Any Chance of Getting into an Ivy?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi,
My name is John Doe and I attend Lathrop High School in Fairbanks, Alaska </p>

<p>Well, i'm looking to enter a top college, specifically the ivy leagues, but would like to know my chances of getting in, so here I am.</p>

<p>SATI: 2160 (760 writing)(670 Critical Reading)(730 Math)
SATII: planning to take Biology, US history, & Math II- plan over 750 scores</p>

<p>Rank 21/276 in a very competitive school </p>

<p>My cumulative GPA is 3.938 (weighted)
3.751 (Unweighted)</p>

<p>I have taken: AP Biology
AP Comp
AP Calculus
AP Economy Micro & Macro
AP US History
AP US Government
A's in all </p>

<p>I have taken 3 years of French
4 years of social science
4 years of math
3 years of science- did not take physics, planning on taking it
through correspondence soon
4 years of english</p>

<p>I am fluently Bilingual (korean and English)
partially trilingual (+french)</p>

<pre><code> Extra-cirriculars
</code></pre>

<p>-I have 100+ hours of community service at the local hospital helping old and terminal patients, as well as in the cafeteria </p>

<p>-I am president of my church youth group</p>

<p>-I teach sunday school, an arduous task. demands preparation and leadership</p>

<p>-I am a teacher at the local Korean Language School </p>

<p>I am the official translator of the pastor's sermons and documents
(orally & written)</p>

<p>-Organized, taught, and lead my sunday school band
-Am lead guitarist at adult service band
-teach guitar regularily</p>

<p>-Devout piano student, received excellent adjudications for intermediate songs after 8 months of lessons- much better now</p>

<p>-National Honor Society
-Earth Club</p>

<p>-4th place state science symposium</p>

<p>-Awarded poem publication in book by American Poet Society </p>

<p>-Long Distance track (ran 800)- not very good ^_^</p>

<p>Thats about it. If you do say no, can you tell me why? I know I have a rather low GPA and rank, perhaps SAT too. I am planning to take the ACT soon as well; and a semester grade of 4.6 will raise my GPA to
4.01 (weighted, don't know unweighted), which will probably do me no good as dealines are before the end of the semester.
I know I have a rather mediocre application, but I am a very good writer, and plan to write a stellar essay along with great teacher recommendations.
I also live in Alaska ^_^.</p>

<p>So the question comes once again; do I have any chance of getting into an ivy league?</p>

2

<p>bump bump bump</p>

3

<p>By the way, my father is the pastor of my church and that's the reason I'm so involved. Our church is fairly small, so my dad and I practically keep it running. We make the pamphlets, I organize the band, he teaches the adults, while I teach the younger generation and translate his sermons.</p>

4

<p>I think that your scores and grades put you in the running for Ivy and other top schools. Being from Alaska will definitely help. I would call your ECs good, and also focused. However, I am not sure how an Ivy reacts to ECs focused on church. Should be OK though. Your background is unusual for an Asian applicant, too. That will help. What do you want to study, what kind of environment are you looking for, and have you thought about the finances?</p>

5

<p>I really don't know yet what I'm going to study,
Could be economics, law, medicine, writing, I'm basically undecided.</p>

<p>Financially, I think I'm ok. Because my church is small, may dad makes about $34000 a year, which should put us in a position for a respectable grant</p>

<p>I don't really care about the enviroment as long as the college is good</p>

6

<p>In terms of ivies, you might have a shot at Brown and Cornell, maybe even Dartmouth. Beyond that, though, your class rank will probably kill you...</p>

7

<p>Yeah, I'm pretty worried about my class rank. But considering that my class is extremely competitive(best in school's history) How bad do you think it is?</p>

<p>Other than Ives, what other schools should I apply to?
Do you think I have a chance at schools like John Hopkins, Stanford, University of Chicago, Geogetown, etc?</p>

8

<p>im not sure...ur passionate and focused about some narrowly tailored activities, but u dont seem to be active in anything but your church with a few groups on the side whose significance is not evident. if anything kills your chances, it'll be the limited variety of ec's you're involved in.</p>

