Chance a Pacific Islander with low GPA (competitive high school) /good SAT/extremely strong extracurriculars for T30s and Cornell ED

Chance Me / Match Me!
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About Me

· Rising Senior, Polynesian Male

· Applying for a Music Degree like Music History (to maximize my chance from a rare major) and switching majors to something else (likely business or economics)

· Attends choice school, T60 in Rankings, we have grade deflation

Extracurricular Activities

· In 7th grade, I soloed at Carnegie Hall to benefit education for autism.

· I formed my own 501(c)3 non-profit organization in 11th grade with a goal to bring music education to children with Autism and ADHD

· I was one of the youngest members at 8th grade for a national 501(c)3 registered-nonprofit, which aimed to use Music Therapy to heal patients in hospitals.

· I started to work as the Operations Analyst at 9th grade and also served on the Student Executive Board.

· I decided to further my interest, and wrote a research paper for an academic journal containing works of students, surrounding Music Therapy and Autism.

· I am a 2021 Bank of America Student Leader and is current interned at a Health Foundation

· 4-year high school varsity track (Ran one of the fastest time for our school, but not enough to get recruited)

Class Load, GPA, Ranking and Standardized Test

· I took 1 AP 9th, 2 AP 10th, 8 AP 11th, 3 AP 12th, almost every other class was a Honors Class.

· My overall unweighted GPA is 3.61. Ranked 31% in class. (My grades slipped because my dad got cancer)

· My SAT superscore is 1500 (700 Reading 800 Math). I am planning to retake SAT in August; I think I have potential to get 720 reading due to getting a 720 reading on the PSAT.

· Actual AP Scores

o AP Human Geography: 5

o AP U.S. History: 5

Predicted AP Scores (actual scores will publish in July)

o AP Macroeconomics (5)

o AP U.S. Government (5)

o AP European History (5)

o AP World History (4 or 5)

o AP Statistics (4 or 5)

o AP English Language (4 or 5)

o AP Seminar (4 or 5)

o AP Physics (1)

College and Major Preference

· I am open to any US News T30. I prefer a college with strong name recognition among the general

public (e.g., Ivy league), location in the North, grade inflation, and medium-large student body.

· Below are my interested schools (You can recommend me more)

  • Cornell University (ED Choice)
  • Georgetown
  • Carnegie Mellon
  • New York University
  • Northwestern
  • Washington University in St. Louis
  • University of Washington
  • University of Florida
  • Florida State University
  • University of South Florida
  • Emory
  • USC
  • Johns Hopkins

· I am also looking at U.K. Colleges

  • Oxford
  • London School of Economics
  • Imperial College London
  • University College London
  • King’s College London
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Is that class rank weighted for rigor?
What’s your schedule next year?

I assume your school is well-known (adcom visits, cg relationship with specific universities, etc) - What’s its record wrt sending students to the most selective universities on your list?

Do you have a budget?

Your UK list is good as long as you understand it has no safety (I assume it’son purpose). You will be expected to get a 5 in AP calculus since you must apply for Econ there.

Look into UBC, Mc Gill, UToronto, ivey (Western).

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That class rank is unweighted, they don’t rank weighted.
My schedule next year is
AP LIT
AP Capstone Research
AP Calculus AB
Anatomy Honors
Weightlifting
Humanities Honors
Jazz Band

Our class size is around 150 each year, small school.
Looking at class of 2020 (prestigious schools) 2 Dukes, 1 University of Michigan, 1 MIT, 1 WashU, 1 Rice, 1 Emory, 1 UPenn, 1 Lafayette College

I have no budget

Would you say my senior schedule is not rigorous compared to my junior load? Does switching from 8 APs to only 3 AP look bad?

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From the last 5 years from my school magazine, I can see we have a few people going to every school on my list except USC, Northwestern, and Johns Hopkins.

Our school sends 2 kids on average to Cornell every year, so I think that is the most popular prestigious school in my school

Last year, we had around 44 University of Florida and 25 Florida State University

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5

That will make “any US News T30” more of a reach than typical, unless you attend a favored prep school with strong relationships with the colleges in question. If this is true, your prep school should have dedicated college counselors who will be able to give you a much better idea of your chances (at least for colleges commonly applied to from your high school) than anyone here will be able to.

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We get college visits from prestigious universities such as Princeton. Does this count?

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Does your school have dedicated college counselors? If so, they should know where you stand with respect to various colleges.

Merely getting visits from a college does not mean that you have a realistic chance of admission to the college.

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My school only has guidance counselors, and I’m pretty sure the only big relationships we have is with University of Florida, and we are their feeder school

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In that case, 3.61 GPA and 31% rank is a huge stretch for Princeton or similarly selective colleges, if you are not one of their most important recruited athletes or a relative of a large donor.

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Why is this your top criteria?

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Keep in mind that I am not applying for Princeton, I am EDing Cornell
Also, I am a URM, I have an excuse, super-heavy courseload, T60 school with grade deflation, good SAT and AP Test Scores, super-strong extracurriculars, rare major advantage, ED advantage, and good recommendations and essays

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And…check to see how easy it is to switch from music to business. At some colleges, this just won’t be an easy switch.

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Well, I care about prestige above all

Strong name recognition so employers know my school, location in the north because I hate the south because it is too hot, grade inflation for higher GPA, and medium-large student body so people don’t know me.

15

If admission selectivity varies by major at a given college, it is likely that changing major to the more selective major after enrolling will require another admission process, which may be very competitive at some colleges.

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I’m not sure what my actual major is, so it might not even be business.

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I know, but it is easier than getting into that college itself

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I only see you getting into USF off the list. FSU is also possible.

So you should be applying to - if you want public - OOS schools such as U of SC, Alabama, Mississippi State, Arkansas.

If you want private, you have great schools in Florida - Miami a reach but Rollins, Stetson, Florida Tech, and Tampa are not. If you want bigger schools, Syracuse and similar would be a possibility. Elon, etc.

Your rank and GPA are way too low for anywhere else in my opinion. Yes, you grade deflate - but you need to be top 5-8% to have a chance at any of the schools on your list other than what i mentioned.

Good luck.

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Taking an ultra-heavy course load at the expense of grades is not a valid excuse. Grade deflation is not an excuse, when 30% rank higher.

If you want to major in econ, apply for econ. Don’t presume you can back door your way in.

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Hi, sorry for the bad grammar, but I meant “my excuse” is my dad got cancer in my junior year

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It’s simple here - there are gazillion kids out there with better stats and rank, etc. Even FSU is hard to get into - especially OOS.

So you have one solid on here. That’s it.

Reach for the stars - and that’s ok - but make sure you have a definite!!

Another suggestion might be Pitt. Why? They are rolling admission and respond early. So you apply Sept 1 and no by October 1.

No matter what - you need safeties. But if you find one you like - Tampa, Pitt - what schools do you like that have less pedigree - if you find one you like, you can apply to anywhere you want knowing your fall back is acceptable to you.

Bad grammar, grade deflation - it doesn’t matter. You need to ensure you get into a school (preferably more than one) that you’d find acceptable and affordable for your family and you’ve set yourself up above for a mass rejection although again, USF is likely and FSU possibly.

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