Chance me for Top20-type schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone, I made an account here today just to be chanced. I'm going to be entering my senior year this Fall. I am an Indian (from India) male, attending a suburban public senior high school (grades 10-12) with 1800 students.</p>

<p>In no particular order, I am currently looking at the following 14 schools (will narrow the list down more later but for now I like these), so please chance me for these schools. Thank you in advance.</p>

<p>Princeton
U Chicago
Harvard
Swarthmore
Amherst
Carleton
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
Middlebury
Emory
Cornell
Wake Forest
WashU
Macalester</p>

<p>Standardized tests:</p>

<p>SAT: 2nd sitting-2300 (780CR; 740M; 780W; 10essay) -- 1st sitting-2040 (690CR; 660M; 690W; 10essay)
ACT: 34 (32R; 34M; 34S; 34E; 9essay) </p>

<p>SAT Math Level 2: 800
SAT Biology E: 750
SAT Literature: 700</p>

<p>AP US History: 4 (Grade 10)
AP World History: 3 (Grade 11)
AP English Language: 3 (Grade 11)
AP Chemistry: 3 (Grade 11)
AP Comparative Govt: 3 (No course-walk in and test)
AP European History: 3 (No course-walk in and test)
AP Environmental Science: 4 (No course-walk in and test)
AP Psychology: 5 (No course-walk in and test)</p>

<p>Transcript: </p>

<p>Class rank: 19 out of 566
GPA: 3.93 unweighted GPA</p>

<p>Extra-curriculars:</p>

<p>1) Reading Seedlings: Co-founded a program to improve the reading/English language skills in young children; Created and continuously improved a curriculum, instructed students, marketed program to parents/students, and tabulated data to gauge improvement in student proficiency</p>

<p>2) Forensics: President of Debate and Speech-United the participants of debate and speech, set up community outreach programs, and shaped the image of forensics in the school and community
2a) Debate: Captain of Debate-Instructed and empowered team members, synthesized creative ideas in order to improve team capability and cohesion, budgeted and raised funds, recruited new team members, and mediated conflicts between team members and coaches by being a communication liaison; Qualified for the State and National Tournaments, ranked individually as third in-state, won the Section and Novice State Tournaments, and placed at a Tournament of Champions-bid
2b) Speech: Captain of Speech-same responsibilities as Debate Captain; Qualified for the State Tournament and a Tournament of Champions-bid</p>

<p>3) Vice President of Concert Band and Section Leader of Trumpet Line in Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble</p>

<p>4) Webmaster of NHS-completely changed the way in which my school's NHS chapter operates by redesigning and streamlining the volunteer experience with a new website</p>

<p>5) Will be doing research at the Carleton Summer Quantitative Reasoning Institute in Economics for 3-weeks in July 2013</p>

<p>Please tell me how competitive I am for applying to the 15 schools above. Please tell me which schools I have higher chances of acceptance, etc. Thank you so much.</p>

2

<p>I think you have a better-than-average chance at these schools, although the upper tier of the schools you are looking at (U of Chicago, Princeton, Dartmouth, Harvard, Cornell, and WashU) are high reaches. Your EC’s are probably your weak point, even cofounding a program, as there are thousands of applicants who have “cofounded” something. Maybe include any awards/recognition your program has gotten. </p>

<p>Your rank / GPA is decent, and your SAT/ ACT scores are very good. I think you will get into most lower tier schools, and maybe 1 or 2 of the higher tier schools if you have a little bit of luck.</p>

3

<p>Something I would want specific information on is how much will my AP test 3’s weigh me down?</p>

4

<p>Well, I’m not sure what exactly the point of taking AP exams was without taking the course… Colleges will just look at those exams with kind of a question mark.</p>

<p>On another note, AP exams are not all-important. They are a good indication of how well you truly mastered your courses and the accuracy of your grades. Your lower AP scores might send up some red flags, but I don’t think they will bother you too much</p>

<p>Take what I say with a grain of salt though, I am only 16 and a rising senior.</p>

<p>By the way, could you chance me back? I would really appreciate it! ^_^</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1523385-chances-hypsm-ivies-will-chance-back-d.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1523385-chances-hypsm-ivies-will-chance-back-d.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>I took those AP tests just to get AP credit in the event that I go to my state school, I could get tons of AP credit there and graduate early.</p>

6

<p>Does anyone else have any information?</p>

7

<p>youre academics are good and your ECs are solid so it’ll come down to how you explain them in your essays (make yourself stand out :D)</p>

