15 Schools, Feedback Appreciated

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello everyone,
I'm going into my senior year come September and have already started my college applications for all of them essentially. (The UC application for Fall 2012 is not up yet.) I was hoping I could get some feedback on my chances for all of the schools I am applying to, I would greatly appreciate any help and will be more than willing to answer any questions. Well here goes:
-Rank 1 in my Class of 2012 since I entered high school.
-Straight As in all my classes since before I entered high school
-Unweighted GPA = 4.0/4.0 & Weighted GPA = 4.8/5.0
-SAT Super: Math-790, Writing-630 (Essay-8), Verbal-620 (I will be taking them again this fall in hopes to raise my writing and verbal scores)
-ACT: Comp-32, Math-34, English-29 (Combined English/Writing-29, Essay-10), Reading-32, Science-32
-SAT IIs: Chem-790, US-760, Physics-710, Math I-760, Math II-770
-APs: Chem-5, US-5, Lang/Comp-3, Calc AB Sub-4, Calc BC-4, Physics B-4
-Classes taken: Freshman- PE, Piano 1, Bio Honors, Geometry Honors, World History Honors, French 2 Honors (took Pre-French and French 1 in middle school in 7th and 8th grade respectively), English 1 Honors; Soph- PE Driver's Ed, Word Processing/Music Theory (switched from the latter to the other), English 2 Honors, French 3 Honors, Algebra 2/Trig Honors, US I AP, Chem I Honors; Junior- PE Health, Physics B AP, Chem II AP, US II AP, English 3 AP, Calc BC AP
-Senior Schedule: PE Sex Ed, Anatomy & Physiology Honors, AP Bio, AP Prob & Stat, AP Psych, English 4 AP, French AP and I have already been independently studying AP Art History, AP Macro and AP Micro = 8 AP exams.
-Soccer from 6th to 9th grade (Junior Varsity/Varsity)
-Track & Field since 6th Grade (Varsity/Mid & Long Distance & will be a 2nd Year Captain this year)
-Indoor Track since 9th (Varsity/Mid & Long Distance & will be a 2nd Year Captain/Coaches Award)
-Cross Country since 10th (Varsity/2 Year Captain/Most Dedicated)
-Overall running career from races in the 400m, 800m, 1600m, 3200m, 5K, 10K, 20 Miler & Varying Relays: 8 Bronze, 3 Silver & 6 Gold. PRs: 400m-0:57.3, 800m-2:09.7, 1600m-5:02.4, 3200m-10:48, 5K-17:35, 10K-33:45, 20 Miler- 2:34:16. Will leave with 11 Varsity Letters.
-NCTE Promising Young Writer Award Winner in 2008
-1st in Class for English, 1st in Class for Literature, National Physical Fitness Award & President's Award for Educational Achievement
-NJ State Bar Foundation Law Adventure (Honorable Mention)
-National Junior Honor Society
-National Honor Society (Projected President)
-Merck Test Taker: Integrated Exam in 2010 and Chem Exam in 2011 (1st in County, 7th in State)
-4 Year Leo Club & 4 Year Interact Club
-4 Year GATE Club (Trivia Bowl and Gifted & Talented) (Projected President) (4 Year Member for 1st Team/White; Won 1st Place in 2009 and 3rd Place in 2011 in EHTHS Academic Triathlon, and 2nd Place in the BRHS Amazing Race in 2011.)
-Chem Club Prime Minister
-Physics League Member
-Physics Olympics Double Gold & Single Silver Medalist (1st Individual Overall and 1st Team Overall)
-Volunteered extensively for the Salvation Army (Can Drives for Thanks Giving and Christmas/Thanksgiving Dinner Aid/Sister Gene's Kitchen Aid) and Al Mackler Cancer Foundation (5K Races)
-Field Of Dreams in Absecon Aid (Softball Games for Mentally & Physically Challenged Children)
-Special Olympics Aid
-Light The Night Leukemia & Lymphoma Walk Aid
-March Of Dimes Aid & Walker
-Marathon Crewmember and 5K Runner
-Hours of volunteering at local clinics and hospitals
-3 Years of MMA: Tae Kwon Doe (Upper Blue Belt), Akido & Kickboxing
-Worked at Matteo's Beach Bay Cafe from May 2010 - September 2010 as a busboy, food runner, waiter, ice cream boy, front runner, cashier, waiter, side chef, opener, closer, inventory checker, griller and expanded the menu and created ads for them.</p>

<p>And now I will be applying to these schools:
Princeton
Columbia
Yale
Stanford
UC Berkeley
UChicago
Harvard
Duke
Penn
Dartmouth
UNC Chapel Hill
UMiami
Boston U
Lehigh
Ohio State</p>

<p>PLEASE HELP ME IN DETERMINING MY CHANCES OF ACCEPTANCE FOR EACH!! THANK YOU!!</p>

<p>I already posted this once but am reporting due to lack of responses, so please reply.</p>

2

<p>Yale- sat and act are too low :confused:
Stanford- ^
UC Berkeley- reach with those scores
UChicago- reach with those scores
Harvard- sat and act are too low :confused:
Duke- sat and act are too low :confused:
Penn- reach with those scores
Dartmouth- reach with those scores
UNC Chapel Hill- dont know, sorry
UMiami- safety
Boston U- safety
Lehigh- safety
Ohio State- safety</p>

