<p>As I am trying to tell you and as you definitely don't seem to want to hear, there are A LOT of people in this world tha could write a letter about you. Just because they are Yale alumns doesn't mean this is always a plus. Unless these letters show a side of you that won't be explained by your teachers, your counselors or your academic record, something that they saw that is special in you that only they can describe...then they are pluses. You have to assume there are common characteristics amongst people applying to a school like Yale, and unless you have something completely different to tell that these reference letters will show, they will not add substionally to your application.</p>
<p>If you do not enjoy this fact, that is tough. Stop asking for your chances then.</p>
<p>btw, back to my admissions stuff, do u think i can get into the schools I listed in my previous reply? if u dont know, the schools are..
Cornell, Dartsmouth, (Yale, EA), Duke, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, UNC Chapel Hill, Washington in St. Louis, UCLA, UC Berkeley.. this is pretty much it :S</p>
<p>Any idea what your class rank is? Grades seem low for the schools you are applying to unless there is extreme grade deflation. Your high school may in fact give out few top grades, but I am a little cynical about grade deflation as so many people on CC claim extreme grade deflation. Again, it may really be the case with your school; I don't know.</p>
<p>Agree with others that the 600 is a problem, although hopefully you went up when you retook the SAT.</p>
<p>If this is your entire list, you should add some safety schools. Nothing on your list resembles a safety even for really strong out of state applicants (although I confess to not knowing what Chapel Hill's admissions stats are for out of state applicants).</p>
<p>The current trend in US elite college admissions is for students to focus on one or two passions instead of having a laundry list of activities. While many kids get in with a variety of activities, the preferred profile is to be more focused. Your activities are all over the place and are so numerous that it calls the depth with which you pursued them into question.</p>
<p>By the way, I agree with all who said you shouldn't put too much weight on the rec from the alum. </p>
<p>Sorry if this sounds harsh. When people ask for chances, I assume they want a real analysis. Hopefully, I'm wrong and you'll get into plenty of the schools you listed, but you need some true safety schools in case things don't pan out. You do have an impressive record, it's just that things are so crazy at elite schools that what is impressive in an absolute sense is less impressive on a relative scale.</p>
<p>I did extremely well on my 2nd attempt in my SATs (esp. the reading and writing... thats all it matters for me at this level), broke 700s and all for each section... Also, for my rank, i'm like either the 4th or 5th out of the 66 students here, maybe even 3rd :S... and we have quite a legacy in sending students to really reputed schools (eg Hopkins, Emory) to Ivy leagues (eg Cornell, Harvard, Dartsmouth, Columbia) and our school is only 10 years old... i think its pretty amazing, even considering the fact that our school is a university prep school... its like the best in the province here, so i think i might have a better chance with a slightly lower GPA than someone who can easily get a 4.0 GPA some easy public school down in the States (i'm not specifically saying this to all schools, or all public schools; I'm just exaggerating). </p>
<p>As for my ECs, I guess I haven't mentioned my "passion" so to speak... im really into music and i do some sports (kendo and badminton) kind of as a refresher thing (even though I do pretty well in competitions and stuff), and these two elements of my ECs profile really complement each other... I also like to volunteer and help out at other stuff... I guess you could see the flow in my list of ECs there (hopefully...:S). I'm sorry that I kinda jumbled the list out, but I did type the list in according to what I could remember at that moment (of course, I didnt do this on my actual application). </p>
<p>And, by the way, AdmissionsAddict, your comments arent that harsh to me. It might for other people, but I think all the comments are meant to objectively assess my current position as an applicant, unless someone blatantly posts up "you're just plain stupid" or something.. </p>
<p>Anyways, thanks for all your comments, and I will continue to look forward to any "objective" comments... so to speak..</p>