Chance Me: chess nerd! - Harvard University, Carleton, Dartmouth

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics Korean International

  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): One of the top international schools in Thailand.
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Korean
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): - Ranked among top out of 100million on chess.com
  • International Master title in chess. (usually takes 10 years + to get for most, have been playing for 5 years).

Intended Major(s) English Literature

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: N/A
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 3.82/4.0 (Got a 3.21 freshmen and upwards trend. Had to help look after family.)
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1590 on the SAT

Coursework
IB Diploma:
IB Lang Lit HL
IB Maths AI HL
IB Psychology HL
IB BIology SL
IB Spanish B SL (Skipped 2 years of Spanish)
IB Business SL

Awards

  • Within Top 25 out of 100million chess.com, best chess player in the country, 90% winrate
  • International Master title + 25x 1st place certificate for FIDE online tournaments
  • International Psychology Olympiad Bronze Medalist + 4th globally as a team
  • Immerse Essay COmp. Won scholarship for summer camp at Oxford/Cambridge out of 5k ppl.
  • School English Medal - awarded to 1 per grade

Extracurriculars
Co-Founder of a game Club (Chess club at school)
Founder of a Chess Society (90 members, tutored members, shared passion for chess)
Author of a published chess book
Founder of a tutoring org to tutor underprivileged children from Chiang Mai and Bangladesh
Author of personal blog with 700k+ words about literature + history
Paid Intern for a tiktok college influencer with 100k followers
Reporter of a youth magazine
Captain of Varsity Rugby
Soloist at Chamber orchestra + Concertmaster of school orchestra
Leader of the Link Crew Team

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Essay 8.5-9/10: Showed compassion and how I overcame my selfishness . Taught Burmese Child the violin but at the end did not give him the violin he requested. He never came back. :frowning:
LORs: IB English Teacher: 9/10: A great teacher who likes to talk about classical literature with me
IB Maths teacher: 8/10 Recieved a C+ for first test eventually need up with an A on the course. Showed growth and passion for maths

Cost Constraints / Budget Need Aid
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

Schools
Reaches:
Harvard
Dartmouth
Carleton

Targets:
Washington and Lee
Grinnell
Hamilton
Colorado College

Likely:
U Richmond

Safeties:
Denison

Wrote an optional essay on chess for Harvard. Would most likely achieve a rating of 1 for Harvard’s Extracurricular scale due to chess abilities. Statisically 48%admit chance for those receiving an 1 on EC scale

Submitted arts supplement (visual arts + violin) for all colleges.

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What info did you provide to corroborate your exceptional chess skills? LOR, links to news articles, awards in additional info?

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How much aid do you need? That will be your biggest stumbling block at most these schools assuming you need big $$.

I imagine if you are a chess master that will raise eyebrows. How will you price this ?

And why didn’t you list schools that are need blind and meet need for Intl including Bowdoin, Yale, Princeton, Amherst (and MIT).

Outside of your first year you seem strong and if you can prove it, you bring a level of excellence few have.

That said I’m not sure your targets are targets for anyone, not to mention all are need aware. Will they deem you a worthy investment ?

Good luck to you.

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Hi I elaborated on my chess skills via my awards and essay.

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Should I write to Harvard/ other colleges to add additional proof of my chess skills?

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Thank you for your response! Amherst was one of my dream colleges for a long while as with Yale and Princeton. I did not write them as our school limits our application to 10 colleges. Additionally, as my GPA isn’t the best, I ruled out Princeton and Amherst. My counselor told me W&L was a safe target for me and that all of the other colleges I applied to were fine.

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With respect to your actual college choice and your intended major, the comments in these articles may be of interest:

You will be regarded as an interesting candidate at all of your potential choices. Best of luck to you.

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Safe if you can afford. Otherwise not safe.

You said need aid. How much ?

