CHANCE ME - Asian Male School President and Triple Varsity Athlete

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics: Male, Asian, Northeast

private school → At least 25-30% of kids go to T-20s (we had like 10 Cornells last year), no Hooks

Intended Major(s):

History, Religious Studies

ACT/SAT/SAT II: ACT: 35 1st take in Sophomore Summer

UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.3smth W (no GPA or Class Rank officially sent to schools but the Councselor will calculate one for you → this is relatively high I would assume it’s like top 10 idk ) - School doesn’t have AP Humanities classes

Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc

Def one of the most rigorous possible, took 6 majors for three years when the norm is 5

10th Grade

Comp Sci - 5

11th Grade:

Post AP Comp Sci

Calc BC, Spanish - 5

Chem, English Lang (self-studied) - 4

APUSH (self-studied) - 3

12th Grade:

Physics, Multivariable Calc/ Linear Algebra, Modern European History, Post APCS

Awards:

Ap Scholar with Distinction

All League Award in Sport 1

Didn’t list on the Common App but History publication

Extracurriculars (Not really ordered after 4, diff order on the common app):

  1. School President 4 years on Student Government
  2. Research - 1 paper published in history journal, 1 paper was reviewed by professors through a service called “National Writing Board” - got an A
  3. Photography - have an Instagram Account with 45k followers
  4. 4 yr Varsity Sport - played my whole life, 4 year starter, All League Award, state chip
  5. 3 yr Varsity Sport - picked up in Middle School, JV Captain, then 3 year varsity Starter
  6. 3 yr Varsity Sport - learned during COVID, might be captain (haven’t voted yet, spring sport as well so it doesn’t rlly matter for college)
  7. App Design - Coded an App for the school
  8. Mentoring/ volunteer work - Spent two summers, 45 hrs a week for 4 weeks
  9. Tour ppl @ school
  10. Club Founder/ Leader: not going to dox myself, it’s a decently popular thing/ event we host during the holidays

Essays/LORs/Other:

Essays: I think my essays are pretty good - I know everyone says this but i’ve showed them to my counselor who thinks they’re on the better side compared to others @ school

LOR:

10/10 Spanish Teacher → they showed me their rec letter, called me “one of the best students he’s ever had”

7/10 English Teacher → kinda mid, they will write well about me but nothing insanely good

8/10 Counselor → probably pretty good, we talk about sports a lot and he seems to like me

Schools:

REA Yale (this was lowkey a mistake in hindsight, my top choice has always been Dartmouth, should’ve applied ED there)

EA:

UNC, UVA, UMich, Purdue

Reg:

Brown

Columbia

Dartmouth

Harvard

Princeton

UChicago

UPenn

Cornell

Amherst

Duke

JHU

Stanford

WashU

Williams

** I know my college list is pretty crazy compared to the average but this is pretty realistic for ppl at my school → i’m so thankful for my parents for paying for me like damn, my safeties r dream schools. If you’ve made it this far, Thanks a lot for taking the time! If you’re like me and stressing about college, you’ll do great bro! You got this. I will update once I get these decisions back as well, thanks for all the help!**

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Between your observations of recent peer graduates and GC recommendations you have far greater insight than anyone here will have. At a school such as yours with your excellent stats and credentials it will come down to LORs and other graduating students. Was your GC supportive of this list?

Schools claim not to have limits on how many kids they accept from one HS but that rule has soft limits. (I know you mentioned 10 acceptances to Cornell but they assume yield attrition. Yale won’t make that same assumption). For example if your graduating class has 2 committed Yale athletes, a highly qualified URM student and 2 big donor legacies all applying REA your chances are a lot less then other scenarios. I am sure you are fully aware of who is doing what as kids at schools such as you describe are tactical so you tell us.

Obviously you are competitive so congratulations and I wish you well but any specific predictions would be uninformed. Based on what you have written you will get into some of the single digits but GC knows best.

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Thank you so much for your response! Appreciate it!

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A bit hard to understand your GPA - but given you’re at a private school that is placing strongly, talk to your GC… You have a strong background - 3 sports - wow.

You’ll certainly get into Purdue - not sure how it fits the profile of the rest as it’s more known for the sciences. But hopefully you get into more. Your counselor can tell you but if you think you’re top 10 at a tippy top school, then you sort of know you’ll do well.

Good luck.

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Which of your EA schools will notify you before your RD deadlines? Yale certainly will, but Michigan recently has been going into January or later.

In other words, if Yale defers, do you have any guaranteed acceptances by 12/20 or so? If not, that’s a pretty terrifying prospect where you are not in anywhere, and your RD list is all reaches.

When my children applied 3+ years ago, Michigan accepted them in December, so they had a very solid base before RD admissions were due. Both went elsewhere, but that acceptance removed a lot of pressure. If they didn’t get into any of their EA/ED schools, I would have added our state flagship for RD.

What I am getting at is that while you are an excellent candidate, none of your RD schools are guaranteed acceptances. Think of each of them as rolling a pair of dice. You get into Harvard if you roll a 11 or 12. Williams requires 10 or higher, whereas Dartmouth requires 8 or higher.

