15 colleges: all help appreciated!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I have applied to 10 colleges. Would you be willing to chance me on this list? (1-10 scale or reach/safety etc.) Thank you so much!
Harvard:
Stanford:
Yale:
Princeton:
Duke:
Columbia:
Brown:
MIT:
UPenn:
John Hopkins:
Cornell:
UC Berkeley:
USC:
UCSD:
UCLA:

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): Took first in Sophomore year, 1960/2400. Studied and took it again, 2280/2400.
ACT (breakdown): 35 C
SAT II: World History (800) Biology (750) Chemistry (800)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 5.09
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 2/500
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP World History (5) AP Capstone Seminar (5) AP Physics C (5) AP Calculus AB (5) AP English Language (5) AP US History (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: AP Capstone Diploma, AP Biology, AP English Literature, AP Spanish, AP Calculus BC, AP Government, AP Economics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Robotics Achievement Test - Highest Score in the World (2014, 2016)
AP Capstone Diploma
AP Scholar with Distinction
Academic WorldQuest - (Regionals) 2nd place once, 1st place twice.
National Merit Semifinalist
Student Academic Award (top 10 students out of 20,000 in my county)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-Club Volleyball (Captain and Founder g. 10,11,12) - Founded first boy’s volleyball team ever in my county because I love the sport, won numerous awards including MVP.
-Played Piano (10 years) - Won full scholarship to a prestigious Summer Arts Program. First in my family to play an instrument, and pretty advanced.
-Youth and Government (Spirit Committee founding member and Forum Liaison g. 11, President g. 12) - Held a statewide position for two years, and passed numerous bills through the program based on my intended major. Founded the “spirit committee” because our delegation showed no passion for the program.
-Robotics (10 years) - Highest score in the world on that test twice. Participated in FLL, Google Lunar X-Prize, and Botball. FLL - Numerous regional awards and one top international award. Google Lunar X-Prize - Top rookie team, partnered with a google team that actually sent a robot to the moon. Botball - President of the club. The school cut funding to us two years ago but I worked through that. Did presentations on team management and engineering a few times to about 500 people.
-National Honor Society (g.10,11,12, president g.11,12) - Integrated survey based volunteering system to try to get people to enjoy volunteering and maybe continue on with it.
-Youth Committee (g. 10,11,12, president g.11,12) - Worked with various programs, and even helped work on a billion dollar project. Really cool stuff, I love helping our community.
Job/Work Experience:
-Family’s Donut Shop (all my life) - unpaid, mostly during summer.
Volunteer/Community service:
-Local Hospital (100 hours, 2 summers)
-Nonprofit robotics program (helped to found this) - (250 hours)
-Youth and government (100 hours)
Summer Activities:
-Camp Counselor
-COSMOS
-Prestigious piano camp one summer
-Global Conference on Educational Robotics
-Volunteering and working
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Main essay - They all were about the same topic, how my family escaped genocide, single mother with 2 jobs, broke the pattern of subsistence with my family. Really heartfelt. I wove all of my extracurriculars into it and it really showed how I have initiative and passion; for every single one of my EC’s, I couldn’t just be president, so I did more and left a lasting effect and actually changed the program. (11/10 for all)
Supplements - 8/10 for all, except Harvard, Stanford, and Yale which were 10/10’s.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: AP Capstone teacher- I’ve known her for a long long time, she is also the leader of the robotics club and I worked with her to save the club after funds were cut. 10/10
Teacher Rec #2: AP World History teacher - Top scoring student, I was the one of the only people who didn’t cheat but still scored extremely well. She knows my ambitions and my background. 10/10
Counselor Rec: Known me since I was a sophomore. I was the only sophomore who showed any ambition to her, but it still might have sounded generic since she does so many. 9/10
Additional Rec: This was honestly the hardest decision of my resume. I decided to go with the chair of a robotics program which serves 4,000 students (I pioneered the first robotics program ever in my valley) because of the ethos. Known since 3rd grade. 10/10
Interview: Good, I stuttered a lot but he was very interested in my background and said I had more initiative and passion than anyone he’s interviewed. 9/10

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: no
Intended Major: Biomedical Engineering
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Large Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 60K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): 1st gen, family escaped genocide, I actually did stuff when I was chair/president of a lot of things (?) single mom with 2 jobs

Reflection

Strengths: How clearly my huge passion and initiative were shown, and my background. Essays and recs all amazing because I had to work with these people and they saw how much I strive.
Weaknesses: Test scores, Asian male

Thanks!

