Chance me at Harvard? I need advice.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Class of ’11, rising senior.
Private, Catholic high school
California
Asian (Filipino) male</p>

<p>GPA:
3.74, unweighted (is that going to be the death of me?)
4.63, weighted
Top 10%, if not 5%
Courseload: all Honors/APs, save for religion/choir
Grades: all As, save for a couple Bs</p>

<p>SAT: 720 Writing, 680 Math, 610 Reading; 2010 (will retake in October)
SAT IIs: Bio-M 760, Math-2 710 (will retake in November, along with Spanish Lang and English Lang)</p>

<p>AP:
(sophomore) World History – 3
(junior) Spanish Lang – expect a 5
(junior) US History – expect a 4
(junior) English Lang – expect a 5
(junior) Biology – expect a 4
(junior) Calc AB – expect a 4
(junior) Music Theory – expect a 5
(senior) Euro History
(senior) English Lit
(senior) Physics C
(senior) Calc BC
(senior) Comp Sci B</p>

<p>Awards:
Departmental award in Spanish (2 years)
Principal’s Honor Roll (6 semesters)
Membership, National Honors Society
Membership, California Scholarship Federation
Membership, National Society of High School Scholars</p>

<p>EC:
Piano (~13 years)
Concert/Chamber choir (2 years, section leader)
Jazz choir (3 years, section leader)
Musical theatre
Tutoring (math, English, Spanish)
AMC (American Mathematics Contest, 2 years)</p>

<p>Community service: Second Harvest Food bank, assorted agencies for families in poverty, piano accompaniment for church choirs, academic decathlon</p>

<p>Work experience: child care provider, tutor</p>

<hr>

<p>I know my SAT score is pretty low, but is an SAT score of 2300 or above absolutely necessary to even be considered at Harvard? Should I try taking the ACT?</p>

<p>Am I way in over my head here?</p>

2

<p>You’re a fair bit in over your head as I see it, but that’s no reason to stop trying. Aim for above 2300 if you can, try the ACT, but it’ll be a little suspect if you omit your SAT score and you come from California.</p>

<p>To put it into sobering (but not discouraging) perspective, this guy didn’t even get into Harvard, from much the same background (half-Asian from CA): <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/778648-harvard-yale-princeton-stanford.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/778648-harvard-yale-princeton-stanford.html&lt;/a&gt; [he did get into Princeton though, if you’re willing to settle ;)]</p>

<p>So don’t get your hopes up, but don’t get them down, and work your ass off as hard as you possibly can.</p>

3

<p>I’m afraid your GPA and SAT put you pretty much out of the league of Harvard.</p>

4

<p>sorry to bum you out, but your grades are very low for harvard standards.
you need to be in the top 1 percent of your class, if anything.
and you don’t have many awards/ec…you’re kind of ordinary.</p>

5

<p>Yes, that is christiansoldier.</p>

6

<p>At Hellokitty93… I do not think his grades are average. His SAT surely is.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you, you are doing great.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>…</p>

<p>You don’t need many awards, although they certainly help… It is the dedication you have for your activities and the interactions between you and your community.</p>

7

<p>“I’m afraid your GPA and SAT put you pretty much out of the league of Harvard.”
Really? We don’t know much about him, except for the stuffs he posted. There are people with much lower stats who get admitted to HYPMS because of some special qualifications (ex: unusual backgrounds, experiences…). That being said I see the point of chancing at the most competitive schools virtually useless, since admissions come down to those stuff beyond stats. It’s impossible to tell chances based on stats alone.</p>

8

<p>Oh yeah, intenex. That reminds me: Damn you, Harvard.</p>

9

<p>I agree with tutydau that admissions decisions cannot be made on stats alone. However, your unweighted GPA is rather low for Harvard standards. Most successful applicants have a 3.9+. Your SAT Subject tests are on par, but you’ll need 700+ on each section of the SAT, which you’re more than capable of doing. Make sure that your passion in your extracurriculars comes across on your application, and remember that a killer essay goes a long way. Best wishes!</p>

10

<p>Its harvard so about 7%</p>

11

<p>It was exactly 6.9% this year. Very daunting</p>

12

<p>Dude, sometimes the huge reputation at Harvard and its stuck up image makes it very loathsome. :(</p>