The analogy is not exact because admission decisions are not fully independent. But thinking of it this way is useful, as it suggests that while you are likely to get into multiple RD schools, there is a small chance you will get rejected by all of them. We see these “rejected by everywhere” postings every year here on CC by some very strong applicants. It’s heartbreaking, and we don’t want to see yours in the spring.

To avoid that nightmare scenario, I would recommend removing a few reaches (14 RD applications is too many IMO), and add more colleges that are higher chances of admissions where you would be willing to attend. Work with your GC on that.

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Congrats on your achievements.

I defer to your HS GC regarding chances. It does look like you took the top ranked schools to develop your list, rather than thinking deeply about fit.

Have you visited these school in person, or done virtual admissions sessions? I do think you will get in to Purdue but IU is a better choice for history (IMO). I might swap out Bowdoin for Williams or Amherst…they want more Asian males.

How are you doing on all these apps? It is a lot of essays, all of which must be excellent. Do not wait until you hear from Yale to complete these. Beyond that you might pare down the list.

You won’t hear from any school besides Yale before the holidays. You might consider applying to a rolling admissions school like IU or Pitt (although that’s getting tight to hear before the holidays too). You might also consider ED2 somewhere, but that won’t work if Dartmouth is your top choice.

Good luck.

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Seems like the kind of high school which has dedicated college counselors who can better assess your chances. But also pay attention to how many go to T-20s without being hooked, since many of these kinds of private high schools have lots of hooked students who are encouraged to apply where their hooks help.

Also, what is your safety plan if you get shut out of your reachy list?

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What is your state flagship? Is it one of your EA schools? Agree with @hebegebe, getting in somewhere that works academically and financially before year end is key. My kids were lucky enough to get into our flagship, so they were able to apply RD to all reaches. Otherwise, they had backups that were safety/low matches.

Agree with @Mwfan1921, you have to write too many essays. Your temptation will be to recycle essays so the overall quality will be adversely affected. Pick your top 3 to 5 RD schools and focus on customizing your essays there, then move on to the next 3 to 5 batch.

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I’m in NY so probably Binghampton. I’ve already finished 14 of my essays because I started in the summer so it’s not much of an issue timing wise.

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You’re right about how my RD list is all reaches, but I think that since I’m applying to so many and i’ve finished 14 of my 21 essays already because I started during the summer, it hopefully will work out better.
Do you have any suggestions for where I should apply? My current thinking is that if I get deferred from Yale I should continue with this list, however, If i’m rejected, I should apply to some schools that are close to guaranteed admission.

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As far as our admissions data, students with my stats and demographics typically do very well for a lot of schools on my list: my EA schools for example haven’t denied anyone with my GPA in the past 4 years and Wisconsin Madison, although i’m not applying there, has never denied an applicant.

My safety plan would probably be to do a Post Graduate somewhere and reapply I guess, or, take a forced gap year and reapply.

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My kids go to a private school with a similar matriculation record. They still strongly advise that every student’s list is 1/3 like-lies and 1/3 targets. I think you need to add some of each to your list.

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I’ve finished 14/21 of the applications since I started during the summer. I think swapping out a liberal arts college for Bowdoin would be a good choice.

For me, i’m the least picky person ever, i’ll eat anything you put in front of me - in other words, every single school i’ve visited/ done an online-info session with, i’ve loved. That’s why i’ve picked based on Rankings and not fit, every school, open curriculum, core curriculum, urban, rural, i’ve liked.

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Thank you! I actually never really considered talking to my counselor about my chances as a whole. The GPA is weird at my school, and since we don’t release class rankings it’s hard to figure out where I stand among others. But, we release admissions data for each school with their GPA and test score. Looking at applications for just Yale, we’ve had around 15 applicants with a 4.3 or higher in the past 4 years (which is why I assume i’m at least top 10) and with students with a 4.3, half got in while half were denied (no hooks).

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This is probably a much better strategy than my current list, I just subscribe to the idea that if I apply to as many of these reaches as possible, one of them might accept me, and hopefully with my EAs i’ll get into at least one of those state schools.

Where do you suggest I apply to as a “target?” I forgot to mention i’m also applying to Boston College, and i’m considering Tufts as well.

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I think Boston College would be a target, it’s acceptance rate is too low to be a sure thing even for a high stats student.

Our school considers UVA and UNC on par with the Ivies in terms of how difficult to get accepted oos over past 2 years, reach schools for all students.

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Why no ED2 schools?

If you get rejected or deferred from EA Yale, then your chances in RD are much lower. If your parents can afford (and it sounds like they can), you should strongly consider ED2. There are several schools in your RD list which also have ED2 option: UChicago, JHU, WashU.

I’m not sure a PG year will change your chances much. PG is mainly for athletes who need an extra year before starting college. If you are in contact with coaches, they will tell you if the PG route will help. Otherwise using the PG year is a really expensive option and doesn’t help much.

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If you are the least picky person ever, why are you picky about rankings when an all-reach list could result in a shutout?

Might as well throw in some SUNYs to be sure.

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But were they all hooked applicants?

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Think about Binghamton and Geneseo as safeties for you. Perhaps Kenyon or Vassar as possible or Washington & Lee as schools that are not as selective but still quite selective (i.e. they accept 20-30% of applicants vs less than 10%). Or College of the Holy Cross as a likely.

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