Do I have a shot at Brown, Princeton, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Pomona, Smith, Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi,
I’m a senior in high school and I’m trying to winnow down my college list and all thoughts are appreciated.

SAT: 2130 super score from two sittings-- (670 M, 700 CR, 760 W)
SAT II: Biology M (740), US History (760), English Literature (750)
My school offers limited APs, so I’ve taken AP Biology and received a 4 and I’m taking AB Calc this year.

Academics: I attend a small private school where “seminars” are equivalent to an AP–they’re the highest level of rigor at our school.
Freshman/Sophomore year: school requires set curriculum (took French 2H, 3H and Algebra I and Function, Trig, and Geometry–slightly advanced offerings)
Junior year: Precalc Honors, AP Bio, seminar English, seminar French, seminar history, advanced photography
Senior year: AB Calc, advanced photography, seminar science (equivalent to AP Enviro), seminar English, computer science honors, seminar history
GPA is 3.9 unweighted
Class rank unknown

Sports: This is my 4th year of varsity cross country (captain junior and senior year) and I ran varsity track for three years (won’t be this year). Our xc has made the state championships every year (this year’s is in November so we’ll see)
No chance of running for a college team, however.

Honors: book award from an elite college (several awarded by school faculty), selected by faculty and peers to be a mentor for junior high students

Extracurriculars: this is where I fall short!
Photography Editor (senior year) otherwise staffer for school literary magazine (since 10th grade)
Volunteer with neighborhood watershed (re-building retaining walls and removing trash etc.)
Photography: Scholastic silver key, selected to be shown in multiple high school shows, published in Nikon publication, etc.
English history: part of my app, I’ve been reading about it since 4th grade
Jewelry making: work with found objects and donate work to local charity auctions

Summers:
9th: traveled with family to London/Paris, worked in school’s technology lab
10th: traveled alone to Europe, part of Tufts Summit program on French and International Relations
11th: GA Girls State (first from school), Kelley School of Business YWI program (highly selective), GA Tech CEISMC programs

Now the fun part! Thinking about majoring in computer science…

2

Sorry I should probably add that I’m white, female, and income bracket is 100,000+

3

Do your photography grades go into that 3.9? If so, recalculate without them. Your SAT is on the lower side for brown. Your ECs are not that weak you just need present them in a way that shows a lot of involvement and commitment.

4

Thanks for responding @a20171 ! No the 3.9 does not include photography. What are your suggestions for presentation? I’m having trouble with the common app–

5

You are not sweating this, are you?

You seem particularly qualified, without me looking at numbers. I am poring over their viewbooks and alumni publications (we picked these up when we visited a few weeks ago) even as we speak, and I think you sound like a member of the Haverford community already. So I’d say make sure to open the lines of communication with them, if you have not done so already, and get ready to pack your bags.

6

Aww thanks, @Waiting2exhale ! We’ll see what happens in April :slight_smile:

7

Like leadership, awards, for service you can put hours stuff like that.

8

Good luck. If I find something in my reading that I think your profile (above) suggests you would find interesting, I’ll shoot it over to you.

9

Ah gotcha!

10

Awesome—thank you very much!

11

Why don’t you start one Chances thread and list your schools, instead of hitting each school’s forum? That is what it is for…

12

Princeton is a reach for everyone. Your SAT score will make it a high reach.

13

@intparent I did. I didn’t get any responses there, yet I’m getting responses when I post in each school’s forum. So I’m going to stick with the method that works, thanks!

14

Ok, @TomSrOfBoston thanks!

15

Possible but not likely.

16

Are you sure you wouldn’t consider running in college? I knew some people on Bryn Mawr’s team and compared to DI or DII schools, it’s really a manageable commitment. Getting a coach in your corner during admissions is never a bad thing…

17

This is cool – assuming that you do this on a regular basis and have made a real contribution. Brown is not looking for artificial leadership and trivial awards but how you’ve made your community a better place. Your ECs are fine.

18

OP, I am not affiliated with Brown Admissions, and I have no idea if they would conclude that your ECs are fine, or whether it is a prerequisite for admission that you make your community a better place.

Any observations I could provide would just be my opinions, and I would not be able to speak for Brown in a manner that gives any impression whatsoever that it is factual.

If you are looking for random opinions from people who maybe have seen one or two full applications to Brown in their lives, I guess I could help…but then again I don’t think it would be much help.

19

Then why post a comment, Fenway? There are people here who know admissions very well and can give useful advice beyond “I don’t know what to tell you.”

20

I am not sure about that, bodangles. Heck, I went to Brown ages ago and I think that is irrelevant. I interview, and I know that adds nothing to my ability to predict Admissions decisions. I have also followed exactly one full application through the process and I don’t think that gives me any expertise to comment either.

If someone here knows Admissions very well; i.e. better than that… then let us know the details so we can distinguish the people with factual information from the guessers. I am sure we will be all eyes and ears, and I would be first in line to encourage applicants to take heed.

The reasons I posted the comment, @bodangles are to:

  1. State my opinion that the ECs may not be fine and that I am not sure it is necessary to change the community for the better to be admitted (maybe that was too subtle to come through?) and
  2. To alert applicants that most of the responses they get on chance-me threads are idle guesses (like #1 above), not the factual sounding statements that they may appear to be, and therefore are not worthy of being relied upon.

You disagree?