chance me for mid tier to ivies

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Stats:
Class rank: 3/499
GPA: 3.98 unweighted, 4.5 probably i think weighted never checked
Courses: 10 APs, 5’s on all but 2, taking college lv linear algebra atm
SAT: 1550 first time 1560 second time, (800 math, 760 reading, 8/12 essays)
ACT: 35, 32/35/36/36 cuz i figured i would score better on sat second time so I took it for fun, didn’t realize how many problems were in math so I left around 10 blank by accident
public high school pretty meh ranking

EC:
did all the volunteering ones for all 4 years, NHS, historian in key club
volunteered in panama (built a court over a week) and china (Taught english for a week)
mainly Knowledge bowl (3rd and 2nd in region past 2 yrs)
and Science Olympiad (1st in state in multiple events, 4th at nationals in one event)
Did state science fair in fresh and soph year, won 1st in category both times but didn’t qualify for ISEF
junior varsity golf freshman year, c team tennis junior year
was vp of math club in soph year but it was only 4 people large so…
National merit scholarship semifinalist 1490 score
went to MIT for selective summer course this summer (90/400 accepted, 50 with full rides including me) called BWSI
also went to UMBC for an internship (4 weeks long) Afterwards, should be a decent rec letter
also play a lot of video games wonder if i should list that (diamond 3 league, legend hearthstone)

Letters:
all should be pretty meh, might have a decent one from my math teacher who’s known me for 3 years and i’m one of the top performers in her class/actively participate

Essays:
ugh having a lot of trouble writing them cuz im really bad at writing but hopefully should be above par by the end

Demographics:
100k+ income, chinese, male, washington state

definitely doing either CS, Math, Physics or EE in college, currently my list is

UW, USC, UCB, UCSD, MIT, Ivies, Stanford, Caltech, Harvey-Mudd, GTech, Duke, Uchicago

thanks

2

so im not super experienced- so take everything i say with a grain of salt- but i did do a lot of research on stanford in particular.
-Your rank is good
-Above average GPA
-Good SAT (don’t submit ACT scores, because that could hurt your chances)
-very good EC, i would emphasize the volunteering, and base your essays around them, because colleges like to see that you are centered around one particular thing, even though you do other things as well.
-ive heard that the summer programs might actually hurt you if you put them on another college’s application, like if you put the MIT program on a stanford application
-you might need some pretty strong letters of recommendation, since even the best of the best don’t get into MIT and Stanford.
-Essays- be creative, stanford loves quirky things. Also, try to focus them on something that you’ve already talked about before in your application (ex. Volunteering)
-i don’t think MIT and Stanford take income into account, but you have an advantage there regardless.
-Stanford is a university with a slight engineering tilt, so applying for engineering gives you an advantage there too
-the fact that you are Asian might actually hurt your chances, because colleges look for equality, and currently asians are an over-represented minority in top colleges, so i would avoid pulling attention towards this, and try to completely omit it if at all possible
:slight_smile: hope this helps

3

I don’t think your ACT will hurt your chances! 35 is an amazing score. I would submit both your SAT and ACT if I were you.

Re: the summer programs – colleges will not care if you do another institution’s summer program. They want to know you are intellectually engaged during the summer (if financially feasible). I would recommend omitting the “voluntourism” trips, though. Video games are a hobby, not an EC, in most cases. You could write about them in an essay, but don’t list them on the EC section of the app.

Most of these schools are reaches, as they are for everyone, but you are academically qualified. Have a trusted adult look over your essays.