Chance Me: c/o 2024 Social/Public Policy Major

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • Gender: Male
  • Race/Ethnicity: Asian (Pakistani)
  • Residence: Georgia
  • Income Bracket: >150k
  • Type of School: Mid-competitive public
  • Hooks: Legacy at Northwestern

Intended Major(s): Social/Public Policy

Intended Schools: (plan on shotgunning, but these are the main schools I’m applying to)

  • Northwestern ED
  • Emory ED II
  • UGA
  • Georgia State
  • Amherst College EA
  • UC Berkeley

Academics

  • GPA (UW/W): 92 UW / 97 W
    • (class per semester grades): 36 A’s + 14 B’s + 1 C
  • Rank: Not disclosed except for Valedictorian/Salutatorian

Courseload

  • MS: 9th Lit. H, Geometry/Algebra II H, Physical Science H, French 1, Health
  • Freshmen Year: Chamber Orchestra, Introduction to Law (Law Pathway Elective), Forensics (Law Pathway Elective), 10th Lit. H, Biology H, Precalculus H, Chemistry, AP Physics 1
  • Sophmore Year: Chamber Orchestra, AP Calc BC, AP Gov., APWH, AP Biology, 11 Lit. H, French 3 H
  • Junior Year: Chamber Orchestra, AP Seminar, AP Statistics, APUSH, APCSP, AP Psych, APES, AP HUG, French 4H, ENG1101 DE
  • Senior Year: Chamber Orchestra, DE Multivariable Calculus, AP Physics C, AP Computer Science A, AP Lit, AP Micro/Macro, AP European History

Standardized Testing

  • SAT: 1520 Superscore → 780 M / 740 V
  • ACT: 33 (Forgot Breakdown)
  • AP/IB: One 5, Three 3’s, One 2 (Retaking one of the 3’s and the 2)

Extracurriculars/Activities

  1. Non-Profit Founder that worked with State candidates from Insurance Commissioner of the state to County Soil and Water Supervisor; has a following of ~3k for the Org; 30 officers across the three largest counties in the state with ~200 members. We went door-to-door spreading information about our organization, and the information we got from interviewing several elected officials and candidates; we reached several hundred households across the state. Then, we started working with three of the state’s most prominent Muslim voter organizations (since I am Muslim); later this month, we will be beginning voter drive training and registrations in the schools we’re involved in and working with inner-city students to help increase voter participation and civic engagement in their schools. We will hold a public forum/town hall for municipal officials running for election in a few months.
  2. Future Business leaders of America Chapter Vice President: bringing in professionals to work with members such as the mayor to give business and stock investment advice; give resume workshops and run Stock Market simulations for members; raise >1k in profit for the club in Chick-Fil-A food sales during school
  3. Model UN President for a team that placed in national and state-wide conferences
  4. Debate and Speech Vice President for a team that also placed in international, national, and state-wide tournaments
  5. Violin since 7th grade; All-State Orchestra; Year-Long State Level Orchestra; Chamber Orchestra all 4 years of HS; Currently ranked 3rd in entire orchestra program; Elected president for my orchestra; will be auditioning for Emory University youth orchestra this year.
  6. Shadowing a Chick-Fil-A executive and a Data Analysis Company VP to learn about business management
  7. Accepted for Boys State Program this coming Summer
  8. Officer for Muslim Student Association (will most likely be president next school year); planning to speak at city’s annual 9/11 memorial; will be speaking at a TEDX event on Islam in America
  9. Schools Spike Ball Club President + Founder; will be competing in the state tournament with other schools in a month
  10. Either VP or President (interview will decide) for a non-profit org. chapter at school targeted at Pediatric Cancer Awareness; has raised over 2k for the cause; several charity events and planning on organizing a concert with my non-profit in the Summer.
  11. Volunteered at a local Islamic School and Mosque with tutoring and assisting with Sunday School, accumulating ~100 hours
  12. Will be working under the local college department chair of Political Science for a new course coming in the Fall Semester, Helping with forming a reading list; etc.
  13. Worked under a new media organization by Muslim college students by making scripts for videos/TikToks addressing Islamic news in the ME, US, and worldwide that amassed hundreds of thousands of views/likes/and followers with a collective of +250k followers on all platforms.
  14. Working on writing and recording a podcast with a classmate on bite-size episodes (5-10 minutes) on Spotify on US Politics and SCOTUS news/cases.
  15. (possibly doing an internship with a firm through the ATL Bar Association; I will find out mid-April)

