A SHOT AT THE IVIES

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys!! Soooo my mom really doesn't think I'll be able to make it into any Ivy League schools, but I want to prove her wrong. Since I came into high school as kind of a goony hoodlum, it's taken a lot to try to offset my previous years. (Yep, I've had quite the turn-around!) Thus, I tried my best to boost my ECs a lot this past year, and I think I've made some headway. Tell me what you think! :)</p>

<p>Top 4 schools:
Brown (absolute dream school)
UPenn
Dartmouth
Cornell</p>

<p>Stats:
Junior Caucasian IL
WGPA: 4.28 (top 10%)
UWGPA: 3.98
ACT: 33 (34 E, 36 M, 31 R, 34 S)
superscore: 34
ACT Writing: 12 (yay!)
Planning on taking SAT Math II, Bio M, Chem, and Chinese</p>

<p>Senior Sched:
Honors Senior Rhetoric
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics 1
AP Chinese Language & Literature
AP Statistics
PE Leadership
Consumer Economics</p>

<p>ECs:
Varsity Track 4 years - Ranked as a State Elite every year (made the newspaper twice)
USATF Junior Olympics 2 years - Participated in both 110m Hurdles and 400m Hurdles
President - National Honor Society
President - National Chinese Honor Society
Chemistry Club - Assistant chief organizer
Academic Peer Tutor - April Peer Tutor of the month :D
PE Leadership
Rock Climbing Club
Junior and (anticipated) Senior Board
CERN LHC @ Home - Test4Theory Project
Fermilab Saturday Morning Physics Program</p>

<p>Awards:
Huayu Enrichment Scholarship - 2 month full paid scholarship to study in Taiwan over the summer
Midwest Chinese Speech Contest - 1st place
2012 and 2014 Valp Chinese Speech Contest - 1st place
2014 Valp Chinese Writing Contest - 2nd place
Continental Math League Award
2012 and 2014 Foreign Language Award
2012, 2013, 2014 Academic Achievement Award
2012 Outstanding Art Achievement Award
Key Leader Selection
NYLF National Security Envision Program Selection</p>

<p>Service:
Over 800 hours with National Honor Society
Peer Tutoring for 2 years
Single-Handedly organized community food drive
Organized American Heart Association Fundraiser
Organized school-wide fundraiser for Threads of Hope and Feed My Starving Children organizations</p>

<p>Jobs:
Graphic Artist at local sign shop over the summer
Customer Service at Burger King for 7 months
Party Host at Indoor Sports Facility
Assistant coach at Summer Hurdles Camp
Chinese TA over the summer</p>

<p>Thanks guys! I would GREATLY appreciate an assessment as to how good my chances are for my 4 selected Ivies. Thanks again so much! I'll chance back :D</p>

2

<p>Upenn, dartmouth, Brown you are a competitor. It’s a game of luck at a certain point but, you are definitely in the running. Cornell you have a pretty good shot. I’d say 50%. </p>

3

<p>@APsooof‌ thanks! :smiley: Haha yeah I feel like at a certain point they must just draw names out of a hat. Like I know someone with a 36, 2400, and 240 and still got denied to Princeton and Harvard. Like how is that fair :O</p>

4

<p>You have lots of awards, but I’m not familiar with them. If they are at the state and national level, then you have a good chance to all the schools that you have mentioned. Your ECs are all over the place though: Math, writing, speech. It could help you or it might hurt you. Depending on the school.</p>

<p>Also, you have 800 hours of volunteer hours, peer tutoring, Burger King job, varsity track, etc. They’re good. But if I’m the Admin officer reading this, I will question the actual number of hours. How can you even dedicate a good quality time for a single EC when you have like 20 other ECs/volunteer/jobs? Be very careful on your CA app when listing your EC’s and the number of hours/days. It may not add up.</p>

5

<p>@2018dad‌ Thanks for the reply. The 800 comes from an accumulation for 2 years of NHS Presidential/Exec Board service planning and logistics. I do a lot of work at home. Nonetheless, I still have plenty (perhaps 150?) hours of community service on my own</p>

