<p>Chinese American female attending highly competitive private school with 70% Asian population. Yikes.</p>
<p>SAT: 2400
GPA: 4.0 unweighted
SAT II: Math 2 790, Chem 800, Lit 800
Classes: seven 5s, one 4, four more this year
ECs:
- President of Love Letters chapter
- Varsity Golf 3 years, Captain 1 year
- Chinese dance 8 years
- Vice President of Key Club
Awards:
- Received historical research grant from school
- 1st place international religious freedom essay competition
- National Merit Semifinalist
- National AP Scholar
- A few DECA regional/state top 3 finishes, ICDC finalist
Summer:
- Intern, UC Astro/Comp Sci research
- Intern, County Women's Policy office
- Yale YGS</p>
<p>Most of my classmates are excellent in the engineering field, so I'm hoping that taking a strong humanities + CS angle will help me stand out.</p>
<p>Wow, your stats are superb! Still, these colleges are a bit of a gamble. So… here’s my verdict:</p>
<p>Northwestern - High Match
MIT - Reach
Stanford - Reach
UChicago - High Match</p>
<p>Again, I don’t mean to sound harsh, but these schools are notorious for rejecting more than 90% of their applicants, so have good, but less selective schools on your mind as well. That being said, find teachers who know you well (for excellent letters of recommendation) and tell your counselor what you want him/her to say about you in their recommendation (if you don’t know your counselor very well). That, complemented with great essays (which I know you can pull off), can get you several acceptances.</p>
<p>I think that you will definitely get into northwestern because northwestern accepted 3 students from my school with lower gpa than yours , whose sats are like 2090/1930/1990 . last year , one of my friend accepted to northwestern with 1950 sat . so I think that northwestern is not that selective … I think you can get into UChicago too . </p>
<p>Your stats are perfect but when it comes to schools like MIT , Stanford , everything is possible . You are a very brilliant candidate for these schools too but I cant say that they will accept you or not , they reject many perfect candidates .</p>
<p>Thanks henrys1996, gc1995gc! Yeah, those two top-tier schools are a reach for nearly everyone, that’s what I’ve been thinking. From here on it’s a matter of strategy.</p>
<p>Current Northwestern student here. Your stats are excellent but in my experience attending Northwestern I would gander that they are more focused on your app and what makes you a good fit. I would say as long as you can demonstrate your niche in the school, you will have an excellent chance of getting in.</p>
<p>U of Chicago is looking for a certain strength of personality… a lot will depend on your essays. Great stats alone will not get you in, it depends on your essays and possibly what your recommenders say about you. Academic strength alone is not enough for admission there. So gonna say U of Chicago is a reach as well, although maybe not quite as much as Stanford or MIT. Northwestern is the only one in the ‘match’ range on the list.</p>
<p>I’m confident about my UChicago essays and teacher/counselor rec letters…and I’m applying to 15 schools in total at my mother’s urging, which means I’ve really got a lot of work to be doing. Haha.</p>
<p>My dh is a grad of Stanford MSEE program.<br>
When we went to an alumni info session for children of Stanford grads, they reported that they were approaching admissions looking for “fit”. </p>
<p>The admissions officer said that they had received complaints from Silicon Valley companies that many students were graduating from the Ivies as “bookworms” and couldn’t communicate well or “think outside of the box”. At that time, Stanford wanted “creative”, passionate, and bright students and were rejecting students with perfect scores because they felt these students were “menu driven” or “robotic-like” (doing what was expected). </p>
<p>So, you can take this information and decipher it in whatever manner you wish. On paper, you sound fine, but I think Stanford is a reach for you.
We’ve had 2 students, from our high school, admitted so far to Stanford; both are stand-out multi-sport athletes with phenomenal academics. Stanford does recruit athletes.</p>
<p>Thanks aunt bea! This will actually be quite helpful…I’m currently rewriting my roommate essay to include my quirkier parts (aka I secretly enjoy horrible jokes and aggressive displays of wit at the same time that I write love letters to strangers). It also aligns with what a friend who currently attends Stanford told me: they’re looking for interesting, creative minds. </p>
<p>Oh dear I hope my scores don’t work against me.</p>
<p>^“I hope my scores don’t work against me!” I’m saying that, but not because I got a 2400 on the SAT! lol</p>
<p>Anyway, apply, apply, apply! With those ECs, you can be exactly the kind of student they’re looking for! Remember, unless you’re really close friends with a Stanford admissions officer, or one yourself, you really don’t know how the Stanford admissions office will look at you. Despite that, seeing how varied your activities are, I’d be quite confident that you can look like someone who can inspire excellence at any college, including Stanford.</p>
<p>By the way, top 3 in DECA State CDCs? In what category did you place? Was it a team-decision event, individual series, or research-based? I’m interested in knowing, as you know that DECA State CDCs are in early March and I’d really like to improve my role play to place for ICDC. (I’d love to go to Atlanta!)</p>
<p>How the f*** could someone say that those schools are high reaches?? How do you get stats better than yours?? I don’t understand… I think you’ll get into all of them if you have good essays… except maybe MIT.</p>
<p>You have fantastic stats! Congratulations on that alone! I believe Northwestern is a match for you if your essay portrays your interests well. U of Chicago would be a low reach/high match in my opinion. Stanford and MIT are reaches for anyone without a Nobel Prize. They receive so many qualified applicants that they can afford to be somewhat random in their admissions. However, I believe you will be accepted into at least one of them if your essays are well written and personal. Good luck! Chance me back?</p>