Chance a Stressed Junior for Stanford REA, UPenn Wharton, and rest of HYPSM + need advice on specific things

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Public School; South Asian Male; Middle Class

Intended Major(s): For Stanford: product design major, art practice, bioengineering (these r just what match my ecs the most, but I would love tips on which majors i should apply for / which majors are best backed up by my ecs which r art + bio themed)

ACT/SAT/SAT II:

ACT/SAT: 36

SAT II Math: 800

UW/W GPA and Rank:

Extracurriculars: mainly art stuff…

  1. founded [redacted] arts initiative: giving art supplies and teaching art to underprivileged elementary schools (city is v poor); planning to branch out to senior communities and try to bridge the age gap thru art → trying to get on local news/commercial appeal
  2. mural project for [redacted] arts initiative I founded → planning to create murals locally w/ the ppl we teach/taught
  3. co-founder and art editor-in-chief of international literary and arts magazine; currently gaining traction but not that big to get featured in news articles yet
  4. art editor at literary magazine + graphic designer for the magazine’s [redacted] project (featured on scientific American, Boston globe, Harvard [redacted], etc)
  5. governors school for the arts scholar (10th grade summer)
  6. president of biology olympiad club
  7. president of science national honor society
  8. volunteering at local hospital
  9. art in general (exhibited in many places, create a lot of pieces, will send an art portfolio to all colleges)

Essays/LORs/Other: idk just a junior; ik my counselor will mention “leader in the art community” but that’s it

Schools: Stanford REA, Vanderbilt, Harvard, UPenn Wharton, Yale, UofM

school acceptance history: 1 person got into Stanford 2 yrs ago, 1 harvard last yr, 1 cornell this yr, few whartons, lot of vanderbilts (T5 always get in + val usually gets the full merit scholarship bc we’re a local feeder to vandy -ish)

any advice on how I can improve my application/resume/etc?

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You sound pretty incredible to me! My question for you, is how will you pay for it? Do you think your family would qualify for substantial financial aid? Are you in the running for a full merit scholarship at Vanderbilt? I think that may be what it comes down to, for you, since the Ivies say they don’t award merit aid, just financial aid.

You are geographically desirable for most schools. I think that you can improve your ACT by focusing on doing the LEGALLY released old tests that can be easily found with internet searches. My kid said that calc would have helped him to do better on the ACT math (which kind of surprised me, that calc was necessary for it, but he should have known, he prepped hard for it, did the entire Best ACT Math Books Ever books), and your math was done very early. Reviewing it will be necessary for the tests. As for English, what was recommended to us was Erica Meltzer’s guide to ACT English and Hugh Vo’s master key to ACT science, but kid didn’t need either - he’d read a lot, and the science section is all data interpretation, so just doing the practice tests was enough for him to get 36 on those sections.

I love the rigor and high achievement of your coursework. You should be planning now, who you’re going to ask for letters. You want them to be able to say that you’re one of the best students they’ve ever taught. The fact that your counselor would mention “leader in the Memphis art community” is, in my opinion, a really big deal for a high school student. Approach the teachers you think you might want for letters, now. Give them plenty of time. Also, ask your counselor who of the teachers you think you impressed, has written fantastic letters for students in the past. She may be able to steer you towards the teachers who would do their best for you.

You are someone who could probably benefit from an application coach (expensive), or from reading everything that the application coaching blogs have to offer you. We learned a lot from reading the past NYTimes college essays about money columns. There’s more to be learned from articles about how admissions committees operate; for instance, the info released in the discrimination lawsuit against Harvard revealed a lot about how they rate applicants. You, for instance, in my opinion, would be a 1 academically and a 1 extracurricularly. Your essays, and how they highlight your creative community service, might get you a high personality score. You have all the right stuff - you just need to know how to package it right. A lot can come down to how “likable” you appear to be, from your essays. If your art is truly incredible, you might want to reach out to visual arts faculty at the schools, to see what they think about you, but I don’t know how one could do this. It would be a good idea to get your portfolio in early, so that the faculty would have time to evaluate it, and get a recommendation in to the admissions committee. Maybe you could meet with someone at Vanderbilt, to give you feedback, since they’re near you?

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You are a junior. You don’t even have mid year junior grades yet.

It sounds like you are aiming only for elite and competitive colleges. Please make sure you have some sure things for admission on your list when the time comes too. The acceptance rates at the schools you listed are under 10%. This means 90% or so do not gain admission. In that 90% are some very well qualified applicants.

