I’m actually a junior in high school, and I’m hoping you can help chance me for Stanford, MIT, and UPenn. Here’s what my application is shaping up to be, and most likely will be:
Academics:
4.0 unweighted GPA
Class Rank: 1/300
6 AP courses. Only 6 available at my school.
Haven’t taken SATs (didn’t plan on applying to US, im international, before this year) I’m aiming for a 1550-1600
SAT subject tests, im aiming for a 750-800 on math I/II, and a 750-800 on one of the sciences
Haven’t taken any AP exams yet (natural disaster in city right before AP exam dates screwed up exams for us), but I’ll take them in my senior year
Clubs:
-student council president
-business club founder and president (won/finalist for many international business competitions and programs)
-environment club member (did a few really cool things like set up greenhouses, run school’s water system using solar panels, won many international grants for projects)
-unicef club founder and president (organized the most successful school event in last 5 years, and raised over 1000 dollars)
-model un and debate president (did well at a few state/provincial tournaments, but nothing major, debate is just very weak in my city and not many students or teachers care enough to travel to tournaments. Definitely the weakest club that I’m a part of, and unless I can come up with a way to get us to more tournaments, I won’t show this club in my applications and will step down as president.)
-computer club member and marketing (organized workshops and seminars at all elementary schools in the city to teach the youngins some coding, also organized large quarterly conferences with an attendance of about 100 people)
-cultural club president (held many events and got influencers like the mayor to host each event)
-math club co-leader (established an international partnership with schools from countries such as norway, we do a few really cool international projects. We received all expense paid trips to various countries to develop these projects and partnerships)
Research:
countless regional science fair awards from grade 4 - 10
grade 9 and 10 national science fair bronze
strong chance of isef qualification and awards this year
published research
patent
various other awards for research, unrelated to science fair
Other ECs:
VEX robotics team captain and worlds. won regional and provincial
Chair of mayor’s youth council
Entrepreneurial Side:
Founder and president of a high potential and high impact startup, incorporated and official, with venture capitalist approach starting in December 2017. By August 2017, this app based service will be available and highly used in 98 university across the country, with North American expansion scheduled for October 2017. Company has 20 employees.
This startup is by far my highest priority and will be even after I’m in university.
-president and founder of a non-profit national organization in partnership with major, multi-million STEM organizations in the country. Provides mentorship to 1000-5000 students annually, and has a network of highly experienced young researchers (600 people)
co-founder and cto of a national financial literacy organization. Holds seminars/events/programs in all provinces across the nation. Received upwards of $60 000 of funding to launch program. Organizes a prestigious regional, provnicial, and national championship.
-ambassador for many organizations and companies
-Created proximity based social network app. App is used in MANY events/conferences across the world; a few popular events such as we day will begin using this app in its events. University launch scheduled in 6 months.
received many national awards for my entrepreneurial work, one of which is VERY prestigious.
Few other cool things:
recently got funding and support from a few national organizations to direct a documentary in countries around the world. This documentary will be showcased at a few cool events/conferences.
wrote a highly detailed article related to energy and will be published as a “guest contributor” on a few very popular sites (think along the lines of forbes)
-lots of media release on very popular national and international news outlets (thinks along the lines of CNN)
keynote speaker at things like TEDx
Application:
I’m expecting my essays to be 9/10 - 10/10, I don’t know for sure tho as I haven’t written them yet. I’m going to heavily use my understanding of branding, and themes.
Recommendation letter from one of my teacher’s will be a solid 10. The other teacher’s content will also be a 10, but english is his second language and his actual letter writing style won’t be the strongest. Normally, I would try and get another teacher, but me and this teacher are really close. School councilor should also write a strong letter, but we aren’t close as of now so I can’t tell.
unfortunatly, I’m about as mainstream as it gets in terms of ethnicity of applicants to elite schools.
You seem like an incredibly solid applicant…I honestly don’t believe that there is much more you could do to improve your chances, assuming your SAT scores are good. However, I can’t guarantee your admission to Stanford, MIT, or UPenn, and neither can anyone else with sub 6% admission rates.
Also, you said you’re international-are you applying for financial aid?
The extent of your ec’s makes one question your authenticity or time spent on each activity. But if it is genuine, well done. To further guarantee your acceptance, try winning top scholarships like the Intel Science Fair.
Your ECs look very embellished. I don’t know what you want people to say. Of course you have a chance with your stats, but we all know it could go either way.
