Chance Me for Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, and UChicago?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

SAT Score 2400 single sitting

SAT II:
MathII 800
Chem 800
Physics 800
Chinese w/ listening 800

GPA & Rank:
3.85 unweighted:p
Unranked School

AP, IB, or honour courses:
Calc BC, Eng Lang and Composition, Macroecon, PhysicsB, Physics C Mechanics, Chem, Comp Sci, (all 5’s)

6 more ap courses senior year. Lit, stats, poli sci, enviro sci, art history, latin)

Awards:
Nothing major. nationa merit, some county debate awards, Piano CM Level 10, physics awards.

Essays:
10/10 from reviews

ECs:

  1. DECA President
  2. FBLA Team Leader with National Placement
  3. Paid Internship at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
  4. Summer Entrepreneurship Program at Stanford EPGY
  5. Chess captain
  6. Physics club president
  7. Quiz Bowl
  8. Acoustic Guitar Club Co-President
  9. State representative of national student political organization

Interview:

Harvard interview went amazingly well I think. The interviewer sent me an email afterwards showering me with praise. My ego may have recently gained a couple pounds.

School Profile:
Hyper competitive large school 600 students a year

Applicant Profile:
Southern California Asian… , middle-class, one parent with a college degree from china

So I’m worried mainly about my lackluster GPA despite the hard classes. Also, I don’t have any major awards like intel or USAMO. ALSO, my school has already four people who have been accepted EA to Harvard. I don’t think that’s good for my chances either:(

With this being said, thank you for taking your time to chance me. I appreciate it.

2

shameless buuuuuuuuump

3

No matter how many 800s/36s/2400s you have, none of those schools will be anything safer than a reach. Remember, scores are just there for validation that you actually are 98-99th percentile.

The unweighted GPA is the problem. Since many schools only have regular options for some mandated courses, that means that colleges tend to look at the UW as long as you are “validated” as a phenomenal student through course rigor/aforementioned tests.

The unranked also doesn’t help, no matter how “hyper competitive” your school is, without a class ranking the only metric they can use for coursework success is the one that states you received 4-6 B’s.

For your ECs, paid summer programs don’t count and are somewhat frowned upon, so Stanford EPGY might work against you. DECA & FBLA seem pretty cool, but there’s a lot of team presidents out there, so it’s your analysis that really matters. The ECs that will “matter” (in quotes because not everything is done for college) are:

Quiz Bowl if you won stuff, State Rep of the political thingy if it’s renowned, and your paid internship especially looks awesome.

As for the interview, most applicants do well. Colleges can’t really use it to make or break a decision, because each interviewer gives subjective analysis varying by interviewer.

Affirmative action sucks for us socal asians.

For your essays, we need more info than “10/10.” I got the same ratings on mine, but I absolutely hated it, and when I took it to a teacher, they agreed on the aspects I didn’t like. Each school likes different aspects in their students (eccentricity and humor in chicago is what I believe got me admitted), and oftentimes you do more research than your reviewers. However, a good essay is a good essay, so it definitely won’t hurt you.

In summary, your test scores are top shelf which goes without saying, EC’s are decent if you focused on business in essays.

What would really screw you over is unweighted GPA, as I believe that the breakdown was 60% coursework 20% test scores 20% others for admissions from varying sources, take that with a grain of salt because I lack a source.

I can’t give any objective numbers for you, but what I can say is that you stand a chance. As I mentioned at the start, those schools will be a reach no matter how many diseases you cure and medals you have. As long as you applied to some safeties, you should be set.

4

I can give you a prediction. I think your stats are good enough for Columbia and especially U Chic (can never guarantee) but not U Penn(Wharton). I just don’t see anything amazing about you in the business aspect and in general. All I see are solid EC’s and great test scores. But test scores aren’t good enough. There are too many people with similar stats to you that you won’t stand out among the crowd when applying to colleges like these. If you were in some business camp like the one Wharton hosts, that would be great. But you don’t. I don’t know what to tell you because you’ve done basically everything right. If you had gone to DECA internationals that would’ve also helped. Ultimately, I see you making U Chic and Columbia (less chance of Columbia) but not U Penn just because you don’t have much of a business hook or hook in general. Good luck!

5

Harvard: Reach
Wharton: Reach
Chicago: Reach
Columbia: Reach

You might get into one or two if you get lucky.
Do your best then pray!

6

harvard reach
wharton reach
chicago: really depends on essays: low reach
columbia reach
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18030162#Comment_18030162

7

As someone accepted to Uchiago EA, I can’t stress how important the essays are. I’m hispanic and I wrote my untranslatable word essay about Daehanminguk ( korean word), and my optional essay was on Kpop/j rock… ( I still don’t know why they accepted me). My admin really enjoyed my essay and wrote me a card telling me that! I hope your essay is unique and thought provoking! :slight_smile: if it is, your GPA can be mostly overlooked. Your activities are another thing that worries me… I’d make sure to stress your activities in any interview that you have! Also awards and reconigiton… It’s really hard to say if your test scores and essays can make up for it. It really depends on your officer. I’d say that all are reaches ( three are ivies which are reaches for anyone besides recruited apps) with chicago being a lower reach if your essays are top notch, if not, I’d be a normal reach as well. I wish you luck! I got into uchicago with a 31 (32 superscore)/2030 but had really good recs, GPA, rank, activities, and scholarships ( local, state, and national) it’s really about finding balance in your app. I live in a rural area,so I thought my chances were ruined at any top tier school because of a lack of opportunities. I’ve won scholarships like NSLI-Y and CIEE which have allowed me to study what I love, Korean, but I don’t have many other opportunities. Just stress your passions, how you’ve acted upon them, and what your future will be like, during your interview :slight_smile: it’s always worked for me :slight_smile:

8

I’d say you have a good chance at basically any of these schools. It’s very hard to predict but your definitely competitive. Your SAT score is great and I think it will make up for the fact that your GPA isn’t amazing. I’d say you have a shot, but it could go either way.
Chance me back?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/profile/discussions/100424163/businessman2017