chance me for Princeton and U-Chicago

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

currently a junior…

Objective:
GPA: 4.0, Top Scholar in the Class (2015-2017)
SAT I: 1510 (Reading:710, Math: 800) Essay: 23/24
ACT: 33 (English: 32, Math: 36, Reading: 30, Science: 33)
SAT II: Math 2C (800), Physics (770), Chinese (800), World History (730)
AP: Calculus AB (5), World History (5), Physics 1 (4)

Course Rigor:
Freshman: English I Honors, Pre-Calc, History I Honors, Chemistry Honors, French I
Sophomore: English II Honors, AP Calculus AB, AP World History, AP Physics 1, French II
Junior: AP English Language, AP Calculus BC, AP US History, AP Physics C, French III Honors
Senior: AP English Literature, AP Statistics, AP Economics, AP French, Philosophy

Extracurricular:
Debate team, MUN, Newspaper, Environmental Club, Tour Guide, Mathlete
Sports - Varsity Soccer
Community Service - Taught North Korean defector students English (70+ hours)
Peer tutoring (20+ hours)

Club Leader: MUN Founder & student leader, Mathlete leader, Newspaper Editor next year
Internship: Student Reporter at a Korean newspaper

Intended Major: Math, Economics, History
Country: South Korea
Elementary School: public school in Korea
Middle School: International school in China
High School: Top 30ish private boarding school in New England
Ethnicity: East Asian
Gender: Male

Chance me for

  • Princeton University (ED)
  • University of Chicago
  • Dartmouth College
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • Tufts University
  • Amherst College
  • Middlebury College
  • Kenyon College
  • Swarthmore College
  • Amherst College
  • Northwestern University
  • University of Virginia
  • Duke University
2

Kenyon is a target, the rest are reaches.

You need to have some likelies and more targets.

Any Biology in high school? Are you a Junior? If so, I suggest replacing Philosophy with a lab science for senior year. Most of your competition at these uber-selectives will have 4 years of science.

3

Kenyon is a target, the rest are reaches.

You need to have some likelies and more targets.

Any Biology in high school? Are you a Junior? If so, I suggest replacing Philosophy with a lab science for senior year. Most of your competition at these uber-selectives will have 4 years of science.

4

No one can “chance” you for schools like Princeton and UChicago. You are a strong applicant - but there are there are tens of thousands of strong applicants, and those schools necessarily turn down a lot of them because they don’t have space.

You probably will get in to one or more of the schools on your list, but you can’t be sure. You need more schools that are just slightly less selective than the elites. Right now, Kenyon and (maybe) UVa are the only ones you have on your list, and both of them are very selective too. Broaden your search.

5

Haha, I like your username!

Though, regarding the user, I was expecting you to have a strong writing focus – your interests seem much more divergent. Aside from the SAT II/SAT/ACT math scores, I don’t see your commitment to math. Though you have more journalism activities, they seem fairly standard, and your standardized test scores in English disciplines are weaker. I would definitely suggest trying to work on the image of yourself that you want to present to ad-coms. None of these are really matches, so it’s difficult to predict. I’m going to say:

Princeton University (ED): Deferred, Rejected

  • University of Chicago: Waitlist
  • Dartmouth College: Accept/Waitlist
  • University of Pennsylvania (I don’t know what school you’re applying to. CAS, maybe waitlist. Wharton, reject.)
  • Tufts University: Waitlist
  • Amherst College: Waitlist/Accept (leans waitlist)
  • Middlebury College: Waitlist/Accept (leans accept)
  • Kenyon College: Accept
  • Swarthmore College: Waitlist/Reject
  • Northwestern University: Waitlist
  • University of Virginia: Waitlist/Accept
  • Duke University: Waitlist/Reject

Best of luck! :slight_smile: Chance me back? http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1966406-chance-me-upenn-ed-yale-brown-princeton-etc-will-chance-back-p1.html

6

@trekslxchick thanks for your advice!!

7

@ThankYouforHelp I really appreciate your comment.
Although I forgot to mention in my post, I recently visited Washington & Lee, UNC-Chapel Hill, George Washington, Georgetown, BU, and BC.
As you said, I will try harder to get to know about a wider range of colleges.

Thanks a lot!

8

@writergirl0316 I also like your username a lot! haha

As you pointed out, my academic interests are divergent – I find it hard to specialize in one field.
For instance, although I spent most of my time learning foreign languages (English, Chinese, and French) in my freshman year, I found myself preoccupied with math and physics this year.

