For all the chance threads..

Harris_Hall · October 25, 2009, 9:09pm

I assumed this might be helpful.

These were my stats when applying to Emory.

Race: Caucasian
Gender: M
Location: Louisiana
College Class Year: 2013
High School: Public
High School Type: never sends grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes

Academics:

GPA - Unweighted: 3.92
GPA - Weighted: 0.00
Class Rank: top 5 students
Class Size: 44

Scores:

ACT: 31

Extracurriculars:

Significant Extracurriculars: FBLA
FFA
NHS
NJHS
Student Council
Stage Crew
Library Club
Leadership positions: Student Council Pres
NHS/NJHS officer
FBLA officer
Volunteer/Service Work: volunteered at “help hammer hunger”
volunteered at church roofing project
volunteered at shriner’s circus

I think the fact that I was from Louisiana was a hook that helped me out. I wrote a decent essay, definitely not the best that I’ve done but not terrible. I was accepted ED. Schools I also applied to were U Rochester (accepted, scholarship), LSU (accepted, full scholarship), Tulane (accepted, full scholarship --including certain LA only scholarships–), Drexel (scholarship), LA Tech (full scholarship), Brown (waitlisted, stayed on but didn’t follow through, not selected), and Washington and Lee (waitlisted, didn’t stay on).

Hope this helps, you guys can kind of stack up against me and see where you are. The thing is, there are so many intangibles that I really wouldn’t worry. Just make sure to apply to the schools you like, put in some work on your essays, and you should be fine. You will get in somewhere you like. Also as for “effort in pursuing the school” or whatever, I never visited, or had an interview.

I’ll be happy to answer other questions, but I’m pretty busy normally so I may not always get to get back very soon, but I should be able to respond at some point.

ToTheResQ · October 27, 2009, 8:57pm

Thank you for posting this kind sir.

Colleges00701 · October 30, 2009, 7:50pm

I guess I can post too…Since I remember looking through the Accepted Students link on What Are my Chances Forum, and only finding a couple of kids who posted about Emory…

Asian Male from Texas

College Class Year: 2013
High School: Public
High School Type: Most kids in top 5 percent get into top 20 schools…
Will apply for financial aid: First I didn’t, but after I got in, I did

Academics:

GPA - Unweighted: 3.8
GPA - Weighted: 4.1
Class Rank: Top 20 percent. ----High school was compeitive, counselor mentioned this in letter of rec
Class Size: 470

Scores:

Sat Scores - (Single Sitting) 750 - Critical Reading, 730- Math , 700 -Writing (2180/2400), (1480/1600)
- (Super Score ) 750 - Critical Reading , 750 - Math, 700 -Writing (2200/2400), (1500/1600)

Sat Subject Tests
750 - U.S. History
730 - Math 1

Extracurriculars:

Karate
Youth Club
Pre-Med Club
NHS
Volunteering/Shadowing Physicans

If you get into Emory, and plan on attending, get ready to work your asses off for your grades…

gkc4 · November 9, 2009, 12:35am

Waitlisted, but then accepted.

Race: Asian
Gender: F
Location: Georgia
College Class Year: 2012
High School: Public
High School Type: top 5% go to top 20 schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes

Academics:

GPA - Unweighted: 3.5
GPA - Weighted: 3.8
Class Rank: top 10%
Class Size: ~480
Courses: 11 APs (5s on all except Calc and Physics which I got 3s in)

Scores:

SAT: CR) 800, Math) 700, Writing) 730
SAT English Lit: 730
SAT US History: 720

Extracurriculars:

Significant Extracurriculars:
Newspaper (editor)
Model UN (delegation leader)
NHS (treasurer)
Orchestra
debate (co-captain)
volunteering at this bible study camp for disabled kids during the summer

I was rejected by most of the colleges I applied to (Northwestern- R, USC- R, Columbia- R, NYU- A w/ scholarship, UGA- A w/ scholarship, Emory- WL, accepted).

When I look back, I think my GPA was what killed my apps. I felt my ECs were decent in that I focused on several and held leadership positions/won awards with them (journalism awards, first place national high school MUN, etc.). I was honestly really proud of my college essay, and I got very good comments on it by two English teachers.

However, don’t worry that much. I remember freaking the **** out about colleges and how I thought where I got in would determine the rest of my future… TBH grad schools are more important, and it’s how well you do in undergrad that determines things.

To anyone who really wants to go to Emory, make sure to visit or show interest since Emory loves that stuff.

If any of you are WL and want to follow through, make sure you send in extra recs and supplementary materials to really show them you’re interested. Off the top of my head, I remember sending an email reaffirming my interest to my counselor, a peer review, samples of the work I did on my school newspaper, artwork I won some award for, and other random artwork I’ve done.

melin720 · November 9, 2009, 3:51pm

It seems that from what I’ve seen the rigor of high school courses don’t matter that much as long as you took the hardest class in your school.

That means if your school offers IB (if you go through 4 years of this program then you really have a skill for keeping sanity, since it gives you crazy amont of homework and hard tests) you’re screwed, unless you’re really good at time management and have a lot of intelligence.

No joke.

