Brit chances for Harvard & co

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Hello Everyone, my name's Nick. (I hope this is in the right place)</p>

<p>I really want to get into Harvard, or super-competitive colleges like it.</p>

<p>I'm apply to the USA with this background:
-I'm on a Fulbright Commission programme, with specialist advice, support etc. with an admissions rate of like 9%!
-I'm desperately worried about getting into the top schools! I'd love any feedback, as I think I've gotten my list together, I'm not sure whether it's too ambitious.
-I want to get into a school which is better than Oxford (see the list) and because I'm first generation, I need a full-ride, which means to most schools (excluding Harvard, Princeton, Williams etc.) I'll have to be very competitive within the class.</p>

<p>About me:
-ACTs of 29 (Math), 32 (English), 32 (Science) and 35 (Reading)= 32 Composite (all predicted)
-I want to achieve between 760-770 in World History, and around 760 in the Biology-E SAT II (I'm getting 760 in both in practice papers)
-I'm predicted A<em>A</em>A<em>A</em>, basically a perfect GPA in History, Philosophy, Government & Economics at A-Level in the UK.
-I'm in the top 2.5% of High School
-I've done lots of advanced History, including assisting with my History department, being a 'star student' and completing a 10,000 word independent research project. Also subscribe to the Economic History Journal.
-Won lots of school honours awards (in all my A-Level subjects)</p>

<p>Extra curriculars:
-I work the BBC on political documentaries, including having filmed one about me/my work
-I'm a co-founder and director of a successful non-profit in my hometown. Dealing with youth unemployment, we've funded it and developed partnerships with organisations such as Barclays Bank.
-I'm the Chairman of Young Conservatives (David Cameron's party!) in my county (population 800,000- in the USA this might be a district)
-I'm a political staffer to a senior local politician
-I do lots of community leadership like sitting on planning policy committees
-I used to be my town's Member of the National Youth Parliament
-I've been in a final of a national History competition
-Chairman of student government for my school
-Head Boy (class president) with a focus on Charity</p>

<p>School list:
Harvard (perfect lifestyle & academics) Need-blind aid for me
Princeton (perfection in every way) Need-blind aid for me
Stanford (amazing government & California)
Williams (perfect & an Oxford exchange) Need-blind aid for me
Yale (not perfect, but amazing) Need-blind aid for me
Chicago
Cornell ILR (perfect, but not maths-based enough maybe?)
Duke
University of Virginia (Jefferson Scholarship) or Georgetown (perfect but no aid!)
Occidental
George Mason/Trinity College (CN)</p>

<p>I'd pick from Harvard to Yale above Oxford, and Chicago would tempt me.</p>

<p>I've heard horror stories of what it takes to get into Harvard/Stanford/Princeton!</p>

<p>Hopefully I'll catch you sometime in the USA!
Nick.</p>

2

<p>As you only have a “predicted” ACT score, it’s way too early to ask for chances. Ask again when you have an actual score from a real ACT test. Ditto with your SAT II’s.</p>

3

<p>For the purposes of college choices I’ve been asked to use the average of my ACTs/SAT Subject Tests, which I list. I’m confident I can achieve them.</p>

4

<p>I applaud your confidence, but without a real ACT score, you’re asking members to take a blind shot in the dark and chance you based upon your hopes and dreams of achieving those scores. Maybe someone else can do it, but I’d prefer not to take out my ouji board.</p>

5

<p>My scores aren’t “blind shots” or “hopes and dreams” they’ve been formed in consultation with professional tutors and after intensive ACT preparation including many timed practice tests. The reality of my position is that I’ve got to pick schools based on these grades.</p>

6

<p>I understand the reality of you having to pick schools based upon those practice tests. But, you could have a bad test day and end up with a lower score (it’s possible), or conversely you could have a great day and score a 36! So, my suggestion is to wait until you have a real score before asking for chances!</p>

7

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<p>Only about half the schools on your list are generally ranked as better than or even comparable to Oxford. They all are excellent schools where you can get a great education, but if “better than Oxford” is one of your key criteria, most of the schools on the bottom half of your list are not going to cut it.</p>

8

<p>Do you mean to say that California has an amazing government?</p>

<p>Cool EC’s btw.</p>

9

<p>I, too, don’t like to chance just based on predicted scores, but for the sake of others with similar situations, I’ll chance you. Also, I’ll just comment on Harvard.</p>

