Chance a Junior for Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Yale, etc.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello! As the college process begins, I wanted to figure out what my chances are for some of my top choices. For context, I am an Asian male attending a t10 high school in the nation and am applying to several in-state safety schools and match schools. Here are my stats and ec’s:

ACT : 36 composite
SAT : Have not taken
SAT II: Math II(800), was planning on taking Physics but all tests in my area are canceled due to Covid-19
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
Weighted GPA: 4.38
AP’s and Post-AP’s:
10th: AP Chemistry(5) and AP Computer Science A(5)
11th: AP Physics C M + E&M, APUSH, AP Psych, AP Calculus Bc, and two Post AP’s which I won’t mention because it may give away my school.
Awards:

  • ISEF Finalist(ISEF got canceled ): )
  • State Science Fair First in Category
  • Regional Science Fair First in Category
  • Google Science Fair t100 in the world(Happened in middle school, should I still put this on my app to show continued interest in research?)
  • Expecting to win an award in this year’s Biogeneius competition

Extracurriculars:

  • Research internship at local university
  • At home research project(the one I won all the awards for)
  • Planning on publishing research in a journal by the time applications roll around
  • President or Vice president of several clubs at my school(won’t specify for the sake of remaining anonymous but one is focused in a humanity while the rest are focused in STEM)
  • Founder of a community initiative to teach low-income middle school students research techniques
  • Doctor’s Shadow for one month the summer before junior year

Volunteer/Community service:

  • 300+ hours of tutoring under-represented middle and elementary school students through various volunteering programs.

Thanks for chancing me!

2

It is probably worth sending in an application. However, all of “Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Yale” are high reaches. You should make sure that your safeties are solid.

3

Thanks for your quick response! Is there anything I should do starting now to strengthen my application or should I just continue with what I have?

4

Anything in middle school does not count at all. The rest of your application looks flawless! Don’t forget about that one humanities club by the way, it adds something extra to the STEM genius you have going on.
Where are you applying REA?

5

if ur high school is a t10 hs, there’s a chance that your school is a feeder to some t20s
check naviance

6

Impressive! However, your middle school accomplishments will not count. They only want to see high school.

7

Thanks for the advice regarding the middle school stuff! My school does indeed send a lot of kids to ivies and other top schools but most of the students who get in are campers/rsi/place at ISEF. Right now I am planning to EA to either Harvard or Stanford.

8

Another thing I’m unsure about is whether or not I should mention the community initiative on my app. Although a lot of my leadership comes from this activity, I know that a lot of students start these for college apps and I’m not sure if I want to come off that way. I am more than happy to leave it out as I did not start it for that reason. Any advice?

9

It will look like that, but I don’t think that’s a valid enough reason not to put it on your application. Either way you helped the community.

10

i’ve found that publishing could be a very big distinction that separates applicants that just do ‘research’, at least from my personal experience. I’m currently working on publishing some work too, and it’ll likely take over a year until the time it’s actually published (from the time I submitted to my magazine)…be sure to start early on that.

i think you’re definitely good enough to go to any school…it all depends on your essays now

11

Note that this applies to stuff you did while in middle school (and not continued to when you were in high school).

If you did some sort of community service while in high school which benefited middle schools or their students, that can be an extracurricular worth including.

12

I agree that publishing should help with the overall application. I’m planning to send my paper out within a week. About how long do these things usually take to get published? 6 months? A year?

13

Very strong profile. However, HYPSM are all extremely competitive institutions and you must know that luck is heavily involved.

14

This is random, but have you heard back from Biogeneius and did u participate in the at-large competition or a state one? and do you know when the international competition is? I participated and im confused what is happening with that

15

“Right now I am planning to EA to either Harvard or Stanford.”

It’s actually SCEA, I would consider EA to MIT unless you’re not planning to apply there, I’ve seen students with your profile do better with MIT than Harvard or Stanford, MIT tends to look at race, legacy, a little less than those two. good luck, you’ll do well!

16

“- Founder of a community initiative to teach low-income middle school students research techniques” this is a very unique experience and ties in nicely to your own research I would perhaps push this activity as it stands out

17

If you’re undecided between Harvard and Stanford for REA, keep in mind that you have a 80% chance of getting rejected from Stanford, but an only 8% chance at Harvard. I’d recommend REAing to Harvard because they’ll most likely keep your application around till Spring, unlike Stanford who’ll make a snap decision in the fall. Not to mention, if you plan on competing at Regeneron STS, you can submit a positive update in winter. You can’t do that for Stanford if you’re rejected REA.

18

I haven’t heard much either ): Not quite sure whats happening with the competition.

Thanks for all of the advice you guys are giving me, I’ll be sure to keep it in mind now that application season is beginning!

19

That suggests that EA decisions at Stanford and Harvard tend to be:


Applicant       Stanford        Harvard

Clear Admit     Admit           Admit
Borderline      Defer           Defer
Clear Reject    Reject          Defer (usually)

I.e. it looks like Stanford only defers actual borderline applicants who are neither clear (from Stanford’s point of view) admits nor clear rejects, while Harvard defers borderline and clear (from Harvard’s point of view) reject applicants. Meaning that a clear (from Harvard’s point of view) reject at Harvard EA won’t know until much later that s/he should move on.

20

I think that Harvard and Stanford are going to be stretches for you. The asian students that they tend to take in the early rounds are valedictorians at top high schools plus have all the amazing ECs. Your ECs are fantastic by the way.

Have you considered going a notch down in selectivity? Say UPenn, Columbia, UChicago, etc? You’d be a strong candidate for any of these.