Asian Male for Ivies in Economics

Statistics

Standardized Tests
-SAT: 1580 (800 E, 780 M), 1590 Superscore
-PSAT: 1510 (225 Index)
-ACT: 35 (36 E, 35 S, 35 M, 35R, 11W)
-GPA: 4.62/4 UW, 3.97 W

Classes:

-Freshman: AP Human Geo (5)
-Sophomore: AP European (5), AP Calc BC (5), AP Chinese (5)
-Junior: APUSH, AP English Lang, Multivariable Calc
-Senior: AP Macro/Mico, AP Physics C, AP English Lit, AP German, AP GoPo (Comp and US), Differential Equations

Personal

Biographical:
-Asian male, large competitive public high school, upper middle class
-Strong political/civic skills as well as math + compsci … kinda stuck in a rut as to which direction to lean, but Economics seems to combine the two the best
-Schools: Ivies (top choice Harvard), Uchicago, Stanford, Backups are BU and Northeastern

Awards:
-Gold medal, National German Exam
-Semifinalist, Coolidge Scholars
-City Council Youth Service Award
-AP Scholar with Honors

EC’s (sorry for being so vague!)
-President, local nonprofit’s junior board: implemented stress prevention curriculum, organized roundtable events, organized career fair, volunteered
-Board Member + Chief Information Officer, Youth Civic Nonprofit (50+ employees): designed website, managed internal affairs, social media, etc; worked with UN Foundation
-Director of Technology, local civic campaign that I helped start (would be more specific but my info would be a Google away), spoke at TEDx event, lobbied city council, managed brand assets
-President, school SkillsUSA chapter: 3rd largest chapter growth in state (300%), 1st in state web design, quiz bowl; 10th nationally quiz bowl
-Vice Chair, state high school political group: organised internship exchange, lobby days, drafted constitution
-Chief of Staff, national high school political group: Managed internal affairs, drafted social media, organzied new website
-Chapter Director of Activism, Junior State of America: Voter registration drives, candidate forum with over 20+ elected officials, Chapter of the Year Award
-Freelance Web Designer: Over 10 projects, mostly nonprofit / political, made a good amount of money
-Business Professionals of America: Winner, state Web Design, competing at Nationals this week
-Swim Team (varsity/club team) for 3 years, probably dropping senior year bc time commitment, top 50 in state
-City Council Student Representative, Specific Board
-Misc. Political stuff: Campaign Fellow, Congressional campaign (we won!), communications volunteer, Presidential campaign affinity group
-Swim Coach in the summer to little kids!
-Vice President, School’s Interact Club: Received Rotary Youth Leadership Award

Recs

-From my Interact sponsor/AP Lang teacher (she loves me), should be a top notch letter.
-From my APUSH teacher (she loves me too), got the highest grade on Semester 1 final, but I heard her rec letters tend to be cut and dry

Questions:

  1. Is the sheer amount of EC's I have a negative toward my overall application (have I spread myself too thin)?
  2. How can I effectively demonstrate that my EC's follow basically Tech/Political even though they seem so scattered?
  3. If I quit swim next year, would it be that big of a hit toward my application (I'd only stay bc of college)?
  4. What are my chances?
  1. Apply EA to Harvard and ED2 to UChicago, (if not accepted to Harvard EA) to maximize your chances. Unfortunately as an Asian male odds are nott in your favor for either.

id apply in the humanities side to increase chances. only saying this because you cannot decide between either.

quit swim if your time would be better spent elsewhere

How high do you think you can place in swim? High level of achievement in an EC counts for something.

But all are reaches for everyone.

Not high at all - would just be another man on Varsity, maybe make it to Sectionals but that’s in February after admissions season is over.

Quit swimming and free up time. You have 10 ECs you can put on your Common App and about 2 sentences of space for each EC. You will have to pick and choose which you focus on. You have a good theme (politics and tech) and should taylor your app around that. Chances are small at the top 10 schools (as they are for everyone -especially Asian Males) so find safeties you love.