Chance a senior with good stats for Ivies

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Yes, I've posted before. This is hopefully my final updated post. I'll be a senior in high school this year, and I'll be applying for the class of 2014.</p>

<p>Sex, race - White, Male</p>

<p>PSAT - 207</p>

<p>GPA - 4.45 9-11 weighted, 3.9 unweighted, 4.625 10-11 weighted</p>

<p>SAT - 2090. CR 610, W 720, M 760. Retaking in a couple months. Last practice test I scored a CR 740 W 720 M 800 so I'm looking at much better scores.</p>

<p>ACT - 32. English 31, Math 34, Reading 32, Science 29. Not planning on taking again.
SAT II - Chemistry: 720, Math II: 750, US 610 :(</p>

<p>Class rank - 2 of over 700, not tied with anyone.</p>

<p>AP classes -
Sophomore year:
European History - 3
Statistics - 4
Chemistry - 4</p>

<p>Junior year:
Calculus AB/BC - 5/5
Psychology - 5
Computer Science A - 5
US History - 4</p>

<p>Extras -
- Cofounded a Lacrosse Club that has morphed into a team recognized by both the school and the state
- CSF member for three years, will be president this year. Largest club on campus, with around 250 members. Service club.
- NHS member
- Men's choir, 4 years, president 2 years
- 1 year mock trial
- 3 years Youth & Government, received an appointed position on the governor's staff
- 4 years swim team - 2 JV 2 Varsity
- 2nd degree black belt, Taekwondo, 1st degree black belt, Hapkido. Spent about 20 hours volunteering teaching martial arts per week for a couple of years
- 4 years voluteering at YMCA Camp Oakes, serving as a leader in training
- 3 years School Site Council student representative, elected
- 2 years Peer Leaders
- Job working at a yogurt shop about 20 hours a week</p>

<p>Any extra info you need just let me know and I can post it. As of now, the colleges I strongly desire from highest to lowest are as follows:
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
Harvard
Dartmouth
Columbia
UCLA
UC Berkely
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara (Safety)</p>

<p>Also, I'm still trying to decide where to apply early. Help me with that :)</p>

<p>I AM a California resident. That may impact decisions on the UC schools. Anyone who could post, chance me, and maybe give me some feedback/advice for applications would be helpful. I have a moderately good grip on what to do for apps, but any expertise would be helpful. Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>I think do not your stats are in par with the ivies; however, I think you have super good shots at all UC’s.</p>

3

<p>I have to agree with indianjatt; while your GPA and rank is in range of the Ivies, your SATs and AP scores are definitely below par. In fact, I have to say that your AP scores, especially, seem a bit low for someone ranked number two at their school of 700. </p>

<p>While you do have extracurriculars, I don’t really seem to know anything about you by looking at them because they seem a bit scattered. </p>

<p>UC’s you definitely have a great chance in, but for Ivies, it seems a bit of a reach. I think for you, your essays and letters of rec have to be especially good in order to get into an Ivy. Have you thought about Cornell?</p>

4

<p>While you might have a small chance at some of the ivies, it would be just the ones you did not list: Cornell and Penn. </p>

<p>You have a good rank, but weaker scores and ECs and are from an overrepresented state. I would retake the ACT, science is easy to raise with some practice. With a 34 and an very well written application, the lower ivies could happen.</p>

5

<p>I looked at Cornell and Penn pretty thoroughly, but I am not going to be able to afford those schools and they have loan based financial aid systems. With an SAT score closer to about a 2300 and a 1550 M/CR, would any of these schools look like better shots?</p>

6

<p>Yes…</p>

7

<p>Perfect. I don’t know if you saw this, but check out the update on my SAT. I’m taking a 4 week SAT prep course. It started last Wednesday, and it’s going Mon/Wed with practice tests every Friday. My first practice test was a 2260/1540. I’m going to be working hard on improving it even more.</p>

