Chance me, as I have yet to be chanced. (Yale! Yale!)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>If you cannot tell by now, I am enraptured by Yale. I love everything that the school, and, well, it's a bit discouraging to get on here and see crazy-credential people getting rejected. Thus, I decided it was time to give in to the chancing game get myself "chanced."</p>

<p>I'm probably applying to Yale SCEA or MIT/UChicago EA. I have not decided yet. The other schools I'm looking at are Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, U of Illinois-Urbana, and WashU.</p>

<p>Drumroll, please.</p>

<p>LOC: Suburban southern Illinois/the Midwest. Yum.
SEX: Female.
ETH: East Asian!
GPA: 4.65 weighted, 4.00 unweighted.</p>

<p>SAT I: 710 CR, 710 W, 770 M (2190 -- yup, just short of 2200.) Would it be worth it to retake?
SAT II: Math IIC 750. Will take a science in October and Literature in time for RD.
ACT: 34 (Will probably use this instead of SAT I)</p>

<p>ECs:
French Honors Society | 11th - Present
12: Historian.</p>

<p>National Honors Society | 11th - Present</p>

<p>Spectrum | 11th - Present
Co-founder and co-president. Increased visibility of queer students and their allies through Day of Silence 2008 and gay? fine by me t-shirt campaign. Worked with administration to implement an effective and gradual process of encouraging tolerance through such events and supplemental posters placed throughout the school. Designed fliers and co-conducted meetings.</p>

<p>Chinese School | 10th - Present
I asked my family to do this. We drive 45 min to get there every Sunday.</p>

<p>Student Council | 10th - 11th
11: Executive board member.
10: General council member.</p>

<p>Debate Club | 10th</p>

<p>Environmental Club | 9th - Present
Co-president last year and president this year. Wrote agendas, managed meetings. Conducted a schoolwide environmental survey and a waste audit to analyze student waste in the cafeteria. Initiated an environmental awareness campaign through posters, a video, and morning announcements. Designed club t-shirt.</p>

<p>Literary Magazine | 9th - Present
Editor in Chief since last year, editor since sophomore year. Layout design editor. Read, reviewed, and compiled poetry, short stories, and essays into an annual literary magazine. Designed the magazine. Designed fliers. Organized poetry readings and writing contests.</p>

<p>French Club | 9th - Present
Designed kickball team t-shirt.</p>

<p>Model United Nations | 7th - Present
President since last year. Organized and conducted meetings. Prepared debate topics for each week and allocated time to recruit new members and prep the member delegates for conferences. Acted as deis and chair of mock debates during meetings. Attended Model United Nations of the University of Chicago conference.</p>

<p>Math Team | 7th - Present
Member, gone to state competitions. </p>

<p>Violin | 3rd - Present
Tour Group member (went to Italy) and Advanced Chamber Ensemble member. Member of high school Honors Symphonic Orchestra.
Won first place for a local concerto competition.</p>

<p>AWARDS:
Yale Club Book Award
Tiger Choice award (school award)
U of I European Union Center 2008 Essay Contest, 3rd Place
National Merit Commended (thus far ... [crosses fingers])</p>

<p>SUMMERS:
Babysat my siblings all last summer so my parents could save money. Went to Italy with my violin group this June, attended Columbia High School Program in July, and about to go to NCCJSTL's Anytown Youth Leadership Institute on a scholarship.</p>

<p>WORK: None. Parents didn't let me. :(
COMMUNITY SERVICE: Kind of too busy for this. I did do about 12 hours when I was at Columbia, though. I know, I know. It's bad. D:</p>

<p>COUNSELOR REC: Assuming it will be good. We get along well and she has high hopes for me.
TEACHER RECS: I'm assuming these will be positive as well.
ADDITIONAL REC: My violin teacher knows me very well.
ESSAY: In the works, but hopefully it will be unique, passionate, and articulate. I blog and write often.
INTERVIEW: Er, not yet, but I'm a pretty sociable person and get along with most people.</p>