9

<p>Well, the problem is that my church activities take about 4 hours a day out of my life, leaving me little time for me to confide in anything else with homework and all.
Also, i'm pretty much obligated to do those things as no one else at the moment is quialified to do what I do.</p>

<p>I am very musically talented, but unfortunately, it's not really a part of my application, as I never participated in school music programs. I can play 4 instruments (Guitar, Piano, French Horn, Bass), and have mastered 2 (Guitar and piano). </p>

<p>I am very worried about the amount of activities I have, but there really is nothing I can or could have done about it. Track demanded alot of time, and when I did participate, I lost large amounts of time, leading to my first non straight A semester since freshman. </p>

<p>Is there anyways this can be communicated in an application?</p>

<p>Also, I would appreciate any comments to the question on my last post. ^_^</p>

<p>Thank you in advance</p>

10

<p>you can explain this in the "what else would you like us to know?" section of the application, and it may help...i hope it does for your sake, but im not sure how favorably adcoms will look on your explanations since so many kids probably come up with fake excuses to compensate for flaws in their apps neway...wish u the best of the luck</p>

11

<p>So, percentage wise, what chances do you think I have of entering these types of schools??</p>

<p>High Ivy League (Princeton, Yale, Harvard...)</p>

<p>Lower Ivy Leauge (Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth...)</p>

<p>High non-Ivy league (Stanford, John Hopkins...)</p>

<p>Lower High Ivy-League (Georgetown, Notre Dame, UCLA...)</p>

12

<p>high ivy - same as any, maybe a little lower (10%)
lower ivy - same as any (15 to 25%)
stanford - 10 to 15%, johns hopkins (40 to 50%)
georgetown (20 to 30%)
ps. georgetown is more presitigious than johns hopkins</p>

13

<p>Thank you,
please, more opinions are welcome.. I need more opinions</p>

<p>thank you all in advance</p>

14

<p>one pattern that i've noticed about koreans and churches... and thats they always do something/contribute to their churches.</p>

<p>K, if you don't have any hook besides those EC's, then you have basically no chance in high ivy, and low to mid chance at low ivy, and no chance in stanford. the safeties should be good.</p>

<p>Your sat scores are not up to "competitive" standard in high ivies, and your EC's are lucklustre at best compared to most other high ivie applicants on this board.</p>

15

<p>You cannot group ivies in such a fashion as high, low....that greatly discredits them...</p>

16

<p>yeah, i noticed the level of applicants on this board is very competitive.
Also noticed the number of koreans on this board with similar ECs. I feel discouraged at this point, but it doesn't hurt to try does it? </p>

<p>I thought my chances to be slim to none, it was strange that others insisted that I did have I chance. Thank you Joe the Mole for making it clear.
What colleges do you specifically recommend I apply to? </p>

<p>Please, more responses! All responses are welcome!</p>

17

<p>you really shouldnt feel discouraged. even if u dont get into an ivy you'll still end up in a really good school. i think ur church ecs show dedication, passion and focus. u know what u enjoy doing and and have an active particpation. ur an athlete, a good writer and a volunteer. every college is looking for something a little different. so give some of the ivies a shot. just make sure that the schools you apply to have a range of difficulty. oh yeah, u probably want to decide what type of college u most want to attend, i dont think its a good idea to just wnat to go to any any ivy since they are all really different. most of them have practically nothing in common except for the ivy league staus... </p>

<p>well, good luck in the admissions process.</p>

18

<p>it means nothing, i do not like cornell...and it is a prestigious ivy league...i wish i would have gone to Northwestern, maybe a lil less prestigious.</p>

19

<p>You are eligible for a lot of aid. However, you need to identify schools that have that much aid to give, and apply there. In other words, look at the list of schools that promise to fulfill 100% of need. To be honest, I don't think that the top Ivies and places like Stanford are looking for church-focused students. You should look at the places that want quirky students or ones with focus. Yes, I think that you have a great shot at places like University of Chicago and JHU. U of Chicago has a lot of aid. Bates, Rice, and U of Rochester give a lot of aid. Brown would be good, but they say that they are limited aid-wise. Look at some of the top liberal arts colleges. Swarthmore sounds like a fit.</p>

20

<p>thank you for all your replies,</p>

<p>anyone else have an opinion??</p>