Chance me for Ivies and T20s!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I go to an international school in Korea. No American citizenship. Class size around 100, but kids are insanely competitive.

Please!! chance me for T20s.

I want to apply ED to Cornell as journalism or humanities major. This is a LONG SHOT (longer than Cornell lol), but I want to consider applying to Stanford and Columbia for ED too.

Standardized Testing:
SAT 1: (not superscored; took it once) 1570 (770/800) and 22 for Essay.
SAT Subject: Math2 800, USH 800, expecting at least 750 for Bio E
AP: USH (5), taking Lang (expecting 5), Seminar (expecting 4), Biology (expecting 4 or 5)

GPA: unweighted 97.88/100 (still in junior year second semester so ranks aren’t out yet, but I’m predicting that I’m around the top 20%. Maybe even 30%). No weighted GPAs.
Quite a few students that were around that rank have gone to Cornell during Regulars and EDs. Two seniors who I heard (just rumors though!) were not in the top 10% got into Stanford this year. Same goes for Columbia. They had outstanding EC’s, and I’m not sure if mine are at their level.

Coursework: AP policy at my school mandates that no freshmen can take APs. We are allowed to take 1 in 10th grade, 4 in 11th, and 5-6 in 12th.
Taking 5 APs senior year (Research, CompSci A, Psychology, Calc AB, Literature. Junior Year: AP Bio, AP Seminar, AP Lang. Sophomore year: AP USH.

Awards:
EARCOS Global Citizen Award (Given to one junior at each school that’s part of a large number of East Asian international schools. The recipient is chosen by staff and administration based on the student’s attitude, work ethic, and academic standing. Comes along with the opportunity to apply for a $500 grant to use for charity projects.)

NHD Korea 1st place in Documentary (competing in nationals online this month; fingers crossed that I place.) Discussed the Korean comfort women.

Canada Embassy 150 Creative Writing Competition - Maple Leaf Award (A competition hosted by the Canadian embassy in Korea in celebration of their 150th anniversary)

Korea International Youth Olympiad (Creativity Olympiad) - Silver medal (STEM/innovation competition; it was a new competition and not very competitive but was sponsored by a few Korean companies. A lot of students from the Middle East to compete.)

Korean National Business Competition - Best speaker (Business competition sponsored by Naver, a big Korean company, and Maeil Business Newspaper; my team didn’t place, but I got the individual award)

A bunch of regional awards for Speech (Prose and Dramatic Interpretation) in varsity Forensics

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards - Certificate of Achievement (A Korean-government issued certificate a few peers and I got for helping with the organization of a music concert for blind children.)

School activities:
Managing Editor for Yearbook (junior and senior year)
Founder of Creativity Club for Young Innovators (president during my junior year, senior advisor senior year)
EIC of Kaleidoscope Magazine (school literary magazine) (was a copy editor during junior year, advanced to EIC for senior year)
VP of Film Club
VP of Global Issues Network (GIN) Club (was the publicity director my jr. yr, advanced to VP for senior year)
Varsity Cheerleading (did it during junior year, probably will get in senior year)
Lead in Game of Tiaras (school production) (sophomore year)
Technical Director for You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (school mini production)(sophomore year)
Costume director for Little Shop of Horrors (school production) - Costume director (junior year)
Hoping to get the lead in the upcoming play (The Nutcracker) during my senior year. Chances are decent.

Extra-curriculars:
Leader for English Translation Team for a book published by War and Women’s Human Rights Museum in Seoul (a museum dedicated to the Korean comfort women)
Docent Museum of War and Women’s Rights (volunteered around 20 hours a week during the summer after my sophomore year, will be volunteering this summer too)
Volunteered at Ask Listen Understand All together (ALUA) (the organization that helps blind children perform at concerts that I mentioned earlier)

Recs:
I can say that I have a pretty strong rec coming from my AP USH/Seminar teacher who has visited the museum I work at. I’m not sure how strong my Precalc teacher’s rec will be, but he thinks I’m hard-working. I’m also getting a recommendation from my principal, who I’m guessing was a big factor as to why I got the EARCOS award over other students in my grade.

My “Spike”:
I basically want to revolve my essay around the work I did for the comfort women topic (an unresolved issue regarding Korean sex slaves for the Japanese Imperial Army during WW2). The book translation, docent work, NHD documentary—they all connect to it. Additionally, it’s an issue that is relevant to modern sexism and “relatable” to me as I am a woman living in Korea, an infamously sexist society.

2

Oops, sorry GPA is 97.95/100.

3

I am assuming that you know that you can only apply ED to one university. You will need to pick one between the three that you mentioned.

