Chance me for Stanford, Harvard, Williams, Princeton and Dartmouth.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

International Student, South Asian

Major: Government/Policy

Academics:

IBDP candidate

Junior year- IB year 1- 31/42 (Messed the exams up, therefore full year grades tanked; extenuating circumstances, mentioning them)

ACT - 35 twice, and superscore - 36

Math II- 800, Physics- 800, Literature- 700

Gave an independent, self studied AP USG- 3/5 (had one night to study, probably not going to submit it)

IBDP Senior year predicteds- 39/42 (highest recorded improvement in school)
It may actually go to a 40/42, and a 42 or 43//45

Published a research paper on IR in a respected journal

Extracurriculars (This is where I took the sub’s advice)

1.) Startup- 15k USD investment by a VC, good sales, good revenue- Co-founder, CEO and CIO (its actually a lot of money here, I checked the purchasing power parity to the US)

2.) Lead organiser of a Conference (can’t specify more due to easy identification). Great attendance, and in coordination with a few Fortune 50 companies and IGOs.

3.) Student Co-Founder and Chief Mentor- School Startup incubator, more than 50 student startup fundings by December 2019

4.) Co-founder- a service used by 25 schools in my district, approx 16,000 students registered. Nonprofit, and high impact.

5.)Founder and CEO of a Business Consultant companies to low income Social enterprises. Have a team of 5 students from different schools trained in market research across India, Bangladesh and Korea. Student Business Consultant- Consultant to a Social Enterprise, created a business model which brought the company from loss, to break-even, to profit. Increased social influence and sales. Descriptive letter of recommendation from CEO/Founder

6.) Initiator- a social work website, used by students all over the city to volunteer for a specific cause, a city keeper initiative, received media coverage

7.) A ton of public speaking, debating, and MUN awards. And leadership positions

8.) One of the few students to attend advisory board meetings for the school. Solo policymaking for school on discipline and tech usage in school.

9.) Won an entrepreneurship competition (organised by a T5 college), and orated two national entrepreneurship competitions. Organised a huge festival in school for a similar purpose.

10.) Article featured on one of the most popular e-magazines

Currently working on two startup ideas, but don’t know how they will go.

LORs and Essays;

LoR1: from my history teacher, worked with him on a few projects and really good chemistry.

LoR2: A senior teacher in school, who I worked with on some of the aforementioned projects. Glowing LoR!

Getting counselled on essays with a cousin - Linguistics major, masters’ from UCBerkeley. Essay will be super personal.

Not applying for Aid.

PS: I’m aware that my junior year is extremely messed up, but that was due to unforeseen, and unfortunate circumstances. Also if this comes off as fake, I still request you to take me in good faith and shower me with advice.

2

You have excellent ECs. I think you need to present them very differently, however. Show that you’ve stuck with them over time, show progression and how you’ve challenged yourself. Show results, and not in vague terms. It helps to show concern for others, and that means not only organizing volunteers but participating yourself, and in the right ways. Also, you need to SHOW that these activities made a difference in the community, not just use words like “high impact”, “great attendance”, or “incubator”, or “increased social influence”. Specifics will matter. How do you know (and prove!) it had a high impact? How do you define “great attendance”? What exactly came out of the “incubator”? You’ve got too much “fluff” here. You’re telling the reader that everything you did was successful and impactful. Well, lay out the evidence. Admissions won’t trust you unless they can judge for themselves. Make that task difficult, and your app will go no further.

You will also need to show why you are a good match to those colleges. How will you fit in? In what ways might you contribute? Will you make a good roommate, teammate, friend, lab partner, study buddy? It isn’t about you, but about the college and the class that they are building.

As an international student, your odds of getting in any of those schools are only about 1-2%, even as a full pay student. You have a huge hurdle to overcome with junior year grades. So you really need to hit the mark on the rest of your application.

3

Thank you for your advice. I’ve described my ECs in this sort of way only for this forum, will be editing them for my common app.

4

Your best chance for admission is to apply ED (early decision) to Williams College.

Your ECs all seem to be very similiar. Some seem to be little more than organizing an event.

5

It will carry more weight if your GC mentions your ‘extenuating circumstance’, particularly given the many major projects that you were apparently managing very successfully at the same time.

6

Are some of your ECs redundant / the same project ?

Regarding EC #5: Are you writing a letter of recommendation about yourself ?

Seems like your ECs are a lot of insignificant BS.

Admission to Harvard, Stanford & Princeton is unlikely–but it is unlikely for all applicants. Nothing distinguishes you from thousands of other applicants to these schools.

P.S. Your post doesn’t come off as fake, but it does seem that you exaggerate your accomplishments. A few red flags as well.

7

You have some wonderful achievements. I’m worried that your first year IB marks are a little too low. I think all of the schools mentioned above will be a stretch for you.

But there are lots of colleges that would love to have a full pay international with high scores. Have you considered other colleges ranked a bit lower?

8

Do not submit the AP. There is zero point. And you didn’t have one night to study. You did not make more time to study and thought you could bluff your way through an AP test. I’m not sure your 700 in SAT Lit is worth submitting, though if the college requires all SATs, you might have no choice.

Your odds are poor. They are for everyone. If the goal is US college or bust, apply ED to Williams.

Are all of these ECs distinct and different? They sound pretty similar.

Your extenuating circumstances need to be truly extenuating. As in some unforeseen family illness, etc… Not something like you were stressed out, or similar. And they should be mentioned by a school counselor, not by you.

No one cares who is advising you on your essay.

My advice, be a little more humble.

9

Yes, all of the ECs are different. They’re all super verifiable too, because some of them have received national media recognition too. Wouldn’t have listed them separately otherwise. I had an unforeseen illness which I will be mentioning on the additional info section. My school counselor will verify that too. And I’m not sending my AP score. I’m not completely sure about the Lit SAT, but would definitely be submitting the score to Georgetown. Thanks for your advice. Have a lovely day.

10

Nope sir/ma’am, I’m not merging any, all of them are different. That’s why I’ve listed them separately. What, for example, would be considered insignificant bs? I added the extra detail to give context. I am not actually exaggerating, three of them have received national media coverage. Thank you for your opinion. Have a lovely day.

11

Yes, my GC knows about it actually. Will ask her to mention it. Thank you!

12

EC #5: “Founder and CEO of…”. “Descreptive letter and recommendation from CEO/Founder.”

So you wrote yourself a letter of recommendation about yourself ?

13

Sorry should’ve been a bit clear. I’m getting a letter of recommendation from the Founder of the social enterprise I worked with.

14

As an international student, these outstanding schools are all reaches or low reaches, probably.

But since more international kids apply to universities than LACs, your best chance is probably at Williams. Dartmouth is the second-most statistically likely to admit you.

These are all great schools, and attending any of them would be quite a lofty privilege. But if I were you, I would add some match-range schools and at least one safety.

Some high-quality matches for you:
Universities:
U of Wisconsin
U of Illinois
U of Washington
U of Florida
Purdue U
Ohio State U
Penn State U
Case Western Reserve
NYU
Lehigh
Boston U

Rural colleges:
Bates College
Bucknell College
Whitman College
Connecticut College

15

Thank you Sir/Ma’am (couldn’t figure out since the DP has both a man and a woman).
I’ve heard that public universities in the USA are often extremely stats based. My junior year academically wasn’t great. Do you have any other private college recommendations?