Applying to Princeton twice?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

I am an Asian(Indian) rising junior who has long regarded Princeton as his favorite college. I attend a fairly competitive high school; is in the top 500 at least in the US, though probably is considerably higher.
Stats:
GPA: 3.86 (couple of Bs here and there. I don’t mean to sound bitter or anything, but the reason behind most of the Bs were times when I got 40’s/50’s on quizzes bc someone else graded them wrong/poorly on purpose and there was no appeal of any sort)
Rank: Top 7% (large public school; class of about 800 people)
SAT: 1530 (800 Math, 730 Reading, will redo for higher score)
SAT II: Math 800 will take Chem/Phys/Bio/History this year
APs: AP Computer Science A (4)(idk what happened, I was really overconfident and didn’t check my work), AP Calculus BC (5), AP Physics (4) (will redo), AP European History(5)

ECs/Awards: Part of Math Club/CS Club/Science Club/Chess club.
Qualified for USAJMO 2 years ago, failed to qualify this year.
Placed highly (top 20)(will not reveal due to my desire to keep my identity confidential) at HMMT.
Founded out-of-school free math club with a group of 3 other friends; it was my idea and I think they joined to boost their college apps (no offense). Hope to expand to state/national level, which is possible due to my goal of keeping the club free. We have about 20 kids now from our local area.

Essays: Have been practicing essays with my relatives (who attended Princeton, but no legacy for me) who are very good at writing essays (as in, won national awards for it), so should be good here

Personality: Legitimately loves math. I like helping people for free, etc (I am scared that saying this, despite it’s truth, will look cliche). I did not create the club to boost my college apps or anything. Despite this, there is a chance that the admission officers will see me as just another asian who does math so that he can get into a good college, and my club could look like an app-boosting endeavor more than a serious thing.

Other things: Plays chess as a hobby (nothing special; FIDE of 1450), does card/magic tricks as another hobby (I am pretty good at this though). I met with a very famous magician this year and conversed with him on magic in general; if I practice enough I just might be able to perform with him onstage (again, not likely at all, as I will actually have to find a way to meet him again). In general, am fascinated about the connection between math and magic.
Plays tennis recreationally, am not nearly good enough at it for it to be worth anything though.

I know that these stats are pretty subpar, especially considering my “spike” is math and physics (again, I should be able to achieve a 5 on Physics, but I somehow managed to get a 4 despite getting easy 5’s on all practices). In my junior year, I am taking 7 APs (admittedly a few of them, like English and APUSH, are for college purposes, as failing to take an AP will drop my rank which is bad). In general, my stats should increase during junior year though, as they have been steadily increasing since freshman year (which was really bad for me).

So I will technically be able to apply for college this year if I take English 4 over the summer online, as I will have fulfilled all my requirements. While I still intend to go for senior year, I may apply to a few safety schools this year, just to make senior year more comfortable without the stress of possibly getting into no college.
So my question is:
Should I apply for Princeton this year? I know that I will be a much stronger applicant in senior year, as a lot of things have fallen into place for me this summer as I have found an internship at a local hospital/ will be working on research for them, and I have also found a Olympiad teacher to help me succeed on USAMO. All in all, I expect to make MOP this year (I mocked this years JMO and my score was good enough for MOP but I got sick on the AMC weeks and got low scores so I barely qualified for AIME and while I got a 10 it wasn’t enough for AMO), maybe publish a research paper, and expand my club even farther than it is now, as well as add a in-school leadership position, and I will also perform magic at a few local venues as well as possibly perform for audiences of 500+.

Due to my subpar stats, I am 90% confident I will be rejected from Princeton this year (especially because I am an Asian doing math), as my stats are at best expected for applicants, I have no in-school leadership positions, my math achievements are meh, etc. But if I apply this year SCEA, get rejected, and apply next year SCEA, will it hurt my chances in any way? I was thinking it could show that I care about Princeton, which I do (I am not applying there for the prestige necessarily; I don’t really want to go to MIT/Harvard/Yale/etc. and my second choice after Princeton is a not top-20 school).

tl;dr:
Should I apply to Princeton this year in my junior year if I will almost definitely get rejected; will it help my chances during senior year to see that I had already applied a year earlier. Is there any concrete chance that my application this year could hurt my senior year chances (because if there are, I would not like to risk it).

Any help is appreciated.

2

No

No

No

Bottom line, your probability of getting into Princeton as a HS junior is somewhere between slim and none. However, if you do choose to apply and get rejected, your 2nd application would need to be markedly different to expect a different result.

