Am I Honestly Aiming too High?! (Many Ivies)

<p>Now that I'm basically set on a college list, please help me again by chancing me and telling me if I'm honestly setting my sights too high. </p>

<p>Sex/Race: Male
GPA: 4.77 Weighted, unweighted 4.0/4.0
Rank: 7/791
SAT: 2170 (740 CR/ 680 M / 750 W)
SAT II: 790-Chinese / 720-US History / 680 Biology-M (will be taking Math II in the fall)
AP's: US History (5) Psychology (5) World History (5) Biology (5)
next year's APs include AP Econ, Gov, Spanish, Calc AB, English
Classes taken: All honors</p>

<p>Activites/Extracurriculars/Awards</p>

<p>-Leo Club (Volunteer Club)- Member all 4 years, secretary 11th, president 12th
-Medicine Club - Member 3 years, vice president 12th
-Energy Club - Co-founder/co-president
-Chinese Corner - Founder (tutor college students who're learning chinese every saturday morning)
-NHS - Member 11th/12th
-Math Honor Society - Member 11th/12th
-Spanish Honor Society - Member 11th/12th
1st Place Regional Winner for AATSP 2009 Spanish Essay Contest
Bronze Award for 2009 National Spanish Exam
-Elementary Language Program - teach elementary schoolers spanish for 10 weeks
-Kumon Math & Reading Tutor (paid job)
-Private Chinese language tutor summer 2009 (paid job)
-Summer@Brown 2008 Participant
-Neuroscience Camp 2009 (all-expenses paid camp)</p>

<p>---so as you can probably see, my interests are all over the place, and my test scores aren't spectacular... but nevertheless, please chance me for:</p>

<p>APPLYING TO LIST</p>

<p>Boston University
Brown
William and Mary
Cornell
Harvard
Penn State
Penn State - Shreyer Honors College
University of Pittsburgh
Princeton
Wesleyan
Yale (only one that I might take off the list)</p>

<p>Opinions?</p>

<p>It’s always nice to have high reaches, I mean you never know unless you try right?
But honestly - you probably won’t get into those high schools unless you happen to be a URM or something.</p>

<p>[by high reaches I mean the ivies, you have excellent match and safe schools]</p>

<p>absolutely KRNpro, I agree with everything you said haha.</p>

<p>So do you think that I’ll have a good chance at BU, William and Mary, Penn State, Pitt and Wesleyan?</p>

<p>Boston University: match
Brown: mid reach
William and Mary: match
Cornell: mid reach
Harvard: high reach
Penn State: safety
Penn State - Shreyer Honors College: in
University of Pittsburgh: safety
Princeton: high reach
Wesleyan: match</p>

<p>I wouldn’t write yourself off… your SATs are a little low though. good extracurriculars </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/753268-will-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/753268-will-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Boston University - match
Brown - reach
William and Mary - ?
Cornell - reach/low reach
Harvard - its a reach for everyone
Penn State - safety
Penn State - Shreyer Honors College
University of Pittsburgh - ?
Princeton - reach for everyone
Wesleyan - match
Yale (only one that I might take off the list) - reach, but still apply, you could definitely get in</p>

<p>Only real issue, get the SAT math up and you’ll do fine. If you get the SAT’s up, you should get into one of the Ivies. Good luck!</p>

<p>Chance back?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/748621-chance-ivies.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/748621-chance-ivies.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I think I’m probably gonna take the SATs again to raise the math score… my only worry is that I take it again, and my math score mysteriously goes down.</p>

<p>Nope.</p>

<p>I think you’re in good shape. Good ECs, good SATs. But yeah. I’d bump up that math score.</p>

<p>good job on the 790 in chinese sat II…im guessing ur asian
–which hurts in admissions if ur not spanish or black or soemthing like that</p>

<p>uh huh, I’m Chinese.</p>

<p>If I do well on the SAT Math II subject test, do you guys think i’ll have to retake the SATs again?</p>

<p>How do you get a 790 in Chinese? Lol. That test is ridiculously easy even for ABCs.</p>

<p>And yes. Up your SATs.</p>

<p>Your ECs are kind of too scattered and nothing extremely distinguishable. </p>

<p>So you’re just go by statistics.</p>

<p>If you can write an amazing essay about one of the clubs you’ve been in for a while that would improve your chances. But in general, no, you’re not aiming too high; 1400+ SAT and 4.0 GPA is a good combination. Unfortunately, I could imagine you being waitlisted in many places. I wouldn’t say your chances are great for most of those schools (HYP, etc.), but nobody’s are. A better SAT score wouldn’t hurt either, obviously. Make sure you send in your AP scores. In general, you’ve got a chance, and at the non-ivys on the list (except maybe Penn Honors? I don’t know much about the school) you’ve got a good one. You need to also apply at a safety or two, but besides that, your list is good.</p>

<p>Wow, lollerpants, I don’t know if I’m just reading your tone wrong, but that was kinda rude. Unfortunately, I got a 790, and that’s that.</p>

<p>and silverchris, the sad part is I definitely can imagine myself being waitlisted at many places too. and would you expect penn state, university of pittsburgh, and boston u to be safeties for me? i was kind of debating whether or not I should add more safety schools.</p>

<p>I never hurts to aim high. From your stats, I think it’ll end up depending on your essay and interview and how you present all your ec’s as not just credentials on an application.</p>

<p>I have to agree with intheskye.</p>

<p>Great stats. Essays might kill you though.</p>

<p>It probably depends on what schools other top students at your school go to. At my school, the top 1% get in everywhere. So assuming your school is semi-competitive with most people going to college you will probably get in everywhere except the ivies and they well all be reaches but completely possible.</p>

<p>thanks for all the encouragement guys! hahah</p>

<p>so i’ll definitely have to work on making my essays superb. i finished my common app personal statement, and I actually love it as of right now.</p>

<p>bump… i’ll happily chance back!</p>

<p>I’m Asian and Yale is also the only college I would take off my list. Haha. But in my opinion, the only way applying to too many colleges is the increase in application fees. Otherwise, it doesn’t hurt to try, I think. Try applying to Yale Early Action (nonbinding). It might help.</p>

<p>It doesn’t hurt to apply for the super reaches if you’re happy with your safeties and matches and you can afford them. The ivies are super reaches here.</p>