Acceptance or Rejection: That is the question

My Final List:
Columbia (Early Decision- Most important)
Yale, Harvard, UPenn, Cornell, Northwestern, NYU, UF(im not worried about uf)

Hi, What do you think my chances are?
White Male, Public school in Boca Raton, Florida

Rank: 16/555 (top 3 percent)
SAT I ( took twice, highest math-710, highest verbal-800)-1510 cumulative (1410 and 1420 separately)
GPA(weighted, unweighted)- 4.42, 3.97

Courses( middles school ones are high school credit)
-7th:
Algebra I Honors (A/B)
-8th:
Integrated Science(A/A)
20th Century World History (A/A)
Spanish I (A/A)
Geometry Honors (B/B)
-9th:
Algebra II H (A/A)
Journalism (A/A)
Speech/World Geography (A/A)
Spanish 2 H (A/A)
Mass Media/Weight Training (A/A)
Earth Space Science H (A/A)
English (gifted) (A/A)
-10th
English (gifted) A/A
Precalculus (B/A)- only b in actual high school
World History H (A/A)
Newspaper(A/A)
Life Mgmt/P.E (A/A)
Biology H (A/A)
Spanish 3 H (A/A)
-11th
AP English (A/A/5)
AP US History (A/A/4)
AP Calculus AB (A/A/4)
Psychology 1/2 (A/A)
Chemistry H (A/A)
Newspaper Honors (A/A)
Spanish 4 H (A/A)
12th
AP ENglish 12
Economics H/ AP American Govt
Physics Hon
Newspaper honors
AP Statistics
AP Psychology

ECs
-Write in teen section of biggest South Florida Newspaper, School newspaper, Treasurer of Model U.N, Book Club(Charter Member), Math Academic Games (probably #2 team in county), NHS, Spanish NHS, Mu Alpha Theta (Math NHS)

Good recommendations from my two teachers (“one of the top few students i have met in my 22-year teaching career” lol), haven’t gotten one yet from my guidance counselor.

Good, not great essays

<p>opinions please</p>

<p>it's always random, but I'd say you have a good shot.</p>

<p>Yes to Northwestern and NYU.</p>

<p>Maybe to Columbia, Upenn and cornell.</p>

<p>No to little chance at Yale and Harvard.</p>

<p>Add Brown and maybe Emory, although I think you will get into Northwestern</p>

<p>Are you looking for a city school in NE? Maybe add BU as a safety/match. or Emory, Duke,UMiami, Davidson, if want to stay South. I think you have too many reaches (given the competition and randomness of selection), and newspaper as main EC, and need to look for more schools that you would really be happy to attend. There are many schools as good as the IVYs, and those get so many applications, that being near or slightly above the mean, make these schools reaches for anyone.</p>

<p>Freakish, do you REALLY want other people's opinions? What is the point? You are clearly an overworked overachiever with high scores, very boring and pedestrian ECs ,and straight As. You will get into a top school. What does the opinion of people on this board matter? Or did you just post to brag about your stats?</p>

<p>I interview for an Ivy and I would have to meet you (I mean a person with this record) before I made a decision - and believe me, I gave the lowest possible interview ranking to people who deserved it because they had no true passion, nothing whatsoever to offer the school other than a HUGE and random list of the same old same old. As for top 3%, another poster pointed out that if your cohort is 2,000,000 people --- well, you're the math whiz: you do the math. There are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people just like you.</p>

<p>That said, you'll still get accepted at a lot of places.</p>

<p>Freakish MIGHT very well have a true passion in life and a reason for wanting a college education that would easily impress any adcom. By not expressing any of it here, he gives the impression that he thinks it is not important to any of us. If he submits applications that do the same thing, he will be making a large miscalculation.</p>

<p>Would you buy a new car from a salesman who told you all kinds of facts and figures about the car, but never showed you a picture, never let you sit in it, and never let you take it for a spin?</p>

<p>Freakish: You're asking us to figure out how an adcom would act on your application---when you don't give any clue about the things that matter most to an adcom. Numbers and lists are less important than you think.</p>

<p>We shouldn't single out Freakish... nearly all "what are my chances" type posters do the same thing! I worry that posters get into such a habit of presenting themselves HERE in terms of numbers and lists, that they do the SAME thing on their applications. A successful application presents an interesting person who has a love of learning, a passion for living, and who also happens to have good numbers.</p>

<p>Get your priorities in order.</p>

<p>Best decision I made during college admissions process:</p>

<p>Writing on every one of my applications "I can make a Halloween costume exclusively out of staples and two (2) paper bags." And included a photo.</p>

<p>I got accepted almost everywhere I applied.</p>

<p>I agree. I am very annoyed at times when people post thier high stats when they pretty much know the chances of them getting in the schools they want. </p>

<p>"I took 8 AP cources (Got all 5's), got a 1600 in the SAT, 4.0 GPA and tons of ECs, can i get into northwestern or BU?"</p>

<p>Common..</p>

<p>YEAH- HERES THE THING: I'm not an overworked overachiever. To tell you the truth, I'd say I spend a maximum of 2-3 hours doing homework a week. And yeah- I know this whole thing isnt substantial because you have no idea, butr hey, its still an opinion and that's better than nothing, especially coming from people on this board who read a lot of people's stats. Its not like I posted 1600 sat's and was like poor me. will i get anywhere. I was actually serious, wondering what you guys thought my chances were compared to others you've seen on this board.</p>

<p>And about seeming boring, I'm too paranoid to put on here my essays or anything of the like to show who i really am, rather than just a list of numbers. But- i thought u could give me some basis. SORRY</p>

<p>BUMP! (edit: bad sat 2 scores. us history:690, lit:700, writing: 620</p>

<p>My Final List:
Columbia (Early Decision- Most important)
Yale, Harvard, UPenn, Cornell, Northwestern, NYU, UF(im not worried about uf)</p>

<p>columbia ED - you have a shot ED
Yale - no
Harvard - no
UPenn - possibly, less than 50% chance
Cornell - a shot, maybe 50 50
NYU - in
Northwestern - probably in</p>