<p>Female from South Carolina
I attend a very respectable small private school.
3.9 GPA (w)–my school does not calculate unweighted or class rank.
AP Eng. Lang- 3
AP US- 4
6 APs total, 5 honors classes
SATs- Math 650, Writing 750, Verbal 590
SAT IIs- Litt 550, US History 610
Senior year- AP French, AP English Lit, AB Calc, AP Art, Foreign Policy, Film Studies
My essay made my college counselor cry, and I am quite pleased with my short answers as well.
My teacher recs should be very good–my teacher says he had great things to say.
ECs: Figure Skating (6 years), Yearbook (editor in chief), Art (art club president, photography commissions, school paper photographer), Youth in Government (outstanding statesman, Floor Leader, Presider), Community Service Leader, Speech and Debate (speech captain, NFL degree of excellence), School Chorus, NHS, NFHS, Girl Scouts (silver award), French Club.</p>
<p>bumpidy bump bump</p>
<p>Are you applying ED?</p>
<p>you seem to have good stats and great extracurriculars. I think you should get in though based on the fact that you’re from South Carolina. Few people from South Carolina apply.</p>
<p>To me your chances seem rather good. Your ECs are great, as is your GPA, and you say your essay and recs are good. The only thing that could hurt you is your testing; your SAT reasoning and subject tests are both rather low (in terms of the kind of students who apply to NYU).</p>
<p>You don’t have to submit your subject tests. I think you have a very good chance. Your SAT CR score might hurt you a bit though… are you planning to retake it?</p>
<p>Nice to see another South Carolinian applying to NYU! Like others have said, I think your verbal score may be a little low, but the non-testing part of your application looks pretty good. Did you apply ED?</p>
<p>Your chances look pretty good. Good luck! :)</p>
<p>I would recommend only submitting the SAT and not SAT II’s. Otherwise, your chances look good.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, what area of political science are you interested in studying? Are you comfortable with the use of heavy quantitative analysis? What are your possible post-college plans, if you have any at this early stage? </p>
<p>Just asking as I have a few friends who taught poli-sci courses at NYU or were grad students in that department. From what I heard from them, poli-sci research seems to have a heavy quantitative analysis orientation which means it may not suit someone who is more interested in using different research methodologies or areas where there is some skepticism from the heavy use of such models (i.e. Some areas of comparative politics). This may not rub off too much on the undergrad portion…but it is something to think and ask questions about with upperclass poli-sci majors at NYU.</p>
<p>What’d you do your essay on?</p>
<p>I applied regular, I did not submit the SAT IIs or ACT, and I am totally done taking the SAT.
Based on how my sister did not get in (we are virtually the same person) I don’t think I’m going to get in.</p>
<p>bumpideebumpbump</p>
<p>cobrat,</p>
<p>EXCELLENT points about the NYU Political Science Dept. It focuses a great deal on quantitative analysis, which resulted in my son, a freshman who declared Poli Sci as his major coming into NYU, changing his mind and declaring another major mid-semester his freshman year. He decided to go with history which is not math-oriented and apparently has easier requirements to fulfill so he can choose more varied courses in other disciplines to complement his interest in pre-law and history.</p>
<p>figureskater, I think you got solid feedback. That SAT I Verbal Reading score is probably the weakest part of your application. But nothing can be done now since these are your final scores. You do have very strong ECs, which seem to match with NYU’s genuine interest in individuals with a well-rounded profile. If your recommendations and essay/ short answers are truly strong, you should be in contention. By the way, even with similar statistics and profile and say, “identically” strong essay/ short answers and rec letters as another candidate, a lot depends on the person(s) reading your application. What strikes one as good may not be rated by another as high. In my experience, I have differed frequently enough with my colleagues in reading applications that a two person reading of an application can involve a third reader when there is too much discrepancy between the original two readers.</p>
<p>So, the point is, you are not your sister, and each person on the Admissions committee has his/her own perception and interpretation of certain aspects of the application, especially the more subjective parts like essays and reference letters. </p>
<p>I wish you the best. NYU has really been a dream school come true for my son, who loves NYU so much, he is thinking he prefers NYU Law to Columbia Law in the future for application to schools in NYC.</p>
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<p>IMO, your son ended up at a better department overall as history has long been one of NYU CAS’ strongest departments. I would have entered that department for undergrad if I had not turned down my NYU admissions offer to accept a near-full ride at a well-respected SLAC. </p>
<p>Seems like your son and my undergrad self were similar. As a freshman, I was struggling with deciding between history and politics as I have had strong interests in both fields. In my case, the deciding factor in my opting for history instead of politics was that I felt history offered a potentially broader education than politics. Ended up doing a history major with minors in politics and East Asian Studies. </p>
<p>As a result, it isn’t a big surprise that in the field of politics, I tend to take a more qualitative approach rather than a heavily or exclusively quantitative approach that I heard was commonplace in NYU’s politics department. Heck, several politics Profs at multiple institutions and friends who were grad students in that department strongly emphasized how if I was thinking of politics grad school…they’d emphatically advise me against applying there for grad school as it would be a terrible fit for my academic interests and approach to the study of politics. </p>
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<p>I’d also recommend he do an internship and/or work in a law firm so he could see the realities of being a practicing lawyer. This way, he could make a much more informed choice than some law firm associates I’ve worked with who realized practicing law is nothing like what they heard about from the mass media or from friends/relatives who had no first-hand knowledge of law firm life. </p>
<p>Moreover, unless he has reasonably explored both law schools and spoken at length with law students at both schools, it may be too early for him to conclude his strong preference for NYU law. From what everyone who has done both, the social environment, student profiles, and more are quite different from NYU undergrad.</p>
<p>cobrat, Thought I would sleep but I got the late night bug and read your post.</p>
<p>I agree with you that it is early days yet for sonny to decide on Law Schools he will definitely apply or not apply to.</p>
<p>He had attended a Stanford U Pre-Law Program a couple of summers ago and the participants were in seminars with practicing lawyers who also talked about the reality of firm life. At that point, sonny informed me he was put off by the emphasis on the long hours and extremely hard work in a firm.</p>
<p>He has been evolving and I expect he will develop the ability to handle hard/ demanding work through college. He seems to be leaning more towards ambitious goals now. He was chosen to be on NYU’s top rated Mock Trial Team. Also, my husband is an attorney so he knows about various aspects of practicing law, though admittedly my husband had developed a private practice that allowed him to have VERY decent hours.</p>
<p>Sonny also wants to be a politician and he thinks having a law degree can help, say for a run for Congress. (I am amazed at how ambitious he is.) He also wants the law degree as back up in case politics does not work out. His third option is to see if he can do something with a musical career if the opportunities are there (and they do appear to be materializing already for him since he is very social and does excellent networking).</p>
<p>Interestingly, sonny has so far chosen courses in Japanese history and Chinese history, so his interests do seem to be similar to yours. Tell me, what are you planning to do with your degree with the major in history and minor in pol sci/ East Asian Studies?</p>
<p>Oh gosh, now I might have to rethink everything.</p>