Chance me for some top universities?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hey guys,
I've made a pretty solid list of colleges that I'd love to go to, but I'm having trouble gauging where I stand. I'm thinking of double majoring in Engineering (mechanical maybe?) and Economics (or some other form of business). </p>

<p>Schools I'm looking at (in order of interest):</p>

<p>Dartmouth (1st choice)
Yale
UPenn
Middlebury
Duke
Northwestern
Boston College
University of Chicago
Amherst
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
University of Southern California</p>

<p>State: CT
School Type: fairly competitive public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Hooks: legacies (grandparents) at Columbia and UPenn</p>

<p>SAT I - 2050 (700M, 680W, 670CR) I'm retaking in the fall, along with the ACT for the first time.
SAT IIs - taking Math II and Physics this Saturday...I took chem last year without studying and did pretty badly (680)
APs - I took Spanish Language and Lit last month...probably 4s in both.
GPA - ~3.82
Class Rank: top 20/400+ I'd say? something around there
Senior course load - AP physics, honors human anatomy, AP Calc BC, AP stats, AP psych, honors world literature, honors modern poetry.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
- top 16 award swimmer for 5 consecutive years, placed 2nd at state championships (26ish hrs a week) --> I'm going for recruitment at NESCAC schools and attempting it at some ivys
- piano: winner of a state piano competition, honorable mention in 2 other separate piano competitions, 3rd place in another state competition, winner of a contemporary piece competition, soloist at school, benefit concerts (6-7 hrs a week)
- violin: member of an audition-only regional orchestra for 3 years, member for an audition-only state orchestra for 2 years, participated in the CT high school music theater award-winning pit orchestra from Les Miserables, principal 1st violin in school orchestra <a href="6-7%20hrs%20a%20week">2nd seat</a>
- Founder and president of Odyssey of the Mind [an international creative thinking club, we do mostly engineering projects. Our team won 4th place at the state competition this year]
- Co-president of Freethinkers club [philosophy, culture, politics, basically a discussion club for any and everything]
- Co-president/reviver of Future Business Leaders of America
- Composer
- Photoshop artist, graphic designer
- I plan on sending recordings of my original compositions as well as of my senior recital (for piano and violin)
- Winner of Excellence in Music award and Society of Women Engineers award for excellence in natural sciences and mathematics at school (I'm not sure these matter, but they might)
- 250+ hours community service at a nursing home, I plan on finding a place to volunteer this summer that has to do with engineering or business
- Getting a job this summer</p>

<p>Recommendations should be excellent from both teachers and swim coach (whom I plan on getting an additional rec from). Peer evaluation (for Dartmouth) should be awesome as well. Not too sure about my counselor, but it should be at least decent.</p>

2

<p>I think that you would a solid chance at every school if you increased your sat 100-200 points. If not then dartmouth, yale, duke and the top colleges on your list are high reaches. As of now the not so competitive schools on your list are matches.</p>

3

<p>Solid EC’s, but you have to improve those SAT score to around ~2250+.</p>

4

<p>OP, are you by any chance Kavya Shivashankar lol?
That was her winning word in the Scripps Spelling bee and I just find it funny.</p>

5

<p>Hahaha no, I’m a male
“State: CT
School Type: fairly competitive public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Hooks: legacies (grandparents) at Columbia and UPenn”</p>

6

<p>Why did a male win an award from the Society of Women Engineers…?</p>

7

<p>oheyyyyyyy freethinkers wassup my potential future co-prez
become a better test-taker, dammit! other than that, your app is prettttty awesome. definitely better than mine. but you should find more match schools, a lot of these are big reaches for anyone… maybe check out Colgate, it’s a decent-sized LAC that I think you’d like</p>

8

<p>@Pancaked</p>

<p>the award is called the Society of Women Engineers award because it is sponsored by the society - it’s really just an award for excellence in science and math (just like the Harvard book award or Yale book award)</p>

9

<p>Best Ivy for Engineering is Cornell which is less of a reach than your top choices. It looks like your list needs at least 1-2 more safety schools since almost all listed are reaches.</p>

