Tufts Chances?

[uribendovid]

<p>I live in an uber-rural town on the end of Long Island, NY. Literally, my house is on a 132-acre farm (that no longer functions as such since our landlords, a stockbroker and his wife, bought it about 8 years ago). This is not your average behemoth of a LI school, which would typically have an 800 person graduating class. This is a tiny, 6,000 person town, with a 550 person junior/senior high school, that offers a measly 7 APs--those that "ve taken or am taking (listed below) plus music theory--and no real "honors" classes to speak of.</p>

<p>Class Rank: 10 of 96 (I can maaaaaybe push up to 9 by the semester's end)
GPA: 92.49, my school does not weight
SAT I: 750CR/650M/700W (retake in november)
SAT II: Bio-M (10th Grade) 730
Math II (took last weekend, waiting for score)
Literatire (took last weekend, waiting for score)</p>

<p>AP Scores:
Biology 5
Environmental Science 5
US History 4</p>

<p>Classes Taken:
English I,II,III (100 regents)
AP Literature (currently taking)
Global History I, II (96 regents)
AP US History (99 regents)
AP Government and Politics (currently taking)
Math A,B accelerated (you do junior high math and science in a year to get a year ahead)
Pre Calc
AP Calc AB (currently taking)
Regents Earth Science (grade 8, 97 regents)
Regents Bio (94 regents)
AP Biology
AP Environmental Science
Regents Chem (93 regents)
Regents Physics (currently taking)
Intro to Philosophy (half year)
Chorus (freshman year)
5 years of french (98 regents)</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULARS:
Student Newspaper (continually award winning): 4 years (i've done everything from <strong><em>ing off the school with sharp writing to basically putting the paper together all four years...my nickname- "PageMaker *</em></strong><em>"), editor in 11, 12
Literary magazine: 4 years, design and layout editor 11,12
FIRST Robotics (Team 870): 4 years (approx 40 hours a week during build season, but no official position...my unofficial titles have included "builder" "grease monkey" "lathe and mill slave" "team filmmaker" "photoshop god" "recon/scout overlord" and "team photographer")
Yearbook: 11,12: copy editor, layout editor
Book Club: 10-12
Interact (community service): 9-12 the cooler events were a couple of interesting "Unity in Community Service" type things where a few dozen high schools would clean all the *</em>* out of a nasty park in one day, or go teach little elementary kids and whatnot.
Gay-Straight Alliance: 9-12
Quiz Bowl: 9-12, captain of undefeated JV team in 10th, member of undefeated varsity team 11th, varsity captain 12 (possibly, apparently I must "fight to the death" with my best friend for the title, according to my advisor)</p>

<p>ACADEMIC HONORS AND WHATNOT:
National Merit Commended Scholar
AP Scholar</p>

<p>What I did with my summers:
9th: Brown University Pre-College program in documentary filmmaking (3 weeks), worked for local government in Tax Assessor's office doing data entry and management
10th: Columbia University Student Journalism program (1 week), worked for local government doing field research, publication design, and database creation for the Historic Landmarks Preservation Committee
11th: sort of set a precedent as (As far as I know) the youngest lab tech/research intern at the Rockefeller Research Labs at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. I performed experiments on active projects, while learning the biological principles behind the research. To say the least, it was totally sweet.</p>

<p>So...is Tufts for me?</p>

[snuffles]

<p>
[quote]
So...is Tufts for me?

[/quote]

I don't see why not :)</p>

[lolabelle]

<p>I say you have a great shot. Are you applying ED I/II or RD?</p>

[uribendovid]

<p>I mean in the sense of...can I get in...I'm currently working on the app as if it's for EDI, because if anywhere will be ED it's Tufts.</p>

[uribendovid]

<p>I'll be applying EDI.
My only worry is I seem to have exponentially less community service than anyone else on these forums (paranoia, maybe?)...It's certianly not form a lack of wanting...I mean, I came so close to volunteer-TAing the AP Bio class this year, until the teachers union told me to go **** myself...</p>

<p>I guess I should clarify that my summer activities were paid, if I gave the impression that they were volunteer. Though, for the graphic design I did, for instance, it may as well have been free for them. $10.49/hr for publication design in a business that usually charges 5-20 times that...anyway...
[/rant]</p>

<p>Is this community service thing gonna be a problem?</p>

[lolabelle]

<p>Did you not do anything community service related at all? </p>

<p>I think applying ED, having great stats, etc. will offset that, in any case. I think you have a decent shot. Good luck! Let us know how it all goes!</p>

[uribendovid]

<p>The community service I've done is limited, but there is some, it just seems like everyone on this board has a googleplex of CS hours. Besides random events for the Interact club, I'll be tutoring this year for National Honor Society, as well as co-producing/directing/shooting/editing/writing a film about my town and school, that can be used as a general information tool by the school...the first use will be to send to a school in North Dakota that our chapter of NHS has correspondence with (on a Lakota Reservation) so they can learn about our school and environment.</p>

[lolabelle]

<p>That film project is certainly interesting. Make sure your resume explains this in detail and not just in a cursory way. Again, if you apply ED, your lack of "a googleplex of CS hours" will probably be overshadowed by your other fortes (which are many!).</p>

[ariesathena]

<p>I did not have a googleplex of community service hours when I applied to Tufts. I think I had, like, ten. :)</p>

<p>My things were varsity sports, literary magazine, and science olympiad. I certainly had a very full plate, so I don't think that they penalized me for not having much straight-up community service. The big question is if you are busy and passionate. They don't require CS; they don't require sports; they don't require a distribution or a certain focus; they just want to see that you are an interesting, passionate person.</p>

[lolabelle]

<p>Active Citizenship became Tufts' flagship cause only recently so I think that CS is much more important now than when you applied Ariesathena (when was that, btw?)... Regardless, if you are "an interesting, passionate person", as Ariesathena wrote, AND have good grades and stats, you'll get into Tufts.</p>

[ariesathena]

<p>Back in the Middle Ages. You know, the 90s. :)</p>

<p>The things I did weren't traditional CS. Sports definitely are not, but Tufts does know that athletics takes up time. My lit magazine, for the purposes of my high school, was considered community service, as it improved the atmosphere or something. Ditto for forming a civil rights thing.</p>