Consequently, my academic courses and extracurricular activities are pretty dispersed, which is rather unfortunate. (You are shrewd to catch my characteristics just based upon a thread!)

Thanks a lot for your practical advice! I really appreciate it.

9

@writergirl0316

U-Penn (ED/RD) - Accept
Yale - Accept (I somehow feel like you will fit into Yale community seamlessly)
Princeton - Waitlist/Reject
Brown - Waitlist/Accept (leans waitlist)
Harvard - Reject
BU - Accept
SUNY - Accept w/ full scholarship
Emory - Accept
Georgetown - Accept
Vassar - Accept
Wellesley - Accept

Your extracurricular activities and GPA are stellar.
Just make sure that you do well on your SAT IIs, APs, and a bit better on ACT – 33 is still an amazing score though. (Btw, I recommend you this book: For the Love of ACT Science: An innovative approach to mastering the science section of the ACT standardized exam Paperback. I started with roughly a 28 on official science practice tests, but I improved science section drastically with this one.)

I just feel like you will find yourself at either Penn or Yale next year!
Good Luck!

10

Those are my two top schools, so I hope you’re right! Best of luck. :slight_smile: @writerboy02

11

isn’t wellesley an all girls school?

12

I’m looking at EC’s, and this list:

Extracurricular:
Debate team, MUN, Newspaper, Environmental Club, Tour Guide, Mathlete
Sports - Varsity Soccer
Community Service - Taught North Korean defector students English (70+ hours)
Peer tutoring (20+ hours)

Club Leader: MUN Founder & student leader, Mathlete leader, Newspaper Editor next year
Internship: Student Reporter at a Korean newspaper

What I do not see is significant or distinctive achievements, awards, public recognition. The one activity that stands out to me is your volunteer community service. You should explain how your work helped to change lives.

You should show where you provided leadership and unusual initiative. Being on the debate team or newspaper (even as editor) are good EC’s but how well did you do as a debater? Were you a champion? In newspaper did you win recognition and awards for your writing?

In general, you’ve filled all the right boxes with good numbers but I do not see the standout achievements that the highly selective colleges will be attracted to.

13

Most of these are reach schools for everyone who isn’t hooked.

Middlebury, UVA OOS and Tufts might be low reaches and Kenyon a high match, but none of these even begins to approach a low match or a safety in the RD round. If you like and can afford all of these schools, you’ve found plenty of reaches – time now to search for matches and at least one safety. Make sure you run the NPC on each school before applying: there’s no sense in applying to a school that will sink you in debt.

14

@kjake2000 It is. I was chancing back for another user.

15

@mackinaw I intentionally kept them vague for the sake of my security…
I won verbal mention at Harvard Model UN last year, two journalism awards at my high school, and several other academic achievements.
If it helps by any chance, I will be doing an internship at a well-known Korean newspaper over the summer.
I do understand my extracurricular activities are subpar, but thanks for articulating that.

16

@prezbucky I see. thanks!
Fortunately, my father can afford college tuition so that shouldn’t be a problem.

17

wow… I realize how unhooked I am through these threads…
I thought I was on the right track – I thought my rank and SAT alone will help me stand out – but maybe I am not just an ivy material.
How come getting into colleges has become this difficult? I just don’t get it…

Thanks for all those who took time to post comments though.

18

Your numbers (GPA, test scores) are competitive. You can still apply to Ivies and Ivy equivalents – just make sure you also pick a few matches and at least one safety.

Match-range schools for you will include universities like Boston College, Lehigh, Wake Forest, NYU (except Stern), Tulane, Brandeis, U of Rochester, Case Western, Northeastern, Boston U, SMU, Miami(FL), Pepperdine, Villanova, GWU, Fordham, and many state flagships; and LACs like Lafayette, Bucknell, Denison, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg, Union, Skidmore, Whitman, Sewanee, Trinity (CT), St. Olaf, Rhodes, Occidental and Connecticut College.

Typical safeties are your state flagship or another state school and less selective LACs and private universities. You’re looking for schools with at least a 40% admit rate (the higher, the safer), where your stats are at or above the 75th percentile among accepted students.

(do your homework and find the matches and safety you feel fit you best – they are there in case you don’t get into a reach school… and some people even prefer their matches, or a match, to their reach schools…)