Your stats are excellent. Personally I have trouble evaluating ECs. I think that you are competitive for the top schools in the US. Clearly however they are all reaches and your chances would be in the single digit percentages.

Since you got a Canada embassy award I will point out that the top universities in Canada have admissions that are very much stats based, and your stats are excellent. I think that your chances at any of the top schools in Canada would be very good.

4

Thank you for the valuable information! I’m planning on applying to UoT and a few Korean schools (Seoul National, Yonsei, and Korea University).

5

Does anyone think I have a chance at Stanford? I know Cornell is difficult too, but I admittedly wanted to go for Stanford but chickened out because of the acceptance rates.

6

With your stats and EC’s I think you should at least try for Stanford! For your rec’s, is there any possibility to get one from a Stanford (or any other T20 school) alum? I’m sure that would increase your chance

Good luck!

7

Possibly… does getting recommendations from alum help increase chances? Thanks for the reply BTW.

8

No - they generally want recommendations from your teachers and counselors. They want to know how you are as a student and in the classroom. However, that alum can be a valuable resource for information about the college.

Anyways, congratulations on your many accomplishments - whatever happens, you did really well during high school, and you have a lot of which to be proud.

As others have said - you are competitive for any college on the USA. However, all that means is that, instead of being in a group from which they choose perhaps 1%, you belong to a group from which they will, realistically, select 5%-10%.

If you are looking for a journalism major, you may want to look at Northwestern. In fact, if you are looking to major in journalism, none of those three are top colleges for journalism.

However, if you are looking at a humanities degree, then Columbia would be the best of those three, with Stanford and Cornell being better choices for STEM.

9

Thank you for the helpful reply! Do you think that getting an extra recommendation letter from the principal is a good move?

10

Different schools have different requirements for LoR’s. For the most part, they want LoR’s from teachers you have had junior or senior year who have worked with you closely, preferably in a core course that matches your interests. If the principal knows you well and can speak to school/community leadership and meaningful accomplishments, then having such an LoR may be useful for schools that do not discourage more than 2 LoR’s.

If Stanford is a top choice, you should apply. Applying early is a trickier question though as ED may be a bigger boost for Cornell and Columbia vs REA for Stanford. Assume you get in ED for Cornell, would you regret not giving Stanford a shot, or are you ok with that outcome?

11

Thank you for the insightful reply. If I got in for ED for Columbia, I would be VERY happy. The same goes for Cornell, but I think I would be curious about what the outcome would have been for Stanford and Columbia.

12

Have you looked into any of the top US liberal arts colleges, like Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Pomona, Claremont McKenna? The smaller, more intimate and undergrad focused environment is something that may be attractive to you. While they are still difficult schools to get into, the admissions rates are little more favorable (low to mid teens). Also, being Asian and international may not be a disadvantage at some of these (as opposed to Stanford and the Ivies). If one or more of these looks attractive, maybe a strategy would be to REA Stanford and apply RD to some of these as reaches, plus some high reaches like Columbia as well as matches and safeties. If you get into Stanford REA, you are done. Because Stanford defers very few candidates, if you are deferred, it signals that you are a very strong candidate and your reaches are likely realistic. If you are rejected, no reason to be discouraged, but you might want to reexamine which schools you will apply to RD.

13

My Korean parents are sadly very against small colleges because they hold very little name value in Korea. I read on some threads that REA is actually disadvantageous at Stanford because the pool mostly consists of student-athletes and valedictorians. Would you say that the same would apply to Columbia?

14

^I don’t think REA is ever a disadvantage unless you have some pending award/accomplishment/publication that won’t be official until after the REA deadline but before the RD deadline, or you think your essays or other parts of your app will not be in optimal shape by the REA deadline. What is true is that the high EA/ED admissions rates (almost always significantly better than RD rates) are over stated because athletic recruits and donor admits are in this cohort.

While I am not Korean, I worked in Asia for close to a decade, and covered Korea as one of my primary countries of coverage, so I got to know a lot of Korean executives and professionals pretty well. My impression, after HYPSM, was that the prestige factor dropped off pretty quickly after those schools. However, for executives and professionals who were educated in the US, they were very much aware of the top LAC’s. If these LAC’s seem to fit you, there are plenty of articles/rankings about these schools that you might want to share with your parents.

15

Hmmm… alright, I’ll talk to them. Thank you for your thoughtful responses.

16

You have a very strong profile. With strong essays that can appropriately support and strengthen your application, you will definitely have a chance at the top schools (HYPSM & top 20s)

17

Your ECP’S are unique and different that is good. It is also excellent that you have a theme you want to center your essay around this makes it stand out more. You seem like a very very strong applicant to me

18

Strong profile, but keep in mind those schools are reaches even with the highest stats. Good luck!