Any point apply to SCEA if GPA/score is less than perfect?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same at ours, Princeton picks fgli every year.

Interesting. Same trend at DC's school (Questbridge, FGLI) for Princeton and either valedictorian or salutatorian.

[Anonymous]

I’m Swat PP. It is her first choice.
Major - physics, creative writing, Chinese.
EC - pres of club, sportsmanship award in 2 varsity sports jr year, leader of robotics team, and 1 of 6 US kids on honor council, which is big deal at this school (peer nominated, elections).
Lots of other activities supporting creative writing and Chinese.
Strong student but absolutely no impressive ECs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m Swat PP. It is her first choice.
Major - physics, creative writing, Chinese.
EC - pres of club, sportsmanship award in 2 varsity sports jr year, leader of robotics team, and 1 of 6 US kids on honor council, which is big deal at this school (peer nominated, elections).
Lots of other activities supporting creative writing and Chinese.
Strong student but absolutely no impressive ECs.

By chance is this school's initials RE?
If so, the CCO pushes Swat on everyone....they have an in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m Swat PP. It is her first choice.
Major - physics, creative writing, Chinese.
EC - pres of club, sportsmanship award in 2 varsity sports jr year, leader of robotics team, and 1 of 6 US kids on honor council, which is big deal at this school (peer nominated, elections).
Lots of other activities supporting creative writing and Chinese.
Strong student but absolutely no impressive ECs.

Truthfully, if your child wants it, they can aim higher than Swarthmore. A strong private school valedictorian carries a lot of weight at top colleges, and their combination of interests (physics + creative writing + Chinese) might help them stand out a bit. With those credentials (valedictorian at a strong private school, 1530 SAT (perfect verbal), and solid leadership roles), your kid has the stats. The ECs aren't shabby either (the honor council role is more impressive than you think - I'd really focus on that and make sure the LOR speaks to it).

Given the three majors, I'd look at your school's REA hooked/legacy competition for:
MIT
Princeton
Yale (they love this interdisciplinary, wide-ranging mix of interests - play up the 3 disparate academic interests)

Reaches that are more "realistic" in RD or otherwise:
University of Chicago
Pomona
Williams
Brown (like Yale and the interdisciplinary focus, the open curriculum would really benefit your kid. Plus Brown's creative writing is insane).

Your kid is the competitive for almost any school - its all in the execution now. And understanding what each different school looks for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m Swat PP. It is her first choice.
Major - physics, creative writing, Chinese.
EC - pres of club, sportsmanship award in 2 varsity sports jr year, leader of robotics team, and 1 of 6 US kids on honor council, which is big deal at this school (peer nominated, elections).
Lots of other activities supporting creative writing and Chinese.
Strong student but absolutely no impressive ECs.

Truthfully, if your child wants it, they can aim higher than Swarthmore. A strong private school valedictorian carries a lot of weight at top colleges, and their combination of interests (physics + creative writing + Chinese) might help them stand out a bit. With those credentials (valedictorian at a strong private school, 1530 SAT (perfect verbal), and solid leadership roles), your kid has the stats. The ECs aren't shabby either (the honor council role is more impressive than you think - I'd really focus on that and make sure the LOR speaks to it).

Given the three majors, I'd look at your school's REA hooked/legacy competition for:
MIT
Princeton
Yale (they love this interdisciplinary, wide-ranging mix of interests - play up the 3 disparate academic interests)

Reaches that are more "realistic" in RD or otherwise:
University of Chicago
Pomona
Williams
Brown (like Yale and the interdisciplinary focus, the open curriculum would really benefit your kid. Plus Brown's creative writing is insane).

Your kid is the competitive for almost any school - its all in the execution now. And understanding what each different school looks for.

This makes sense.

Disagree on Chicago, OP will get WL in RD Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m Swat PP. It is her first choice.
Major - physics, creative writing, Chinese.
EC - pres of club, sportsmanship award in 2 varsity sports jr year, leader of robotics team, and 1 of 6 US kids on honor council, which is big deal at this school (peer nominated, elections).
Lots of other activities supporting creative writing and Chinese.
Strong student but absolutely no impressive ECs.

She sounds like a great fit. I had a friend who was a Chinese major at Swarthmore: one of the smartest people I have ever met.

If Swarthmore is her first choice I would apply ED.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. Our CC says Brown is a difficult admit for our school. MIT admits have always been super talented kids who are also URMs.
(Not RE school. CC has not been pushing anything on her, unfortunately. Well, Union and F&M as targets for my kid who wants nothing to do with Greek life. Hence my reaching out to DCUM land.)
Lots to think about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. Our CC says Brown is a difficult admit for our school. MIT admits have always been super talented kids who are also URMs.
(Not RE school. CC has not been pushing anything on her, unfortunately. Well, Union and F&M as targets for my kid who wants nothing to do with Greek life. Hence my reaching out to DCUM land.)
Lots to think about.

I have a kid at F&M. He didn’t look at Swarthmore (outside his range) but in his freshman hall we met two girls who said swarthmore had been their first choice but they weren’t admitted there. So I don’t think it is an unusual choice as a backup. It’s true Greek life exists but my kid has nothing to do with it.

I happened to be in Swarthmore this morning at the farmers market, and it was idyllic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. Our CC says Brown is a difficult admit for our school. MIT admits have always been super talented kids who are also URMs.
(Not RE school. CC has not been pushing anything on her, unfortunately. Well, Union and F&M as targets for my kid who wants nothing to do with Greek life. Hence my reaching out to DCUM land.)
Lots to think about.

