<p>Your GPA isn’t the be all end all of your app, its just gonna stand out, not in a good way, but not in a terrible way…also theres a reason as to why you got a C, and they’ll understand (hopefully, who knows what adcoms are like). But don’t get too caught up on it, honestly you have GREAT ECs and ull probably get into some Ivy. Thanks for ur reply though.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/971383-chance-me-washinton-u-st-louis-some-other-top-nothcers-plox.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/971383-chance-me-washinton-u-st-louis-some-other-top-nothcers-plox.html</a></p>
<p>O ya, chance my friend :)</p>
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<p>There is a mistaken belief among many here that colleges carefully parse circumstances when looking at apps. Note how brief the common app is. Many, many students suffer adverse circumstances. Colleges can not read for every fork in your road. Unfortunately divorce and death of grand parents impacts about half of all applicants. Top colleges look for consistent performance.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply!</p>
<p>But, there is a section to explain circumstances on the Common App and counselors can definitely write about certain circumstances. Of course, consistency is good but I’ve also heard that going through hardships and showing that you overcame it and learned something from it is also good.</p>
<p>As a long time counselor, I can tell you there are not many who will write about a typical divorce or grand patent death to a highly competitive college unless the situation is truly unusual.</p>
<p>Actually, it’s my assistant principal and I’ve seen her numerous times as well as the student advocate who is also like a psychologist and we’ve discussed my familial situations. My assistant principal definitely knows what’s up. Maybe because you don’t know the full implications that you’re saying counselors won’t write about it. My dad had been away from home for quite a time, going to our home country a few times in the process. And then, he lost his job temporarily. Then, my mom found some stuff that my dad had done while he was away (maybe you can take a guess at what that was but I’m not going to say). Needless to say, that caused a huge conflict which consumed not only my immediate family but my extended family as well. In the middle of this event, my grandfather and great uncle (whom I am VERY close to) were diagnosed with terminal cancer and terminal illness, respectively. My younger brother, who was, and still is, going through puberty was impacted heavily by all the shouting and fighting that was taking place at our house. He started to fail 7th grade. As a big brother, I made up my mind to sacrifice a lot of my time and effort to get my brother on the right track. This all took place first semester. Second semester, things got a little calmer and I did a lot better than first semester.</p>
<p>Please don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not making up excuses. I definitely did learn something from this ordeal and was able to overcome it.</p>
<p>Again, thanks for the post!</p>
<p>I think people here are a little too cynical. I think a short, brief explanation of the divorce and death is appropriate and will be considered - especially if it is backed up by your counselor’s rec. (Actually, if you are sure that your counselor and the Am. Lit teacher will address the issue well you might be better off just leaving it to them.)</p>
<p>I think your ACT and ECs are excellent. Will the vaccine and the paper be yours alone or will it be by a research team? If yours alone, it will be a huge plus. If part of a team, it’s still a very good EC but, obviously, not quite the same.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t send in 5 recs. 2 teachers, your counselor and 1 from the lab.</p>
<p>The biggest negative in your application are your Calculus AP exams. For a science person, they are definitley low for the top schools. </p>
<p>I think if you get published you will have a good chance at the lower ivys and an average shot at HYPS (which means they are a reach).</p>
<p>Thanks for replying!</p>
<p>The paper is individual research (mine alone). I will be working on more projects, meaning possibly more papers. The vaccine research will obviously be done by a team. However, as of the moment, I am the only one working on it and I am starting the research.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m going to leave it up to the professionals to explain my situation. About the Calc AP score, I heard that good AP scores could help you but they wouldn’t hurt you if they’re bad.</p>
<p>I’m going to be honest…you are not going to get in unless this “vaccine” is the babylon of vaccines. You got a C and a “few Bs” (ouch). And you are Asian, so that doesn’t help cause all Asians think they will get into Harvard. Oh yea and badminton if your asian doesn’t count as a sport.</p>
<p>@lawdertrain</p>
<p>Thanks for the input.</p>
<p>However, i don’t think you honestly know how difficult creating a vaccine is. It’s not like the professor is doing everything and I’m just there for the credit. No, I am doing individual projects and am going ahead with starting the vaccine project all on my own. (Professor is not at the lab when i am, most of the time). While I do have a C and ‘a few B’s’ (honestly. It’s only a few lol), I do have a legitimate (although I’m not sure if this could have any impact in the admissions process) reason and my GPA is still high. I checked your stats and sure they’re great but they’re not exactly the best either. Academics are a big part, but not everything. thanks for posting though, I appreciate it.</p>
<p>PS. badminton is a great sport. Please don’t stereotype or be racist. It’s immature. if you didn’t know, badminton is the fastest racket sport in the world.</p>
<p>actually I’d like to point out that standardized tests can be more important than GPA particularly among ivies, becuase standardized exams are common among everyone, whereas GPA is clearly not. </p>