3

<p>What of Princeton and Columbia?</p>

4

<p>Harvard,yale,princeton,and columbia are all reaches…the rest i think ur in…but i think u would benefit if u did Some EC’s related to ur projected major</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the insight! I am pretty sure my major might become Econ but I am basing my career path off of the school I get into and that might fall into either medicine (preferably genetic disorders), business (preferably marketing), or even chemistry/economic education at the high school or college level. What ECs would really relate to Econ btw? Also I looked at it from the angle that if I looked versatile but then put out my passion in my essay, it would improve my chances at most, if not all, my schools. Is that a good approach?</p>

6

<p>how is a 32 too low for any college?</p>

7

<p>

For an unhooked applicant a 32 is very low. An unhooked applicant needs to be at 33 minimum, preferably 34+. Coupled with low SAT subject test scores and a very high rank, it makes the student seem like a grade grinder. </p>

<p>OP - Your extracurriculars and test scores are weak such that the schools below will be difficult to get into. The others on your list you should be admitted to, however.</p>

<p>Princeton
Columbia
Yale
Stanford
UC Berkeley
UChicago
Harvard
Duke
Penn
Dartmouth</p>

8

<p>@sniperas
And by unhooked, do you mean I am not necessarily unique enough or I am not enough of a stellar athlete? I am confused about that. As for my ACT score, does it not translate to like a 2150-2190 SAT? Plus the majority of these schools 75th percentile is either below or at 34, including a few of the Ivies, and all of their 25th percentiles are at or below 32; please explain how this a low score for anyone including myself? Regardless, thank you for the insight and chancing, I appreciate it!</p>

9

<p>Unhooked means you are neither black, a legacy/developmental admit, nor a recruited athlete. You are correct that many ivies have ~20% of their class admitted with SAT scores below 2100, but admissions is not a single pool where the school picks the, say, 2000 best qualified students for admissions - rather in a given admissions season as much as 50-60% of the incoming class’ seats are “carved out” for various special groups, in an order that looks something like this:</p>

<p>20% minorities
15% athletes
2% development admits
10% legacies
3% “special” stories</p>

<p>Thus leaving only 50% of the available seats for regular old white/asian students. In most cases students from the above groups would not be eligible for admission without their particular hook, so they overwhelmingly make up the academic bottom half of the class at their respective schools (perhaps not legacies quite so much). Thus you generally need to be in the top half of admitted students by scores for a given college in order to be competitive for admission if you do not belong to such a group.</p>

10

<p>

Please take people’s replies as confirmation that, yes, they do care.</p>

11

<p>Thank you for the clarification. I understand that much I was just never aware that was the appropriate colloquial term. Now, I am Bengali, more so a multiracial one, does that not count as a minority and make an applicant utilizable for any of the schools affirmative action or is that solely exclusive for blacks? Furthermore, by special stories do you mean like applicants with hectic pasts or those who were nearly killed and the like so they could use emotional appeal on their app? I need clarfication on that because I was told that would probably be inappropriate in my apps and essays but I had my doubts. I have had a near-death experience when I was still an infant, I even almost died again on the hospital bed when an unknown-at-the-time allergic reaction occured. Would that be beneficial or detrimental to write about?</p>

12

<p>As for your near-death experience, if you can’t remember it, don’t write about it. The adcoms usually want to hear about an experience where you learned a valuable life lesson (obviously more complex than this but that’s the basic idea). If you can’t remember the experience, you didn’t learn from it.</p>

<p>As for the rest of your application, your list of activities is way too long and there’s a bit too much variety. You probably want to cut out some of the less important ones and then make sure that you get those leadership positions. If you do get the leadership position, make sure that you do something with the position. It’s usually easy to get elected but difficult to actually do something and plus it’ll give you something to write about on your application.</p>

<p>I’d definitely recommend trying to find an EC or two relating to economics since there weren’t really any that I saw.</p>

<p>And if possible, you obviously want to get your test scores as high as possible.</p>

13

<p>@cellist
Haha thanks I do know you guys care or else why would you reply, right? I truly appreciate the insight, it calms my pre-uni nerves and gives me multiple perspectives on how to attack my app.</p>

14

<p>@TheHighlander
I do not remember the account in livid detail, thank God or I would be totally traumatic now, but I was explained the entire story as soon as I was old enough and could speak simplistically. I’ll see what I could do with that. Thanks for your insight as well, as for my ECs, I actually didn’t think they were that much really; it’s 3 sports predominantly and then I partale in 5 clubs with extra events here and there but if you say so. Also could you or anybody tell me what good ECs for Econ would be? Should I do DECA?</p>

15

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<p>Uh, what? Read this again, please…</p>

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</p>

<p>I didn’t blindly judge from the length, I actually read this, and they’re fine…</p>

<p>Do better on your SAT and you’ll be fine, although if you stay put with your standardized test scores I think you’ll get in a few of your top schools anyway. But that’s just the opinion of one kid who’s applying this year too.</p>

<p>And whoever said 32 is too low for top colleges… complete ********.</p>

16

<p>Haha thanks for the input and it’s ok, it was explained, no harm no foul. As for the SAT, I do plan on taking them again this October in hopes to raise them and am hopeful but every time I take or practice them, my math score raises, the only one I don’t need raised :|. Regardless, wish me the best! Until then, I’m going to emphasis my ACT over my SAT on my app. Also thank you for reading my list, I know it seems extensive but it actually is just a decent amount in my opinion, I just have a habit of explaining everything, my apologies. Thanks again!</p>

17

<p>But really, what would some good ECs for Econ be?</p>