Has your kid looked at this program at Yale, combining 2 of her 3 interests: https://eall.yale.edu/
WashU has something similar: https://ealc.wustl.edu/
Also, Stanford (https://ealc.stanford.edu/), Northwestern (https://alc.northwestern.edu/), UChicago, Pomona, Hamilton, W&L, UVA, Colgate.
Easy to pair with a Physics minor in the app.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. Our CC says Brown is a difficult admit for our school. MIT admits have always been super talented kids who are also URMs.
(Not RE school. CC has not been pushing anything on her, unfortunately. Well, Union and F&M as targets for my kid who wants nothing to do with Greek life. Hence my reaching out to DCUM land.)
Lots to think about.

Has your kid looked at this program at Yale, combining 2 of her 3 interests: https://eall.yale.edu/
WashU has something similar: https://ealc.wustl.edu/
Also, Stanford (https://ealc.stanford.edu/), Northwestern (https://alc.northwestern.edu/), UChicago, Pomona, Hamilton, W&L, UVA, Colgate.
Easy to pair with a Physics minor in the app.

what interest besides Chinese do you mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. Our CC says Brown is a difficult admit for our school. MIT admits have always been super talented kids who are also URMs.
(Not RE school. CC has not been pushing anything on her, unfortunately. Well, Union and F&M as targets for my kid who wants nothing to do with Greek life. Hence my reaching out to DCUM land.)
Lots to think about.

Has your kid looked at this program at Yale, combining 2 of her 3 interests: https://eall.yale.edu/
WashU has something similar: https://ealc.wustl.edu/
Also, Stanford (https://ealc.stanford.edu/), Northwestern (https://alc.northwestern.edu/), UChicago, Pomona, Hamilton, W&L, UVA, Colgate.
Easy to pair with a Physics minor in the app.

Stanford, Yale and Northwestern all want a 3.92+ from the Big3 my kid attends. I looked at the data last week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. Our CC says Brown is a difficult admit for our school. MIT admits have always been super talented kids who are also URMs.
(Not RE school. CC has not been pushing anything on her, unfortunately. Well, Union and F&M as targets for my kid who wants nothing to do with Greek life. Hence my reaching out to DCUM land.)
Lots to think about.

Has your kid looked at this program at Yale, combining 2 of her 3 interests: https://eall.yale.edu/
WashU has something similar: https://ealc.wustl.edu/
Also, Stanford (https://ealc.stanford.edu/), Northwestern (https://alc.northwestern.edu/), UChicago, Pomona, Hamilton, W&L, UVA, Colgate.
Easy to pair with a Physics minor in the app.

Stanford, Yale and Northwestern all want a 3.92+ from the Big3 my kid attends. I looked at the data last week.

Right. And isn't the OP's daughter the val?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. Our CC says Brown is a difficult admit for our school. MIT admits have always been super talented kids who are also URMs.
(Not RE school. CC has not been pushing anything on her, unfortunately. Well, Union and F&M as targets for my kid who wants nothing to do with Greek life. Hence my reaching out to DCUM land.)
Lots to think about.

Has your kid looked at this program at Yale, combining 2 of her 3 interests: https://eall.yale.edu/
WashU has something similar: https://ealc.wustl.edu/
Also, Stanford (https://ealc.stanford.edu/), Northwestern (https://alc.northwestern.edu/), UChicago, Pomona, Hamilton, W&L, UVA, Colgate.
Easy to pair with a Physics minor in the app.

what interest besides Chinese do you mean?

I'd assume English/Lit? They all are "and literatures"...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. Our CC says Brown is a difficult admit for our school. MIT admits have always been super talented kids who are also URMs.
(Not RE school. CC has not been pushing anything on her, unfortunately. Well, Union and F&M as targets for my kid who wants nothing to do with Greek life. Hence my reaching out to DCUM land.)
Lots to think about.

Has your kid looked at this program at Yale, combining 2 of her 3 interests: https://eall.yale.edu/
WashU has something similar: https://ealc.wustl.edu/
Also, Stanford (https://ealc.stanford.edu/), Northwestern (https://alc.northwestern.edu/), UChicago, Pomona, Hamilton, W&L, UVA, Colgate.
Easy to pair with a Physics minor in the app.

what interest besides Chinese do you mean?

I'd assume English/Lit? They all are "and literatures"...

These departments encompass Chinese literature, Japanese literature, Korean literature. Not English literature. Besides, the kid in question is interested in creative writing, which could be in an English department but is sometimes its own program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. Our CC says Brown is a difficult admit for our school. MIT admits have always been super talented kids who are also URMs.
(Not RE school. CC has not been pushing anything on her, unfortunately. Well, Union and F&M as targets for my kid who wants nothing to do with Greek life. Hence my reaching out to DCUM land.)
Lots to think about.

Has your kid looked at this program at Yale, combining 2 of her 3 interests: https://eall.yale.edu/
WashU has something similar: https://ealc.wustl.edu/
Also, Stanford (https://ealc.stanford.edu/), Northwestern (https://alc.northwestern.edu/), UChicago, Pomona, Hamilton, W&L, UVA, Colgate.
Easy to pair with a Physics minor in the app.

what interest besides Chinese do you mean?

I'd assume English/Lit? They all are "and literatures"...

These departments encompass Chinese literature, Japanese literature, Korean literature. Not English literature. Besides, the kid in question is interested in creative writing, which could be in an English department but is sometimes its own program.

I dunno. These links seem like a much more niche way to target a school imo if there's any alignment with transcript and ECs.
The EALL classes at Yale seem like they might work at that intersection: https://courses.yale.edu/?srcdb=202503&dept=EALL