Chance Me for Ivies, Semi-Ivies, and Matches

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I have a previous Chance thread out, but I have some updated information and am using a better format.

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2200 (660/740/800) (probably won’t submit)
ACT (breakdown): 35C/36Superscore
SAT II (place score in parentheses): scores aren’t out yet.
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9 (4.7 weighted)
AP (place score in parentheses): 9 APs as of junior year, will have 13. Mostly 5s, three 4s, one 3.
Senior Year Course Load: 4 APs. Others are classes without honors/AP option.
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National AP Scholar (relatively rare in my state), National French Contest Awards, other AP awards. Nothing too spectacular.

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses):

Political engagement: actively helped out 2016 presidential campaign, 70 hours phonebanking for candidate
I self-study languages: know four, learning fifth this summer, I want to kind of stress that if I end up doing international law. I translate for the Google Translate community.
Play my instrument, in my school’s top band, have awards from Solo/Ensemble competitions
Honors Societies: NHS, NJHS, French HS, Science NHS, Rho Kappa, Mu Alpha Theta
Model UN & Chess Club (minor but I always do it)

Volunteer/Community Service:

Harvard Summer School (earned 4 credits, IL course)
Internship at local congressman’s office: handled casework, etc
Internship at law firm
Volunteered at school’s summer camp for Robotics
Volunteered at science summer camp outside of school

Summer Activities: see Community service/volunteering ^

Essays: I am working on them, should be decent. Is writing about my low family income and how that inspires me to work harder for my future and others’ future cliché?
Teacher Recommendations: I’m friends with my recommenders. I assume they’ll be good.
Counselor Rec: Doesn’t know me too well, I hope my stats will impress nonetheless.
Additional Rec: Might get something from Intern Coordinators, etc.

Other
Applied for Financial Aid? Yes.
Projected Concentration: Business/Econ/Int’l Law
State (if domestic applicant): not northeast
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: public, top 100 USNWR
Ethnicity: white
Gender: male
Income Bracket: low (<20,000)
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First-Gen, Low Income

I would appreciate if you all would give chances per school, not a general “strong/weak applicant.” Thank you.

Schools:
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Dartmouth
Brown
UChicago
Columbia
Boston U
Tufts

rest are safeties/low matches

2

I think you’re pretty good for BU and Tufts, but beyond that i can’t say as the Ivies are generally reaches for everyone (same with U Chicago). GPA/SAT is solid as are the extracurriculars.

Chance back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1905266-chance-me-for-uva-and-william-and-mary.html#latest

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To be honest- Your scores and gpa are stellar which put you in the running along with many, many like you. But this sentence caught my eye as your best bet for an ivy “National AP Scholar (relatively rare in my state)”

Why? Relatively rare in my state- means you come from a not-overly-represented state- which I think will be your best hook… hopefully its Mississippi or Arkansas or Iowa rather than Texas Fla and Cal bc those aren’t so rare…

Your stats look good but keep your GPA up- don’t go under a 3.9, write a great essay, and cross your fingers! Good Luck!

sorry- we really can’t be specific per school bc its a crap shoot… your stats are great but nothing screams out Harvard, Princeton from your EC’s … now if you had cured cancer or won an intel science award :slight_smile:

4

@hyungiwosotha Thanks for the feedback!

@runswimyoga My comment about National AP Scholar meant that it was rare in terms of AP awards. Ntl AP Scholar is given to students with an average of at least 4 and 4 on at least eight AP exams. As a junior, less than 500 people receive this out of the hundreds of thousands of high schools in the state. It is an award typically given to seniors at the end of four years of high school. I don’t come from a super underrepresented state like Montana, IA, etc, but nonetheless I consider the award kind of decent.

5

@SSundee no problem- I just also needed to tell you that the essay sounded quite cliché. Plenty of poor people can write about how being poor inspires them to break the cycle and find success. I advise you to be unique. I mean, you need to, it’s the Ivies we’re talking about here.

Chance back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1905266-chance-me-for-uva-and-william-and-mary.html#latest

6

At new chancers: How much does being first-gen help me for HYP, Dartmouth, UChi?

7

Hello everyone!

I’d appreciate it if I could have some thoughts as to how the Colleges are looking for me. I am an applicant from LA.

Unweighted GPA (Out of 4.0): 3.75
UC C/W GPA: 3.75
Weighted GPA (Out of 5.0): 4.55

Freshman year:
NJROTC A/A
ENGLISH H A/B
ALGEBRA 2 H: B/A
BIO H : B/B
History: A/A
Computer science: A/A
Spanish : A/B

Sophomore year:
NJROTC A/A
AP English A/B
Pre CALC honours : A/A
Chemistry H : A/A
AP Euro : A/A
AP Computer science: B/ A
Spanish 2 H : B/B

JUNIOR YEAR:
Philosophy IBSL A/A
ENGLISH IBSL A/A
AP CALC BC: A/A
AP CHEM : A/A
APUSH: A/A
Computer science IBSL: A/A
Spanish 3 IBSL : B/B

SENIOR YEAR:
PHILOSOPHY IBHL
AP LITERATURE
CALC 2/ math IBHL2
AP physics 2
AP gov and econ
Computer science IBHL
AP SPANISH

AM doing my EE for IB in computer science

Grade Trend: Freshman (5 Bs overall out of 14 classes) and sophomore year (4 Bs in 14 classes) a bit rough, but had a fantastic junior year ( all A’s in AP classes 1 B per semester in Spanish yuck)!

Major: Computer Science, mathematics (still deciding double or nah)

ACT: 31 (English: 30, Math: 34, Reading: 30, Science: 30, Writing: 30)
SAT: 2160: reading: 680, math: 770 , writing: 710( might retake in September)
Course Rigor: Have taken 6 AP classes( 4 AP Computer science, 5 AP English language and composition, 5 AP chemistry, 5 APUSH, 5 AP CALC BC, 3 APEURO) and will be taking 5 more senior year. FULL IB
WILL be taking 6 IB TESTS: math:7
Essays: Working on these early and making them as unique, and memorable as possible. Think these will help the most.

Class rank: top 10%, 23/650 I believe so far during junior year

Extracurriculars:
MUN CLUB (4 years) (research paper award, outstanding delegate award)
FBLA (3 years) ( went to state two years, 7th place at regionals)
President of ECHO (music club for underprivileged)- 2 years
MEMBER of echo cabinet for local county for two years
Hosted a week long music camp during summer for underprivileged students to learn how to play musical instruments for free
Three years MATH CLUB
qualified for AMC 12
TROY TECH INTERNSHIP

  • did an 150 hour internship at a software development company
  • learned 4 languages and made an application
  • has made so far 3 apps
  • got a paid internship to work there from now on
    NSHS
    Questbridge national scholar program
    Peer tutoring club 2 years: has had two tutorees
    Was in school NJROTC program for 2 years ( colour guard certified)
    Will be tutoring my own service in my neighbourhood during senior year
    Three years David wittry coding competition

Letters of rec: i talk to my teachers a lot and I’m asking my CS teacher who has had me for three years and I always talk to him (sorry if it seems like I’m bragging)

UC’s I am applying to: Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Davis, Santa Cruz, UCLA, San Diego, CMU ( will apply ED, this is my dream school), Georgia tech, any IVIES( I can dream can’t I), cal tech(parents want me to), Amherst, williams,

THANK YOU

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@rahulj2409 You just hijacked a thread. Please make a new post if you need new chances, or at least contribute to this one.