Any chances at all?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
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<p>I'm Asian Male... Low SATs, few APs, etc.</p>

<p>CommonApp essay wrote about how observing and spending time with this special education classmate of mine in my art class epitomized my attitude of helping others. My peer evaluation... my best friend wrote for me about the humorous side of myself, how I know how to balance life between the serious and playful sides, and my great piano ability (not to brag or anything).
For additional info, I completely skipped Alg. 2 and went straight to Hon. Precal in sophomore year because people compared me with my brother who skipped Hon. Precal to AP CALC AB in 10th grade. That was like a 300 word essay about how risks accentuate the gravity of meaningful decisions.</p>

<p>Unweighted: 3.88 (2 B+'s freshman year, 1 B- in Hon. Precal Soph, 1 B- in Phys B Junior). Good thing is all those b's are in the first semester, so every one of those have improved.
SAT Reading: 700, Math: 800, Writing: 700. Total: 2200
SAT II's: Chem: 780, Math II: 800, Chinese: 800.</p>

<p>Sophomore: Hon. World Hist, Hon. Pre-Cal, AP Chem (4), Hon. Eng, PE, Chinese 4.
Junior: AP Physics B (5), AP English (4), AP Chinese (5), AP Calculus AB (5), Art 1, US Hist.
Senior: AP Bio, AP Stats, AP Lit, Weight training, Art 2, Gov/Econ.
^3 APs senior year.</p>

<p>Awards:
Wondercup Science Festival Semi-Finalist.
AP Scholar with Distinction.
PSAT Semi-finalist.</p>

<p>EC:
-Intern at Foxit Softwares for summer of Sophomore year.
-Intern at Spencer's Trading Group for summer of Junior year.
-Piano for 8 years. Local and state awards.
-President of Resonance! Club (music club at my school). The club organized benefit concerts for Manhattan ($1539) and Thailand ($888).
-I individually organized a benefit concert for Japan (raised $935)
-Varsity Tennis all 4 years. 2 years Captain.
-Head coach of FCSN (Fremont Children with Special Needs) Tennis summer program. I arranged the events and taught kids with disabilities how to play tennis.
-Environmental volunteer.
-Math club member all 4 years. Participant of math contests and Stanford Math Tournament.
-Berkeley Academy Tutor (not UC Berkeley, it's what the tutoring center is called). Worked 4 hrs a week during my junior year and still working as of now. </p>

<p>So what do you guys think my chances are?</p>

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<p>How are your beer pong skills?</p>

3

<p>Why would you say “low SATs, few AP’s” when you have a 2200 and 8 AP’s…</p>

4

<p>I’m Asian…</p>

5

<p>“low SATs, few AP’s” </p>

<p>eye roller</p>

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<p>Have you seen the amount of 2300+ on this site?</p>

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<p>Your Math and science scores are stellar. However, the SAT verbal & writing scores combined with a 4 on AP English could be an issue.</p>

8

<p>^ They don’t look at AP scores for admissions purposes.</p>

<p>Frankly, you’re exaggerating your “low test scores” and “few APs”-- probably fishing for compliments. You’re chances are fine. Everything looks fine, but nothing overtly special. </p>

<p>Also, I’m a big fan of Foxit Reader :)</p>

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<p>^What is your source, for saying they do not consider AP scores?</p>

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<p>For the benefit of anyone else who might read this thread, formerly, many Asian students seemed to think that they could get into Ivies simply by accumulating more and more high scores, so they would concentrate on that to the exclusion of ECs. Presumably, this is because their families came from cultures where admission to university was determined solely by exam scores. This cultural misunderstanding does not translate to an expectation for higher scores on the part of Asians by adcoms.</p>

<p>From that you’ve said, it seems that your record academic is solid, although not outstanding across the board. (Why is a person who has done math club and has an 800 on the M section ducking AP Calc BC in favor of Stats? Did you grow up speaking and reading Chinese, or did you actually have to learn it?)</p>

<p>Frankly, piano, tennis, and math club ARE Asian cliches these days. (See Amy Chua.)</p>

<p>The strongest thing about your resume is probably going to be those internships, and possibly your public-spiritedness, if it comes off as the real thing and not classic HS resume-padding. That is where you have a chance to stand out, which is what you need to do in order to get in to D and any other school of its type.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

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<p>@Consolation
I agree with your reply.</p>

<p>@wunderchop
Don’t worry bro~ The application has been submitted and I think that you should just breathe a sigh of relief until early April :slight_smile:
I don’t think your SAT’s are low at all (even though taking SAT II Chinese if you are Chinese might raise some eyebrows) and your EC’s, especially internships will make up for your (in your words) “low” SAT score.
I wish you the best and maybe we’ll get to see each other next year!</p>

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<p>Oh, are internships that much of a factor? I didn’t think they would be.
Also, I took AP Stats because for our BC teacher, only 2-3 people get A’s and they’re usually extraordinary outliers in math competitions. Plus, Stats is more useful and BC is basically a repeat of AB.</p>