No hooks = No hope?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>I am not a superstudent, but I’m passionate about learning. I have absolutely no “hooks”, but I’m still applying to schools that probably aren’t realistic, in terms of my achievements. Any insight is greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Small noncompetitive public school in rural area
I am an Irish American.
GPA: 4.1 weighted
Rank: top 5%
SAT I- R: 690, M:650, W:700 (utterly deplorable)
SAT II- Literature: 650, Math: 640 (utterly deplorable again)
Classes:
AP Gov’t
AP English
AP Psychology
AP Chemistry
Calculus
(then some electives; our school only offers a total of 6 AP classes- no AP US History, or European History, otherwise I would have taken both.)
Our school is an extremely rural area, (97% white) and there is not a lot of room for advanced academics.</p>

<p>EC
6 years in Men’s Gymnastics (20 hours per week; 52 weeks per year)
Winner of over 20 competitions
USAG 2005 Level 6 Pennsylvania State Pommel Horse Champion; 2006 and 2007 Region 7(PA, NY, NJ, VA, MD, WV, DE) Rings Champion; 2005 Level 6 2nd place All-Around in Pennsylvania, 2007 Level 7 Region 7 (PA, NY, NJ, VA, MD, WV, DE) 5th Place All-Around.
Lead Guitarist in Touring Grindcore Band (3 years)
President of Academic Decathlon Team (2 years)
Scholastic Scrimmage Team (1 year)
Model U.N. member (3 year)</p>

<p>Volunteer Work
Played benefit shows for St. Judes, Toys for Tots, etc.
Taught local cheerleaders tumbling skills and safety for months
Taught about the importance of tolerance in a local church (although I am not Christian)
Nursing Home Volunteer, and Recreational Therapist Assistant (4 years)
Nursery Children’s Helper (3 years)</p>

<p>Jobs
Condo Manager (1 year)
Laborer for a contract company (2 years)</p>

<p>Honors
USA Gymnastics First Team Academic All American;
University of Rochester’s Fredrick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony Award in Humanities and Social Sciences;
National Honor Society Membership;
National Youth Leadership Forum on National Security: Exploring Diplomacy, Intelligence, and Defense Certificate of Achievement;
Bellefonte Area School District Academic Excellence Certificate of Achievement;
Bellefonte Elks Teen of the Month for November 2007;
2007 First Place Winner: VFW Voice of Democracy Speech;
Semifinalist in Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts in Creative Writing</p>

<p>I have fairly good essays, and three wonderful recommendations.</p>

<p>Schools I’ve Applied to: (in order of my preference)
Dartmouth College
University of Pennsylvania
Swarthmore College
Vassar College
Boston College
Bucknell University
PSU University Park Schreyer Honors School
Oberlin College
PSU University Park (already accepted)</p>

<p>I know these chance things are highly obnoxious, but I would just like to know whether I should have even bothered applying to such schools if they are strictly out of my league. Thank you.</p>

2

<p>Dartmouth, Penn and Swarthmore are reaches I would say, but the rest are good matches. Why isn’t your gymnastics a hook? Don’t any of these schools have gymnastics teams?</p>

3

<p>attending a rural high school is sort of a hook.</p>

4

<p>Gymnastics and winner of over 20 competitions is a very good hook…</p>

5

<p>GRINDCORE!?</p>

<p>Hope you get rejected at all, thanks for contributing to the violation of metal.</p>

6

<p>^^Totally agree.</p>

7

<p>sorry bro, gotta agree with the last two posters…</p>

<p>grindcore is like literally breaking glass plates over a cat who’s simultaneously getting sodomized by a dolphin</p>

8

<p>Well, I’m with these others on Grindcore, but I think you’re in at all except those top three (Penn, Swarthmore & Dartmouth). Honors at PSU - could be a crapshoot till they find out about that Grindcore thing.</p>

9

<p>LOL “could be a crapshoot till they find otu about that Grindcore thing”</p>

<p>in all seriousness man…</p>

<p>w.e music you like, i respect your unique tastes and preferences…</p>

<p>but i can’t respect the genre of grindcore…</p>

<p>music videos that have people getting massacred … just totally @#%#ed up…</p>

10

<p>haha…
well, about the grindcore thing:
it’s not straight grindcore, it’s more like (dillinger escape plan + psyopus + the number 12 looks like you + between the buried and me + jazz + finger tapping + some elements of grindcore)
it’s more of an ecelectic, expiremental band; i respect all kinds of music, so grindcore is kind of a bad classification.
let’s say…noise with occasional melody.
and we don’t rely at all on violence/swearing/gore in our lyrics, so that preconception is terrible; i don’t have long hair, tattoos, or worship satan either.
i would’ve used mathcore, but not a lot of people know what that is.
thanks for the comments guys; even if they were intolerant, haha.</p>

11

<p>not a lot of colleges have legitimate gymnastics teams; it is not a sport regarded with reverance in most schools-plus, i trained at an independent gym (not affiliated with my high school) so that makes it all the more difficult to claim my gymnastics as a hook.
thanks for the insight, though.</p>