Chance Me For Early Action Please!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>I'm wrapping up my junior year in high school and wanted to get some input of my chances at Harvard, preferably from people who have first hand experience. My stats are below:</p>

<p>GRADES
Freshman Year
All on level classes... About 50/50 As and Bs, all "borderline"</p>

<p>Sophomore Year
2 honors, 2 APs... Again, about 50/50 As and Bs & "borderline"
3 on AP World, 4 on APCS</p>

<p>Junior Year
2 honors, 4 APs, 2 AP Self Studies
All As, in the 92-98 range
Expecting 5 on AP Stat, Macro, US History, Env. Science (Self Study)
Expecting 4 on Micro, Human Geo (self study)</p>

<p>Senior Year
Will be applying ED, so I don't think they will see any of my senior grades... my schedule for next year is: AP BC Calc, AP Lang, AP Comp. Gov., AP US Gov., AP Physics B (highest physics that school offers), Honors Spanish 4, and AP Psychology</p>

<p>TESTS
34 ACT
780 SAT Math II
740 SAT Physics
760 SAT US History</p>

<p>ECs
Varsity track, XC freshman and sophomore years
President of Investment Club Junior Year (member all 4 years)
Elected SGA Treasurer senior year
Elected to Student Leadership Council senior year
Active member in INTERACT Club (community service)
Eagle Scout
Going to Wharton's LBW summer program this summer (between junior and senior years)
Started a business (more on this below)
In the beginning process of creating a charity with dozens of other high school students from around the world
Will be inducted into 3 honor societies senior year (mu alpha theta, NHS, national history honors society)</p>

<p>ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Started tech company in 8th grade (iPhone apps)
Daily revenue has exceeded $4,000
Apps used by over 40k people daily
One app peaked at #2 in the entire Apple App Store (above Facebook, Groupon, etc.)
Over 4,000,000 downloads
Backed out of a 6-figure venture round for another company I was working on to focus more time on school
Company has been featured in New York Times and on the front page of my local newspaper
I had 2 full time employees at company's peak (have since scaled down to focus on school)
Recruited ex-CFO of major internet gaming company to sit on my board of directors
Recruited ex-SVP of business dev. at XBox Live to manage day-to-day operations of company while I was at school
Met with the CEO of Apple and two other top Apple Senior Executives</p>

<p>OTHER
Teacher recs will be awesome
Essays should be great too
Will probably get the ex-CFO that I recruited for my board to write a rec letter as well
School does not report rank/percentile (they do report mean standardized test scores though and number of APs, both of which I am in the top percentile in)
AP Scholar w/ Distinction
Received University of Rochester Xerox Award
Received $2000 Discus Scholarship for Outstanding achievement outside of the classroom
Going to Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference this summer for a week
Been in NYTimes and front page of local newspaper... Interviewed for Fox Business News & CNN (although not aired).</p>

<p>I know my grades the 1st 2 years were below average. However, and this is by no means an excuse, my company <em>was</em> taking up an incredible portion of my time then and interfered with school sometimes when I had to fly across the country to talk to CEOs of game studios about partnerships. </p>

<p>What do you think my chances are?</p>

2

<p>Well, assuming everything you said is true, you have a competitive chance.</p>

3

<p>While your company is a great story, I think you would be better served applying regular decision so that your first semester grades are part of the picture. You need to prove that your junior year grades were not a one time event.</p>

4

<p>So you think I would have a better shot at regular decision even considering the increased acceptance rate for early action? And, yes WongTongTong, everything is true haha. I’m actually at a conference right now which is where I met all of the Apple people. When you say a competitive chance, like how competitive do you mean? Do you think its 25/75, 50/50, 75/25, something else?</p>

5

<p>“Do you think its 25/75, 50/50, 75/25, something else?”</p>

<p>As so much of the application process is based upon comparing your stats, teacher recommendations and EC’s to other students, no one can say what percentage of a chance you have – and if someone did hazard a guess, they would be talking BS. Be happy knowing that you have a competitive chance! If you really want Harvard, then you should apply early. If not, then apply early somewhere else.</p>

6

<p>“When you say a competitive chance, like how competitive do you mean? Do you think its 25/75, 50/50, 75/25, something else?”</p>

<p>Nearly everyone who applies to Harvard is rejected. Roughly 19 out of 20 applicants. This past year, fewer than 6% of applicants were offered admission.</p>

<p>By “competitive,” I think most folks are saying, “Something north of 6%.”</p>

7

<p>You would be better off at Stanford or MIT…</p>

8

<p>To OP,
I really don’t understand why you want to go to college. The reason people go to college is to get better job opportunities, and you already make more money than Ivy graduates…</p>

9

<p>^maybe he/she wants to make connections? but yeah i concur on the most part</p>

10

<p>I want to go to make connections and learn more about business… If I have done this with a high school education, imagine what I could do after going to Harvard/Stanford/UPenn/Etc. No, I’m not going to help me get a job. However, going to one of these schools does give you instant credibility when you are trying to raise $1,000,000 for your next startup.</p>

11

<p><a href=“http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/fasro/courses/index.jsp?cat=ugrad&subcat=courses[/url]”>http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/fasro/courses/index.jsp?cat=ugrad&subcat=courses&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>For the record, Harvard College does not offer a major in business, nor does it have the kind of business courses you are going to find at Wharton. In addition, while Harvard has a renowned Computer Science department, it is more theoretical than at CMU or Stanford.</p>

12

<p>Zuckerberg and Gates are two of the wealthiest people in the world, and neither graduated from college.</p>

<p>If you are making $4,000 per day running your own business, I would skip college. At the end of the day, investors don’t care about your education if you have a product that can make them substantial sums of money.</p>

13

<p>You’re lucky you got tickets for WWDC. 3 hours sale out! INSANE!</p>

14

<p>^ I know haha. I actually wasn’t even planning on attending. Just got an email from Apple saying tickets were on sale while I was in class, so I left class and ordered a ticket lol. They sold out 5 minutes later. @Bill first off it <em>peaked</em> at $4k in revenue per day. It is currently not that. Secondly, that is revenue, not profit.</p>

15

<p>Do you guys think I would have a good or better shot at Stanford? I would want to apply early action if I did, so maybe someone could give me an idea of my odds for that?</p>

16

<p>^^ Only you can make that determination. Forget for the moment where you have the best shot. Instead, look at which school has the best fit. As you mentioned your app-biz, I’m assuming you are interested in computer science. So, for starters, spend an hour (or two) looking through Stanford and Harvard’s CS sites and decide which school has the most courses you would like to take – and which school would be most interested in you.</p>

<p>[Courses</a> | Stanford Computer Science](<a href=“http://cs.stanford.edu/courses]Courses”>Courses | Stanford Computer Science)
[Computer</a> Science Courses ? Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences](<a href=“http://www.seas.harvard.edu/academics/areas/computer-science-courses]Computer”>http://www.seas.harvard.edu/academics/areas/computer-science-courses)</p>

17

<p>What are the names of some of your iPhone apps? Your company?</p>