CHANCE ME for Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, MIT, Ivy League (Asian Indian)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 1580 (21 essay)
ACT (breakdown): 36 composite
SAT II: 800 Chem, 800 Math 2, 770 French
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.7
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1
AP (place score in parenthesis): European History (4), Art History (5), Biology (5), U.S. History (5), Psychology (5), Computer Science (4), Microeconomics (4), English Lang. & Comp. (5), Chemistry (5), Government & Politics (5), Calc BC (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: APES, AP Lit, AP Physics, AP Stats, AP French, AP Comp. Sci. Principles
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Society of Women Engineers Merit Award, National Merit Commended, AP Scholar with Distinction, other minor city/school/NHS awards, working on writing political opinion essay/editorial on climate change to be published somewhere (hopefully a major newspaper)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): NHS (president), Global Scholars (president/founder-3 yrs), GirlUp United Nations (Vice president), Medical Academy (president-2 yrs), CSF
Job/Work Experience: interned for MCDB lab at UCSB, intern for youth foreign policy think tank, intern for Child Poverty Research Institute
Volunteer/Community service: Started my own nonprofit company called Global Scholars- fundraised $10000 for scholarships for underprivileged high school youth, tutoring, normal community service stuff
Summer Activities: Travelled to Dominican Republic and volunteered as part of an educational initiative, GirlUp United Nations Leadership Summit in the Capitol, travelled to Iceland to study/research Climate Change with NYTimes, Harvard Pre-college Program

Applied for Financial Aid?:
Intended Major: undecided- something to do with political science/public policy, minor in environmental science or something
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Public, large
Ethnicity: Asian Indian
Gender: F
Income Bracket: Upper middle
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): N/A

2

I’m a bit surprised that nobody has chanced you yet, but it may be because it is pretty obvious that you are definitely a VERY well qualified applicant for the Ivies. Your academic qualifications are stellar (GPA, rank, SAT!!) and you have done very well on your subject tests. Additionally, your ECs are very unique and outstanding – you have done several internships (research and non-research) for companies and institutions that are related to your intended major, and you even started your own nonprofit! I would say you have great chances at the Ivy Leagues, but as always, I would not put all your eggs in one basket since Ivy League admissions are sometimes random and unpredictable. That said, I will be very surprised if you don’t get into at least a few of these schools, especially low reaches/high matches such as Cornell, Brown, and Dartmouth. I would also suggest you apply ED or SCEA to your first choice of school (if financial aid is not an issue for you). Your intended major is a bit uncommon for your demographic type, which will really appeal to places like Brown and even Yale so you may want to apply to Yale SCEA. You seem like a very promising applicant and I wish you the best of luck! I would appreciate it if you could chance me back here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1995754-chance-me-low-gpa-rank-cornell-rice-wash-u-ucla-etc-p1.html Thanks!

3

Did you not take any APs junior year?

4

The ones I took junior year I predicted my scores (the last 6). Hopefully they’re close predictions lol

5

You have a REALLY GOOD chance at these schools. The only advice I can give is not to apply undecided. Good Luck!!

Chance Back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1994591-chances-at-penn-dream-school-advice.html#latest

6

Add some UC schools for a match. Berkeley and UCLA have good public policy/political science programs.



With your grades, you will definitely have your application looked at, which means there is no guarantee of being accepted at an Ivy. With that being said, you have as good a chance as any top level applicant. South Asian female applicant not doing science/engineering or pre-med but rather political science/public policy would pique the interest of an adcom/essay reader. Work on the essays to make them interesting and unique.



I might add some more reach schools to your list like Columbia, Georgetown, Northwestern, and Tufts, as all 4 have top tier political science/public policy programs. For non-public school matches, BC, BU, George Washington, and USC Dornsife should be on your list.

7

Hamurtle’s post is spot on wrt to strong poly sci programs. You’re an excellent applicant - along with UCLA and Berkeley, apply to a third UC as a safety. I think you’ll get into one of UCLA or Berkeley and quite likely both but have a third.

I’d swap MIT with Chicago, and I really think that Georgetown has a better poly sci program than most of the ivies, except possibly HY so I would only apply to a couple of them. Your chances will be higher if you apply ED but I wouldn’t do that as you will have a lot of options by going RD. Anyway here’s my chances on the schools:

Harvard - in if SCEA, waitlist if RD (I know, w/l is not really taking a stand, but without a hook, it’s tough to predict)
Yale - in
Princeton -in
MIT - in

Stanford - waitlist, this will be your toughest college, they get tons of Asian applicants with your qualifications, esp from California, but they’re also taking more kids early, so if this is your first choice, apply SCEA

Ivies - if you apply ED to the ones that have it, you’re in. But you should get into one of Chicago, Northwestern, Tufts, Georgetown and they all have stronger poly sci programs than the non HYP ivies.

Good luck!

8

@ssm1002 You are definitely very qualified and you have really good chances of getting into all of these top schools.

Political science rankings matter but they are not the end all, especially if the difference is just a few spots on some major rankings. The top choices for politics are probably Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, but after that it becomes a bit murkier. Also many schools have top public policy majors and outside of the classroom opportunities which the polisci rankings might not capture. So make sure to look into each school holistically and comprehensively with regards to your academic interests.

Since you are interested also in public policy you should check out the Woodrow Wilson major at Princeton. This is an amazing program.
http://wws.princeton.edu/undergraduate-academics

and also this initiative at Penn.
https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu
https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/students/

9

You seem very well rounded and I’d be surprised if you didn’t make it to a top 15 school. Do update with your results and good luck!!

10

Let’s do some math. Harvard Admissions is on record as saying that 80% of applicants can do the work on their campus, and fully 40% of them are top students with exemplarily credentials.

Now, last year almost 40,000 students applied to Harvard. If 40% of them are tippy-top students, that means 16,000 students are, by Harvard’s definition, the best-of-the-best from across the country and around the world – truly stellar students with top grades, test scores, recommendations and essays. However, Harvard only has room for 1660 students in their freshman class, which means over 14,000 terrifically qualified students just like you are rejected every year! I imagine it’s the same at Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, MIT and the rest of the ivy league.

The best that can said from your post is that you are indeed a well qualified applicant. However, what chances you have at various schools is anyone’s guess, as selective college admissions is highly subjective. Best of luck to you!

11

I’d be surprised if you don’t get a choice between at least 2 Ivys

12

You are a very well qualified candidate for all of the schools. Make sure your LORs and Personal Statements are good.

If you could comment on my chance me post that would be greatly appreciated.

13

All these schools are still reaches (like they are for practically everybody) but you have relatively good chances. Make sure those essays are great! Essays could get you in

14

Excellent profile, very high chances…what is your essay topic?