Yale, Brown, Tufts Chances

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>My school:
Entering senior year at a competitive public high school in southern California.
No ranking because when they had the ranking system, certain paranoid parents would sabatoge other top-ranking student’s files. =O
Science/math focus
68% Asian, 29% white, 3% Other.
Local average income in this city is $120,000.
One of the richest zip codes in the nation.</p>

<p>Me:
Asian Female
Parents make <$40,000
First-generation college student, low-income
I go to this high school only because my aunt lives here and she lets me use her address.</p>

<p>STATS:
SATi: 2320 (CR:720, M:800, W:800)
SATii: World History: 780, US History: 800, Physics: 740
GPA: UW: 3.76, W: 4.02
APs:English(4), Physics(4), US History(5)</p>

<p>COURSES&GRADES:</p>

<p>Summer
Beginning Art A/A</p>

<p>FRESHMAN YEAR
Biology A/B
Dance A/A
Drawing and Painting A/A
English Honors B/B
Geometry Honors A/B
French 1 A/A
Track( Varsity Girls Shotput) A</p>

<p>Summer
Health/Word Processing A/A</p>

<p>SOPHOMORE YEAR
Architecture B
Chemistry A/B
French 2 A/B
English Honors B/A
Dance A/A
Algebra Honors/Algebra C/A
World History A/A</p>

<p>JUNIOR YEAR
AP Physics B A/A
AP English A/A
US History Honors A/A
Pre Calc (regular) A/A
Advanced Drawing and Painting A/A
French 3 A/A</p>

<p>SENIOR YEAR (projected)
AP English
AP Gov/Econ
AP Calc AB(going to request BC when i see my counselor)
AP French
ASB ( 22 kids out of the entire school participate in student government; this is going to take A LOT of time)</p>

<p>EXTRA-CURRICULARS/LEADERSHIP POSITIONS:
Art For Youth: Founder, President (11,12)
Amnesty International9,10,11,12) Historian(10), Secretary(11), President!(12)
Key Club: (10,11,12) Publicity(11), Secretary(12)
Student Government: Social Chairperson(10), Publicity(12)
Editor-in-Chief of school’s literary and art magazine(11,12)
teengroov Hip Hop Dance Company10,11,12)</p>

<p>ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
-hosted the first-ever student-run art gallery on campus, as in, i initiated the project on my own with a few students. three exhibitions over the year(2 for my art club, 1 for amnesty)
-organized the annual Jamnesty concert at school to raise human rights awareness.

  • popularized the school’s literary and art magazine. previously, it would be distributed only once a year at the VERY end of the school year. when i took charge, i decided that it should come out tri-annually. yippeee.
    -hours i dance each week: 5-6~. it’s a very important part of me.
    -hours i paint/draw/spend doing art-related things each each: 10+.</p>

<p>AWARDS:
Scholastic Art& Writing Gold Award (11)
School reflections contest-art(11)
Won national and regional awards for my dance crew</p>

<p>WORK:
I started my own business…sort of. Haha. I started making my own silkscreened shirts since junior year. I usually make $300~/monthly.</p>

<p>I worked for my parents during the summers at their small business. I would spend 20+ hours at their workspace.</p>

<p>In junior year, I was employed by Subway. I work weekend still about 14+ hours. Woot.</p>

<p>CONCLUSION:
I’ll definitely use my low-income, first-gen student status to gain more notice from college admins, right? Practically every schoolmate’s parents have gone to college, but mine hasn’t. Do you think having this status will truly separate me from the herds of other classmates applying to the same schools as I am?</p>

<p>Prospective colleges:
Brown (maybe ED; I’ll let the college admins know that I really want to go here because I love it and also because it would be possible for me to take cross-classes at the art school RISD)
Tufts
Swarthmore
Amherst
Yale
Colgate
UVA
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Boston College
Northwestern
UCLA/UC Berkeley (California resident!)</p>

<p>Prospective majors: Still confused about this. These are what I’ve narrowed down to: English, Liberal Arts, History, Economics, Visual Arts.</p>

<p>Chance me please=)</p>

2

<p>Low income asian female interested in the arts? Thank god.</p>

<p>Good news: You live in CA so you’re basically, with that SAT score, guaranteed Berkeley and/or UCLA.</p>

<p>Everything else is kind of up in the air (although Colgate and BC are good low low lowwwww matches/safeties).</p>

<p>As far as visual arts/design Brown is a wonderful place to be, especially because you don’t have to muck around with core or required liberal arts stuff that would take away from your in-studio time.</p>

<p>That said Tufts and UMich both have excellent design programs (basically visual arts/graphic design unless you have a deep desire to be a painting/drawing major ONLY).</p>

<p>If you have a portfolio of work: SEND IT.</p>

<p>I love your extracurriculars because, you know what, they don’t bore me to death. You organized a concert, you started the first student art show at your school, literary art magazine, dance, etc etc With accompanying awards.</p>

<p>And the silk screen shirt thing is pretty cool. One of my friends did that (incidentally she’s going to Brown, but for sports).</p>

