Chance a Junior for dream schools. Will chance back!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Chance me for my dream schools please (you only have to say the hardest one to get into that you think I could make it in to). Thanks (and I'll chance back)!</p>

<p>HYP
Chicago
Dartmouth
Reed College
Cal
UCLA
UVA
Claremont McKenna
Amherst
Columbia
Cornell
Penn
JHU
Carnegie Mellon (I have legacy here if it matters)
Fordham
Georgetown
NYU
BU Honors College</p>

<p>SAT I (breakdown): 2000 (this was taken on a bad day, practice tests have ranged from 1990 to 2180 depending on the day, still taking classes + studying, won't stop until 2200+ )</p>

<p>SAT II:
Math IIC: 780;
Chemistry: 710;
Physics: Taking soon (consistently getting 750+ in barron's practice timed)
USH: Taking soon, expecting ok score (700+) b/c really hard APUSH teacher</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.7-3.8 (est. of what it will be when I apply)</p>

<p>Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 20 Percentile (My school is grade heavy, every year we have many people who matriculate to Ivy leagues/MIT/Stanford)</p>

<p>AP (place score in parenthesis): </p>

<p>Sophomore Year (1 AP, GASP I was such a slacker back then)
Comp Sci (5),</p>

<p>Junior year (4 APs, Ehh, should have done more)
APUSH (Jr. year- expecting 4 or 5)
AP Phys B(Jr. year - expecting 4 or 5)
AP Calc BC (Jr. year - expecting 5)
AP Stats (Jr. year - expecting 5)</p>

<p>Senior Year Course Load(Will be):
1. AP Physics C: Mechanics + E&M
2. AP English Literature
3. AP US Gov't + Reg Econ (no AP Econ at my school D: )
4. French 4 Honors
5. Intro to Engineering (May drop this if I don't have enough time)
6. Analysis (Real + Complex, EPGY)
7. Some Comp Sci course, looking at Random Analysis (Offered through Harvard, online)
8. Const. Law (Also Harvard, online)</p>

<p>Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
Unfortunately, nothing really that major...</p>

<p>3 Nominations for Outstanding Performance for Prosecution Pretrial at County level (I only did the prosecution speech once)
2nd Place Physics project at County level science fair
2 school awards (1 PTSA award, 1 for being the best World Hist Student in the school), Expecting to get AP Scholar w/Distinction by the end of Jr. year, Nat. AP Scholar by end of Sr. year
Honorable Mention in State Business competition for VC presentations
2nd Place for county wide business plan competition</p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Mock Trial (CoCaptain, Lead Pretrial)
GSA (Secretary Sophomore year -> President for 2 years)
NHS Member (Maybe officer)
Link Crew(help freshmen adjust to high school, Maybe commissioner next year)
Science Fair (3 time participant, plan on participating Sr. year)
Mentorship nonprofit (National Director of Membership, I improve the quality of each branch's mentorship and help make the experience more homogeneous as a whole, also recruit/set up new branches)</p>

<p>Job/Work Experience:
National Director of Membership for nonprofit mentorship group
In the process of a creating a startup (should be done by the end of sr. year, software startup, so hopefully I'll be able to pay for some of my own education :D )</p>

<p>Volunteer/Community service:
200+ Hrs. (NHS Activities + YMCA Volunteer Position + Working with therapy dogs)</p>

<p>Summer Activities: </p>

<p>Freshman -> Sophomore summer
ID Tech Camps (iPhone programming, never really used it)</p>

<p>Sophomore -> Junior summer
Harvard Summer School
1. Multivariable Calculus - A minus
2. Intro to Political Philosophy - B plus</p>

<p>Junior -> Senior summer
Stanford Summer Classes
1. Stats 202: Data Mining
Mock Trial Summer Institute
Work on Mentorship nonprofit
(setting up new branches, training new branch leaders)
Hopefully doing to some legal research with Stanford Law Const. Law Professors</p>

<p>Other</p>

<p>State (if domestic applicant):CA
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White/Caucasian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: +$200,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):
Taught myself Calculus as a sophomore(took me April -> June) and Linear Algebra as a Junior (only took me winter break + 2 weeks in January)
starting my own business</p>

