Help a Girl Out? Chance Me.

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Alright…
So my school list I’m concerned about is:
Stanford
Cornell
Dartmouth
Brown
UVA
U. Southern California
UNC - Chapel Hill
UC Berk</p>

<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): Won’t be submitting but… Total: 1990 CR: 690 M: 640 W: 660 Essay: 10
ACT (breakdown): I retook this last weekend but my first scores were Composite: 31 R: 35 S: 32 W: 32 M: 27 Essay: 9
SAT II: Biology (M): 680 Spanish: 740
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.94
Weighted: 4.371
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Unofficial top 10%
AP (place score in parenthesis):
AP Comparative Govt: 5
IB (place score in parenthesis):
(Only one I’ve taken so far)
IB Psychology SL: 6
Senior Year Course Load:
(I’m a diploma candidate)
IB Spanish HL
IB English HL 2
IB Math SL 2
IB Biology HL 2</p>

<p>Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
Nothing major.
Mostly school level.
National Honor Society (10,11,12)
Spanish Honor Society (11,12)
Science Honor Society (11,12)
Lettered in Academics (10,11)
Graduation Service Cord for 100+ hours of service
Honorable Mention on National Spanish Exam </p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Dance (6 years) - one of my biggest extracurriculars. Spent time on the competition team.
Varsity Dance Team (9,10)
Model UN (12)
Photography Club - VP/Founder (11,12)
Yu-Gi-Oh Club - Secretary/ CoFounder (12)
Shadow at local health depart. (12)</p>

<p>Job/Work Experience:
Tutor - 5+ hours a week. Use earnings to pay for dance tuition.
Volunteer/Community service:
INOVA Flu Services - 3+ hours during flu season.
Summer Activities: Reading, dancing, taking my friends’ senior portraits, and seeing family.
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Most are probably like an 8?
I’m pretty harsh on myself.
Fairly proud of my CommonApp.
I chose the “talk about a time you challenged a belief” prompt and wrote about how I challenged my own beliefs and perspective of the world when I visited my family in Colombia.
The rest I attempted to show my passion and interest in infectious disease.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):</p>

<p>Teacher Rec #1: Probably a 9/10.
I put in a lot of work into that class and it showed. Plus she thought I was funny.
Teacher Rec #2: Also probably like 9/10. He was my biology teacher for two years and knows I absolutely love the subject. He’s also a Cornell alum.
Counselor Rec: Maybe like a 7/10? I go to a massive school so it may be slightly impersonal, but he always tells me I make him look good.
Additional Rec: I may have my boss write one as he can speak to personality traits not otherwise seen: patience, perseverance, and ability to lead.
For Dartmouth I’m having my closest friend write a peer rec. She’s a fabulous writer and knows me better than anyone else.</p>

<p>Other</p>

<p>Applied for Financial Aid?: Y
Intended Major: Global Health/Human Biology
State (if domestic applicant): VA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Massive Public (4000+ kids)
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: ~$60k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM</p>

<p>I come from a very wealthy, competitive area so I’m slightly worried.
So what do you think?</p>

2

<p>Oops.
My senior course list wasn’t complete.
Add:
IB Psychology HL
IB Geography SL
IB Business SL</p>

3

<p>Any thoughts?</p>

4

<p>You should apply to more matches and safeties. As it is, your ACT is comparatively low for these schools, and although your GPA is pretty good, your classes aren’t as rigorous as other applicants at the very prestigious schools that you listed. ECs are pretty good, but for the most part don’t really have too much to do with your major. Your minority status will help at some privates though. </p>

<p>I’m not trying to scare you – just trying to show why you should apply to more safties. Good luck!</p>

5

<p>My classes are as rigorous as it gets, though?
Entirely International Baccalaureate as I’m pursuing the IB Diploma.
Is that not enough?</p>

6

<p>Honestly unless you have perfect stats (even that is not a guarantee) it is so difficult to tell if you will be admitted. My daughter had far less stats than you do and she got into University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Northwestern and Berkley. She was Denied to Duke and oddly University of Wisconsin. She had an amazing hook so Holistic admissions is not an urban legend. I know, UW Madison said her course work was not rigorous enough but the others overlooked that. You never truly know until you get the announcement. Definitely apply to safety and match schools. Her reach was Duke, Brown, University of Chicago and Northwestern. Duke and Brown rejected but we were shocked by the other two. She chose a state school due to free tuition and it has amazing engineering program.</p>

7

<p>Deferred Berkley, not direct admit. She declined.</p>