Tufts, Wesleyan, USC

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hello! I am a rising senior and any comments/criticism/jokes/rants will be very much appreciated!

My top choices for regular universities are Tufts, Wesleyan, and USC (highest to lowest preference)

I go to a very selective, competitive arts high school in the city for visual arts–that means I am an artist. My school is known for sending students to the top performing and visual art colleges. (5 admitted to cooper union this year)

My school does not offer a lot of AP’s and I am taking all of them except for AP gov. Also, half the day is for academics and the other half is for art classes so my school ends relatively later than others. I take around 10 different classes per semester.

GPA: weighted ~ 4.2, unweighted ~ 3.8

SAT: 2080

SAT II: will be taking bio, lit and korean this year

-According to my counseler, I am in the top 9% of my class but I am not sure exactly where I stand (out of 150 students)

-4 APs total (bio, calc, lit, lang), 5 max for my school
-art classes: drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, fashion, graphic design, experimental video, figure drawing, etc.

EC:
-animal shelter (3 years)
-volunteered at a non-profit store that emphasizes third-world crafts (2 years)
-volunteered at an organization for children with down syndrome (2 years)
-organized a xmas card fundraiser for a residential community that houses adults with down syndrome (3 years)
-some sort of fashion club hosted by nordstrom
-part of school’s fashion show (2 years)

Clubs:
-cult film club
-joining the school newspaper this year
(not many clubs at our school, none are very serious since everyone lives so far away from each other and the school, no one is really in clubs at all in my school)

Awards:
-Scholastics honorable mentions (2) and silver key awards (2)
-first place winner for a local earth month essay contest
-school awards for high academic achievement

Summer:
-admitted to a free, selective art program hosted by cal arts.
-just a lot of traveling :confused: (good for essays?)

Notes:
-I understand my application is not very impressive, but I am hoping my second focus in various types of art media will portray me as a well-rounded student.
-I also hope that colleges will understand the depth of my volunteer activities, rather than breadth.
-I plan to double major in business and art.
-For tufts I plan to express my love of culture, for wesleyan I plan to emphasize my openness and well-roundedness, and I plan to apply as a studio art major for USC (thus my art portfolio will be heavily considered).
-In all, I’m heavily depending on my art supplement, art background in general, and essays.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all you delicious cupcakes for reading this!!! Please help!

2

Your stats are pretty good and match the schools your aiming for. If youre an intended art major I think they will look more at your extracurriculars than at your GPA or SAT scores. Your extracurriculars are very art orientated and it shows! I would say low reach/high match :slight_smile: Chance back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1795803-uc-berkeley-ucla-usc-uc-davis-uc-irvine-uc-santa-barbara-ucsd-stanford.html#latest

3

Neither Wesleyan or Tufts offer business. I am assuming you are female, so both of these schools have lower acceptance for females. I think your chances for these two are about 1 in 10 due to gender and lower than average SAT score.

4

Disagree with above poster. That SAT is average so I’ll put your chances at 1/5 for all of them. Definitely not 1/10 lol.

5

I actually agree that your chances are closer to 1/10. You’re on the lower end of the middle 50% for admitted students, and towards the middle-low end of the enrolled students at those schools. All these colleges have low acceptance rates (<25-30%). If your SAT score was slightly higher, you’d have a better chance. Your interest in art helps, but idk if that’s enough to get you into one of these universities.

6

Unhooked applicants, especially non-athletes, have to look at regular decision stats in NESCAC because of the high proportion of athletes.

A 2080 is below average for all NESCAC schools except for Trinity and Conn College in RD. The admit rate for females is lower by enough to make it a real issue. Tufts and Wesleyan admit rates in regular decision are around 15%, less for females, and AVG SAT scores in RD are about 2150.

1 in 5 is way too optimistic.

7

I honestly believe Wesleyan is SAT-optional for exactly situations like this. Remove her board scores as a factor and, on paper at least, the OP looks like a very competitive candidate.

8

Tufts and USC are definite reaches. Both schools typically admit students with a 2200+ SAT and even then, that does not gurantee an acceptance. To paint a picture of how selective these colleves are, I have a lot of friends with 4.0 Unweighted GPAs, 2300+ SATs, great essays and impressive extracurriculars that were denied and waitlisted from Tufts and USC. Your best bet is to apply Early Decision!

9

Apply to all three, add one or two safeties (UMASS? Fairfield? Chapman? Basically, a less selective version of each of your top schools) that you would be happy to attend and can afford and you’re golden.

10

Thank you so much everyone! I think I am at least on the right track and all I can do for now is hope for the best :slight_smile:
@palm715 @isl4ndsurf3r @circuitrider @BatesParents2019 @micmatt513 @MegaMetalHead @collegeugh101

11

UPDATE: I’m not sure if this will help, but to give ya’ll an idea of the type of art I do please feel free to visit my tumblr at artsynana.■■■■■■■■■■