<p>I’m not sure which list it was, it was in a “chance me” post. Indeed that does sound like an interesting essay. I must admit I haven’t given the slightest though as to what my common essay or college specific essay(s) will be about. I assume I should write about the challenges I have overcome in my life to get to where I am, but I feel like that would sound too whiny haha.</p>
<p>Yeah, they can be great or horrible, I am afraid to personally go down that path. I started my essays over thanksgiving break (I plan to apply to a total of 12 schools and they all require a supplement), there are just too many of them to do in one summer/fall.</p>
<p>I don’t claim that this is necessarily correct, but if you’re seriously looking in the Princeton-Amherst level you may want to consider more than 4-5 total applications. (Though if you have one true safety school that you would be happy to attend, anything else is really a matter of personal choice). It really becomes a numbers game with <20% admissions rates. </p>
<p>FWIW – A couple of years ago, My D was applying: 34 ACT – Top 5-10% (school doesn’t rank) from a very well known public school. Her ultimate list was 10 (5 USNWR top 15 schools, 2 or 3 more in the top 30, and a couple of safeties) The college counsellor and her GC both thought this was about the right amount, given the level of schools she was applying to).</p>
<p>Oh my gosh! That sounds intense! Argh, this is what I’m taking about 
At my school I’m literally considered the brightest student out of a body of 3500+ students as of this year… including seniors, and nobody is starting their college essays! People like you make me feel so behind. Congrats though, atleast by the time you get to the final essays you’ll be a pro at college app essays (: I think you’ve inspired me to begin thinking about my essays. I’ll start discussing it with my English teacher ASAP.</p>
<p>Wow zephyr, I had no idea! That ties in perfectly with what artsygirl just said (applying to 12+ schools). Perhaps I really haven’t been as serious about college as I should be. I don’t know if I can afford to spend 50$+ on every application for so many schools though, I’ll have to look into waivers. And if every school requires an extra essay besides the common, this will be quite some work!</p>
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<p>Denis, you don’t need a long list of ECs; showing leadership in a couple of them would be plenty. Working to support yourself counts as an important one.</p>
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<p>Elite colleges have a sweet spot for community service work, especially when it goes beyond just logging hours. One way to stand out is to create your very own community service project: look around your community to find an unmet need and create a solution. It doesn’t have to be huge and it doesn’t have to be perfect, but doing it from scratch on your own is something few students do. One possibility, given your background, is to offer once-a-week English classes to groups of recent immigrants, perhaps from your home country: get a church to give you a spare room, make up flyers, get a few classmates to help you out.</p>
<p>I know your time is limited, but my son was able to shoehorn in something similar while taking enough classes (up to 10-12 including college and online) to graduate in 3 years. He was accepted to 4 top-20 colleges (including an early-write at Amherst) and received 3 customized letters from the schools mentioning the factors that most impressed the admissions committee: all 3 mentioned his self-directed community service project. He is now attending Brown.</p>
<p>“I’m afraid Reed is my safety school for now… perhaps I should find a different school for a safety.”</p>
<p>Good idea, since numeric stats make up only 20% of Reed acceptance criteria, rendering Reed a safety for no one.</p>
<p>Thanks for the excellent advice Loremlpsum! That sounds like something I could do! I’ll definitely try to start my own service type activity, I’m so glad you wrote that. And I’m glad again I’m not totally hopeless after all (: </p>
<p>And Congrats on your sons success! Would you mind summarizing a few of his stats real quick for comparison? And how many colleges did he apply to? </p>
<p>And vonlost; the reason Reed is my safety school is because one of my close friends just got accepted and is attending as a freshmen. He had an almost identical schedule (at my highschool), he had very weak, few EC’s just like me, and his SAT score was JUST over 2000 (he also messed up sophomore year and got a B in Alg 2). So I figure, if he made it in, I have a high chance of making it as well. I’m not sure if that logic makes sense, it does in my mind haha.</p>