<p>But your research and ECs are abolutely incredible. You’ll already get far at this point and if your research does get published, you’d have little to nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>Also I’d advise you stay away from writing about your family issues because it’s just so cliche. Instead try this: take a personal experience and analyze to draw a conclusion that you think is uncommon; this shows your personality and thinking and at the same time avoiding a cliche story.</p>
<p>Crimsonuser,</p>
<p>You have a number of factors working against you here. </p>
<ul>
<li>You’re an overrepresented minority (Asian)</li>
<li>You’re from a typically overrepresented state with lots of applicants (California). </li>
<li>While a 3.88 is not a terrible GPA, you have a descending transcript, which means that with each year your grades got WORSE. While most colleges are willing to forgive mistakes early in high school if they see improvement over time, worsening grades indicates to them decreasing interest and commitment to studies. This will stand out.</li>
<li>Having five letters of recommendation is entirely unnecessary and would almost certainly work against you. The people reading your college application are very rushed and either will not read through most of the letters or will be annoyed that you included so many.</li>
</ul>
<p>Furthermore, you can’t simply count time spent at clubs as “community service” or “volunteering”. High school clubs exist mostly for the benefit of their members, and to count the time you spent working as the president of a club as “volunteering” would be akin to me saying that I’ve spent hundreds of hours this year doing community service because I shower regularly.</p>
<p>To be entirely honest, and I say this as an Ivy League student, I find the mentality of “Ivy League or bust” to be pretty obnoxious. And, unfortunately, it’s becoming increasingly pervasive. In high school, I was the president of two separate clubs and committed an extensive amount of time to both of them not because I thought it would get me in to college but because I genuinely enjoyed it. Until my college guidance counselor suggested it, I had never even considered applying to the Ivy League. </p>
<p>But while I was trying to run these clubs, I couldn’t help but notice the students who would show up just enough to be counted as official members of the group, or to be elected to an officer position, and then simply never show up again. When I confronted them about it, they said that they would rather spend their time studying. It appeared that they had no qualms about simply dumping their responsibilities on others so that they could get ahead.</p>
<p>My point here is this: the Ivy League, while it does provide a great education to those who can get in, is not the alpha and omega of higher education. Attending an institution such as NYU, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Amherst, Haverford, or any other of a long litany of other highly-respected institutions will also get you an amazing education and access to scores of opportunities.</p>
<p>Hey there, Ohaythere.</p>
<p>I definitely appreciate your concerns. However, there are some things that you may have misunderstood as well. For several years, I had volunteered at the Korean school as a normal member. In no way did I do it because of college. I immensely enjoyed working there and volunteering there. I devoted a lot of time to this (6 hours every week on Saturdays.) After years of service to this organization (NOT A CLUB), I was voted to be chairman of the volunteer leadership committee. My responsibilities increased as well and I had to now spend more time planning of directing almost 60 students to run the school effectively. Again, i enjoyed this activity immensely. Even if a particular Saturday was an SAT day, I took the SAT’s and showed up to do my duties. I understand your concerns but i think that you are addressing it to the wrong person. I also never said ‘Ivies or bust.’ It would certainly be a wonderful opportunity to be accepted into the Ivies. But again, I am not hung on going to the Ivies. Harvard is my dream school and i am doing my best to get there. But I’m not forcing myself to do these activities to get there. I truly enjoy every lesson and experience that comes with this. What you have expressed, i have experienced also. I am a founding member of the Speech and Debate team. And at the beginning of the school year, I saw many newcomers. However, more and more left as their schoolwork became heavier, so i share your sentiments.</p>
<p>As for the grades getting worse, this happened in one semester only. I also have a reason for this, which my counselor and lit teacher definitely understand and will write about. i improved after this event had mostly passed, showing that i had overcome a hardship. I’m not making excuses but it seems only logical to explain the situation. I have also learned many lessons from going through such experiences.</p>
<p>What i would like to say to you is: don’t judge people too quickly. i also sense some of the ‘Ivy haughtiness’ that you so dislike in your words as well.</p>
<p>Ohaythere - you couldn’t have said it better. There was a senior this past school year on our science olympiad team - he did his best to get elected as captain, and then never worked on any of his events and actually didnt even come to state…i have an immense amount of dedication for the club and i honestly didn’t know till this summer that it would be a huge boost to my application that ive been single handedly running the whole team since freshman year…</p>
<p>@llazar</p>
<p>wow. that sucks… its happened to me before. </p>
<p>but, again, ohaythere is accusing the wrong person</p>
<p>by ‘volunteering here and there for clubs’ i meant volunteer events for NHS CSF or Key club sort of thing. perhaps it was a miscommunication</p>