3

@skieurope thx. yeah I don’t expect to get in, and my admission will be different considerably, but will applying now possibly show Princeton (especially if I apply SCEA) that I actually care about them; I am not applying to get in then reject in favor of some other school. Or could applying now hurt me?

4

While it might be a waste of time and money, I don’t think it will hurt you. But here’s the thing about Princeton - they are not looking at application to judge if you “actually care about them.” Princeton doesn’t care if you “actually care about them.” Or, said another way, Princeton (and many of it’s peers) assume that they are your top choice. If you look at the Princeton Common Data Set, you can see that “level of interest” is not considered.
https://registrar.princeton.edu/university_enrollment_sta/common_cds_2017-2018.pdf

5

what I mean about “care about” is that I am not an applicant who, say, applies to all ivies and then goes to Harvard/Yale if accepted, if not goes to Princeton if accepted, etc. In general, EA has a higher acceptance rate bc people who apply there usually have P as their 1st choice, so P knows that they will probably go there if accepted (thus higher yield rate). Obviously they don’t care that I care about them (I’m not that naive lol); just they will know that they are my top choice esp if I apply SCEA twice; therefore, if I am a very strong applicant who might get into Harvard/MIT/etc, I am more likely to go to Princeton, if you understand what I am saying.

I got this idea from a friend who got into Princeton EA in his junior year; he said I should apply twice so that I have two chances, even if the first is unlikely.

6

and just out of curiosity, if I did nothing over the next year and had the exact same stats as this year except I would be a senior, would my chances be any different based on the fact that I am a senior vs junior?

7

They will know that if you apply SCEA once. There is not bonus for applying SEA twice.

8

Princeton accepted 5.5% of applicants this past cycle so it is a longshot no matter what. IMO your chances would be higher senior year as 1) you will time to take more rigorous coursework at your HS (or perhaps through dual-enrollment) 2) you can always do more in terms of ECs 3) colleges are not particularly looking for younger, presumably less mature students on campus.

9

okay then, I will not apply for Princeton this year then. I have heard that they like to see that you have improved upon your mistakes when you re-apply, but one hears lots of things. Thanks for your help. As a side question from before, will being a junior affect my applications to other colleges in any way? I would still like to apply to a few safety schools this year to ease my conscience during senior year.

10

@happy1 I do not believe that the college process is random; I understand that there are no guarantees, but I think that my chances in senior year will not be 5.5% or anything so low (at least I hope). Watching/listening to college admission people shows that the process is not completely random; for some applicants the chances are 100%, some are 90%, etc. The thing is that most applicants have a 2% or less chance of getting in, due to the fact that people think that test scores/pure well roundedness is what they want, so the acceptance rate is brought down.

yeah I think my chances would be higher during senior year, just was wondering whether applying now would give me any boost in applying during senior year. According to skieurope, it won’t, so I suppose I won’t apply to Princeton this year.

11

I would apply everywhere senior year. A safety school this year will be a safety school next year.

12

ok, sure, thanks. But, just to be sure, applying this year and getting rejected shouldn’t hurt my chances next year, right?

13

I agree with the other posters telling you to apply to Princeton and other schools next year, not as a junior.

As a parent, I have to add encouragement to you to explore other schools this coming year, both to see what’s out there and to help reassure yourself that there are many schools where you could thrive. You clearly have a lot to offer academically and I hope you won’t get so focused on Princeton that you can’t see any other great options that you will surely have.

And, keep playing tennis if you enjoy it - not for college purposes but for general physical/mental health and fun reasons.

Best of luck this year.

ETA:

It’s unlikely that anyone on this thread works as a Princeton admission officer and could tell you for sure. One reason I see not to apply this year is that you will have to work twice as hard the following year to write different essays to differentiate your two applications. Presumably, like other selective schools, the university keeps applications on file and an application from a previous year would show up with the current application in the reader’s queue. That may prevent you from using an essay structure or topic you’d like to use because you used it previously. As you will see, the Princeton essay prompts can be pretty abstract.

If you were my child, I’d tell you to wait til your senior year to apply to Princeton and all of the other schools that will be on your list.

14

@GnocchiB that is actually a very good point that I did not think of. The essay might not have as much of an impact if they have already seen something similar before… so yeah, I will just wait until senior year to apply.
Sincere thanks to @skieurope , @happy1, and @GnocchiB for your thoughtful answers to my query.

15

@yayforapples

One feedback point, don’t allow this tone to creep into your writing.

16

@psywar yeah I understand. I am obviously not going to write that on my resume or say that in my interview, as that sounds like I am trying to not take responsibility for my failures; which I accept responsibility fot