Everyone in senior IB at my scholol (well, most people) is ****ed right now 'cause if they dropped out they could easily ace every AP class and get 4.5+ GPA and get into any college. But now that they chose to go through this hell their GPA is a bit low…

Don’t do IB I’m telling you! It’s NOT worth it! Your GPA’ll skyrocket once you drop out (like 20 people I know who dropped out of IB is getting straight A’s taking 10 AP classes… not to mention they all got killed when they were in IB)

gkc4 · November 9, 2009, 11:34pm

I find the whole IB/AP debate pointless. I’ve heard so many things about both, and it varies by school. Take whatever course you think you can handle and do your best.

melin720 · November 10, 2009, 3:03pm

Then I guess our school’s on the bad side…

IB makes us take at least 6 college level courses in 11th and 12th grade, ending up with a total of 12. AP, on the other hand, does not force you to take 12 college level courses…

The rest of the debate is up to the school, I guess, but I seriously do not like the situation at ours. Would wanna go to a school where IB is easier than AP and then excell with a lot higher GPA…

Harris_Hall · December 2, 2009, 12:44am

Yeah, Emory is much more challenging than I could have ever imagined. It is a tough school.

melin720 · December 2, 2009, 5:24am

If you did IB in high school, then have fun at Emory because all of your “NOO I got 4500 hours of homework today” will now pay off.

For the rest, oh well, go ahead and die if your high school sucked??

–

I think the problem is that AP students understimate the workload and rigor that IB has. And IB students basically trashes the whole AP program because 1) IB drop-outs are over 60% in most schools and pretty much everyone who drop out get a 1.0 GPA boost (3.5 to 4.5), and 2) They have to take 12 college level courses split between 12th 11th grade, and 2 AP in 10th grade with a bunch of honors, and do Internal Assessments and a 4000 word essay at the same time.

There are schools that offer AP classes that are harder than IB, but students only take a few and not 12 of them. So the IB students would think that AP is easier to get a high GPA with and go into a top college while those who are in IB suffer lower GPA and complain, but with good reasons.

Colleges00701 · December 3, 2009, 4:57pm

I agree with Harris Hall, it is a very tough school. Any top 20 school is going to be challenging.

I have seen so many kids study their asses off and make 65s on tests. Class Averages in some classes are in the 60s and thats saying something because the kids work hard, and were exceptional high school students (2200s on sats, 3.9+ unweighted).

melin720 · December 3, 2009, 5:30pm

Could you please elaborate more?

Because (for undergraduate only) graduate schools would rather take a top 10% graduate at a state school over someone who graduated top 50% at a top school, why is Emory and any other top school doing this to their students? Studying 500 hours to get a 65% on a test and having a class average of 60% is SCREWING THE STUDENTS OVER isn’t it? They would get a 90%+ on tests no problem if they went to an ordinary state college if they study like that.

You seem knowledgeable so I’m asking… It just doesn’t make sense to stab students who work really hard.

green4 · December 4, 2009, 3:41pm

Harris Hall - how did you get accepted ED to Emory, but manage to get acceptances to so many schools? My daughter at Emory also got accepted, ED 2. As soon as you get accepted ED you are obligated to inform all your other schools and withdraw. Yet somehow you managed to get accepted RD to 5 schools and waitlisted on two additional schools.

melin720 · December 4, 2009, 8:36pm

Maybe he didn’t do it, and got away with it?

gkc4 · December 6, 2009, 10:06pm

@melin720: because you’re competing with bright students and it’s harder to get the best grade.

Emory and other top colleges don’t “do” this to students, students “do” it to themselves because they choose to go to a top 20 school and compete with students just as smart/a lot smarter than them. In the end professors also curve, so not everyone fails the class.

The theory is going to a top 20 school and doing premed and excelling is much more impressive than going to a no-name state school and excelling. Whether that theory is wrong or right is for another thread. In addition, Emory attracts many premeds simply because it has a great med school and it’s right next to two hospitals and the CDC.

Also, I don’t understand why you keep pushing this IB/AP argument. It really has no significant impact on anything.

fuzzleshnops · December 9, 2009, 4:19am

Stop the debate on “college admissions would rather take a top 10% student from a normal high school than a 50% student from a top high school.” Most Emory students are from the top 10% of a TOP school.

Yes, it’s hard. But some classes are easy. Foreign language classes and freshman seminars are definitely classes where an A is definitely doable. Organic Chemistry, not so much… but that’s expected.

fuzzleshnops · December 9, 2009, 4:29am

HARRIS HALL: Hi Cody. :]

Here’s my stuff as well.

ACCEPTED RD

Race: Caucasian
Gender: F
Location: Florida
College Class Year: 2013
High School: Public
High School Type: Public Gifted. Sends many to top colleges. Best school in Florida, according to Business Week.
Will apply for financial aid: Yes (Hooray for being poor!)

Academics:

GPA - Unweighted: 4.0
GPA - Weighted: 4.8ish
Class Rank: Top 10%
Class Size: 180
Courses: 10 APs (Chem 5, Euro 5, Lang 5, Psych 5, US History 4, Gov 4, Macro 4, Calc 4, Latin 3, Physics C 3)

Scores:

ACT: 32

SAT II:
Chemistry: 760
US History: 730
Math II: 690 (rawr)

Significant Extracurriculars:
Latin Club President for 2 years
Prom Director for 2 years
Cashiered at Albertson’s for 3 years
Senior Class Treasurer
Department Head for Special Olympics for 3 years
Chamber Orchestra for 3 years

Harris_Hall · December 22, 2009, 8:57am

Haha I didn’t even noticed I put ED. I wrote that really quickly, I didn’t apply ED. In fact I applied two weeks after the original deadline. Thanks for catching that! I can’t edit it though, so sadly it will stay like that.

Harris_Hall · December 22, 2009, 8:58am

Hi Hill :)

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