Chance for HYPS, among other top schools & Ivies

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys. I'm a rising senior from a medium-sized city in New Mexico. This is actually a re-chance since the first one went off into a tangent, and I think I have a little more information. I will greatly appreciate any review and comments regarding my stats. Thanks in advance!!</p>

<p>Applying To:
[ul]
[<em>]Harvard
[</em>]Yale
[<em>]Princeton
[</em>]Stanford
[<em>]Brown
[</em>]Notre Dame
[<em>]Vanderbilt
[</em>]UC Berkeley
[<em>]MIT (?)
[</em>]Colombia (?)
[<em>]UT Austin (safety)
[</em>]Texas Tech (safety)
[/ul]</p>

<p>Academic Interests: I have a passion for biology, more specifically genetics, biochemistry, and bioengineering.</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2120 (620CR, 700M, 800W (11E)) (first and only sitting)
[</em>] ACT: 34 (34E, 34M, 33R, 36S (9E)) (second sitting)
[<em>] SAT II: Literature - 590; Math Level 1 - 720; Biology M - 650; Biology E - 720; US History - 700
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
[<em>] Weighted GPA: 104.850 (my school is weird -_-)
[</em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/492
[<em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Human Geography (4), AP World History (4), AP US History (5), AP Biology (5), AP English Language & Composition (5)
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP English Literature & Composition; AP Calculus AB, AP U.S. Government & Politics, AP Microeconomics, AP Environmental Science, AP Music Theory, Band, Pre-AP Physics
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): NM State Science Olympiad: 1st in Water Quality and 4th in Protein Modeling; Outstanding Soloist Award at SENMMEA solo & ensemble festival</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Science Olympiad (Captain); Student Council (10th - Secretary; 11th - Parliamentarian/PR Representative; 12th - District President); Summer church camp Program Crew for one month (~300-400 C.S. hours); Band (10th - 3rd chair alto sax at district, 1st chair tenor sax at NMSU Southwest Honor Band II; 11th - Drum Major, 2nd chair alto sax at district, 1st chair baritone saxophone at all-state (yay!), 2nd chair tenor sax at NMSU Southwest Honor Band I; 12th - will be Head Drum Major in the upcoming year; 10th - 12th: Pep Band + Marching Band + Symphonic Band); National Honor Society (running for President currently); Theatre; Musical Orchestra; Youth Church Band
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: Worked at a church camp for all of June as a volunteer crew member.
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: See above; worked for a month as volunteer, actual hours are unknown as of yet. Should be between 300 and 400 hours.
[</em>] Summer Activities: SMA Church Camp, SMA Music Camp, high school summer marching band camp, TTUBOC Drum Major Camp, TCU Saxophone Workshop
[<em>] Essays: Will write about being a "diamond in the dirt," basically about going to a low-end, non-competitive public high school with a 50-65% graduation rate. Also might be a good idea to write about music, and I do want to play in a college symphonic band/wind ensemble.
[</em>] Teacher Recommendation: Should be excellent, getting from my APUSH teacher. I got her first 5 ever in her five years of teaching the class.
[li] Counselor Rec: Should be great as well.</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): New Mexico
[</em>] School Type: Non-competitive public high school
[<em>] Ethnicity: White
[</em>] Gender: Male
[<em>] Income Bracket: >$250,000
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I guess none.
[/ul]</p>

<p>Whew! I hope that's enough info! I left out specific course grades, but I've taken a very rigorous courseload, and the lowest grade I've received through high school has been a 96 in Freshman English. All through high school, I've had consistently high A+'s. However, going to a school like mine, I suppose there is a degree of grade inflation. </p>

<p>I feel that my weaknesses are going to come from my SAT and lack of strong SAT II's. I have conflicts with the SAT dates in October AND November (arg!), but I could do the Math II test OR SAT retake on the December date. I suppose I really need help figuring out what to do about that.</p>

<p>So that's that! Go ahead--I'll accept it all, compliments and being scrutinized. I immensely appreciate the feedback, so thanks a ton!</p>

2

<p>Sats and sat IIs are low for most schools on your list. Act is fine, but not competitive at the ivies, berk, or MIT</p>

3

<p>First of all, I’d love to congratulate you on a great high school record. I’d like to just make a few comments.</p>

<p>1) Your SAT is on the low end for several of the colleges you listed (though the ACT is pretty good). Don’t worry too much, though. From what I’ve read, colleges place MUCH more emphasis on GPA and class rank than on standardized testing. Though I think it might hurt you a little, standardized testing doesn’t mean everything, and I think your GPA makes up for it.</p>

