Can you all chance me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>I'm currently a Junior.</p>

<p>Decision: Still Wishing</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2350 (M: 780, W: 800, CR: 770)
[</em>] ACT: not taken
[<em>] SAT II (still working on these, going to retake all): MathIIC - 720; Bio - 730, (Pending - MathIIC retake, US History)
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0, weighted: 4.6
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/336
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): Bio - 5, Euro -5; (Pending Scores - CalcAB (4-5), USH (5?), English Language (4-5), PhysicsB (4), World History(?)
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): not taken
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP English Literature, AP Calculus BC, AP Macroeconomics, AP US Govt, Journalism, Spanish III
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Probably National Merit Semifinalist? (CA PSAT score of 219)</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): ASB, Class Council (Senior Class VP, Junior Class Treasurer), Interact (Treasurer), Asian Culture Club (Treasurer), CSF, Newspaper (Co-Editor-in-Chief)
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: None
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: City of Hope, Library Tutor, Interact (around 200+ hours from all activities); have been active in church all life (youth groups); Missions trip to URM
[</em>] Summer Activities: City of Hope, Boys State, JCAMP</p>

<p>[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): California
[</em>] School Type: Public
[<em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[</em>] Gender: Male
[<em>] Income Bracket: $60,000-$70,000
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): No idea...</p>

<p>[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: Good ECs and SAT? :/
[</em>] Weaknesses: Horrible SATII scores, as of now....[/ul]</p>

<p>**All your comments will be appreciated. Don't mind being brutally honest. :/ **</p>

2

<p>Your stats are fine, your ECs harder to tell. Much will depend on your letters of recommendations, your essay, and how the application feels to the admissions committee. Nearly everyone who applies to Harvard has the goods on paper. You have about an 8% chance if you apply and a 0% chance if you don't. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Thanks, mathmom. I'm a bit confused thought about what you said about the chances - are you referring to how I personally stand a chance or Harvard's actual acceptance rate?</p>

4

<p>She means Harvard's actual acceptance rate (which is closer to 7%)</p>

5

<p>oh, thank goodness laststopforme. I was like, "Am I really THAT bad?</p>

<p>haha, that was....yea...</p>

6

<p>Your Sat II's aren't that bad. I just got in and I had two 710's and a 680. The truth remains that Harvard could fill their classes with kids that have perfect SAT scores, but they don't. Work hard on your essays and try to make yourself into more then a set of numbers.</p>

7

<p>You have a chance, but with these extremely selective schools, who the heck knows? In addition to your stellar test scores, ECs, etc., you may need a special "hook" to be admitted. For example, my daughter had a friend with scores not nearly as good as yours, who was admitted to Yale last year as a first-generation college student. Good luck to you this coming year! And remember, there IS life after rejection from Harvard-Princeton-Yale! Make sure you have some terrific match and safety schools among your applications.</p>

8

<p>Thanks all for the comments.</p>

<p>The frustrating thing is that everyone has different views (better scores vs already good scores - concentrate on other stuff, etc).</p>

<p>I guess everyone has some validity in their respective perspectives (woah, rhyme, XD), so I will try to take into account everything.</p>

9

<p>Your stats are fine, and your EC's look good. Just write a great essay, and have good rec's, and you should be set man.</p>

10

<p>I don't know if it makes much of a difference at all, but I just realized that I forgot to put my sports in ECs. This would include:</p>

<p>9th - JV Tennis (Starter - 3rd Doubles)
10th - JV Tennis (Starter - 2nd singles)
11th - V Tennis (Starter - 2nd singles)
12th - V Tennis (Starter - ???)</p>

11

<p>all your stats (SAT's, SATII's, AP's, GPA) are good.
i think if you limit your EC's to only the things you truly care about and write a good essay, that'll give you your best chance. only god knows what that chance is. in the end, chance threads make you feel better but they don't actually mean anything. they're just opinions. my opinion is that you have a good chance.</p>

12

<p>It really doesn't matter what I say. It's up to your essays to speak the truth and for your application as a whole to show focus. Token's right, if we all listened to chances threads then I wouldn't be a 2012er right now.</p>

13

<p>There is no formula for getting in (some of our daughter's SAT's were quite low). I always like what I read somewhere on the Harvard site, that the admissions office's proximity to Howard Gardner's office was appropriate. Gardner proposed that there were seven main intelligences, including kinesthetic and interpersonal as well as the usual academic ones. I think that admissions offices like a mixed campus in this regard. If someone does a mediocre job on a math SAT, or goes to an inferior school and does less well on a French SAT II, but composes music or devotes themselves to rowing or does theater lighting design or collects butterflies in South American or has consistently, over many years, contributed something to the community, that can still make them a good candidate. I think the whole process is very "holistic." Just be yourself, and live in the present a little more. Getting into Harvard doesn't make you who you are, it's just a school.</p>

14

<p>According to this year's admission and the fact that more and more H wants to use undergraduate admission to make political statements, you are over qualified already.</p>

15

<p>Do take a moment and glory a little in your fantastic achievements to date. That gpa is a huge accomplishment. Combined with such high SATs - you really do have the academic foundation to get in anywhere. And you will surely get into several very prestigious schools. But most important, you will certainly succeed wherever you attend with your obvious work ethic and abilities.</p>

16

<p>thanks all for your helpful comments.
Many of you mention the uncertainty of my ECs.
Is this because, perhaps, they are too spread out and don't really have one particular focus?
If so, how should I try and fix that? Just by simply trying to show more attention to a certain thing.</p>

<p>Thanks all again for your posts</p>

17

<p>when i was constructing my application, i tried to picture what i would think if i were an admissions reader and i picked up my application. most of my questions to my counselor and to my regional reader (i got to meet her), were about how the applications are read. i found that they're actually read very quickly, and one small thing can make a reader hate or love your application. in the EC section, i tried to limit my resume to only my passionate and timeconsuming EC's. as i was a recruited athlete, i put football, basketball, and track, obviously. after that i put student council and school newspaper. i could have easily put "spanish club" and "ping pong club" and "quiz bowl team", but i felt that would have muddled up who i really am to whoever was going to eventually read my application. these people are trying to bring a sheet of paper to life. it's very hard for them to do that if you give them a laundry list of EC's.
i have no idea what some of these acronyms for your EC's are, so i can't really give you the order that i'd put them. there's a box for you to explain this on the common app. make sure you do.
ASB [What?], Class Council (Senior Class VP, Junior Class Treasurer)[Good], Interact (Treasurer)[What?], Asian Culture Club (Treasurer) [Maybe leave this off], CSF [See ASB], Newspaper (Co-Editor-in-Chief) [This is a big deal! Why isn't this first?]
put your most unique ones and meaningless ones first, and maybe leave off the time filler ones. it turned out ok for me.</p>

18

<p>thanks for the reply.</p>

<p>heres the info you were confused about:
ASB - Associated Student Body (basically, like leadership club for the school)
CSF - California Scholarship Federation (basically u get in for good grades and get $$ later if you qualify)
Interact - community service organization (I was Chair of a few events)</p>

<p>I hope that helps.</p>

19

<p>blah blah blah</p>

20

<p>sorry for the double post, but I have another question:</p>

<p>Because my school does not report weighted GPAs (I had to manually figure out mine), will Ivies calculate it themselves, or will they simply take the unweighted GPA my school reported?</p>