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White/Asian male, single (divorced early) mother, 1st generation, 2nd in family to go to college (a cousin is in a state college right now), my mother and her side of the family are Vietnam War refugees

GPA freshman year 3.9 UW 3.9 W
GPA sophomore year 3.9 UW 3.9 W
GPA junior year 3.6 UW 4.5 W
GPA senior year will be out of 4.7 W max
Rank 12/370 top 3%, will get better
Have taken hardest schedule possible at somewhat competitive CA public school

SAT 1
Highest math 690
Highest verbal 770
Highest one sitting 1430
Highest combined 1460
Retaking in June, will try to study

SAT 2
US History 760
Math ???
Writing ??? (I'll assume 700+ for both)

AP's so far
Chemistry 2 or 3
US History 3-5
Calculus AB 3-5
Assume 3-5 for all future APs (5-7 more)

EC's/Awards
Best Buddies for 3 years
UCSF lab assistant 9+ hrs/wk for one summer
Mock Trial for 1 year (maybe)
National Merit Commended (so far, the process isnt over)
Took AP Calculus 10th gr summer at ATDP program at UC Berkeley

I say I am a "public school" applicant because people say I stand a much better chance in applying to the UC (public) system because of my very weak EC's.

Do you guys think I could get into Vassar or a good LAC if I wrote a damn good essay?

By Stluciang17 (Stluciang17) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 06:31 pm: Edit

Your stats are fine for vassar. the only thing that might put u down are your ECs cause vassar doensn't put so much weight on the SAT scores.

all in all u have a very good chance. just try to make "who u are" stand out in your application especially your essay and be creative for the "my space" section. They want to know that u can be a contributing part of the vassar community.

Good Luck with the application.

By Anglophile (Anglophile) on Monday, June 21, 2004 - 08:05 pm: Edit

The thing about public vs private schools is that the private schools do A LOT to prepare you for entrance into the top LACs. They prepare you for the SATs (provide tutoring in any weak areas-- very hard to find out of a public school), and for the better private schools, all their coursework is at a very high level(like taking a ton of AP classes). These private schools have an ongoing raport with the admissions offices of the LACs, and have very involved college counselors. So, from my point of view, it sucks to be a public school kid.