<p>as is for everyone…
Princeton - mid-reach
U Chicago - mid-reach
Harvard - mid-reach
Swarthmore - low reach
Amherst - low reach
Carleton - high match
Vanderbilt - low reach
Dartmouth - low reach
Middlebury - match
Emory - high match
Cornell - high match
Wake Forest - safety
WashU - high match
Macalester - match</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1515027-chance-me-ill-chance-you-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1515027-chance-me-ill-chance-you-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Isn’t Macalester easier to get into than Wake Forest?</p>

9

<p>They’re close, probably
macalester admission rate is ~35%, wake forest is 40%</p>

10

<p>Basically, the type of advice I’m looking for is that

  1. Am I still in the race?
  2. Is it all up to my essays and recs for admission now?</p>
11

<p>To answer your questions:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>1) Yes. At all of the schools you will be a * competitive * applicant, though it may not be at all * likely * that you get into any given school (particularly the more competitive ones on your list). You certainly have the stats to be admitted anywhere, but so do countless of other applicants, and the admissions process is particularly competitive for international students.</p>

<p>2) Yes and no, depending on how you look at it. You almost certainly will not get admitted to the most competitive colleges on your list if your essays/recs are very lackluster – so in that way, it is all up to your those parts of the application. However, even if you write an absolutely superb essay and receive stellar recs, there is no guarantee that you will be admitted. In the end, a lot of it is luck when the applicant pool is as competitive as it is.</p>

<p>So, with that said, best of luck to you! I hope everything turns out as you hope, but even if it doesn’t, I’m sure you will end up at a wonderful college.</p>

12

<p>In that case, if all of my statistics are competitive but a lot of the college admissions process relies on luck, does it make sense to apply to a large amount of schools to maximize chances of getting into one? I don’t mean go around and apply to 30 schools, but maybe 10-12?</p>

13

<p>I think most people who apply to top 20 schools apply to a lot of schools simply because admissions are so reliant on virtually chance. I think you have as good of a shot as anyone at the schools on your list. Just don’t forget a safety or two. Are you planning on EDing anywhere because that may increase your odds?</p>

14

<p>“I think most people who apply to top 20 schools apply to a lot of schools simply because admissions are so reliant on virtually chance.”
I’m sorry, I don’t know what you quite mean here; the sentence looks incomplete?</p>

<p>I don’t like the idea of ED, because it binds you in, and you never know when something comes up, and you can’t make that commitment anymore. Rather, I’m going to look at Early Action at Harvard or Princeton (I know, a real reach, but hey, worth a shot!)</p>

<p>My safety school is my home state school, which I am almost 100% sure I will get into. As another poster previously said, is Wake Forest a safety school for me too then?</p>

15

<p>

</p>

<p>That was certainly the strategy I used, and I feel like it worked out well. I applied to 17 different schools (complete with safeties, matches, and reaches), reasoning that it would give me a large choice of colleges to choose from once I received the decisions back and that it would also improve my chances of getting into a college I very much loved. In addition, I felt that I would better understand what I wanted in a college after the entire application process was over, so I decided to apply to many schools and decide after I started hearing back from schools what I truly wanted in a college rather than to try and decide early on in the process by only applying to a few schools. </p>

<p>To be fair, there are many people who will disagree with me. Several believe that it is best to only apply to a few colleges, but to completely love those colleges and to invest a large amount of your time to making those few applications very, very good. This approach isn’t necessarily wrong – it’s just different, and different people will have different approaches to find what’s best for them. Whatever route you choose is really up to you.</p>

<p>I also don’t want to overstate the importance of luck – it’s just another factor, and it really only kicks in once you are a competitive applicant. Also, what looks like luck to those of us on the outside often has reasons for occurring; it’s worth remembering that admissions officers are looking to admit the best class possible, but not necessarily the best individual students. Thus, decisions can sometimes seem puzzling to most of us but make sense from the vantage point of an admissions officer.</p>

16

<p>How many of those 17 did you end up getting into, if I may ask? Just curious</p>

17

<p>I was accepted at 12, waitlisted at 1 (Brown), and rejected at 4 (Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Northwestern).</p>

18

<p>I see, congrats, I see you chose Harvard. </p>

<p>I guess I’ll just conclude with myself being competitive in the pool of everyone else, then? Hopefully get into one or two of them.</p>

19

<p>Thanks! Best of luck to you – I’m sure you’ll do great wherever you end up. Enjoy your senior year. :)</p>

20

<p>Anyone else have any words of advice?</p>