Chance me for some Ivies, Duke, and Safety Schools? Will Chance back

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey I’m currently Junior at a top 20 private school in Texas. Chance me for:

Harvard
Princeton
Dartmouth
UPenn (Wharton)
Duke
Columbia
UT-Austin
Baylor
SMU

Objective:

UW GPA: 4.0

Weighted GPA: 4.33

Class Rank: N/A (School does not rank)

SAT: 2300: 740 Math, 770 Writing, 790 CR (Considering retake because I’ve never scored so low in math on practice tests)

SAT II: Math II (Taking this summer), Chem (790), US History (780)

AP (prospective scores): APUSH (4), Stat (5) , English (5), Physics (5) [junior year] ; Calc BC, Lit, Econ, Biology, Chem [senior year classes]

Subjective:

Extracurriculars:

Varsity Tennis (9,10,11)
Varsity Basketball (12, hopefully)
Mock Trial (10,11)
Green Club (9,10,11)
Environmental Sustainability Committee (10,11)
School Newspaper (9,10,11)
Community Service Board (12, hoping to get on next year)
Leadership and Ethics Club (9, 10, 11)
Student Alumni Association (10,11)
Lion and Sword Society (11) private school equivalent of NHS
Scientific Marksman, school’s science journal (11)
Investment Club (10, 11)

Leadership Positions:

Junior captain on varsity tennis team (being a junior captain is a big deal at our school)
Starter on Varsity Tennis team
President of Mock Trial
President of Green Club
News Editor for School Newspaper (which is regarded as one of the best in the country)
Leadership and Ethics Club Committee Head
Investment Club Co-President
McDonald’s Week (Junior Class fundraiser) Lower School Committee Head
Akshaya Patra (Global Charity) Youth Ambassador

I am working on starting my own charity, although it isn’t a definite, that benefits underprivileged children in India.

Awards:

High Honor Roll 9,10, 11
National Spanish Exam, Gold Medal: 9,10
Presidential Community Service Award: 10,11
Excellence in History Award: 10, 11
National Society of High School Scholars 10,11
Dallas Morning News High School Honorable Mention for Sports Feature: 10
All-SPC Team 10,11 (given to best tennis players in conference)

(Thinking that I’m weak here? We receive the biggest awards such as Cum Laude and Book Awards at the end of junior year. Hoping to earn one of these.)

Summer: Hospital volunteering in summer before sophomore year. Applying for internships and several business programs this summer.

Community service: Over 100 hours as a sophomore, serving as volunteer at hospital and shelter for abused women and children. Have earned over 250 hours so far as a junior.

Essays: Pretty solid (9/10) our school requires that we begin on the common app essay now and my college counselors/english teacher loved it.

Rec Letters (good estimates): Great letters from history teacher (9.5/10) and Precalc teacher (9/10). Killer rec from tennis coach (9.5/10) and advisor (9.5/10).

College Counselor Rec: With only 90 kids per grade, our college counselors get to know us on a deep level, so this letter should be solid too (8.5/10)

not applying for financial aid

Intended Major: Economoic
State of Residence: TX
Income Bracket: 180,000
Ethnicity: Asian (southern Indian to be exact)
Hooks: none

Leave a link and I’ll chance back.

2

I don’t want to guarantee anything for you here, but I see no reason that any of these schools would put you behind many other applicants. I think you have a great chance of going ivy

3

Asian means all those schools are reaches regardless of your impressive score, your safeties are safeties and throw in UChicago, good for eco and likes really high test scores.

4

I believe you’re quite competitive for Duke. Obviously, 75+ percent of our applicants have truly excellent records and potential – they merit admission and would be essentially indistinguishable from those who matriculate – but I suspect you’ll be assessed toward the top of that “distinguished pack.” I strongly suggest you work on your essays diligently and for many months; they could well be decisive. Good luck.

5

Months’ worth of essays? “Asian” means reach? I don’t see that.

6

You look about as competitive as one could be except for your lack of special talent in any certain area. I would say you have a really good chance anywhere but Harvard and Princeton because basically no one does. I feel really week in comparison but I would appreciate a chance back! http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1747756-please-give-me-a-realistic-chance-of-admission-into-a-selective-college.html#latest

7

@onceuponamom‌ (re post #4): “Months’ worth of essays . . . I don’t see that.”

Developing unique, compelling, and coherent ideas for two (or more) essays and then writing each articulately, cogently, concisely (the word limits are severe) and with some wit can – and probably should – take months. Doing so, instead of submitting yet another middling, pro forma, trite, and uninspired essay, is absolutely a major competitive admissions plus – one that is likely to distinguish a highly-qualified applicant from a pack of tens-of-thousands of similarly distinguished candidates.

You indicate that you “don’t see” this. I then suggest you attempt to perceive essay evaluation from the reader’s/scorer’s viewpoint of daily drudgery . . . and how refreshing and persuasive a rare “special” essay would be.

8

I worked with college students for years. When young people are “over-coached” it can backfire.

9

Good chande but mediocre EC’s. It’s fine, you have a good GPA.

10

Your ECs look like a laundry list with little focus. However UT Austin, Baylor, and SMU should be a shoe in and I’m pretty sure you could get into one Ivy.

11

@onceuponamom‌ (re post #7): I never indicated anything about “coaching,” where did that emanate? In fact, I absolutely believe those months of “essay effort” MUST be solely student work. Please don’t ascribe unsubstantiated statements or ideas to me, as you did in this post.

12

here’s the thing that makes me roll my eyes “I am working on starting my own charity, although it isn’t a definite, that benefits underprivileged children in India.” Perhaps you don’t mean it this way but surely any admissions counselor could see this as just a thing to do for an application…

That said, you look fine…your stats are solid…but all applicants have great stats (wel,l applicants to these colleges) so thimk carefully over how you will make yourself stand out…

13

Students don’t need to spend “many months” on their essays. Period.

14

Your stats are great, but your ECs seem a bit lackluster to me. They seem a bit generic, and laundry-list-ish, especially considering you didn’t do many of them for all four years of high school.

Harvard: High reach
Princeton: High reach
Dartmouth: Low reach
UPenn (Wharton): High reach
Columbia: Reach

Not familiar enough with the others to chance. Chance me back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1747168-the-hypsm-chancing-experiment-will-chance-back.html#latest

15

@SouthernHope‌ sorry if it came across like that. The organization I mentioned (Akshaya Patra) is an international charity that provides meals for Indian children. Working with them inspired me to think of other ways to help these children, who are grossly underprivileged. Obviously if nothing tangible comes from my efforts, I wouldn’t mention it in my college app.

@qpqpqp‌ @OrchidBloom‌ I was afraid of it coming off as a laundry list, but I can explain. First off, most of the ECs I spend less than four years in are not offered until 11th or 10th grade. Also, I’m interested in going into entrepreneurship in clean energy, hence my involvements in Investment Club (at least provides some business knowledge) and Green Club. Mock Trial allows me to learn the ropes of patent law and various civil cases, knowledge that can come in handy in the future if I run my own business. And the rest are community oriented activities (newspaper, community service, leadership and ethics, student alumni etc.) and I do those because I enjoy interacting and helping members of my school’s community. As cheesy as it sounds, I truly love my school and its faculty for all they do to help the students become the “complete man,” which is a goal of the school, so I feel obligated to give back, and I truly enjoy doing so.