<p>2) I’d be careful with your essay topic. Though your school may not be the best, I expect college admissions offices get several essays about the same or similar topics, and, frankly, your school is still quite a lot better than many public schools out there. In terms of course offerings, it is much better than my own public school (my school only offers a few AP courses, though, admittedly, it does have a much higher graduation rate than your school does). The last reason why I’d be cautious about the essay topic you listed is because you are from a high income earning family, which some admissions’ officers might point to as the reason of your success in a school that may not have the highest socioeconomic student body (I’m not saying those officers would be right, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did that).</p>

<p>3) Though you have clearly dedicated a lot of time to your extracurricular activities, I wouldn’t call them amazingly strong. I mean, they are amazingly strong when compared to the majority of students, but I don’t think they would differentiate you from the large pool of students applying to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. There are a few reasons why I say this. First of all, I don’t really get a sense of a theme from your extracurriculars, especially when your passion is biochemistry. You were captain of the Science Olympiad, which is awesome, but it is a red flag when that is your only science related activity. Secondly, the focuses show you are well rounded, but it appears many elite universities have started to trend to appreciating well-lopsided individuals. From your profile, I can gauge three main points about you; you are good academically, you are very good at music/theater arts, and you enjoy science. Again, that sets you apart from applicants to nearly every other school, but I expect there are countless people applying to the Ivies with those same traits. With that said, your service on Student Council is very good.</p>

<p>Synopsis:</p>

<p>I’d say you stand a very good chance of getting into both of your safety schools, and I expect you can get into Cal, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, and perhaps Columbia and Brown (I’m less familiar with admissions at these two schools, to be honest). The rest are reach schools, but frankly, they are reach schools for just about anyone, so I’d say you stand as good of a shot as anybody else. Overall, I’d say you are in for a very promising future, and just remember, wherever you end up going will probably be a great match for you. :)</p>

4

<p>Overall, you have things going for you. But I think you should realize that your essay is equally as important as your grades, standardized test scores, etc… And if I were you, I’d strongly reconsider the topic you’ve described, for a lot of the reasons already mentioned. I recommend getting some books on college admissions essays, because the essay can really make or break an applicant.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

5

<p>Critical Reading might be low for your schools but honestly a 2120 will not kill you. HYPSM might be tougher but rejection will come from more than the sat score. Your scores are fine, unless you know you can better them, don’t push for that. Just push for really strong applications. CC is always set on only kids with 2300’s applying to ivies, which is obviously not the case in real life, thank god, because much of their student body’s have lower scores. Point being, your scores aren’t everything and they certainly are fine (except CR isn’t really balanced with the rest, which may not hurt too much for math/science oriented schools) personally, I wouldn’t try MIT because you REALLY have to stick out in math and science, t try if you want. The others are attainable.</p>

6

<p>The essay topic should be handled carefully, if you do choose the one you’ve mentioned. You want to stick out from the other students, but you don’t want your high school to look bad; this would put your 4.0 (which is otherwise good even for HYPS admits) into question due to the ostensible possibility of grade inflation (if the 2120 SAT score hasn’t done that already - while it’s a good score, most people with scores like it have lower GPAs). I’d recommend emphasizing the poverty and going-nowhere attitude of the town/school and downplaying the low graduation rates and poor rankings.</p>

<p>All of this said, I think your chances are quite good for most of the schools. However, what Divy1234 said, unfortunately, seems to be true about MIT; it mainly accepts students with perfect or almost perfect standardized test scores and considerable solo work and accomplishments in the areas of math and science. Still, you likely have a shot anywhere. I’d work on upping your SAT score (even if you get a lackluster single-sitting score, it’s good if you can get a superscorable score that’ll result in a superscore of at least 2200 if not 2300) and beefing up your extracurriculars (though they’re quite impressive, they seem to me to show little focus).</p>

<p>You’re in at your safeties and almost certainly at Notre Dame and Berkeley. Good luck for the rest!</p>

7

<p>I don’t really see why everyone is downplaying his sat. Is it really weighted that much more than his act score? I might have to reconsider taking the sats again if that’s that case…</p>

8

<p>It isn’t, but better safe than sorry. A 2120, I’d guess, is equivalent to about a 30-31 on the ACT. I got a 34 as well, but I’m retaking my 2230 in the fall (though the main reason is that I’m entering a math-related discipline and I only got a 710 on Math).</p>

9

<p>I think you have very good Ec’s! They show your passion and dedication which is what top schools will look for. As other posters have said your sat is on the lower side but I would retake it one more time and really work hard and study for at least a 700 in cr. I think of you raise your sat you have a good chance. Just know that the ivies/MIT are all very random with acceptances but good luck!</p>

10

<p>Send in the ACT; dont send in your SAT I.</p>

<p>Solid chances everywhere, excluding your safeties. good luck!</p>