This is my first post; I just found this website.
STATISTICS:
- UW GPA: 3.96/4.0
- Class Rank: Top 10%
- ACT (single-sitting): 34C; 30E, 36M, 33R, 35S, 8W
- SAT Subject Test: 800 Math 2, 800 Chem
- SAT: Did not take yet
- Freshman Courses: Pre-AP English, Pre-AP Bio, History, Spanish 2, Health, Investigative Math, Tennis, Geometry
- Sophomore Courses: Pre-AP English, Pre-AP Geography, Pre-AP Chemistry, Algebra II, Tennis, Investigative Math, Art,
Principle of Health Science
- Junior Courses: AP Chem, AP English, Robotics, Pre-Cal, Physics, Investigative Math, Tennis, DC History
- Senior Courses: UNKNOWN
- School: School doesnt offer much AP Classes. Took all honors.
- Personal: I am Asian Male
EXTRACURRICULAR/VOLUNTEERING:
- Started a local Electronics repair device business and all profits are donated to charitywater (~$5396.58)
- Started a Bitcoin Mining Pool
- Varsity Tennis (2 years)
- 120 Hours of volunteering service at hospital
- Captain and Co-Founder of accounting team.
- Captain of Robotics team.
- On the Math & Science Team
- Played Piano for 10 years & on the piano team for 5 years.
- Did research mathematics with a professor and published a paper over additive combinatorics and geometric structure.
- Tutor kids in contest mathematics and create MOCK AMCs for AoPS
Awards:
- USAMO Qualifer
- Distinguished Honor Roll | 138 on AMC 12
- 11 on AIME
- 3rd, 5th, & 6th Place in State @ Number Sense
- 3x 2nd Place team in State @ Number Sense
- 2nd, 3rd, & 7th Place in State @ Mathematics
- 3x 2nd Place team in State in Mathematics
- 2nd Place team in Regional in Science
- Federated Gold Cup for Piano
- 3x 2nd Place Team in Regional for Accounting
Recommendation Letters:
- Ex USA IMO Coach, will be 11/10
- English Teach, will be a 7-9/10
Essays:
- Can be anywhere from 7-10/10
STUDY INTERESTS:
Major: STEM or Business
Where are your matches and safeties?
Im applying to one Safety UT Austin and I am a autoadmit
Being an Asian male is not going to help. However, I think that you have a chance and that applying to a few top schools is worthwhile. Understand that you need to have other options, and you need to think carefully about the other options.
There are very large differences between the 8 Ivy League schools. I think that you need to think about what you actually want in a university besides “prestige”. This will both make it more likely that you will be applying to schools that you would actually like if you went there, and also might help you write more compellingly about why you are applying to any one particular school.
I am applying to all 8 Ivies, Stanford, & MIT because they have either a good Stem program or a good business program.
So being in a school with 6,000 students in rural New Hampshire or with 28,000 students in New York City is equally appealing?
I do not mind what the campus looks like. I looked at the dorm rooms for each college and I am satisfied with all of them. I do not mind if the atmosphere otherwise. Afterall, I am going to study, not enjoy how pretty the scenery is.
Weird POV but that is my thinking right now.
Asian male is a bad demographic for Ivies-the grades are there and the ACT score is within range although the writing score is not so great. I might consider taking another ACT with Writing to get a superscore.
Your ECs are OK, but everybody applying to an Ivy will have some variation of the same activities.
Start working on application essays and improve your writing skills. I have a feeling that English isn’t your first language based off your posts (the writing doesn’t flow well and there are some syntax issues).
I noticed that you took Spanish 2 but didn’t progress beyond Spanish 2. Some Ivies and most competitive schools in general will require 4 years of a language (taking up to Level 4 is fine). That might be a deal breaker if you didn’t fulfil the language requirements.
Are you planning to take Calculus senior year? It does seem odd that you list ‘unknown’ for your senior year class load. You should have already registered for your classes.