6

<p>My daughter was accepted and will be attending Cornell this fall. Her score and GPA is a little bit better than you but she doesn’t have any significant awards like you. I see that you are also interested at USC. My daughter was admitted too (presidential scholar). It’s funny that her Cornell and USC essays were almost identical. She didn’t spend much time on them but she talked about an academic interest that she has a genuine interest and passion. I guess it shows on her essay and USC/Cornell admitted her. Good luck!</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the advice! :D</p>

8

<p>If you are applying to a school just to prove you can get in, you are applying for the wrong reason. You do not have a 50% shot at getting into an ivy. They are completely unpredictable and you could very well get a rejection from all of them and someone with lower scores and GPA could get in over you. So do not get your hopes up. Another reason why your reason for going is problematic is because it seems like you would take the rejection personally. Because you are applying to prove yourself worthy, a rejection would deem you unworthy in your eyes. Apply if you just, but if you got into a great private like USC or NU or Stanford, that would be just as good. The Ivy League is just an athletic conference with a long history. Don’t weigh your value on an acceptance to their prestigious and slightly pretentious school. You seem like a great person and any college would be lucky to have you. So don’t get caught up in the Ivy League drama. Do your own thing and you will be good. Now, don’t get me wrong. You are a solid candidate and as good as anyone, but not getting in doesn’t mean you haven’t made tremendous strides as a student and person. Good luck!</p>

9

<p>@KiaraInNYC‌
Thanks for the pep talk :slight_smile: HAHA no that’s not the only reason I’m thinking to apply. I would absolutely love to go to any of those schools for many other reasons, and USC is NU are also top picks for me as well. It was just that my Mom and I were in a quarrel and I wanted to see if I could prove her wrong some day. ^_^</p>

10

<p>Just so that you know, being asian (specifically Chinese) will make it A LOT harder for you.</p>

11

<p>@noel597 The OP isn’t Asian.</p>

12

<p>My mistake.</p>

13

<p>@noel597‌ haha yupp im White :smiley: im just really good at Chinese i guess</p>

14

<p>@outwest88 That’s actually SUPER awesome! I love it.</p>

15

<p>@APsooof‌,</p>

<p>OP is quite impressive, but how does he(or she) have a 50% shot? The acceptance rates were in the low double and single digit range this admissions cycle. That’s quite a huge difference. Could that possibly be giving @outwest88 too much hope? Maybe I’m mistaken with those acceptance rates. If so, please forgive me.</p>

16

<p>@NewHavenCTmom‌ Their acceptance rate doesn’t matter, the applicant pool matters and it wasn’t as competitive as you would believe.</p>

17

<p>@APsooof‌,</p>

<p>Not sure how the applicant pool wasn’t as competitive…I’m very confused. So will the acceptance rate for the Ivies be 50% for you? Will there be a big difference in the applicant pool this coming year? Are they accepting more students in the 2014-2015 admissions cycle? I’d appreciate it if you could expound. Maybe @ucbalumnus‌ has some insight? </p>

18

<p>Cornell
Is match. Others you are competitive. Cornell
Is a very low level Ivy League, rather easy to get into compared to the other ones. You are safely above the students I know who I know got in. </p>

19

<p>Good news: You’re competative and have as good a chance as anybody.
Not so good news: That chance is still 10% or less.</p>

20

<p>800 hrs volunteer with NHS is NOT believable even if spread over 2 years. Which it isn’t. You are named to NHS end of Junior year.
That is over 2 hrs PER schoolday if 400hr/yr.
Admissions officers will say NO just because you are trying to ■■■■■■■■ them.
USATF is not EC. It just means you ran in a race. So what.
Why even list those jobs that are for 1 day and/or 1 week!
Less is more. Admissions officers don’t want to see 10 or 20 EC, etc. They want fewer but with tangible participation and/or results.
You need to expand on the peer tutoring. What did those that you tutored achieve?
Your gpa and ACT look good, but your resume comes off that you are Asian or part-Asian. That will make it tougher as Asians have a higher standard.
Sorry to be tough.</p>