<p>I attend one of the top 50 high schools in the country and for the first two years my grades were really good (i.e. 4.0/4.8). I had good ECs (soccer, newspaper, work) and I did work for the actual UN and was a published poet.</p>
<p>Junior year however, I got really ill and missed about two months of school. I was in and out of the hospital, I had two seizures at school, things were just really bad.</p>
<p>I took the PSAT the day after getting out of the hospital and did alright, though I got a perfect verbal score. My SAT is decent V:780 M:580 W:680 Essay 10</p>
<p>I’m a black at a predominately white school, I’m a section editor of literary magazine and newspaper I’ve taken several independent study classes, won awards sophomore and freshamn years for being the best African- American student (based on GPA and teacher recommendations) and I completed my junior year classes by exam.</p>
<p>My GPA will be recalculated on January 15 though right now it is 3.85 and my class rank is 70/208. After being recalculated though it’s going to change drastically (i.e. 60 in AP Euro becomes 98) etc.</p>
<p>Do you think schools are going to take into account that I was seriously ill? Will they consider my poor math score though everything in my record states that I’m an English student? Does being black help much?</p>
<p>I applied to Brown and an alumnus contacted me about an interview, is this a strong sign?</p>
<p>I also applied to Rice and several other schools but Rice is my top choice. I people think of Rice as mostly an engineering and science school but they have a formidable English program.</p>