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<p>My son had pretty much perfect academic stats (1/400 class rank, ACT 36, dual 800 SAT IIs) but you should take note that none of the customized admissions letters mentioned his stats. I really think that close is good enough if you have all the parts of a good portfolio – highest level of class rigor, high GPA/class rank, high SAT/ACT, and (ideally) leadership in both ECs and community service. I would not, for example, waste time re-taking a 2300+ SAT.</p>
<p>He was rejected by MIT and Yale. He was accepted to Williams (early-write), Amherst (early-write), Northwestern (and its elite ISP program), Brown and our state flagship UIUC. He was waitlisted at Rice, which surprised and amused us since it had the highest acceptance rate; we assume that since we hadn’t visited, they considered his application to them as a safety school.</p>
<p>He ran out of time filling out supplements and never got around to his applications for Stanford and Cornell. He also dropped a couple; there was a “Why UPenn?” question and after closely reviewing their website he couldn’t come up with any special reasons.</p>
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<p>If you do the self-designed community service project, you can write about the challenges and successes involved and tie that in with your own life as a recent immigrant.</p>
<p>Woah, I’m shocked. That’s insane stats, and he had the EC’s down too! I can’t believe he didn’t make it into EVERY school he applied to. I think this is my cue to seriously rethink applying to Yale/Princeton and stick to the high level LAC’s. Christ, I still can hardly believe his stats, and the stats I see on this site. </p>
<p>Yeah I think that’s a good idea, my essay likely will involve the challenges/language barrier, etc, that I’ve faced. I think I’ll keep Amherst as my reach school, and apply early decision to Reed when the time comes. And unless something very unexpected happens in the next two years, or I develop much more than I anticipate, I’ll leave the Yale/Princeton schools for graduate school (I very seriously plan on attaining a PhD).</p>
<p>You shouldn’t apply ED to a school you consider a safety, unless it’s your favorite; you might be admitted! And then you’ll never know if you might have made it into your view of match or reach schools.</p>
<p>I would focus on one extra-curricular, and just go at it full force. That will greatly improve your chances of admissions (which are fairly hopeful, all things considered).</p>
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<p>You’re looking at the situation the wrong way, Denis. It’s quite common for a student to be turned down by Amherst, maybe even by Reed, and still be accepted by Princeton or Yale. Once your academic stats reach a certain threshold (say SAT 2200+), non-academic elements play a large role and these are pretty much independent variables: your essays and your experiences may excite the adcoms at one school and bore the adcoms at another: the more top schools you apply to, the better your chances.</p>
<p>Ultimately, your story will get you in, perhaps to places you never expected. Recent immigrant, first to college, working to pay the bills, top of his class, starts a service to help those who arrive after him. This is the quintessential American Dream in action! All you need to do is package it pretty and wrap it up with a nice bow: humble, thankful, and determined to succeed in the “land of opportunity”!</p>
<p>Loremlpsum, can you just be my personal mentor? Haha. I can’t thank you enough for your advice, I assure you it won’t go to waste. You’re encouraging me to try harder (: </p>
<p>I’ll start trying to start up some community service ASAP. I’ll start working on my essays with my English teachers, and I’ll start preparing for SAT’s with a practice book I’ll purchase tomorrow. Thank you!</p>
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<p>Feel free to PM me whenever you need to. My parents were German immigrants, and I lived in Germany for awhile as a teen, being the lone “outsider”; I also hosted several high school foreign exchange students. I have a pretty good idea of what effort it takes to adjust to a different culture.</p>
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<p>Silverturtle wrote an excellent guide to elite school admissions and SAT prep that can be found here on CC in the SAT prep section. The section on English grammar is especially useful, because it makes very clear specific rules your teachers here don’t often tell you.</p>
<p>I will most definitely message you sometime soon! Thank you. And I’ll check out that guide too! </p>
<p>It’s getting late here and I should be getting to bed, but before I go, I feel like you have the impression I am a very recent immigrant… I migrated here when I was around 5-6, and I’m currently 17. So I’ve been here for quite awhile!</p>