art school student chances for ivies?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>personal stats:
Asian female, international (Canada), applying for financial aid</p>

<p>Grades:
-97 average, I believe that translates into a 4.0, taking all the hardest courses at school
-SAT 1 2300, possibly retaking in Dec
-SAT 2 Math I: 770, Chinese: 800, Chemistry: 730 (possibly retaking), taking Physics in Nov</p>

<p>ECs
-over 10 piano awards, provincial competition 3rd place, scholarship recipient
-graduated from Royal Conservatory when I was 15
-in the process of creating my own club, possibly film club
-social convenor (an executive member) on school Student Council
-school rep on Supercouncil-a collective student council for schools across the school board
-Internal Affairs (an executive member) on a school charity organization, which has raised over $3000 for various organizations
-U of Waterloo math competition champion for 2 consecutive years
-lots of different volunteer work, tutor, working with seniors and youth
-soloist for international concert and other various local concerts
-organizing my own benefit concert
-debate club, year book photographer, french club, choir, a few other clubs
-some intramural sports stuff</p>

<p>work
-tutor
-piano teacher </p>

<p>other
-speak english and chinese, can read and write in french
-6 years of violin
-travelling experience
-got into prestigious summer program that combine the arts with the sciences</p>

<p>schools applying to: Dartmouth, Cornell, Williams, u Penn, Brown, maybe Harvard and Yale, considering Northwestern, Rice, not an ED canadidate, art school student. Art school thing a plus? my essays are pretty good as are the teacher recomendation. Any chance? Are my club activities too "spread out"? Also, does the major to which I am applying matter in the admissions process? I'm thinking music? Will that make it any easier to get in? or harder? Thanks for your time and feedback</p>

2

<p>...retaking 2300?</p>

3

<ol>
<li><p>Don't bother retaking the SATs. You're as likely to score lower as higher and 2300 is damn good.</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell, Northwestern, and Rice are, at worst, slight reaches for you and more likely matches. Good chance at all three.</p></li>
<li><p>If you intend to be a music major, apply as a music major. And if you're as good as you seem, make sure you include an artist supplement (CD, tape, etc.) of you playing. In fact, include it regardless of whether you apply as a music major or not.</p></li>
<li><p>The major to which you're applying may matter, but you'll never find out if it does or it doesn't. Who knows, maybe Cornell is looking for top-flight piano players this year...Or they're looking to bolster their Chem department. You really can't tell. Your best bet is apply to whatever major you intend on doing, and hope for the best.</p></li>
<li><p>Harvard and Yale are, of course, reaches. They are for nearly everyone. Dartmouth, Williams, U Penn and Brown are lower reaches. You're best shots will, I think, be at Penn and Williams.</p></li>
<li><p>Add some safeties to your list. All of the schools you've chosen are very selective. Although I think you'll probably get into some of the schools on your list, there are no guarentees. Apply to some good, but less selective schools just in case.</p></li>
</ol>

4

<p>will being international student who needs financial aid hurt my chances at Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, Williams, and Penn? All of them say they are need blind for canadian students, except for Brown). How do my ECs look?</p>

5

<p>by the way, should I upgrade Math 1 to Math 2?</p>

6

<p>another question, how does not applying as an ED candidate affect my chances?</p>

7

<p>Q. Will being international student who needs financial aid hurt my chances at Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, Williams, and Penn?</p>

<p>A. Probably not. If they say they are need blind, you should take them at their word. </p>

<p>Q. How do my ECs look?</p>

<p>A. They look fine. You might want to pick up The Truth About Getting In and Rock Hard Apps by Katherine Cohen for an idea of how to present them with your app. Ignore her advice about applying ED. It's not appropriate if you need financial aid.</p>

<p>Q. Should I upgrade Math 1 to Math 2?</p>

<p>A. Depends on your intended major and the requirements of the schools to which you're applying. My guess is Math I, Chinese, Chemistry, and Physics is more than enough to demonstrate your capabilities, especially if all your scores are above 700. By the way, the most SAT2s any of these schools would ask you to take is three. However, if you intend to major in engineering, for example, the schools usually want you to take Math2. Again, check the school requirements.</p>

8

<p>Q. How does not applying as an ED candidate affect my chances?</p>

<p>A. Depends on the school. At some, applying ED gives you an advantage, at others there is only a slight advantage, at still others, no advantage. By the way, if you need financial aid, you should not apply ED. ED is binding at nearly all schools. If you apply ED and get accepted, and the accepting school gives you an inadequate financial aid package, you're out luck. Better to apply RD to a number of schools, hopefully get accepted by several, and then compare financial aid packages to find the best one. In some cases, you can even play one school against another, and get a better deal.</p>

<p>By the way, some schools have an EA (early acceptance) program which is not binding. If you need financial aid, it would be OK to apply EA, because you could still apply RD to other schools and compare financial aid packages in April. However, in some cases, EA is also binding. Consequently, you need to check out the rules for each EA program before you apply.</p>

9

<p>hey, thanks :P</p>

10

<p>once again, thanks. Is there anything I can do to increase my chance of getting into the school son my list? Will improving my SAt 1 score by 50 points increase my chance much?</p>

11

<p>Depends. Is your /1600 score above 1500? If it is, I would not retake the SAT.</p>

12

<p>You should certainly get into one of the lower ivies.</p>

13

<p>thanks for the encouragement suze. I'm guessing the art school thing is a plus?</p>

14

<p>Also, how does applyin as a music major to Cornell affect my chances of getting into Cornell?</p>

15

<p>Well it certainly makes you more interesting than the typical grind.</p>

16

<p>I'm a little concerned about my SAT 2 Chem mark, which is 730, will that make a huge difference, considering that I want to go into Music? Also, I did Math 1, and got 770, 99 percentile, which is ok, but a lot of people have gotten 800 on Math 2, will that look really bad? Last question, do colleges have access to the percentile or just the mark, e.g for Math 1, I got 770, but that is 99 percentile, which looks a lot better than 770. Any honest suggestions?</p>

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<p>honest comments are more than welcome! thanks</p>

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<p>My honest suggestion is stop obsessing. Your test scores are fine. Your GPA is fine. Everything is fine. You have a more than reasonable chance of getting into one of the top schools, if not more than one. Just make sure you add a couple of matches and a couple of safeties to your list to be safe, do a good job on your apps, send 'em in, and then get on with the rest of your life.</p>

19

<p>hey amptron, can u suggest some safeties?</p>

20

<p>The schools at and towards the top are more matches, the ones towards or at the bottom, safeties.</p>

<p>Wesleyan
Johns Hopkins
Carleton
Vassar
Carnegie Mellon
Tufts
Washington and Lee
U of C Berkley
University of Virginia
William and Mary
Emory
UCLA
Vanderbilt
Notre Dame
Georgetown
University of Michigan
U of NC, Chapel Hill
Bowdoin
Haverford
Macalester
Davidson
Colby
Univer. Of Southern CA
Colgate
Brandeis
Oberlin
Bates
Tulane
Hamilton
Grinnell
Bard
Wake Forest
Kenyon
Connecticut College
Boston College
University of Richmond
Univ. of Rochester
NYU
Lehigh
Case Western
Trinity
Bucknell</p>