Are these Ivies matches or reaches for me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>I'm trying to put together my college list for the fall, and I am aiming for 3 safeties, 7 matches, and 5 reaches. Please help me categorize these colleges:</p>

<p>HYP, UPenn ED, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Duke, Brown, UVA, Michigan, and Vanderbilt </p>

<p>SAT I: 1st time (800 CR, 700 M, 770 W), 2nd time (760 CR, 790 M, 800 W)
GPA: 3.95 UW, Rank 7/230 at private school; schedule is most rigorous with 11 APs</p>

<p>ECs: Founded a soup kitchen community service organization that cooks/funds full meals for soup kitchens and also has raised about 1K over 3 years so far - I hope to raise more money and make a micro financial loan senior year</p>

<p>-Sports Journalism (9-12) : sports editor of school paper, founded my own successful sports website with google advertising, write for numerous online blog sites, won local writing awards</p>

<p>-Coach Youth Basketball for my city rec. league multiple times a week
-Student Government (9, 11, 12) (have a major leadership role)
-Varsity Golf (10-12)
-Model UN (10-12) club president, few small awards there</p>

<p>Plan to enter 2013-14 Intel STS for my major research paper on economic effects of civil war</p>

<p>Intended Major: Econ/International Relations</p>

2

<p>I think that Ivies, no matter how outstandingly amazing you are, are reaches for everyone. Some people have better chances than others, but again no one can really be matched with Ivies, as the admissions process is rather unpredictable.</p>

<p>That being said, I do believe that the ECs you have are fairly impressive. Your stats are also at Ivy level. Just make sure you write essays that convey your true self, and best of luck to you in the applications process!</p>

3

<p>^^ Exactly. I was confused about this before but my counsellor and a lot of people here on CC have said the same thing… And even statistically, ~8% acceptance rate is pretty insane.</p>

4

<p>Anything under 20% admission rates is a reach. UVA and Michigan are probably semi-safeties, so Id put another sure-fire safety in there. But hey if you have the money to apply to 15 schools and with those stats, sheer luck is on your side that youll get into at least one if not a few of those incredibly selective schools. You can probably get away with having more reaches than you already do.</p>

5

<p>The cost of applying to 15 schools and sending them your test scores is about $1,500. To save money, here’s my suggestion: As you plan on applying to UPenn ED, hold off on sending in your applications and test score reports to other schools until you hear back from UPenn. (Have all the essays completed and forms filled out, but don’t press the submit button. If you get in to UPenn ED, you’d have to withdraw your applications from all other schools anyway.) That said, as you have impressive stats, if you don’t get in to UPenn ED, applying to HYP, Brown, Dartmouth and Duke seems like a “shot gun hail mary” play.</p>

6

<p>thanks for the advice…another question I have is do you think my ECs are strong enough to apply to Wharton ED?</p>

<p>My passions are leadership/service, writing and pro sports and so I feel this makes me a good fit for Wharton, but I need an honest evaluation of my competitiveness based on my ECs.</p>

7

<p>Your GPA, class rank, SAT scores and EC’s indicate that you are a highly qualified applicant. That said, there are unknowns – your essay(s), teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR). Those items get compared to all other applicants who are applying in a given round (ED, SCEA, EA, RD) – so no one can predict how you will do when you apply to Wharton, or any of the other schools on your list. You just need to send your applications out into the universe and hope for the best!</p>

<p>Have you read this thread? Everything in it is also relevant to applying to any selective college: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1420290-chance-threads-please-read-before-posting-one.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1420290-chance-threads-please-read-before-posting-one.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Exactly. There’s no question that you belong in the applicant pool. You’re a highly qualified applicant. Unfortunately for you, being a highly qualified applicant will put you on par with about 25,000 other Harvard aspirants vying for about 2200 acceptance letters. That’s about one in 11. Nobody can really tell you whether you’re going to be the one.</p>

<p>Based on those numbers, does Harvard sound like a match? Does any Ivy (or similarly selective college or university) really?</p>

9

<p>I’m not sure why nobody has addressed this, but isn’t Intel STS strictly for scientific papers? I’ve looked at past winners and am sure that economics does not qualify as a project. Just thought I’d give you a heads up.</p>

10

<p>I was under the impression that STS accepted humanities entries. Would it help that my research has mathematical game theory elements?</p>

11

<p>[Intel</a> Education?Intel Science Talent Search](<a href=“http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education/competitions/science-talent-search.html]Intel”>The Future of Education Technology and Solutions - Intel)</p>

<p>

</p>

12

<p>Would game theory qualify? If not, are there any social science research competitions akin to intel and Siemens for hard sciences?</p>

13

<p>Based upon a quick google search of “Intel STS game theory,” the following links came up. I’m sure there are more.
[Society</a> for Science & the Public - Page](<a href=“http://apps.societyforscience.org/sts/71sts/Kalinich.asp]Society”>http://apps.societyforscience.org/sts/71sts/Kalinich.asp)
[Society</a> for Science & The Public](<a href=“http://apps.societyforscience.org/sts/69sts/Ye.asp]Society”>http://apps.societyforscience.org/sts/69sts/Ye.asp)
[Society</a> for Science & the Public - Page](<a href=“http://apps.societyforscience.org/sts/71sts/finalists.asp]Society”>http://apps.societyforscience.org/sts/71sts/finalists.asp)</p>