Chance Me for Ivies? Stanford?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

SAT: Haven’t taken yet
SAT II: Haven’t taken yet
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 5.92
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/535
APs:
Sophomore - World History (5), AP Studio Art (5) AP English Language (5) AP Spanish Language (5) AP Spanish Literature (5) AP Chemistry (5) AP European History (4) AP Biology (4) AP English Literature (5) AP French Language (5) AP Chinese Language (5) AP Physics C (5)

IB Scores: 43/45 (too lazy to type out)

Senior Year Course Load: Mandarin Chinese 4 (DE), IB English Literature, AP Physics C, IB European History, IB Biology, IB French, IB Spanish, IB TOK

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
State and regional debate awards
National AP Scholar
3x Scholastic Gold Key Winner for Writing and Art Duke of Edinburgh award
National French and Spanish Exam
Discover Swarthmore Scholar
Teen Vogue 21 under 21 Semifinalist

Subjective:
Extracurriculars: Debate (ranked top 30 in the country)
founded a national non-profit that helps domestic violence survivors
youngest intern for State Representative (successfully pushed bill for women’s health and sexual education)
Principal’s Advisory Board member
English Honor Society - President - creates curriculum for 500 immigrants in County
Chinese club - founder and I take classes for Mandarin

Job/Work Experience: created art that raised $25,000 for domestic violence victims

Volunteer/Community service: weekend Chinese teacher at local Chinese language school,

Summer Activities: Discover Swarthmore, TASP

Ethnicity: Black
Sex: Female
Nationality: Bahamian

Some background information: My visa expired halfway through senior year, so I’m taking a gap year to get that issue resolved. I’m currently undocumented, but I’ll have a visa next year (after I apply to college).

2

Did you TOC or Nats qual?
I think you have an excellent chance as a competitive applicant. Your URM hook will definitely help. Write good essays and get a 1550 on your SAT’s, and you can get into any school.

3

TOC. Is a 1550 necessary? What if I get over a 1500? Is that good enough? I take it in two months and I’ve been doing pretty well, but I’m still unsure.

4

I think a 1500 would be okay considering your EC’s are extremely unique and strong. All the top schools are still crapshoots though, and no one is guaranteed in. I remember hearing the top 25% of the admission of most top schools are either 1590 or 1600, so shoot for being perfect, but a low 1500s score should keep you competitive. As long as you don’t score lower than the 1500s imo it shouldn’t really hurt you.

5

I think the Ivies are going to be falling all over themselves to admit you. I don’t think your SAT score will really matter that much as you’ve excelled in the AP standardized tests already , have extensive and impressive leadership/community service credentials and will bring diversity to any campus you select.

6

“I think the Ivies are going to be falling all over themselves to admit you.”

Haha, I couldn’t agree more. I would say the Ivies (and equivalent) are definitely very very easily reachable (so much more so than I’ve seen in other people). As for your 1500, most AOs aren’t going to care about your SATs as much as they make you to think, especially considering your APs/IBs and GPA. They might glance at it to make sure you’re at the very least competitive, but otherwise, they’ll move straight on to your ECs–meaning, just make sure you don’t get below a 1500 and you’ll be gold.

7

Agree you have great chance even if you get sub-1500 score considering the URM hook.

8

OP is an international student, URM hook does not apply. Hardly to gauge the chances for an applicants from a small country let alone one without SAT/ACT.

9

She isn’t an international student, i’m guessing her education was in the US. She just doesn’t have citizenship, from what it appears.

10

She didn’t indicate where she would be applying from or her US permanent residency status.

11

Just from what I know she said she qualified to TOC and I don’t think any people that don’t live in the US can qualify to it because you have to earn two bids which come from local tournaments held in high schools (some colleges), and to be registered you need a coach from a school. Though IG it’s possible she’s from a diff country

12

I’m from the U.S. I attended high school in the U.S, but my visa expired halfway through your senior year, so I’m currently undocumted (my proper documents won’t be filed for another year).

13

^ Well, in that case you have two hooks, URM and Dreamer. I think you have a great chance.

14

You are a competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are great. Write good essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools

15

OP may be living & going to HS in the US, but she is Bahamian, neither a US citizen nor a green card holder & is therefore an international student.

Sorry, but no.

OP, you are clearly a really strong student (looks like tri-lingual as well). I don’t think I’ve ever seen a student take 12 APs in a single year (grade 10 no less) and get almost all 5’s. Projected 43/45 IB looks pretty impressive also. Am assuming that the AP Physics C you did as a sophomore was Mech or E&M, and the one on your list to take as Senior is the other? Assuming that your SAT score will be reasonably strong, you are a very credible candidate.

BUT: the schools that you are talking about take 4-9% of their applicants. On top of that, you are applying as an international applicant. Given that only about 12-15% of the 4-9% are internationals, the odds are even longer. They are not “very, very easily reachable” for anybody (yes, including Malala & Malia, both of whom had stats that put them in the top tier of the schools that they got into).

So, do you have a decent shot? imo, yes. But don’t get carried away by the enthusiasm of some of the posters above. You do need a backup plan.

16

Really? I thought that being undocumented would give me a leg up in admissions due to the lack of undocumented students applying with my stats. I know at least two DACA students who got into MIT and Harvard within the past four years alone and they had relatively “weaker” objective stats. Also, the AP’s were a typo. They were taken over the span of 3 years, not just 10th grade.

17

Yes, but the US political climate has changed over the last several years: https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-response-january-2018-preliminary-injunction

18

Really.

Being undocumented does not give you a leg up: no school is actively looking to increase the % of undocumented students. It is a credit to the students that you know that they got into those schools, and a credit to those schools that they did not let the student’s undocumented status get in the way.

Beware of anecdotal evidence, the ‘but what about this person I know who…’ can be misleading. In this case, the students you know may have had objectively ‘weaker’ stats, but both of those schools emphasize that they turn down lots of students with perfect stats: it is not all about stats. Take a look at what MIT has to say about that: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/there_is_no_formula

So, yes, you do need a backup plan. As I said earlier, I think you have a decent shot. But there is simply no such ting as a sure shot when applying to these particular schools. Better to have a viable plan B- one you can actually live with if you have to- than to be caught out needing one.

19

Stats look good, as long as you do relatively well on the SAT. Love the ECs, especially your work for domestic violence survivors. Is the inspiration for that personal? If so, definitely weave that into your essays. Overall, you’re a really strong candidate with a really good chance at any school.

20

Can’t say stats look good when the biggie, SAT or ACT, is missing.
Can’t game Dreamer. When did your lawful status expire? What sort of Visa was it?

If all this were as simple as getting good grades and letting legal status expire, imagine the issues.

Beyond that, you need to learn what these top colleges look for. It’s not just stats and some shiny ECs. You’ve presented here as tops in many activities but balance matters. Who’s the real gal behind this?