Out of State Chances

wildandyoung
Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:51:05 +0000

Hello. I plan on applying to UVA and it is kind of a recent addition to my list. Not sure why I overlooked it in the first place, I guess because C-Ville sould rural and I kind of want urban/by a city, but UVA is a big enough and the natural beauty is astounding (have not been on campus, will visit if I get in, I only live about 6 hours away), but I’ve been to Harrisonburg, WV/VA border for service trip and it was a beautiful part of the country. Went to Monticello, but I was like 6, so that doesn’t really count.

Anyways

Male
Not reporting race
Catholic High School

GPA: UW around a 3.8, probably a low 3.8ish. W 4.17ish
Grade Trend: Might hurt me a little bit. Frosh yr was pretty good, soph year was pretty good/really, I showed an upward trend for the most part. 1st semester Jr year was pretty good too, but 2nd semester I kind of burned out and ended up with 3 Bs. I have a total of 5 Bs on my transcript (not horrible I know), and 4/5 were in math or sci classes, which is definitely not my forte. Not freaking out about Bs, I was pretty chill when I got my report card, but it kinda sucks to end Jr. yr on kind of a crappy note, with half my classes getting Bs in them.
Anyways.
Class Rank: My school is kind unclear they say they don’t rank, but they tell in a counselor rec the approximate rank. I should be in at least the top 5-10% so I’m guessing they’ll put down something like that. Or they might not put anything in the letter. I’m not sure.

SAT: 700 M 690 CR 720 W — 2110 total (single sitting, not superscore)
ACT: 29 (30 superscored, but I don’t think UVA superscores the ACT) I’m not sending this score, my SAT is clearly better. Though I might retake it in Sept to hopefully get a 32+. But if not my SAT score is good, not great, but in range for USC.
5/6* APs by graduation. *School is unclear, we might be credit for taking my physics class last year because right now it is an AP class…and its basically the same thing, but I doubt the college board will let them do that. Will haven taken 7-8 test though by graduation, however only 2 were this year.
SAT IIs: Should be decent (have not taken yet), expecting 700+ in Math 1/2(not sure which on to take), anything less than 750 on USH will be a huge disappointment for me. For the third one, I’ll probably pick some English one or self study World History

Teacher and Counselor Recs: Teacher one should be pretty good, my grade in the teacher’s class that I’m asking to write me a rec rarely dipped below a 97% (AP class) and I think he liked me as a person/student. Not sure about counselor one, we get to write a “brag” sheet, so it should be at least ok.

Essays: Trying to brainstorm, but I’ve had a relatively semi interesting life, so hopefully I can come up with something cool and unique. Maybe MDA camp?

ECs: Pretty solid, though nothing spectacular like some people on CC.

-Eagle Scout, plus one year of being Senior Patrol Leader
-Student Govt Representative (lowest position in student govt, lol)
-Work Experience: 1 secretary job at my Church, another is a yard work type job. I may quit the handyman job/yard work job soon though, but I’ve had that job since summer before freshman year, so it should still look pretty good.
-Student Ambassador and Freshman Mentor (more intensive than you think haha)
-NHS
-Minor role in school paper
-Mock Trial
-Model UN
-Catholic Schools for Peace and Justice
-AP US History Co-Student of the Year

probably leaving a couple minor things out

Service:
-Have not tallied up my hours, but it should be about 300+ service hours when I apply (tutor at school and local library, soup kitchens, various things, etc…)
-Eucharistic Minister at my church, at my school and I go to the nursing home and distribute Communion.
-MDA Camp Counselor. This is where a bulk of my service hours came from. Very demanding, but very rewarding and I plan on doing it again next year. I also participate in a program that helps disabled kids play sports during the summer and school year. Might write an essay about this. Something to the gist of the first day and a half or so of camp, I absolutely hated it, but it kind of grew on me and I really want to go back.

Think this is about it, sorry it was kind of long and there might be a few typos, do you need any more info?

So what do you think? Right now, as an OOS applicant I’m thinking it is a high match/low reach…thoug in my gut I think I’m going to to get in…or at least I hope! But I wouldn’t be surprised if I got rejected though :(. Maybe they will treat me as in-state if I tell them that I used to live in NoVA, but had to move because my dad is military haha. But we only moved there because he was military haha.

So what do you think? I know I have a shot, not a great shoo-in one, but this is not a high holy crap reach for me either.

Thanks!