Chance me for Duke ED, Johns Hopkins, UChicago, Northwestern

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi,
I'm going to be a senior after the summer. I'm a Chinese citizen living in Shanghai, but I've attended international schools all my life. My parents are considered highly educated (Ph.D, Masters) and we are middle class in the US and upper middle class in China. I plan on majoring in something biology related. I want to know my chances at the following schools:</p>

<p>Duke (ED)
Johns Hopkins
UChicago
Northwestern
Berkely
Cornell
also, any chance at HYP (ED or EA)</p>

<p>Here are my Stats:
SAT I 2360 (superscored) 800CR, 800 Writing, 760 Math
2320 (highest single sitting) 780CR, 740 Math, 800 Writing
SAT II 790 US History
790 Biology
760 Math II
AP Psych, AP Bio, AP Language and Composition, AP US History, all 5's
I have a 4.09 UW GPA (our school does not weigh GPA) and I think I'm the top student in my grade (our school doesn't officially rank either)
I also took the most challenging honors math courses
Next year, I plan to take AP French (I have been learning French for 3 years already), AP Calculus BC, and AP Literature</p>

<p>EC's
In China, there are very few internship or volunteer opportunities open to high schoolers, so my EC's may not be so good. Please keep in mind that I live in China. Here goes:</p>

<p>President and Founder of a Volunteer Club
Extensive Volunteer work at orphanages, elderly homes, and mentally disabled institutions
Treasurer of School's Mu Alpha Theta club
VP of School's English Honor Society (kind of still in process of forming)
2 years in Model United Nations and participation in nationwide MUN conference
2nd place winner of a national science competition (the regional qualification round for ISEF in China)
3 years on the cross country team (3rd place team citywide)
1yr in Varsity Track and Field
1yr in JV volleyball
1 yr Student council rep
2nd place in school French competition and other various school awards, including for sports (running, high jump) and academics (honor rolls)
Internship at one of the biggest hospitals in Shanghai
Internship at Tongji University (famous Univ in Shanghai) to do lab work and rec from lab director(who used to be a professor at Lehigh Univ)</p>

<p>I got recs from my bio teacher, my history teacher, and the lab professor. They should be pretty good. I have to work on writing good essays, but I think I'm a pretty good writer.</p>

<p>The dilemma I'm facing now is the cost of college education for international students. My family can afford to pay full tuition, but in no way is it easily affordable. My parents want me to attend HKU in Hong Kong, which is ranked 23rd or so in the world and around 20% the cost of American schools. However, I have worked my entire life, dreamed my entire life, of going to an American college. I know that HKU is a good univ, that I could probably get in, and that it would be much easier for my family, but I want to go to the US. I know that if I insist on going to the US and if I get into a good US college, my parents would definitely let me attend. The idea right now is that if I don't get into a top tier US college, like the ones listed above, that I go to HKU. I really want to know now, can I? Please chance me! And even if I do, is it worth it? Or should I attend HKU instead?</p>

<p>Also, I would like to know. Do my nationality and ethnicity and general background help or hinder my chances?</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>International status/ethnicity hurt your chances. It would only help if you were from a more obscure country. Also Financial Aid you apply for would be taken into consideration for the decision for internationals. Duke ED is a good choice as it has a good ED acceptance rate and is well within your range. HYP given your background/ethnicity will be significantly tougher. But the other schools within your list are well within range.</p>

3

<p>Thank you for your reply. What do you think my chances for Duke Regular Decision are? Should I directly apply ED to Duke or ED an HYP and RD Duke, just so that I have made my HYP shot and won’t have regrets? However, I do want to be accepted by Duke, and if most likely I’ll get accepted ED but rejected RD, I think I would apply ED.</p>

4

<p>While ED can help, you might want to focus on merit money/scholarships eith a lot of RD decisions. Honestly, i think youre capable of getting into duke RD. But because HYP accept so few, maybe you should consider REA to Princeton, EA to Harvard, or EA to Yale. For those, if you get in you don’t have to go (but still can let them know by may 1). In short, I’d bet that you’d get accepted to duke RD because of your great stats and volunteering (son you don’t really need the Ed bump) so if you want that slightly better chance at a HYP (EA doesn’t help as much as ED, but it still shows interest and helps a bit at most schools) I’d recommend doing that. If you get accepted then, you can always apply to Duke and then a slightly less prestigious school and hope for a scholarship and decide if you want the Ivy, Duke, or the full ride. In short, I’d be shocked if you got denied from duke, so give an early boost to a HYP.</p>