2

<p>Your GPA is amazing! How many APs did you take? 10-15 is a good target amount unless you go to one of those school that only offer 2 APs.
Your SATs are low. Sorry, but to get into HYPS without legacy and a load of cash, you should aim for 2300+. I think it’s a good idea to use the ACT score. Your SAT subject tests are good so far, but just to warn you, the SAT Literature subject test is the hardest one to take.
Your ECs: you have a lot of random clubs but nothing really sticks out as anything unique. You are leaders in many which is definitely good but why don’t you try an internship? Not only will it add something interesting to your list of clubs, but it gives you work experience which you lack. The no work/no community service hurts but you have a ton of clubs which may help
I’m also assuming you have a crap load of APs like 15 or so when I chance you
Yale: High Reach
MIT: Extremely high reach
Princeton: High Reach
Harvard: High Reach
Stanford: High Reach
UC Berkeley: Reach
WashU: Match - Slight Reach
U of Illinois-Urbana - Match - Safety (I don’t really know this school but you’re in-state…)
You should definitely look at some more safeties. We all need them :]</p>

3

<p>Well, the GPA is good, but for Yale, the test scores aren’t so hot (you will definitely need to retake) and the lack of major awards and any work or volunteer efforts will hurt you.</p>

<p>You participating in clubs is good, but other than some t-shirt campaigns, I don’t see any particular accomplishments of note other than the cafeteria one (which is a very good one).</p>

<p>So, for Yale: Slight Reach to Reach (closer to Reach, I’m sorry to say).</p>

<p>Try to see if there is any time to make improvements in the stuff I mentioned in order to improve your chances at Yale.</p>

<p>P.S. I’ll chance you for your other schools later–I’m at work now.</p>

4

<p>Retake your SATs. Aim for at least 2250+ (750 avg each). Most of your schools are reaches.. pretty much I agree with the poster above except I think for MIT you actually might have a better chance than Yale just because of gender.</p>

5

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>A few things:

  1. Congrats on your GPA!
  2. On the common app (which most of these schools use), there are ONLY 7 slots for activities. So basically, some are going to be left out. Colleges won’t see all of them. concentrate on the most important ones.
  3. i agree with others (espeacially peachsnapple) about the SAT. It needs to be higher. and study for SAT 2…
  4. look into another safety.</p>

<p>I wish you luck.</p>

6

<p>No need to retake the SAT, just use your ACT.</p>

<p>You have leadership and seem devoted to your ECs, which is good.</p>

<p>How many people are in your school? It seems like you have President status in most of the major school clubs.</p>

7

<p>The problem with ^ is that to send your SAT IIs they see your SAT Is..</p>

8

<p>Oops, sorry.</p>

<p>You can still send them both in. Your ACT score is good, and don’t be fooled, a 2190 is very respectable. It’s not worth the time or money to retake when you have a 34 ACT.</p>

9

<p>If I do not apply to Yale SCEA, I will retake my SAT. For now, I have to take two SAT IIs in October because I wasn’t entirely informed about the college process until my junior year. You can imagine how it’s been slightly stressful.</p>

<p>There are about 2500 people at my school. It’s public, but one of the better ones in the area. I am 8/530.</p>

<p>As for other safeties, does anyone have any suggestions? I’ve done more research on them but none have caught my attention thus far. I’m looking for a school with strong departments in all areas from the humanities to the sciences, a unique student body, and prefer a large city.</p>

10

<p>Look for more matches/lower reachers
Good ones for you that come to mind are Northwestern, UCLA, NYU, BC</p>

11

<p>Try UChicago… they can be pretty ‘random’ at times but at least I believe they are at least easier than HYPS. Northwestern is excellent as well..</p>

12

<p>Yeah, I’m definitely looking at UChicago.
Still a lot of indecision, though. Do I apply EA to UChi and MIT or SCEA Yale?
Which one would be more worth it?</p>

13

<p>I did EA UChi with MIT (accepted UChicago/deferred –> rejected for MIT). Personally, I feel Yale is less optimistic than UChicago/MIT combo though.</p>

<p>I think if you want to be more “conservative” you should try to EA as many schools as possible (like it’s possible to do UChicago, MIT, Caltech). But the same goes I know many people who did SCEA and still got into Stanford or deferred then got in, so it’s hard to say. I’m usually more conservative on issues like this so I tend not to not want to SCEA.</p>