So…cast a broader net than just Stanford and the Ivies.

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I think you have much to learn about what those reaches are looking for. Take the time to do so.

Eg, they won’t look at a B in middle school, even if on your transcript. For bioengineering, the 4 might put you in a less competitive position. And it’s not about who has the most AP.

You don’t need to decide whether you’re arts or stem now. But you can clarify your own thoughts. If you’re thinking bioengineering is creative, you need to look further and understand what the work really is.

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From the Stanford web site “When you apply to Stanford, you apply to the university as a whole, not to a particular major, department or school”. Similarly MIT does not admit by major, and I am pretty sure that Harvard does not admit by major. At least for MIT, if you are accepted, then your intended major is used to help them pick your freshman year advisor.

Whatever major you select does not need to match your ECs at all. As one example, my ECs not only did not fit my intended major, they did not fit any intended major. Only one (chess) was even remotely academic in nature. This did not stop me from getting into universities at the level you are aiming for.

Do you know what your budget is? Have you run the NPCs for the schools you are applying to? Do you have a solid safety in mind?

For ECs, for the top universities I recommend that you do what you want to do, and you do it very well.

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Nonetheless, at the top, you can be reviewed based on stated potential major(s) and the relevance of your activities, the sorts of experiences and challenges you took on. In part, it’s a measure of one’s thinking, not just about a resume of many lines. (Of course, as well as the requisite academic strengths.)

The competition is too fierce to leave this to just what you want to do. The patterns need to make sense to those adcoms. Things are different than when we were younger.

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thank you for your feedback and suggestions!!

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Harvard wants to know what you see yourself studying there. My kid got a call-back from interviewer, looking for more ammo regarding what kid wanted to study there, and how his ECs and life experience lined up with that.

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Wow. I’m not going to chance you because I’m a senior in the process of applying to Ivies and other prestigious schools for something in the arts also. Your application honestly sound like a more accomplished version of mine.

If I had to give any advice, I’d say make sure your portfolio is really well done. I know some schools emphasize it much more than others. I’d be surprised if you were denied from any of these schools for an arts major though as they are usually less competitive than the STEM ones.

Also, maybe you wanna check out Brown RISD? They offer two degrees (BFA and BA) in five years.

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ty!! yeah i’ve thought of it but my parents want me to go into business/comp sci and they won’t let me go to rhode island

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Wow, very impressed. 23 APs !! Amazing.

Only weakness I see is that being Asian makes things more difficult. Apart from that you should be fine. If Stanford SCEA doesn’t work out, make sure you apply somewhere in the ED2 round.

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TN isn’t one of the areas considered under-represented.

It’s not an AP arms race. You don’t really have a background that screams business or CS.

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Hi there!
I’m a Stanford student who applied as an arts practice major! It’s so funny because our ECs are fairly similar, except you’re way more impressive lol. I wanted to share this thought that I think you’ll need to know before applying to college.

Do a lot of self-reflection <3 What is your life mission? Why do you love art and bioengineering? What gets you up in the morning? Write about it :slight_smile: My ECs were not even CLOSE to being as cool as yours, but I think my vulnerable and sincere essays helped definitely. Try to write a common app essay that connects all your interests. For example, I wrote about my fear of abandonment, which explained why I was passionate about art (as emotional release), mental health, and feminism (because of my mom). My main essay put all my activities into perspective, with each activity backed up with a reason.

If you like art, you won’t be disappointed by Stanford!! Submit an arts portfolio (remember the art portfolio deadline is earlier than Nov. 1 for REA!!). I submitted a portfolio, which I’ve worked on for two years. It’s everything to me, and I hint it in my main essay.

I hope you consider applying to Stanford for art practice. It’s such an underrated program, and Stanford has invested an incredibly amount of funds into improving art facilities (outreach, study abroad, first year programs, and studios!)

Good luck <3

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OH also, I’m also Asian! The “asians don’t get into Stanford” is a myth :DDD and it’s stupid. Be yourself. You seem like such an amazing and impressive person. Like I would love to have coffee and hear your life story lolll

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Thank you so much!! Your words mean so much to me :)) I would love to get my essays reviewed by you once I start writing. Yeah I’ll be applying for art practice as my 1st choice, and then product design & bioengineering. Also girl your ecs were prob much cooler ahaha

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