5

<p>I would definately apply EA to a HYP and or ED to another ivy (if thats what you want). It seems like you could get into duke RD , great internships, stats, etc, so if you want the early boost try an Ivy (HYP) or columbia has ED if you really want the ivy league with a big early boost.JjHop, UC, and NW should probably accept you because of your amazing stats and all, the only one I could see denying you is jhop just because they take 50% of their class Ed.</p>

6

<p>I find it strange that people are easily predicting acceptance letters from Duke and Northwestern simply out of numbers. Duke’s acceptance rate for 2015 was 12.6%; Northwestern’s was 18%. These figures surely aren’t comparable to Harvard’s 6.2%. But considering Harvard’s acceptance rate for the Class of 2002 was just above 12%, what makes you think that it’s so easy to say “I’d be shocked if you got denied from Duke”?</p>

<p>Northwestern is a bit easier to say that for, but it’s admit rate has dropped like 10% in the past two years. The people who get in and the people who don’t may/will surprise some people. Besides my own high school’s host of surprises (Harvard, Dartmouth, UPenn, Columbia, etc. bound people all didn’t get into Northwestern), here are some examples of people who you might expect to get in but didn’t.</p>

<p>Waitlist</p>

<p>ACT: 34
SAT II: 760, 780, 790
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 97/100ish
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 2%</p>

<p>Reject</p>

<p>SAT I (breakdown): 2310 [750R, 770M, 790W]
SAT II: 790 Bio, 760 Chem, 800 MathII
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.6
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 10%</p>

<p>Waitlist</p>

<p>SAT I (breakdown): 2320
ACT: 34
SAT II: Bio – 800, Chem – 760, Math Level 2 – 730, U.S. Hist - 700
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.2 (weighted)</p>

<p>Reject</p>

<p>SAT I (breakdown): 2340 CR (780), Math (800), Wr (760)
ACT: N/A
SAT II: Bio (770), Math II (800), USH (790)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.6614 (Weighted. I don’t know the unweighted.)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 2?/~500</p>

<p>As for OP, I’m not sure you should expect merit money, especially cause everyone at that level performs and achieves at such outstanding levels. I’m not sure about how good the schools are for financial aid, but remember that the UC system is bleeding (10% tuition hike recently). Northwestern maintains their spiel of “we match 100% of need” but that’s the need that THEY determine. One girl chose Swarthmore over NU cause Swarthmore wanted her to pay $5k a year but NU wanted $19k.</p>

<p>You mentioned few details about what kind of school you want to go to, other than it being top tier. Each of these schools has a vastly different atmosphere. For example, Cornell seems to be dumped in the middle of nowhere. Duke’s surrounding town is a dump in the middle of nowhere. Northwestern is cold and depressing. HYP are all very pompous. Berkeley is cloudy 90% of the time and cut-throat competitive (I know this as a fact). UChicago is a social joke (not because I’m a NU student). You should be considering these types of things, since the essay will be damn important. Northwestern’s President stated that he wanted students that really wanted to go to his school. I imagine it’d be the same for the rest of the schools on your list.</p>

7

<p>Cubecul stole the words straight out of my mouth…</p>

8

<p>Cubecul- those people don’t have the same type of ECs though, internships are great. I can’t guarantee admission, but let’s be honest, the OPs stats are competitive, very competitive. The OPs stats are very impressive, and to have interesting internships on top of them, he/she is very competitive for NU and Duke along with the HYPCs, especially if he/she writes good essays and has a good rec. Stats aren’t the only thing that matter, but they obviously help.</p>

9

<p>I absolutely agree. But my experience with my salutatorian and close friend getting acceptances to 15 out of 16 schools and that rejection coming from Northwestern is compelling enough for me to say that you can’t expect anything anymore. Half of me wants to suggest not submitting the optional Duke essay just to remove one risk.</p>

10

<p>Ya the Op would be a solid applicant at a Duke or NU RD, along with a HYP EA or Columbia ED. Obviously we are not ad coms, but based off stats threads the op is competitive, very competitive with good stats and unique ECs. Anything can happen in the college admissions game though, but applying to Ivys EA and then Duke NU Jhop, UC, etc RD I’d say then could get into a few of them, if not a lot of them. </p>

<p>And less risk is good I guess, maybe that’s why your friend was denied, a bad why NU essay?</p>