<p>bump please</p>

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<p>i found ur crack baby story funny - I think you stand a chance at most Ivies - SERIOUSLY play up your being half black and dealing with racial problems in your area or something or the diffuculties of being from a mixed family and you’ll be in harvard faster than a gay going to the democratic national convention</p>

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<p>The OP proves that you can take someone out of the hood and place him in a good school that sends 100% of its graduates to college, but you can’t always take the ‘hood’ out of the ‘crack baby’ mentality that some of our young African American men demonstrate! It’s comes down to character, regardless of perceived stats. </p>

<p>You’ll get into a good college somewhere, based on your hs’s success rate and its internal support systems. I happen to know how colleges actively and aggressively recruit students from your hs. I just hope that your immaturity doesn’t come across in your essays and interviews!</p>

<p>Now, if you really were a crack baby who beat the odds, it would be a completely different story. I have read rec letters where dad is in prison, mom is on crack, and a student has overcome the challenges of his/her environment to excel on school as well as in the community. </p>

<p>This does not sound like you though.</p>

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<p>bump it up yo</p>

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<p>bump it up one last time yo</p>

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<p>c’mon just a few more opinions please</p>

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<p>ksjfsk;ljf;lksh;sdhf</p>

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<p>What you said about the whole “crack baby” thing was well put, studyordie3. I too am biracial, so I can totally identify with what you’re trying to say. I think you have a very good chance at every college you applied to!</p>

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<p>OK…Without the URM status…</p>

<p>Stanford - Big reach
Columbia - Big reach
Brown - Reach
Yale - Big Reach
Georgetown - Slight Reach
UCs - Others know better than I do. See above.</p>

<p>If you can use your URM status, your chances at all these schools would increase significantly, especially in light of your ECs, Math and Bio SAT2 scores, and AP classes. I suggest you use it. And make sure you interview at all top schools you apply to. Let the admissions people see you. It would be a very strong hook.</p>

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<p>…</p>

<p>I think you have a great shot everywhere</p>

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<p>Northstarmom:</p>

<p>lighten up. it’s humor, and all humor occasionally offends. Someone smart once said that all good jokes involved harm to someone.</p>

<p>OP:</p>

<p>you have nice shots everywhere - you’ve certainly challenged yourself.</p>