Chance a TJ Kid!

<p>Hey CC, </p>

<p>I'm a rising senior at TJ (competitive, magnet public school in VA), and I'm looking forward and feeling nervous about the college admissions process at the same time. If you would be so kind as to chance me, I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you!</p>

<p>Race: Indian
Sex: M
High School: TJHSST
Class Size: ~460
Rank: School doesn't rank, but I'd say top 10%.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.95 UW, 4.452 W
SAT: Test 1{800M, 750R, 800W}, Test 2{780M, 800R, 800W} --> Combined = 2400.
SAT II: Math 2 (800), Chemistry (790), Physics (800), Spanish (770)
AP: 5s on all (Biology, Chemistry, Calculus BC, Computer Science A, Environmental Science, Physics C: E&M, Physics C: Mechanics, Spanish Language, Statistics, US History)</p>

<p>Awards:
*AIME Qualifier
*USACO Silver Division
*National AP Scholar (expected)
*Siemens Award for Advanced Placement (expected, not 100% sure but usually it comes from our school and I don't know anyone else who might be doing it)
*School's science fair (first round of ISEF basically) - 2nd Prize – Animal Sciences (Received February 2011), 2nd Prize – Mathematics (Received February 2012)
*Lemelson-MIT Inventeams Excite Award (Received April 2012)
*Jefferson Academic Letter - (Received November 2010, November 2011)
*Crew Varsity Letter – (Received June 2011, June 2012)
*National Spanish Exam Gold Medalist – 99th percentile (Received May 2010, May 2011, May 2012)</p>

<p>EC:
*Nanotechnology Club (4 yrs, President)
*Lemelson-MIT Inventeams (1 yr)
*Crew (4 yrs, 1st boat senior year. Hoping to get recruited and talking to Harvard, MIT, and Princeton)
*Physics Team (3 yrs, Lecturer)
*Spanish Honor Society (3 yrs, Tutor)
*BigSib Program (4 yrs)
*and MUN for 4 years, but I'm not sure how helpful that is.</p>

<p>*Also working on interviewing multiple scientists in nanotechnology, which I will try to compile into a short book and get published.</p>

<p>Employment:
Summer 2012: Working at a government research lab on chemical sensing using nanotechnology (submitting to Siemens/Intel)
Summer 2011: Working at USC on defining the genetic components involved in diabetes (This was more about learning how to research)</p>

<p>Schools as of now: Harvard, MIT, Caltech, Princeton, UPenn, UVA, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Duke, Columbia.</p>

<p>EA/ED: Probably at Harvard, MIT, or Princeton depending on which coach is the most interested in me.</p>

<p>That's all I have.
Enjoy your summer!</p>

<p>Seriously 128 views and 0 comments? BUMP</p>

<p>There’s nothing to say. You will be one of the top applicants this year. Very competitive fr ivies, but you have to know that.</p>

<p>With those extracurriculars and being recruited along with good academics, I think you will be one of the best applicants this yr. You probably will get into one (probably even more than one), but remember to have safeties.</p>

<p>Thank you to all that have given me feedback so far!</p>

<p>What about in the scenario that I was not recruited at all? I would still be doing crew, but in the case that I receive 0 help from any coach and do not get recuited at all, what would be my situation then?</p>

<p>Even if you didn’t get recruited you would have an excellent chance of acceptance. Crew isn’t a very popular sport (it’s no football, anyway) so if you’re good I’m sure you’d be recruited. If crew is your #1 consideration you could aim to get recruited at other schools or simply apply to your top choices and try out for the team.</p>

<p>looks good to me!</p>

<p>Thanks to all! You’re all very encouraging and I appreciate your feedback. </p>

<p>From an application perspective, obviously it’s important to be involved in ECs but not too many ECs. Because you guys are looking from the view of a college admissions counselor, which activities stand out the most? as in, instead of putting a laundry list and focusing on just a few, which would be the ones to include?</p>

<p>If you don’t want to answer that, you can just chance me haha.</p>

<p>Monepo, while your application is notable, understand that often times college admission officers take it within the context of your school. I understand through family and a few relatives that TJ is filled with high-achieving students like you with equal, or better qualifications. I think they, among a few other schools, have the most USAMO qualifiers of any school in the world, as well as a good track record in all other STEM competitions. Unfortunately, this is the context you will be compared to. The plus side of such a situation is that if you are a star in such a competitive environment, you are virtually guaranteed admission everywhere. Because of this situation, I feel that your application to those top ivies will especially hinge on your recommendations/essays as your ECs blend in with many TJ students that I know.
However, if you are recruited for crew, that could change everything. But understand that rowing at Princeton and even Harvard requires a lot of talent, possibly more than you think. Some of my rowing friends say you need Erg times between 6:30 and somewhere in the 6:40s as a guy or faster to seriously get recruited.</p>

<p>Thank you for the insight, 720CCs. I understand this disadvantage and I wish I could receive “chances” that take this context into account. Not many others on CC know as much about TJ as you do, so this is a difficult goal, but it is my goal nonetheless. </p>

<p>Also, I’m a coxswain, not a rower, so it’s not as easy to quantify my rowing abilities. The Princeton coach has told me that I am in his top 5 coxswains, but I am taking everything I get with a grain of salt.</p>

<p>In that case, I wish you the best of luck, but without that, I’d say that your top choices are reaches that really could go either way, maybe 50/50. I think you have a solid chance of getting in to 1 of HPM, at least, but definitely not as high of chances as the previous posters seem to say.</p>

<p>bump, more opinions?</p>

<p>bump number 2</p>

<p>bump 3 10char</p>

<p>I know you’re out there, cc!</p>

<p>buh buh bump</p>

<p>Come on, you’ve got to be bragging if you go to TJHSST, have a 2400 SAT, 10 5s on AP exams, etc. and you made a chance thread.</p>

<p>I understand your concern. The difficulty for me is, as the popular saying on CC goes, “College admissions is a crapshoot.” I know that I am qualified for this colleges - what I am trying to do is gauge the chance of me actually being accepted by places lke HPSM etc. </p>

<p>By no means am I trying to put down others by this post, and I apologize if such a message is being conveyed.</p>