Chance a unique applicant!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I've been homeschooled since the 5th grade (not for religious reasons or anything), so I'm probably not your typical chances candidate. I have been doing "dual-enrollment" at the local community college for more than 3 years now, and I nearly have the equivalent in college credits to an AAS degree (which I will not be getting because I don't want to be considered a transfer student). </p>

<p>Tests:
PSAT: 219, I'm almost certainly a NMSF or F
SAT: 800 CR; 770 M; 680 WR (72 MC, 7 Essay). 1570/1600 or 2250/2400
SAT II: 800 Physics; 800 Chemistry. I'm taking Math II, U.S. History, and Literature in October. </p>

<p>Academics:
Since I'm homeschooled, I don't have High-School grades/class rank. I have been enrolled at a full-time level at my community college last year and have 61 credits total. Here are some of the classes I've taken:</p>

<p>A - MAT 221 Calc Analytic Geom I
C - MAT 230 Calc/Analytic Geom II (The professor was really terrible. I was 3 points out of 700 from a B after the final but he wouldn't round up. I could have dropped before the final but I thought I had a chance at bringing my grade up. Hopefully this C won't be too damaging. However I took these classes during my "sophomore" year so perhaps that alleviates it somewhat (?). Input on this is most appreciated!)</p>

<p>A - PHY 121 Univ Physics I:Mechanics
A - PHY 131 Univ Physics II:Electricity/Magnetism (calculus based; these two classes are generally considered at the same level as advanced 200 level classes)</p>

<p>A - CHM 151 General Chemistry I
A - CHM 151LL General Chemistry I Lab
A - CHM 152 General Chemistry II
A - CHM 152LL General Chemistry II Lab</p>

<p>A - SPA 201 Intermediate Spanish I with Honors</p>

<p>A - ENG 101 First-Year Composition with Honors
A - ENG 102 First-Year Composition with Honors</p>

<p>A - HIS 100 Hist of W Civ-Mid Ages
A - HIS 101 Hist W Civ/Mid Ages-1789
A - HIS 104 Us History 1870-Present with Honors</p>

<p>I have a GPA of 3.85 because of that one C (no extra weight is given to the Honors courses). </p>

<p>Extra-Curriculars:
-12 years of playing the Violin. I have played in the Phoenix Youth Symphonies for 6 years; this last year I played in the top level orchestra which is very highly regarded - we even play a concert with the actual Phoenix Symphony. </p>

<p>-About 3 years in Boy Scouts, and 4 years in a Venture Crew (sort of like advanced boy scouts but coed), which I have served as Vice-President and President of for 3 years. My venture crew was featured in the cover article an issue of Boys' Life, the official Boy Scouts magazine for one of our extreme end of year trips - other trips include a road trip to Copper Canyon in Mexico, backpacking in Honduras, etc. I think I have some good essay opportunities here. </p>

<p>-Going to get my Eagle award soon - I just have to do my project. </p>

<p>-Swim Team: I have participated in the swim team at the local high-school for the past 3 years. I swam at the State level last year and "lettered" (I put it in quotes, because the school wasn't able to officially recognize me since I'm homeschooled).</p>

<p>-I am an administrator for a major strategy gaming website, which I have worked for for nearly 3 years. My involvement with this website has given me experience in online journalism, website creation and management, staff management, and tournament running (I am going to be running a competition for EA soon with a prize pool of more than $5000). For most of my tournaments I do everything from getting sponsorships to advertising and then running a live online event with up to 128 people at once. I have also represented my website at an exclusive gaming media event at the studio of Electronic Arts in Santa Monica, LA. </p>

<p><strong>I know that the gaming part of it can be a turn-off for some people. If anyone has any suggestions for me on this EC, or on how to present it, I'd appreciate it</strong></p>

<p>Awards:
-Won first place for the Arizona Asian American Association Writing Competition
-Concertmaster of every orchestra (except current one) that I've played in
-9th Place in the PYS Concerto Competition (arguably the most competitive violin competition in the state)
-Won a scholarship to the NAU Summer Music Camp from PYS
-Won the Honeywell Aerospace Challenge as part of a homeschooled student team</p>

<p>Other:
I can talk about my venture crew trips, website, and homeschool experience in my essays. Teacher recommendations will be trickier, but I think I can get decent ones from my English and Chemistry professors. </p>

<p>The Colleges: </p>

<p>Harvard
Stanford
Columbia
UPenn
Cornell
Georgetown
Washington and Lee
Macalester</p>

<p>Comments are greatly welcomed! I'm not as application savvy as most on this forum, so I'll take any advice I can get! Thanks :)</p>

2

<p>Harvard - high reach
Stanford - high reach
Columbia - reach
UPenn - reach
Cornell - reach
Georgetown - reach
Washington and Lee - match
Macalester - match</p>

<p>Just write an essay about your passion in video gaming, colleges just look for passion in ECs, not a laundry list.</p>

3

<p>thanks. Any other opinions?</p>

4

<p>great app! congrats! in my opinion, this is where i'd put you...</p>

<p>Harvard - reach
Stanford - reach
Columbia - reach
UPenn - reach
Cornell - match
Georgetown - match
Washington and Lee - match
Macalester - match</p>

