Chance for Brown, Williams, other top schools!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Im a Junior in an independent (not private nor public, it’s a bit weird) HS in CT. </p>

<p>Projected Major: Double Bio/Politics</p>

<p>Schools Im interested in:
Top - Brown (both PLME and regular ED)
Williams
Dartmouth
Amherst
Columbia
Pomona
Geogetown
Tufts</p>

<p>Gender/Ethnicity: Male/Filipino
Rank: 2/525 for 1st semester, hoping 1/525 final
GPA: W- 4.319 Sem 1.
UW - 3.9 or 3.8. Don't know how it converts
SAT 1st - 2110 (650 CR/720 M/740 W) - sophomore
2nd - 2160 (670 CR/750 M/740 W) - Junior
Should I send both scores as a way to show improvement?
ACT: 34 (36 E/35 M/ 34 R/ 31 S) Essay not back yet
SAT Subject:
- Math 1 - 760
- Math II, Chem, USH - this weekend</p>

<p>Junior Schedule
- Honor Anatomy (not AP but its really interesting)
- AP Spanish Language
- AP Chem
- Honors PreCalc (sooooo easy)
- APUSH
- AP English Language
- AP Stats
- Calc I at local CC
Taking AP tests for Span, Chem, APUSH, Stats, Calc AB, US Gov
Gov is self study, also, it shows interest in politics I guess.</p>

<p>Senior Schedule
- AP Bio
- AP Physics B
- Ap Psych
- AP Calc BC
- AP English Lit
- AP Macro/Micro Econ
- Study Hall/Lab aide for Chem dept</p>

<p>Ecs
- Asian Cultures Club (Secretary)
- Quiz Bowl (hopefully pres by next yr)
- Student Advisory Board (gonna run for officer, dunno if Ill win)
- (Regular) National Honor Society
- Science National Honor Society
- Spanish National Honor Society
- Outdoors Club
- Amnesty International (no officers)
- Im also thinking abt starting a Model Congress or Mode lUN as my lasting contribution to the school
- Volunteer at local library - pretty generic, not much stuff where I am.
- Looking for political volunteer work for next year. </p>

<p>Summer Activities
- I went to summer camp for 5 years (age 11-16), revelant because...
- I'm going to be a counselor for 4 weeks this summer
- Also, I'm giong to the Philippines for remaining 5 weeks to shadow doctors, nursing school students, etc. </p>

<p>Essays- about hiking, emphasis on setting goals
Recs- APUSH teacher - apparently writes amazing essays, offered to give workshops on college essay at one point.
Im not sure abt 2nd, maybe my AP Chem teacher, but hes retiring and his essays are so-so. I might ask the other Ap chem teacher - she taught me for intro to AP and I'm going to be her lab aide.
Counselor - probably good
Income: About 200k, no need based aid for me :(</p>

<p>Strengths - Self-Direction, Essay, recs
Weaknesses - Generic volunteering, not much leadership (yet), too many clubs?, Ethnicity...</p>

<p>In addition, I might (hopefully) win a lot of school prizes/scholarships such as book awards, subject scholarships (chem, etc). They're pretty much merit aide and they look impressive I guess.</p>

<p>For my admissions essay, I may also write about living in small town being only minority then moving to larger place with lots of diversity last year, but it seems like pulling out the race card. Which is better topic - hiking or moving?</p>

2

<p>In my opinion:</p>

<p>Columbia is a reach but might as well apply.
Brown is a reach, but not a HUGE one if you apply ED.<br>
Dartmouth is a reach but worth a shot as are Pomona, Georgetown, and Amherst to a lesser extent.
Tufts is a good match.</p>

<p>Your ethnicity shouldn’t hurt <em>much</em>, Pacific Islanders are usually not subject to the same “discrimination” as southeast Asians.</p>

<p>As for your essay, what do you mean by hiking?</p>

3

<p>I think your SAT score could be higher but since you have already taken it twice, I don’t suggest you take it again because top universities don’t like it when you take it a lot of times. </p>

<p>Your ECs and stuff are standard among the pool of applicants to the uni’s you want to apply to so see if you can find something that stands out more :slight_smile: </p>

<p>good luck! chance me back?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1334039-please-chance-me-top-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1334039-please-chance-me-top-schools.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>By hiking, I wrote (1st draft) about how I summited the 46 Highes peaks in the adirondacks in upstate ny. I set an audacious goal for myself when I was 11 and fulfilled it 5 yrs later last summer.</p>

5

<p>You’ve got too many big reaches on this list. You’re an ORM from an overrepresented state with just average scores and ECs. Ivies will be tough.</p>

6

<p>Bumpity bump</p>

7

<p>Brown and Dartmouth are moderate reaches and Columbia is a high reach but I think you have really good chances with the rest of the colleges on your list. That of course doesn’t mean you might not be accepted to the ivies, but you’re kind of hard to chance. You have strong stats overall, but nothing that stands out too much. Your ECs are good, but nothing hugely unique. Your class rank, being a sal or a possible val, is a pretty helpful boost. Your SAT score is on the low side, but the ACT score is pretty good, so I wouldn’t worry about that too much. Hopefully you’ll do well on the subject tests, and I would aim for 750+but there is still time to retake them. I wish you the best of luck from one ivy hopeful to another!</p>

8

<p>Georgetown: Match
Tufts: Match
Ponoma: Low Reach
Amherst: Low Reach
Brown:Reach (Low Reach if you apply ED)
Dartmouth: Reach
Columbia: High Reach</p>

<p>Good Luck! If you bring your SATs up, you might have a better chance at Brown!</p>