<p>1) Great EC’s. </p>

<p>2) Great GPA and Rank</p>

<p>3) Not so great ACT. This is whats going to hurt your application. A 32 isn’t going to cut it at Harvard. Sure your EC’s are great, but the people that get into Harvard have great EC’s AND great tests scores, along with a spectacular transcript (unless you’ve got a hook, which you don’t). </p>

<p>With all that being said, I think you have an average shot. If you manage to get great test scores, you’d have a better chance, but with a 32, its not very likely.</p>

10

<p>^^ Harvard does not consider rank as factor in admissions.</p>

11

<p>@gibby - Do you have a source for that? If rank is provided on the transcript, they will likely take it into account no matter what they tell you. There’s a difference between a 3.9 GPA w/ rank 1 and a 3.9 GPA w/ rank 40.</p>

12

<p>Harvard does not consider rank. See page 7 of Harvard’s Common Data Set: [The</a> Office of the Provost | Common Data Set](<a href=“http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/common_data_set.php/CDS_2011-2012_Final.pdf]The”>http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/common_data_set.php/CDS_2011-2012_Final.pdf).</p>

13

<p>Thanks for the sources. I’m still skeptical, however. It’s unlikely that they don’t even pay it any heed.</p>

14

<p>This from a post by longtime College Confidential user JHS on Harvard not considering rank:</p>

<p>"I think it’s a little misleading to say Harvard doesn’t care about class rank, although that’s certainly one way to characterize it. As far as I can tell, Harvard doesn’t care particularly about what your school says your class rank is, unless you happen to go to a school whose class-ranking system Harvard understands and respects. Harvard absolutely does not want to discourage you from applying because you think your class rank isn’t high enough. But Harvard wants students who are “the best” at their schools, even if there is more than one student with a claim to being “best”, or best at something. At some point, unless the school’s class ranking system is completely useless, it’s going to be hard to argue that Student X is the “the best” when the school considers Students A-W better in the most important academic respects.</p>

<p>That point varies from school to school, obviously, and it’s sensitive to a particular student’s strengths. Harvard may well accept a math genius whose inability to get more than a C in French has seriously depressed his class rank. In my son’s high school class, Harvard (and Stanford) took the kid ranked #7, and not kids ranked #3, #5 (a URM), and #6, probably because the differences in GPA were small, and if you asked anyone they would have told you that #7 was the most brilliant kid in the class. Would they have taken the same kid if he had been ranked #20? Maybe, but based on a couple of decades of precedent probably not."</p>

<p>One reason Harvard ignores rank is that some students take the easiest courses available, thereby ending up getting ranked #1 in their class. (This is especially true at high schools that have unweighted grades where an ‘A’ in basket weaving is weighted the same as an ‘A’ in AP Calculus BC.) That is why your course rigor is paramount to Harvard.</p>

15

<p>Right, I agree with that. I wasn’t saying that they look at class rank as a standalone point on your application, but alongside GPA and course rigor and other relevant information, class rank can help put a candidate into perspective.</p>

16

<p>In regards to Oxford- I’m also applying for about half schools which aren’t as good as Oxford, in case I don’t get in!</p>

<p>With regards to the ACT, thanks for your comment. I was particularly worried my ECs weren’t impressive when compared with 16 year old Gold Medallists or whatever. Statistically I was under the impression that my composite was going to be within about:
Top 1/3rd of the class for Cornell/Brown
50% of the class for UPenn/Dartmouth
40-30% of the class for Harvard/Princeton etc. </p>

<p>With my Maths just on the 25% mark for Harvard/Princeton. I thought a 35 in reading might pull it back.</p>

<p>Is it definably relatively easier to get into Princeton/Yale? From the Brits I have spoken to it appears so, as people with a similar background to me have gotten into Yale (I can think of 2-3 Brits) and one Princeton, whilst Harvard entrants have all had an edge in regards to ECs/Scores/etc.</p>

17

<p>Thanks MutaRiSC; within Stanford has an amazing government faculty. David Cameron’s previous top policy advisor left to go to Stanford, I want to follow him!
Actually I’m not a Jerry Brown fan, I would have voted for Meg Whitman in 2010’ :(</p>