BISMILLAH NO! We will not let him go... LET HIM GO!

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Thank you very much for taking the time to check my stats out. I will be happy to chance you as well if you review my list and give me any advice. I am looking for honest, insightful criticism and suggestions about my chances for getting in to the following schools:</p>

<p>Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Williams, Amherst, Rice, Dartmouth, Pomona, Duke, U of Chicago, Swarthmore, Georgetown, Bowdoin, and Claremont McKenna.</p>

<p>Sex: Male
Ethnicity: White
Location: Texas (born in Kansas)</p>

<p>Academics:
SAT: 2280 (740 CR, 800 Math, 740 Writing, essay-10)
SAT Subjects: 750 Chemistry, 790 U.S. History, 740 Math IIC
ACT Composite: 34 (35-35-35-31, essay-10)
Class Rank: 30/492
UW GPA about 3.8</p>

<p>I have taken the hardest courseload offered at my high school. All advanced classes including 5 AP classes (w/scores): Human Geography (4), World History (5), English Lang & Comp (5), Chemistry (4), U.S. History (5). In case it matters, this makes me an AP Scholar with Distinction. Next year I am signed up for 7 AP classes: US Gov't, Microeconomics, Comparative Gov't, Euro History, Spanish Language, English Lit & Comp, and Statistics.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Entering 7th year of Boy Scouts. Have accumulated numerous service hours and leadership experience, recently attained the rank of Eagle Scout.
Entering 4th year of Debate Team. Have won multiple awards, qualified twice for the state tournament, and am serving as president of a team of about 60 students next year.
Entering 4th year of Choir. Have also won multiple awards in singing. Have sung in the Texas All-State Mixed Choir (state's top choir, very competitive).
Entering 2nd year of National Honor Society, member.
Entering 2nd year of Spanish National Honor Society, looking for a prospective leadership position, perhaps Vice President.
Entering 3rd year of Spanish Club. Rather cushy activity, just shows that I'm actively pursuing a foreign language.</p>

<p>Other:
I worked with another debater to try to change state academic policy with regard to participation rules for debate. The result was that the situation would be "monitored," basically a failure but still shows initiative.
I have gone on several vacations to foreign countries (Canada, Mexico, U.K.) and become "cultured" over the summer. Additionally, I have gone to several debate and choir summer camps.
Also, received notification that I will be a National Merit Commended Scholar.
I just recently started volunteering at my local Teen Court and so far have about 25 hours invested...will continue over the summer.
Recs will likely be very good, I have a great relationship with my U.S. History teacher and she likes me because I did so well in the class.
My goal is to pursue some social science like PolSci, Economics, or Philosophy with a pre-law intent but nothing set in stone.</p>

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<p>So you went on vacation, that means you have moneys</p>

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<p>^Agreed. And your spanish ECs are basically fluff.</p>

<p>25 hours at Teen Court is NOTHING.</p>

<p>Your scores are good, especially your success at APs. Some of your ECs (Boys Scouts especially) are good, but the bulk of them are nonsense.</p>

<p>You have a decent chance. But I really doubt than an Ivy will jump at the chance to have you.</p>

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<p>Does being born in Kansas help you? I was born in Kansas...Haha.</p>

<p>I was reading an essay by an admissions officer, and...definitely do not write your essay on going on summer vacation and becoming "cultured". I think those were the exact words..."We get a lot of essays about the sports game that was lost where a lesson was learned, going to Europe and becoming "cultured", and how hard being yearbook editor is."</p>

<p>Perhaps focus on debate, especially if you want to head in the pre-law direction.</p>

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<p>ur muslim? lol</p>

<p>um i say u have good stats, u got a good chance at some of the schools....ivys not so sure, u EC's could better, like hundreds of hours in hospitals would've looked good. make sure u have spectacular essays and rec's</p>

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<p>Errr ethnicity: White...</p>

<p>How do you get muslim out of that?</p>

<p>Anyways, thanks for the comments guys! Oh, and I'll be sure not to belabor the "cultured" thing.</p>

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<p>Look, how many students from your high school do you think will get into Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton? </p>

<p>Maybe two to three tops. This means you have to be in the top 5 or so (not top 30) to get into these schools.</p>

<p>You have good test scores and okay ECs for the top schools, but you need to lower your sights more to schools you are likely to get into. The only schools on your list where you have a chance are Rice, Georgetown, Bowdoin, and maybe Pomona. The rest are slight reaches or (for most) reaches.</p>

<p>It's okay to apply to every school on your list if you want, but you should pick more "matches" and you also need to pick a "safety" (maybe University of Rochester?) to have a good chance of getting a few acceptances to choose from.</p>

<p>Other matches for you would be Michigan, UCLA/UCSD, Tufts, Univ of Virginia, USC, CMU, and Cornell. Also, possibly John Hopkins.</p>

<p>Best of success.</p>

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<p>Your Math SAT (800) and Math II Subject Tests (740) are very different. </p>

<p>800 in the Math SAT is 99th percentile. <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/PercentileRanksMathematics.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/PercentileRanksMathematics.pdf&lt;/a>
740 in the Math II Subject Test is only 75th percentile - 30,000 students scored higher than you. <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SubjTestPercentileRanks.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SubjTestPercentileRanks.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I think this discrepancy will raise eyebrows.</p>

<p>I'd set your sights at very good but less selective schools. Pomona, with a 15.8% acceptance rate this year, is a big reach.</p>

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<p>By the way, you earn brownie points for that title.</p>

<p>I usually avoid "chancing" people if I can help it, but you did reel me in.</p>