To be quite honest, I’m an international student and I had no intention of going to an American university due to the high costs. Recently, reasons related to startup culture have made American schools like Stanford more appealing. I’m an international student and will need financial aid, my chances are low for this reason. I;m actually wondering whether SAT subject tests are required, I know it says optional on their sites, but are they truly significant? The reason I’m asking is because I plan to write the SATs in June and October, and I might not have time to study for SAT subject tests before early application deadline.
Also, as brought up by @IndianSuperman, my ECs might raise red flags. They are genuine as I had no desire of even applying to an elite school until very recently. School has never been too tough for me, clubs don’t take away too much time (approx. 1-2 hours per club per week), all my research projects are in the field of energy (which is something I’ve been obsessed with since elementary school) so they don’t feel like work, and my startups take around 14 hours per week on normal weeks. But I am very aware that they may raise red flags to admission officers; do you suggest anything that I can do to prove its authenticity?
As an international candidate, without an SAT score, and with too many EC’s, needing financial aid, your chances will be limited. Dont pad your EC’s with activities from before 9th grade.
Your might have a chance if you came from a tiny country, that doesn’t have many applicants, like Lichtenstein.
@starboystrides I guess we will have a better idea when your SAT results come out. You are really on the right track though and if you can manage 2200+ on the SAT and 750+ on the subject tests your chances will be good for all three schools. You seem like the type of applicant Stanford, MIT and Penn really like and a good fit for al three. Good luck!!
Throughout your post you are very facetious about these spectacular activities that you claim to have accomplished. Please clarify your “patent” (like wth, do you even know how long/expensive the patent process is? If you really were applying for a patent, then you would have likely talked about it.). In addition, WHAT IS THE NAME OF YOUR “high potential and high impact startup”, WHAT IS THE NAME OF YOUR “app”, WHAT IS THE NAME OF YOUR “magazine”, etc. I would love for you to prove me wrong.
The regional awards you cite from grade 4-10 won’t matter, they only take into account anything you did the summer after 8th grade. I’m sure we all won some regional awards from middle school we’d like to put, but colleges will not appreciate you putting that at all.
If you’re applying to Wharton, which seems like with your startup what you plan to do, I would say it is a very high reach (Wharton and Penn in general can be highly unpredictable). In addition, I would say Stanford and MIT are out of reach. There are just so many great applicants and valedictorians being rejected from these schools. With everyone getting 800 on SAT Math II and tons of APs, the possibilities become slim. I know several friends who have likewise founded their own startups and published research who are consistently rejected. You have many good extracurriculars and potential since you’re still a junior, but definitely look to some of the other great colleges out there.
^^ Although international, OP is valedictorian of their HS, has meaningful leadership positions, and ECs that border on the incredulous. Why would Wharton be a “very high reach” and Stanford and MIT “out of reach”? What type of candidates are these schools looking for if OP is not even in the running?
Chance threads are such a waste of time. OP, if you plan on applying then go ahead and do so. Don’t rely on the opinions of strangers to guide you. No one knows what your or anyone else’s fate will be.
None of these schools are out of reach for a person with these kinds of stats. Some people in here either have no idea of the average profiles of students at elite schools or they have ulterior motives (i.e. discouraging people from applying because they or their kid are). Penn, MIT and Stanford are well within the OPs reach given his/her profile. Does this mean he/she will definitely get in? Of course not. The competition in all three is very intense But saying they are out of reach is highly misleading.
Sorry guys, but I can’t specify the name of the app, startup, etc. for anon reasons. Everything on this post is from grades 10 and 11. I only said science fair awards from elementary school as I didn’t want my research to seem like it was only done for the uni applications. But from these posts, I understand how my ECs may seem incredulous. Would you suggest not listing them all when I do apply in the future?
you should use your judgement and list the most important and recent ones. if it is something small from say 9th grade you can leave that out. But of course add all our major achievements like leadership positions and major awards etc. The very minor awards you can do without. The goal here is to provide as complete a picture of your accomplishments as possible without overwhelming the reader of your application. You want the admissions committee at Penn, MIT and Stanford to focus on your major awards and accomplishments and not get lost in a sea of information, a lot of which will not be important or impactful for your admission decision.
If your SAT is 1550+
Stanford, - in (they LOVE Intel recognition)
MIT, - to close to call
UPenn - in.
Don’t believe that these schools are out of reach. Especially with your stats and accomplishments. Your chances are beyond average.