2

<p>Assuming you can get your SAT up, then you’re not in bad standing, to say the least. Looking for things which leap out at you, your serving on a “National Director of Membership for nonprofit mentorship group” stands out to me — how well known is this group? Really impressive that you taught yourself calc/linear algebra! For the summer programs, I’m not sure how selective they are, but it’s good you’ve been doing something with your time. All your other stats seem good, ECs seem strong and varied but not so much that you’re spread too thin. Even around a 2200 doesn’t seem like it would be a sure thing for any Ivy or anything on that level — just too hard to tell for schools that selective. I don’t know which you’d consider to be the best on your list, but really any of the non-ivies you have a definite chance with, especially if you apply EA/ED. Hope this helps :)</p>

3

<p>Thanks!
The non profit is not very well known, just a start up. Currently we have 10 branches. But if it means anything the cofounders both know me really well and one goes to Harvard right now (will probably get a supplemental rec from one or the other).
Yeah, my counselor at school always tells me that the main thing that I need to improve on is SAT and I will have plenty of time to do so. I started studying vigorously back in the beginning of march and I am taking the one in June. Hopefully I will get a 200+ pt. boost.</p>

4

<p>Uh, you know it’d be much easier to chance you, had you given us your real stats. You talk a lot about what your “expected” GPA is without telling us your true GPA. For all I know, your GPA could be a 3.2 - 3.4, but you’re merely talking yourself up to a 3.7 - 3.8. So what’s the truth? </p>

<p>How do you junior year grades look? Straight A’s? Couple of B’s? Understand that junior year is one of the most important years in high school, so how you did this year really makes a difference. Also your SAT score is really weak, and given that you’re nearing the end of your junior year, and you claim to be doing all of these “amazing” things over the summer, you probably will not have enough time to bring up your stats. </p>

<p>Also, I really don’t think you understand what a hook is. Learning some subjects b/c you have a lot of free time b/c your extracurriculars are so unsubstantial is not a hook. A hook is if you had legacy to somewhere (CMU as you say) or you live in Korea (like I did) as an international student. </p>

<p>More about your hook, you talk a lot about your learning calculus and linear algebra in a mere few weeks, but where could you justify this? Are we just listening to the words of a high school junior with an obvious bloated ego? Or have you participated in any exams or contests to prove this? Looks like you aren’t an AIME/USAMO person either, and while I understand you’re not a math contest person (obvious based on your lack of math contest stats), you sure talk about how you learned advanced courses in mathematics. You don’t have any awards at all in fact…you take French? Do you do the national french contest? Any awards there?</p>

<p>Your stats…when you break them down, aren’t nearly as substantial as you make them out to be. Or maybe I’m wrong and it’s only that they’re unimpressive in the eyes of Asian people (Korean over here). If you get into any of the top schools that you listed, it’ll be quite an injustice to the wayyyy harder working Asians in this world b/c they have SAT scores that are 400 points higher and perfect GPA’s.</p>

5

<p>GPA:
Fresh - All As
Soph - All As
Jr. - 3 Bs 1st sem (death of family member -> not able to handle school and everything, kinda came falling down, hopefully this won’t hurt too much, I know there is supposed to be a spot to include notes about any circumstances surrounding unusual transcripts and I have documentation that my grades all dropped right after the death.)
2nd Sem Jr. - on track to get all As
Sr. - I have no idea how I will do in AP Lit, so I made a conservative estimate</p>

<p>SAT - I practice an hour a day which doesn’t take much effort, but the consistency is really helpful. And the test isn’t for several months now, I’ll be fine thank you very much. </p>

<p>As for the hook - in that case I don’t exactly know if I would put anything for hook. Any suggestions?</p>

<p>Calc/LinAlg - Taking AP test for Calc (too bad there isn’t one for Lin Alg). Placement test to get into Stanford Analysis class covers Calc, MV Calc and Lin Alg. Plus if I need to, I’ll just take what ever placement test the college I go to offers. I just want them to know why there is a sudden jump as far as math classes on my HS transcript</p>

<p>Math contest things - I am good at math concepts, not the best person in the world at problem solving -> hence I did not get into USAMO and a 3 on the AIME isn’t really worth mentioning.</p>

<p>As for Nat French contest, no awards. I am not really that interested in french anyway. Even if I did win an award, I doubt I would let it take up a spot, it doesn’t speak to my true character as much as my other stuff does. </p>

<p>As for your last comment, thank you for your input, but it is not a 4.0 GPA and perfect SAT score that makes a good, successful person. It’s the attitude, people skills, and the effort. I choose to put my effort into things I am more passionate about (ie: mentoring, teaching myself what I want to learn etc.) instead of SAT tests.</p>