Awards/Honors

  1. AP Scholar Award
  2. Emory Univerity National Model UN Conference - 2nd Place
  3. State-Level Model UN Conference - 1st Place
  4. National-Level Debate Tournament - 3rd
  5. National Merit Scholar Commended
  6. President’s Volunteer Service Award - Gold
  7. State-Level All-State Full Orchestra for Violin 9/10

Extenuating Circumstances

I was diagnosed with a chronic illness in December. I have been battling severe symptoms since my sophomore year, which caused me to do poorly academically (most of my B’s are from then) since my digestive system was severely inflamed. I am now medicated and in remission, but Chron’s Disease negatively affected my academic performance. I will use my position in the Cancer Awareness non-profit to raise awareness for my illness and show that I am growing from that.

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Based on your academic interests, this site may help you refine your choices:

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Below are my very fallible guesses as to what your chances for admission might be at these colleges.

Extremely Likely (80+%)

  • Georgia State

Likely (60-79%)

  • U. of Georgia

Toss-Up (40-59%)

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Northwestern ED
  • Emory ED II

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Amherst
  • UC - Berkeley

I see you’ve shared your family has an income in excess of $150k, but what is the budget? Is your family willing and able to pay $80k or more/year for your college expenses? Some schools’ cost-of-attendance (COA) are now approaching $90k. Additionally, is your family willing and able to pay $72k/year or so for UC - Berkeley? Although it has a well-respected name, it’s still a large bureaucratic university and there are those who feel that if very large of sums of money are going to be spent, they’d prefer to spend them elsewhere.

Would you be happy to attend Georgia State? How you would you feel if it’s your only acceptance? If you would be happy to attend Georgia State, then that’s great. If not, I’d suggest you look for some other schools that are extremely likely to grant you acceptance, be affordable, and that you would be happy to attend. If you need any suggestions of schools, let us know.

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I think you have a shot at Northwestern ED and with the legacy hook that is what I would go for.

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Would retaking my SAT for a higher score (1550+) get me into a toss-up for NU ED II? Would a compelling essay pull me into a toss-up or likely for NU, when added to my stats and ECs?

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When I put percentages by the categories, those are not an exact science; it’s just to give a frame of reference as to what I mean by those terms. I am not an admissions officer. Neither I, nor probably anybody else, can tell you that you have a 43% chance of being accepted here or a 38% chance of being accepted there.

Your 1520 SAT score is going to put you in the competition for an admit to any of your schools. A 1550 would not make a difference. It’s more of a minimum bar that needs to be reached, and you have reached it. The school will look at your entire application (and your essays) and ALSO look at its institutional priorities. Does it need more males? Does it already have enough people from Georgia? Does it need more people for its debate team, or have they already picked enough people to fill the number of slots they needed? Those answers could end up being answered in your favor, or maybe not in your favor. It will have nothing to do with the strength of your application. Obviously, your essays will be important. If you phone it in, they will likely be able to tell and that will hurt you. But if you turn in good essays, then it’s just a matter of having put yourself into contention.

Northwestern’s ED acceptance rate was 24% and Emory’s was 26% (source), at least based on the 2021-2022 Common Data Sets…but there’s a good chance those percentages have gone down in the most recent cycles. Most students only apply to these caliber schools if they think they have a legitimate shot of acceptance. I think you do have a legitimate shot of acceptance. But beyond that, it’s just a guessing game, in my opinion.

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Thank you for your response! I plan on applying to their School of Education and Social Policy, which is predominantly female, so I feel like I would have a leg up. But then again, no one really knows what they are looking for each cycle.

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Just an fyi - Amherst has ED and RD, but not EA. You may have confused it with UMASS which is in Amherst and does have EA.

I think both Ga State and UGA are ins and both very good in the area (looks like at UGA would be a poli sci major)- and the rest are crapshoots - but why not you?

I hate to say a 1520 isn’t enough because it likely is - but in the last CDS the 75th % was 1550 so maybe worth it.

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Would getting to a 1550 take my application over the edge or would it not have too much of an effect? I still plan to retake my SAT in June but I want to know what I should be aiming for.

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