Chances at those schools are going to range from 2-8% for a non-hooked applicant. Add matches and safeties or you’ll end up having to be happy with your state school.
Asian Male, good in Math, play piano, violin, good in tennis and badminton, founding clubs like Robotics, got awards like Math Champions blah blah blah, gonna be tough for the Ivies esp you don’t have ACT 36, 13-16 APs, UW GPA 4.0, W GPA 4.6+… (ok I am almost kidding with these stats, but you get my point). You need something to separate you from the generic Asian males these schools get every cycle (and they have those in the thousands). I get your PoV about studying and not caring about the scenery, but you are going to spend 4 yrs on campus, and each Ivy has a different culture. You should at least try to learn the difference between these schools. Essays do matter, and in fact, they are about the only thing left on the application to separate another Math whiz from another state who happens to be Asian and Male. While I think you have some chance with an Ivy, with your stats, I would recommend you to broaden the search with schools like Vandy, WashU, CMU, Williams, Amherst and retake the ACT/SAT and see if you can get 35-36 and 1550+. I think those Math awards will help you in the schools in my expanded list, even they also get a ton of Asian male applicants, but these schools really put national awards etc at a higher preference vs the Ivies (which they also got a lot and look for other intangible things that are not available for an Asian male). JMHO
Actually, if you want to go to class, then go back to your satisfactory dorm and study, and the scenery doesn’t matter, then you are exactly what the Ivies are NOT looking for.
The colleges want to know that they are getting someone who is excited meet new people, share their talents, and be part of the wider campus community in some way.
My school offers calculus only to seniors even though I already took it at a college. My schedule heavily depends on next years class availability. My counselor told me that I will not be able to take all the classes that I have selected
How do I become a hooked applicant? I thought my math achievements are hooks. They only take a select number of people to take the USAMO out of hundreds of thousands of people who try out. Isnt that a significant hook?
Hooked applicants, meaning those that are given a preference in admissions, are limited to under represented minorities, first-generation, student athletes and legacy (with legacy being anywhere from impactful to meaningless dependent on the school). Anti-hooks include being a female, from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, and either Caucasian or Asian (although being Asian can actually be a hook at certain LAC’s).
You have excellent stats and certainly can be in contention for the schools on your list. But with acceptance rates below 10%, there is a big, big difference from being in contention and actually getting in. I believe Brown has some stats on their admission page, that says something to the effect that they turn down 80% of applicants who have a perfect ACT score. You have a better than average chance at getting accepted, but with average being 5-6%, it still is a roll of the dice. I agree with the poster above who encouraged you to look at some selective LACs. Males have better odds at those schools and many are looking to expand diversity. Asian may actually help at some of those, where it won’t at the Ivies.
@wisteria100, agree that being male and Asian could be distinguishing at many top-LAC’s; that said I know being male will also help at many Ivies - Brown is way overweighted with female applicants.
Your math achievements could be a distinguishing factor if you had a broader college list. But the hard truth is that IMO team members from all over the world, not just the USA, apply to Harvard and MIT each year.
I am thinking about adding UChicago, Berkeley, and Rice. I also might apply to Duke aswell.
How about some of the LAC’s - Bowdoin and Williams have very strong math programs. Also maybe look at Wesleyan and Tufts?
Do not apply to all the ten schools on your initial list, that’s a lot of work and you’re chances to getting into any of them, except MIT (they don’t give hooks as large an advantage as other schools) will be less than 5%. I’ve seen students with your profile get admitted to MIT even early, so I suggest you apply to MIT EA and for STEM MIT is the best school on your list, followed by Stanford and Berkeley is probably 3. The ivies have some strong STEM depts, but overall for breadth of majors, those 3 along with Michigan are the top. So after MIT, early, apply to UM and UCB, and then one or 2-3 max of the ivies and stanford. The ivies and Stanford are not going to appreciate your application as some of the others will. You need a few other STEM matches in there, given you have Texas as an autoadmit - maybe RPI, UCLA, NYU, USC, something like that.