<p>Perfect scores are a dime a dozen and frankly if you put all your efforts into getting a perfect score, then you loose the real meaning of being educated.</p>

6

<p>thanks for the input on my chances page! Your class rank is the only thing that may weaken your application (provided you get ur sat’s to 2200+). Try picking that up, maybe bring ur chem sat II up a bit. Your ec’s are just phenomenal though. I think you got a good chance at most of them, regardless, columbia and penn are slight reaches, imo. u never know with ivies tho, i think u still got a good chance. gl mate</p>

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<p>No problem. I hope you find the advice helpful and good luck with all the apps. </p>

<p>As for class rank, my school only tells rank in deciles (top 10, top 20, etc.) and this past year the top 10 decile rank has been 3.96 GPA - 4.0 GPA. I doubt it will change. But the good thing is that my school doesn’t weigh GPAs for class rank, so someone who has gotten a 4.0 can still be really dumb ( ie never taken an honors or ap course ever) That being said, there are a lot of people who are smarter than I am at my school and have higher SAT and GPAs with more rigorous courses, but most are almost carbon copies of each other. (literally, its predictable. Probably 50 or so Juniors our of the 400+ in my class year take APLAC, RUSH, AP Calc BC, AP Chem, Span 4H and an art class). </p>

<p>Honestly, I think that the class rank will probably be the one thing that brings me down on my app. Ehh life goes on. </p>

<p>yeah my SAT 2 chem is bad. hopefully if physics and ush are good then i can just not submit chem. If I have to take any subject test again, I think it would probably be phys or ush just because i like those subjects so much more and the one t/f/causation section really annoys me. </p>

<p>Thanks
GL to you to! (especially with getting the research position you want!)</p>

8

<p>waitaminute. learning multivariable calc before taking calc bc?</p>

<p>I smell something fishy…</p>

<p>also, LOL at koreangirl… being an international applicant from Korea isn’t a hook, it’s a detriment.</p>

9

<p>Lol I learned calc bc before MV Calc. I didn’t start teaching myself Calc BC until after AP test registration so I was unable to take the AP BC test before taking MV Calc. Sorry if that wasn’t clear…</p>

10

<p>HYP- High reach
Chicago- high reach
Dartmouth - High reach
Reed College- Yes
Cal- High reach
UCLA- low reach
UVA- Low reach
Claremont McKenna- yes
Amherst- yes
Columbia- reach
Cornell- reach
Penn- high reach
JHU- reach
Carnegie Mellon (I have legacy here if it matters)- low reach
Fordham- yes
Georgetown- yes
NYU- low reach
BU Honors College- low reach (you will get into BU)</p>

<p>Rationale:
Lower GPA, Lower SAT, definitely weaknesses in the eyes of the admissions committees. Your ECs are fairly good, but you need some work. Define yourself. Chance me? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1317220-chance-me-my-college-choices.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1317220-chance-me-my-college-choices.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>It seems like you take a lot of inniative which is great. I like your attitude towards your sat score. You’ve been really busy over the summer and you have double as many hours as me volunteering. UVA, NYU , and Melon seem like good matches but HYP is a reach for everyone.</p>

12

<p>chance me back?</p>

13

<p>@lechugarapida: THANKS! you actually took the time to do it for every school :smiley: I’ll chance back in just a bit. </p>

<p>@mcknight95: Thanks! And sure I’ll chance back! do you have a link?</p>

14

<p>Assuming around a 2150- I think all of these are possible.</p>

<p>Dartmouth
Reed College (don’t know?)
Cal
UCLA
UVA
Claremont McKenna
Amherst
Cornell
JHU
Carnegie Mellon (I have legacy here if it matters)
Fordham
Georgetown
NYU
BU Honors College</p>

<p>Some are more of a reach than others but you definitely have a solid shot.</p>

<p>Chance me back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1324466-my-gpa-too-low-these-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1324466-my-gpa-too-low-these-schools.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

15

<p>oh, I see… you taught yourself math before, then took MV, and then took the actual class. I think you have a shot at all the schools on your list, but not an extraordinary one for all the reaches. still, it’s probably worth applying and seeing what happens</p>

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<p>Lol actually, I didn’t take Calc BC at school since my school doesn’t let you double up. For Jr. year I have AP Stats as math. Calc BC is just one of the AP tests I am taking this year XD but yeah for the most part thats what I did. </p>

<p>Thanks!
BTW do you need anything chanced?</p>