2

You seem like an extremely well qualified applicant. UCB, UCLA,UCSD,USC seems like matches for you.

As for the rest, they are highly selectively and while you are qualified its really up in the air for the rest. Won’t be surprised if you got accepted to many of these colleges.

3

BTW: If this helps I speak 4 languages and I’m self taught in one.

4

You’re a very competitive applicant for all of these schools. You’ll probably get into all the UC’s you applied to. You stand an excellent chance at Duke and Hopkins, but the rest of the schools (MIT) and the Ivy’s are a crapshoot. All I can say is that you stand a good chance, and will probably get into at least one.

BTW: I’m very curious to learn more about the AP Capstone Program and the AP Capstone Diploma. Specifically for the AP Seminar, I’m aware you have to complete a series of assessment tasks, plus the end of the year exam. How similar is the end of year exam for Seminar to the AP Lang test? Did you find it difficult?

5

Thank you for your input! I am wry scared and how to get into my top choice Harvard because it combines aspects of my intended career, but any more help is appreciated greatly!

@Pawrrrrrr
It’s a really great program but it is different than anything I’ve ever taken. Instead of memorizing and studying, I learned analytical skills and I have an increased perception of the world. It’s pretty similar I guess, I put about the same analysis for both exams and got 5s on both. Not sure if either is graded harsher. Not really, but I have experience in argumentative writing from youth and government and writing is my absolute favorite subject. It is definitely not a test to take if you want an easy pass. Think fast then argue it well.

My hand got cramped a lot lol, good think I’m ambidextrous

6

You’ll definitely get into the UCs you applied to you are very fortunate to be in state for one of the best public systems in the country. Although for what its worth I think you’d have gotten in out of state. Duke and Hopkins I think you’ll get into but they’re very competitive so a no wouldn’t be so surprising. The rest are crapshoots but you are certainly qualified for those schools but its like playing the lottery no one outside of the admissions committee can accurately chance you. Though I’m sure you’ll get into some of them. Congrats on all your hard work so far! keep us posted.

7

Seems like you have a pretty good chance. Will the low SAT score matter, in terms of Ivy League? Definitely getting into all the UCs though.

8

@MattyCRaps Yes, a 2280 is the death spell that will kill your application. Have fun at CC.

You’re not gonna beat the hooked kids with similar stats, the INTEL winners, USAxx medalists, or Carnegie hall soloists, but you’re probably going to beat out everyone else. Decent shot at all the schools

9

Thank you everyone!

I am just curious if anyone knows about the campus at Harvard? Is Harvard more suburban or urban? And how long is a train ride from Harvard to New York?

It’s my top choice because when I go into Biomedical Engineering, I foresee that when I develop different technologies, I will have to have amazing business experience to market them.
With Harvard, I get almost the best in business and medical and the engineering isn’t too shabby either. :slight_smile:

How do I compare to Harvard acceptees for EA this year or anytime?

10

You didn’t apply EA or ED?

11

@Oregon2016

I applied RD, but I was wondering how I compared to some ED applicants this year.

12

But with such high stats and STEM activities, why wouldn’t you have applied non binding early whatever to at least one school?

13

I applied to CalTech early and then started researching colleges for RD. I thought CalTech would be my fit before I actually did extensive research lol. I found out that Harvard is exceptional for me, but a bit too late. Do you think I stand an okay chance even if it is not ED? And I was curious about how many people are Intel, USAxx, or Carnegie Hall soloists. I would think no more than 500, and Harvard is accepts ~1000 students RD? Sorry, I can’t stop thinking about this and regretting that I didn’t appl ED :frowning:

14

So Caltech rejected you?

15

Deferred (eh, I made my essay stem related instead of background related, but it was very boring)

16

Ok, it is a material data point but not dispositive of decisions from the other schools. When you describe an interview in your opening post, is that with a Harvard alum then?

17

Yeah, I forgot to put that. I interviewed for all but 2, I forgot which. That one was for Harvard, yes.

18

CalTech interview was really bad because I was late and I had trouble with a lot of the answers

19

Why did you not apply for financial aid if you are low income?

20

I did. Sorry, I copy pasted the form from another thread and forgot to change it :frowning:

Now that everyone knows that I was deferred by Caltech, do your opinions of where I can get in change?