5

<p>bump for additional comments!</p>

6

<p>why are you unique? or is it just the homeschool factor (jw)</p>

7

<p>technically everyone is unique, but yeah it's the homeschool factor. Mostly just trying to use an eye catching title though lol</p>

8

<p>One "c" out of the sea of straight A's...that's gonna look ugly, man
But I say with a good essay you have a decent shot at most of the colleges you wrote except for HYPand S...but that's crapshoot for everyone</p>

9

<p>I really don't think they would care about one C in a college course in the soph year of highschool. Or, at least I wouldn't.</p>

<p>Anyways, your gaming thing sounds cool and could actually be a huge advantage to the right adcom who realizes how impressive it is, and only a mild turnoff to the wrong one. </p>

<p>The thing that jumps out at me is a 7 on the essay on the SAT. How do you get a 7? Not to be mean, but I could probably get a 7 in 10 minutes and I've known people who've only spoken English for three years who have gotten a 9-10 on the essay. Did you fall asleep or not understand what you were supposed to do or something?..</p>

10

<p>I don't know if I would write an essay about a passion in videogames, as someone suggested above.</p>

<p>At a few of the admission sessions I attended, the admissions officers stated they wanted to see people who "didn't just sit in their room and play video games."</p>

<p>I'm not insinuating anything, the website is impressive, but don't advertise a "passion" for videogames (they are moreso addictions, not passions). However, you can focus on the experience of the website itself, and how it's been valuable.</p>

11

<p>Wow, man, what happened on that writing section??!!</p>

<p>Your SATs are fantastic otherwise. I mean, with a decent essay, you could pull a 2300+. How'd you get a 7? I'd retake it if I were you.....</p>

12

<p>Seems like the consensus is to retake the SAT. I think I might go ahead with it in Nov after I do the subject tests. </p>

<p>@ admiralllama, I think there is a pretty substantial difference between someone who goes on all-expenses paid for trips to game studios (because they want my input on the game and in return I give them media coverage in the form of articles that I write)than someone who sits in the room and plays video games. But your point may be valid. Idk</p>

13

<p>nice SAT, work on the writing</p>

14

<p>Any final opinions? I would like some more thoughts on my chances :P</p>

15

<p>A few things.</p>

<p>First, I just want to congratulate you on your impressive standardized test scores.</p>

<p>I don't want to sound like a jerk, but I think most of the colleges you want to go to are reaches or high reaches. You have to understand, I'm sure you're a smart person, I mean look at those SAT stats. But I'm not sure how competitive or what the difficulty level is for your community college. I was reading Newsweek the other day, and there was an article about kids who wanted to dual enroll themselves in a community college while taking AP's in highschool because it might look better for colleges because they've "surpassed" what they can take in highschool, and wanted to move to a higher level. However, one administrator in the article said that they discourage this, because most highschool AP classes are tougher and more rigorous than the classes at community college. I'm not trying to degrade community college in general, I'm sure you could do pretty well in a regular public highschool, but I'm just saying I'm not exactly sure how it will look to colleges. Also, I'm sure you know, but those colleges you're interested in attending receive thousands of applications with people that have higher stats, more EC's, and high grades in competitive schools, and even those people get rejected. </p>

<p>I think your main chance to get in, is if you really play up the gaming website/various other EC's. You could potentially talk about how working on the website for three years has affected you in life in general, with better organization, planning, and management skills.</p>

<p>Anyways I hope you didn't take offense at anything I said, I just wanted to state the reality of college admissions nowadays.</p>

<p>Good luck :)</p>

16

<p>Jchen is right. You have awesome stats. Great profile. Without a doubt you are a good contender for any of the schools you list. Most of them, if not all, welcome homeschoolers. (do check out Cornell as NY has some diploma type requirements that have made things difficult for some home schoolers). However, these schools are very selective for everyone. They are also mostly schools that do not take a lot of creativity to select. The true challenge in putting together a college list is finding a school that is a true safety for admissions but also meets your needs and wants in a college. THis is where you need to do some work, as there is little out there on many of those schools.</p>

<p>Also, where are you in terms of paying for the schools? Do you need financial aid? Do you know if you qualify? Have you spoken with your parents about this matter? You may need to make some changes in your choices if your family need numbers do not agree with the colleges' perspectives.</p>

17

<p>Thanks for both of your inputs. </p>

<p>jchen, I would like to believe that my course load is probably twice as difficult as that of a friend who goes to high school (and who is being groomed for ivy league schools - his oldest sister went to Harvard and his other sister went to UPenn). Obviously though I have no other indicators than this, and for other schools you may be right. </p>

<p>An advantage I have is that as a homeschool student I am not obligated to take any (or at the very least many) courses. </p>

<p>I plan to submit a few course syllabuses to the top universities I apply to (Stanford specifically encourages this of homeschooled students) which will hopefully give the admissions officers a better idea of the rigor of my classes.<br>
But, as you said, admissions to these schools is real tough for everyone. </p>

<p>Thanks for the advice, both of you :)</p>