<p>Your profile looks great and your EC's are short but meaningful-- make sure you make a point of explaining in your app somewhere about trying to change the policy... it shows that you're not a EC robot, but rather that you're thoughtful about what you do. That's really awesome. In hindsight, I think I was similar-- I think I had about two or three EC's to mention, but all of them were extremely important to me, and I alluded to them in my application.</p>

<p>Your list is, of course, extremely reach-heavy. You could probably winnow down that list quite a bit by tossing out schools, or, at the same time, it sounds like you'd be happy at any school on that list, and as long as you're willing to put in the time and money and the knowing that a series of rejections will come back to you with the acceptances, I think that's fine.</p>

<p>And in terms of the SAT/SAT II discrepancy.... don't worry about it too much. The SAT and SAT II math sections test different topics and have extremely different approaches. I would tell SarahsDad that I got a 36 on the writing section of the ACT when I took it cold and I never topped a 650 on the SAT writing, no matter how many times I practiced, but his head might explode.</p>

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<p>Off comment post, but @ SarahsDad, I got a 760 SAT I Math and 800 SATII Math IIC ^^.</p>

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<p>Castel - Exactly. It's much easier to get 800 on the Math II than on the SAT I. 760 on SAT I is 98th percentile, whereas 800 on Math II is <em>only</em> 90th percentile. That means 10% of those who took Math II got 800. Most people, like you, score higher on Math II than on SAT I math. That's why the OP seems to be an outlier.</p>

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<p>Aren't the SATII percentiles skewed by the fact that the people who take them are far more likely to be good at that subject than someone who takes the SAT?</p>

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<p>That's what I was thinking. Most students don't take the IIC. The ones who do post on these forums.</p>

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<p>sarahsdad you cant really compare them though. They test completely different material, and doing well in SAT1 math doesnt always translate to iic success, because the subject is harder.</p>

<p>but why are we discussing this. 740 is fine.</p>

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<p>Are you an NFL national qualifier? If yes than that is a very good EC. If no, then you're probably not getting into HYPS, mainly bc. the GPA is a little low for a public school. Test scores are good. You have a really good shot at Columbia.</p>

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<p>^Why would he a have a good shot at Columbia in particular? A mediocre white male at a school that has some of the best diversity recruitment? Uh huh. Sure.</p>

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<p>Qualifying for NFL would have certainly helped the OP's situation, but not qualifying doesn't mean he doesn't have a chance. Some schools (like mine) aren't registered with the NFL and won't be anytime soon. Yet we still do really well at state tournaments competing with people who quarter, semi, and sometimes even final at NFL (interp). </p>

<p>Unfortunate, but not really catastrophic.</p>

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<p>If I was naive and unknowing, I'd say 'Wow! Great stuff!'.</p>

<p>But now, time spent on CC has cultured me, and I must say 'borderline case'.</p>

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<p>to ses- I'm not saying he's getting in, but I think he is a Columbia type of kid. Just look at what he's interested in philosophy? With Columbia's CORE, I think they are looking for kids like the OP. ANd I really don't buy the fact that columbia's diversity hurts the OP. Yes, you're right in that they are very diverse. But, their diversity doesn't necessarily hurt the "white male" applicant. Look at Columbia's white percentage vs. Harvard's white percentage. 42 to 44 percent. Not that big of a difference.</p>

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<p>@Calcruzer (if you're still here): My school sends around 10 students to top schools each year (MIT, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, etc.) also, we usually get around 10 NMF and 10 commended scholars. I did rather poorly on the PSAT in comparison to the SAT (203 vs. 2280) so I might get commended (I got some letter) but NMF is pretty well out of the question. There's a lot of funny stuff kids do at our school to manipulate their GPA (taking summer school as pass/fail to keep UW grades off their report card and waiting until end of senior year to take UW core classes) so I probably would be 10 ranks higher or so if I had had an older sibling or someone to show me how to cheat the system like they did... too bad I can't really communicate that to the adcoms.</p>

<p>@Sarahsdad and the percentile thing: The Math IIC tested a bunch of higher-level stuff that I didn't even know... as previously mentioned, I'm banking on the fact that 740 is at least "decent" and that the 800M will show that I'm a logical, rational human being. I'm really hoping the 790 US History will shine as I'll likely be applying with some sort of declared preference in social sciences.</p>

<p>@unalove: You pretty much hit the nail on the head will all of your assessments! I've only focused on a couple of ECs but have really tried to excel in each (debate- team president, state tourney qualifier x 2 and choir- Texas All-State Mixed Choir 3rd chair). Additionally, if I get accepted to 3 of the 15 schools I apply to, I'll be pretty happy with the selection. Getting to choose between Duke, Rice, and Georgetown (or any of the others on my list) would still be AMAZING with regard to my academic future. Most of the upper-tier schools on my list are just in case I hit the college application jackpot and get accepted at one of the HYPS.</p>

<p>@CNI: I was the first alternate to the NFL nat tournament in my district ;(. I probably won't be able to put that on my resume, but I'm hoping that by around January I will have qualified for the Tournament of Champions (for those not well-versed in debate-talk it's considered one of the 3, if not most, prestigious tournament for high school debaters).</p>

<p>@ses: I'd hope being in the top 10% at my high school and making SAT and ACT scores in the 99th percentile would remove my "mediocre" status. Thanks!</p>

<p>Columbia would be a great school, as would any on the reach-heavy list I have created. Is there anything about my profile that you would recommend I "emphasize" for Columbia admissions? For example, I've been told to talk about community service and my Eagle boy scouts rank in the Georgetown essay.</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone for the insightful comments! And to those who didn't write insightful comments, write some!</p>