<p>You’ve got a great shot at all these places because you have solid numbers AND you’re interesting. Your passion for the arts really shows in your ECs AND you’ve also got student government and Key Club.</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

3

<p>Thank you Ses =). I will definitely look more into Tufts and UMich now that you told me about their visual arts/design programs!</p>

<p>I really appreciate you telling me that I am INTERESTING !! Haha, when I was a sophomore, I was worried about myself because I realized that my ECs weren’t typically the academic ones; I wasn’t in speech, math team, or science olympiad, so I felt a little inferior to classmates who were!</p>

<p>But I like the reassurance that I still stand a chance amongst them =).</p>

4

<p>bumpppppppppppp</p>

5

<p>The number off Bs on your transcript make ivies out of range. 2 Bs is a problem. Even though your school doesn’t rank colleges know where you rank, which couldn’t be good. I don’t see Swat or Tufts or Northwestern either.</p>

<p>The low income, first generation boost is a tool for colleges to attreact URMs. </p>

<p>Your best bets, I agree, will be top UCs.</p>

6

<p>Do I have a decent shot at UVA and UMich then?
I was thinking that my low-income, first-gen status would offset certain things; everyone at my school basically has a tutor for each class while I don’t.</p>

7

<p>A few B’s don’t tell the whole tale. What’s your class rank?</p>

8

<p>My school doesn’t rank. But to say the least, there are students who do academically better than I do. It’s a really competitive public that is the top-ranked school in all of LOS ANGELES. Stanford University doesn’t like accepting people from my school becasue they tend to fail classes in Stanford; those students are so used to having tutors that when they enter an actual university, they’re unprepared for the rigor and intensity of it. </p>

<p>A lot of these kids who get straight A’s tend to go to tutor as well.</p>

9

<p>I’d like to point out that the Bs are only freshman and sophomore year. She has straight As junior year, including an A in AP Physics.</p>

<p>I really don’t think that pushes her out of reach of Northwestern or Tufts. Obviously Brown is a reach, that’s just how it is, but she’s got a great profile and obviously passionate ECs. </p>

<p>As far as Swarthmore, I really don’t think it’s a good fit. For anyone. I loathe Swarthmore. It creeps me out.</p>

10

<p>“Algebra Honors/Algebra C/A”</p>

<p>-Did you get a C in Algebra Honors and then drop the class to take regular Algebra?</p>

11

<p>Yeah…that’s why I had to forgo honors math in junior year.
I had really bad time management in sophomore year eck.</p>

12

<p>your B’s and that one C might keep you out of the most selective colleges on your list.</p>

13

<p>First generation and low income are tip factors that are given at some schools and to some ethnicities. They don’t make up for sub par grades.</p>

14

<p>I would like to reiterate AGAIN that ONE C and a handful of Bs do not subpar grades make.</p>

<p>And straight As Junior year certainly make up for any damage.</p>

15

<p>

</p>

<p>oh please…</p>

<p>

your counselor should mention that</p>

<p>You definitely have a legitimate shot at any of the schools you listed! Good luck!</p>

16

<p>Ses, you’re just plain wrong. Unless the OP goes to Andover, those Bs will keep him out of top schools. Do a search on this site for the story about Middlebury throwing apps into the reject pile over 2 Bs. Middlebury!</p>

17

<p>ses, I agree w/ ya! one B or C doesn’t really make a BIG difference when u consider four years!</p>

18

<p>collegekid100-</p>

<p>There are more great schools out there than just Andover. And I know at least 2 people off the top of my head who got into Middlebury with MORE than 2 Bs.</p>

<p>Elite publics churn out plenty of Ivy caliber kids. Thomas Jefferson in Virginia for example. Or Walt Whitman in Maryland. Those are both schools that I know that send kids to Ivies every year. Let’s assume that every state has one or two PUBLIC institutions like this.</p>

<p>And not every kid at an Ivy or comparably competitive school has the oppurtunity to attend one of these schools. So half of the Ivies are just high achieving kids from regular schools.</p>

<p>No applicant can get in on the basis of numbers alone. They have to be intelligent, decent human beings. The OP has plenty of things going for her, which isn’t to say that ‘more qualified’ kids haven’t been rejected from the same schools, but rather to say that equally qualified and less qualified kids have been accepted.</p>

<p>Let’s all try to be constructive now, shall we.</p>

19

<p>I’m just stating fact, if your school is of Andover quality, public or private, a few Bs won’t kill you at top schools. It also won’t kill it for athletes and legacies. But it will kill you to have this number of Bs and no hook at all of the top schools this year. </p>

<p>This is very constructive for kids to understand. Making nice and saying don’t worry about a handful of Bs and a C is not constructive. It can cost a candidate like this, who has a snowball’s chance in hell at Harvard, to calculate the wrong strategy for getting into the best possible school. And that is what most here want.</p>

20

<p>Alright. I’m giving up on this thread. I’m just going to ask the teachers I’m closest with to write my recommendations, get an interview, and write fantastic essays. Thanks for all your input, guys.</p>