10

<p>Your profile, when pitted against other Asian males, does nt look promising and they already claim not to be doing well at the Ivies.</p>

<p>On the other hand, did you try getting recruited for swimming?</p>

11

<p>Well my list lacks reaches because I wouldn’t need to be chanced at my safeties now would I :). I feel like at Cornell, I’d be miserable…just a vibe I get…</p>

<p>@texaspg - I know, I know, but I think my extracurriculars demonstrate well-roundedness as well as interest in select things (i’m leaders of clubs that show I am interested in engineering and business). My gpa got shot sophomore year when I got a B in honors Spanish, otherwise I’d have a 3.9. Recruitment at Dartmouth is possible, but not probable. I’m still talking with the coach and keeping her updated. (Yale and UPenn are pretty much impossible, as well as most of the other D1 schools listed).</p>

12

<p>bump10char</p>

13

<p>bump10char</p>

14

<p>Based on the hours you give, your swimming, piano and violin alone swallows up at least 38 hours per week. Where on earth do you find this time from? If you add the time requirements for the other activities I’m assuming it’ll easily be northwards of 40 hours. Even if you divide it over 7 days that’s around 6 hours per day. I only have 6 hours TOTAL every day after school, so I’m struggling to imagine how you can fit it all into your schedule? </p>

<p>ps I’m not trying to be skeptical, merely curious and perhaps you can give me some ideas to make more out of my time :p</p>

15

<p>@sheldonxp</p>

<p>I included my hours per week precisely for that reason…I make the most out of my time (I sleep 3-4 hours a night on average). I have maybe 6-7 hours of homework a night on average, and the time leftover is all my other stuff (eating, bathroom breaks, facebook/youtube/internet time, etc). Basically I sacrifice sleep so that I can maintain and keep up with my extracurriculars and homework.
Why do you only have 6 hours a day total every day after school? What time do you get home? </p>

<p>If you have any other questions/concerns, feel free to PM me.</p>

16

<p>Wow, 3-4 hours a night. Well now I see how you can manage all your activities, but that’s crazy to me. I get home around 4 but sleep around 10 because personally I can’t function without enough sleep, but kudos to you sir.</p>

17

<p>Thank you so much…3-4 hours is tough, especially after a hard swim practice. To compensate, I sleep in a couple of my classes, and from my POV, it hasn’t affected me too much (but I’ll never know. maybe I’d be smarter if I got more sleep). My friends always tell me the night before a test that they’d rather get enough sleep than study, but I’m always the kid who stays up to unspeakable hours studying so I know the information (I always end up with the higher grades). I guess it works for me.</p>

18

<p>How do you think my chances look by the way?</p>

19

<p>Well if you don’t stand a good chance I don’t know who does. The only thing I would say is that you could improve your test scores, but as long as you get (IMO) around 2200 or more on your SAT I and close to 800 on your SAT II’s (since your want to Major in engineering, but obviously easier said than done) it should be fine. Is your GPA weighted or unweighted? </p>

<p>But yeah I would say you have a good chance with a nice mix of reaches, matches and safeties. Yale might be a high reach but then that’s the case for almost everyone.</p>

<p>BTW, how would you recommend to approach teachers for recommendations? (I’m posting this here so everyone can benefit, but if you prefer you can reply through PM)</p>

20

<p>Wow thanks so much, that makes me feel a lot better :).</p>

<p>My goal for the SAT is 2250+ and I want to get above a 34 on the ACT. I think that would round off my application some more. </p>

<p>My GPA is unweighted. My school doesn’t give weighted GPAs, only QPA (quality point average) which is out of 20 and is only used for class rank.</p>

<p>To be honest, I’m actually unsure myself about how to approach teachers for recommendations. My plan is to ask them by the end of the school year and be straightforward about it (Hi Mr/Mrs. _____, as you know I’ll be applying to colleges next year and I’m going to need to some great recommendations. Do you think you could write a good one for me?).</p>