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<p>With a 2260, your chances will SIGNIFICANTLY improve. Keep up the good work.</p>

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<p>@Indianjatt:</p>

<p>Thanks! I’m hoping hoping hoping I can do this! You definitely can too :slight_smile:
You’re Californian, right? Whereabout?</p>

10

<p>Yeah with a 2250-2300+ your chances for all of them go up significantly. Good luck! You definitely have a good shot if you can make the scores. I think you should look into a couple more schools like Brown and Duke. Its worth it, you can always negotiate financial aid.</p>

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<p>If I go to one of those schools I’m going to wind up with about 30,000/year in student loans. I’m most likely going to be attending graduate school also, so 120,000 in loans just for my undergraduate degreee doesn’t seem very feasible. I think I can do work on that SAT, though. In the CR section, on my last practice test, all I missed was vocab, which shouldn’t be very hard to bring up a bit. I’m dedicating quite a bit of time now to working myself up to as close to 2400 as possible. Let’s hope it pays off. Could you guys chance me for my current score as well as a 2300 for now? Hopefully it will inspire me a bit. Thanks to everyone so far!</p>

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<p>Why don’t you start looking at merit aid schools? With your rank and even a 2150, you should do well. $120K in loans for undergrad is nuts.</p>

13

<p>Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is how I looked at it. At H,Y,P,S,Col,D, the financial aid is all grant based, not loan based. If I can’t get into a school with grant based, I can get very cheap tuition at a UC school. The top UCs are probably ahead of most, if not all, schools where I would be able to get merit based financial aid. Am I wrong? You know the system much better than me.</p>

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<p>It totally depends on your family’s financial situation. You spoke of borrowing $120K which would lead us to believe you don’t qualify for much need based aid.</p>

<p>If you do qualify for a lot of need base aid you’re best off at the no loan, 100% meet need schools. If you don’t qualify, that’s where merit aid schools become attractive, and potentially more attractive than the UCs.</p>

<p>The UCs give few grants and loans will be considerable at one if your parents are not paying in full. They are also in budget crisis and many end up paying for 5 years or more because they can’t get the classes they need to graduate.</p>

<p>So you may want some private school choices that are about the same price as a UC with merit aid.</p>

15

<p>The UC schools only run 7-8 thousand a year for tuition because I’m a California resident. What upper end private schools would offer that much merit based aid? Cal and UCLA are, from what I know, on tier with a few of the lower Ivies if not a tiny bit behind.</p>

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<p>i have to agree with most of the above posts… your gpa and ranking are phenomenal, but your test scores seem to be lacking. i would try to bump up your SAT to at least a 2150, preferably above 2200. ACT is decent… not going to pull you very much in either direction. you have some impressive ecs but nothing that really describes you… i dont see any reason why these schools would be dying to have you, but they are still pretty good. if i were you, id mention one of your extracurriculars in an essay and try to show some sort of passion so they can get a better idea… also, what are you thinking about majoring in? overall, you are decent, and i think ivies are a bit of a reach as of now but with an improvement in scores you will definitely have a shot</p>

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<p>My major is relatively undecided as of now. I think the field will be either math, math/science, or political science. Working tons on my SAT. Wish me luck everyone!</p>

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<p>Sorry that I don’t have much to add, but the only area you seem to be lacking in is your standardized testing scores. Get a better score on the SAT Reasoning test, like above 2200 if you can, and your chances of getting into the ivies will increase a lot. Also your subject test scores seem a bit low. Your GPA is phenominal, and your ECs are great, so I think you’ve got a good chance. You’ll obviously get into the UCs no problem, but the ivies are where theres a little uncertainty.</p>

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<p>The UCs, all in, if you’re planning to live there, will cost about $25K. There are definitely schools where you might pay less with merit aid.</p>

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<p>@hmom5:</p>

<p>You are so incredibly helpful in all aspect of this forum. Thank you so much. Do you know of any schools that are on tier with Cal and LA that have good looking merit aid?</p>