9

<p>Out of the mouthes of babes…Brown and Dartmouth take about 1% more of their applicants than does Columbia. And because of its location, Columbia gets far more random (unqualified) applicants. These schools are equally difficult to get into.</p>

10

<p>Amherst and Pomona (not Ponoma abear95) are as equally competitive as Brown Dartmouth and Columbia too.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t bother sending your SAT I scores unless required because your ACT is high enough but you should probably retake the ACT or SAT one more time. You have a shot at all your schools listed, better chances at georgetown and tufts. </p>

<p>Oh and you need some real safety schools on your list (unless you simply didn’t add them here).</p>

11

<p>What other schools wouldbe good fits that are not listed above? Academically, I’m looking for a school that has a strong science program as well as a politics program. One of the qualities that I also like is the openness of the curriculum, a la Brown, which is why Brown is my top choic.</p>

12

<p>how about U Va, UNC, UofM and W&M</p>

13

<p>Harvey mudd</p>

14

<p>So many incorrect people posting here… Columbia has low admit numbers because tons of people like the idea of going to the top school in New York. As others have said, Georgetown and Brown are just as hard to get into.</p>

<p>That being said, I would say most of your choices are moderate reaches, PLME is always high reach of course.</p>

<p>I would even say Williams and Amherst are matches. Asians really are not ORM at the Eastern LACs; at present they are still quite white and preppy and eager to recruit Asian-Americans. I got into Amherst as an Asian-American and I was contacted by their dean of diversity (unaware there was one) and given a paid visit to the school along with many other Asian-American students from around the U.S.</p>

15

<p>So I just received my ACT essay score. I got an 8. How will this affect my chances? Should I retake the ACT?</p>

16

<p>Bump once again - any more thoughts??</p>

17

<p>Georgetown: High Reach
Tufts: Match
Ponoma: Safety
Amherst: Low Reach
Brown:Mid-Reach
Dartmouth: Reach
Columbia: Mid-Reach
Ivies these days are not predictable.
Chance me pleaseee!</p>

18

<p>Sorry for the late reply :(</p>

<p>get your weighted gpa even higher, aim for straight A’s in your first sem senior year as that will make or break you. get your sat up to 2200 and submit it with your act which you should redo for the essay. your ecs and rigor look amazing so here’s my best bet:</p>

<p>Top - Brown (both PLME and regular ED) (Reach for anybody, incredibly unpredictable but you increase your chances with PLME and ED)
Williams (No clue)
Dartmouth (Low reach)
Amherst (No clue)
Columbia (Reach for almost anybody, but if you bring the things that i mentioned up, you are definitely a low reach/high match)
Pomona (In)
Geogetown (In)
Tufts (In)</p>

19

<p>Hmm…I probably cannot give you a great estimate of what colleges you would be getting into, as I don’t have much knowledge about their standards…
But I think I can say that if you do apply to Brown, likely ED, I think you have a pretty good shot at getting in. </p>

<p>Wow, there certainly will be little to no difficulty for you to be a candidate in terms of course rigor and GPA… even your ECs (the honor societies, especially) really reflect diligence and good leadership, which are amazing qualities to highlight when applying. You covered one of the most crucial areas of the app very well, it seems.</p>

<p>I have to say, as prestigious as many of your ECs are, there is always room for specialization. Considering that you want to double major in Bio & Politics, I would suggest that you perhaps apply for an internship in at least one of those fields, to show that your interest is really pushing the envelope. I honestly do not have many suggestions for internships involving politics, besides applying to be a page for a Senator or, if more law-oriented, a district-attorney’s office or the like. Starting a Model Congress or something similar, if your school doesn’t already have one, would be another great way to show your motivation in the political arena. For Bio, perhaps working in a doctor’s office, or even conducting research in a lab would do a lot to show your enthusiasm for what you want to study.</p>

<p>Living in CT is a little tough on your chances of getting selected by these top colleges- I’m sure you know how much competition exists in the Northeast (I can attest to that as well. <em>sigh</em>).
I would say that you probably don’t need to be so concerned about having too much competition in the applicant pool because of your Filipino background… Pacific Islanders are definitely not as overrepresented as Southern/Eastern Asians are, so you will probably fare just fine. At least, I don’t think it will hinder you in any way.</p>

<p>I would send your 2nd SAT score (junior year) only… you want to go for the highest score you’ve got. (I think ‘improvement’ trends are best applicable to grades, rather than test scores). And, if you think you would want to invest more time in it, I would attempt the SAT a third/final time, I suppose either the June or October test at this point, just to see if you may be able to break into an even higher score (maybe trying to either push your critical reading up, or really polishing either the math or writing sections that you have already scored well on). If you don’t think it’s worth the time and effort, it is very understandable; then you should not do it- retrying the test once more is just a suggestion. Your ACT score is great as is, so you probably don’t even have to worry about it.</p>

<p>I actually have a [three-part] question for you: The first is, what are you thinking about writing about for your application essays? You were saying something about hiking or moving from a small city to a large city?
The second is how many recommendations are you planning to get for your application?
The third is, have you done any college visits yet? Found anything important about the colleges you have listed here in this thread?</p>

<p>If you wouldn’t mind replying back to my questions, either on this thread or PMing me, that would be great!
I guess I have only really offered you some advice on improving your already amazing application; but I hope that you do well with refining your resume and your essays, fellow junior! :-)</p>

20

<p>Georgetown: Low Match
Tufts: Match
Ponoma: High Match
Amherst: Low Reach
Brown: Reach (Low Reach if you apply ED)
Dartmouth: Reach
Columbia: Reach</p>