They will decide if you are safe based on what you cost them. That’s where a need aware school has risk. Even Dennison will bounce you if you need too much. Hendrix just bounced a top performer, noted on here, who could pay more than half. Another rejected too but said will accept if can commit to a certain $$ level. That’s need aware.

Is chess.com a known barometer of competitive chess?? If so how will they know?

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As a comment on your chess experience, you do not appear to have mentioned much about your over-the-board accomplishments. This aspect may be especially important in the current atmosphere of controversy in online chess.

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If you are an IM, you must have a FIDE rating and won at several events where IM title norms are available. If Harvard looks you up on the FIDE system, will they find you there?

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First of all, you sound like a great candidate, with an amazing record, who is definitely qualified to be admitted anywhere. I wish you had found us earlier. The most important piece of info that you gave us is that you need money. The few liberal arts colleges that are need-blind for international students would have been your best shot.

Don’t assume a 1 for ECs at Harvard. My kid had taken not one but two first places in two major international competitions for their instrument before the pandemic put a stop to competitions, plus had an incredible record of having attended for all four years of high school three of the most-prestigious pre-college conservatory programs (for the last two years, two at a time), plus having played with one of the top ten in the country school ensembles for all four years of high school, not to mention volunteering, charity work, and pandemic zoom volunteer work with younger music students. And yet, they received a 2 rating in ECs.

You will probably get rejected by Harvard and Dartmouth. You will probably get accepted to Carleton and the rest of your list. You will also probably not get enough financial aid awarded to be able to attend any of them, unless your family is ready to pay, say, 60K of the list price of 85K. Of the very few schools that are need blind for int’l students, I think you had a shot at Amherst and Bowdoin, but it’s too late to apply for them this year.

Honestly, I don’t know what to tell you. Having gone to high school in Thailand, I am sure that you’re not prepared for the incredible competition to get into South Korean universities. I also assume that you’re not a Thai citizen, and that college in Thailand isn’t an appropriate and affordable option for you. If these are still possible for you, I suggest that you move ahead on applying there.

Another possibility is for you to apply to schools that have later application deadlines and MAY offer you enough aid to be able to attend, since you are such an attractive candidate. Other people on this forum may be able to give some names.

If none of these things come through, you might want to consider a gap year doing something that would be very impressive to schools, and re-apply next summer for entering in Sept '24, and include Amherst and Bowdoin on your list.

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If you want a 1 rating at Harvard, you’re going to need multiple awards from international chess competitions + some media features that attest to your abilities + perhaps even a LOR from some sort of mentor that can contextualize these achievements because you are an international applicant. Playing chess as a hobby and playing competitively are two very different things. You don’t get a 1 for being really really good at your pastime; Harvard wants to make sure you’re going to be a grandmaster or something

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You can email the regional admissions rep for the colleges you have applied to and let them know this as additional information. Keep it brief, but also provide something verifiable. Do it asap.

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Why would you say the OP would be under-funded for most of the schools on his list? It seems the majority of the colleges to which the OP has applied meet the full demonstrated financial need of all attending students, irrespective of national origin. Need-blind admission policies, such as at the alternative colleges you mentioned, are irrelevant to this provision.

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Op wrote need aid but hasn’t defined the level.

Yea if schools accept him/her they’ll cover need but if they are aware and the requirement is too high they’ll just reject

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This student did not indicate how much aid is needed.

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You are correct. I edited that aspect of my post.

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Regarding your difficulty categories, @Ailerii, it’s uncertain to me whether Carleton represents a more challenging admission prospect than schools such as W&L, CC and Grinnell.

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I can afford 10-20k per year and I also informed my counselor. he seems pretty knowledgeable as our school sends at least 2-5 ppl to ivy leagues/t20s every year. I already got admitted with a near full scholarship to Wabash via concourse so I will be attending there if I do not receive a good financial package. Chess.com is the most played chess website. In addition to it, I have a international master title which is rarely achieved.

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An interntioanl master is pretty close to a grandmaster. Addiitonaly I have games where I have beaten GMs.