Will I be a competitive Brown applicant?

Clueless1Z
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 16:32:32 +0000

YES! This is indeed another chance thread! …I’m a rising senior from rural PA, hoping for someone to help me figure out if I even have a chance. Brown will be one of my top choices this fall, but I’m not really sure if I have a good shot at getting in. I’d love to hear chances from parents and accepted students especially!

The basics:

I’m a white male from a middle class family.

Academics:

I’ve been ranked 1st in my class Freshman thru Junior year. I’m 95% sure I’ll be our valedictorian. (Class size is 137)
*Weighted GPA is a 4.4862 on a 4.33 scale (not sure of unweighted and don’t feel like calculating it by hand)
*ACT composite = 35
Reading= 36
Math= 34
Writing= 35
Science= 34
*SAT composite = 2280 (No SAT IIs yet, I’m taking biology and maybe Math I or II in October)
Writing = 780
Math= 740
Reading = 760

APs = Sophomore year, US history (scored a 5); Junior year, World History (5) and Calc AB (5); Senior year, scheduled to have Gov and Politics, Lit and Comp, Calc BC. (Only two other APs are offered at my school, Art history and Music Theory)

Some other notable classes: Honors Biology, Honors Trig, four years of Spanish

This fall I will be taking an Environmental Science class at Lehigh University (not a community college; its a pretty respectable school)

Extra Curriculars:

Juggling Club (President Jun and Sen years)

Debate Club ( secretary Jun yr, President Sen year)

Mock trial team (attorney Soph and Jun yrs)

Student Representative to School Board

Writer for a teens section of local newspaper

Eco- Action Club

Power (Weight-training) Club (treasurer Sophomore and Jun yrs)

4 year member of Marching, Concert, and Jazz Bands (Playing saxophone; soloist in Jazz band and treasurer of band council)

Employed by County Parks and Rec. Dept (Soph thru Sen years; ~35 hrs per week in summer, less during school)

about 100 hours of volunteer service including counselor for 5th grade environmental camp, sea turtle conservation in Costa Rica, work at a State Park, and local independent film festival

I’m hoping to volunteer for the Green Party in the months leading up to the next election

Awards and whatnot:
*Member of NHS
*Based on past years will almost definitely be a National Merit Semifinalist
*Rensselaer Medal Award for outstanding academic achievement in the study of mathematics and science (plus 15,000 renewable institutional scholarship)
*First place in local Rotary Club Speech contest, Second place in regional round (Soph and Jun yrs)

A few other minor, class specific awards

Note: My school is small, non-competitive (2 Ivy league students in 4 or 5 years) and public. It has limited course offerings, so my schedule might not look too rigorous. I’m positive I’ll have great teacher LORs (from an AP Calc teacher, Gifted studies teacher, and maybe AP history teacher) and essays shouldn’t be a problem, although I’m not so sure about my guidance counselor’s LOR.

I’m hoping to major/concentrate in Biology (ecology and evolutionary biology) with a possible double major/minor in linguistics. Please, take a look at everything and give me your best guess and advice. Thank you so much to anyone who replies, it is greatly appreciated.