Chance Me for upper tier schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>This is an abridged version of a post I made yesterday, so sorry for the repetition:</p>

<p>Chance me?</p>

<p>This is a long one, so brace yourselves.</p>

<p>Hey guys, </p>

<p>I am a rising senior this year, and despite a subpar GPA, I think (hope) I am a decent applicant for most of the upper tier schools. My targets and reaches include Duke, Vanderbilt, Columbia, NYU Stern, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Northwestern, Dartmouth, UMichigan, Boston College, Georgetown, Notre Dame, UNC, etc.</p>

<p>Intended majors: Finance/Economics
I'm applying to all schools of business that exist at these schools if they exist, and economics is a backup major if finance is not available.</p>

<p>Safeties include F&M, Rutgers, NYU Undergrad(? Not sure about this one)</p>

<p>So, here are my stats: </p>

<p>Male
Caucasian
State: NJ
Income Bracket: 250k<
School Type: Small, Private, Catholic</p>

<p>GPA: Unweighted: ~3.75 not including freshman year</p>

<p>Weighted: ~3.9 (My school gives minimal extra weighting for AP's; our future valedictorian has a weighted GPA of ~4.4, and he is a guaranteed lock for Princeton)</p>

<p>Rigour of Courseload: Always most difficult classes available other than AP English 11 and 12</p>

<p>School does not rank</p>

<p>SAT: 2260 - 720 M, 740 CR, 800 W (one sitting, only studied the night before, so I'm sure I can break 2300 if I study for my October take)</p>

<p>ACT: 31, not sending</p>

<p>SAT2's: </p>

<p>800 Physics
760 Bio M
750 Math 2
720 US History</p>

<p>AP Scores: </p>

<p>Taken with a class: </p>

<p>European History (5)
US History (4)
Physics B (5)
Italian Language and Culture (4)</p>

<p>Self-Studied:</p>

<p>English Lang and Comp (5)
Human Geography (4)
Biology (4)
US Government (4)</p>

<p>Senior Year Courseload:</p>

<p>AP Physics C
AP Calc AB (I might skip into BC if possible)
AP Art History
International Relations (post-ap course)</p>

<p>EC's: </p>

<p>3 Years Football (1 freshman, 1 JV, 1 Varsity, conference champs for 2 consecutive years)</p>

<p>Rugby (1 year on a school team, we were state champs that year)</p>

<p>Russian Club</p>

<p>History Club</p>

<p>School Economics Club</p>

<p>Officer / Coordinator of a Statewide Nonprofit Economics Club that has chapters in 10-15 schools (Financial Leadership Development Club)</p>

<p>4 years (2009-2012) of hardcore wilderness canoe trips and camping for 3-6 continuous weeks in Ontario, Canada during June-August (it's a very strange extracurricular but I have it on good authority that colleges love it, as I've spoken to 4 staffmen who were attending Dartmouth and said it straight-up got them in since they all wrote essays about it and it was all their interviewers talked about)</p>

<p>Summer Internship (2013) at a UBS wealth management and investment banking chapter in LA (I stayed with family for its duration) under 2 Senior Vice Presidents, in an office that managed approximately $1.5 Billion collectively. (Apparently they're considering giving me a $2-5k, UBS sponsored scholarship)</p>

<p>I am currently trying to get into another internship at Gabelli Funds in NYC</p>

<p>Community Service: </p>

<p>Tour Guide for the families of applicants to my school</p>

<p>Community Service Coordinator at my neighbourhood food pantry </p>

<p>Retreat Leader for a school freshman retreat </p>

<p>Tutor and serve food to underprivileged kids at a local neighbourhood house </p>

<p>Member of a middle school mentor program at my school</p>

<p>Big Brothers annual football service program and clinic, 3 years</p>

<p>Participated in and donated to school-run Christmas Gift Drives and Thanksgiving Food Drives</p>

<p>Hurricane Sandy Relief Program (A number of other schoolmates and I went to a nearby inner city area that was heavily affected by Hurricane sandy to distribute food and gifts before Christmas came)</p>

<p>Awards/Recognitions: </p>

<p>National AP Scholar (8 4s or higher, average of 4 or higher)</p>

<p>National Merit Commended Student (I scored a 211, and my guidance councillors told me the cutoff is never higher than 205 or so)</p>

<p>National Italian Exam Honourable Mention: 9th and 11th Grades, ~30th and 7th in the country, respectively. </p>

<p>School award for Highest average in the grade in Italian during 9th grade (trivial)</p>

<p>Leadership Positions: </p>

<p>Co-President of Russian Club (possible, I'm not sure yet)</p>

<p>Freshman Retreat Leader</p>

<p>Community Service Coordinator</p>

<p>Officer/Coordinator of the statewide Financial Leadership club</p>

<p>Middle School Mentorship position</p>

<p>Recommendations: </p>

<p>From my physics B/C teacher (2 consecutive years). He writes good recommendations but I was only an "eh" student in his class, so it will probably generic, but he has won various Ivy League teaching awards, so I'm sure it will be taken favourably </p>

<p>From my AP Euro (10th) and international relations (12th) teacher. Good rec writer and really liked me.</p>

<p>I am considering getting a pair of supplemental recs as well. One would come from my staff man last year from camp, who could give better perspective on what happens there and also happens to be a professor at the University of New Hampshire, so it should at least be well-articulated. </p>

<p>The other would be from the branch manager at the UBS office I worked at, and would be a summary and assessment of the work I did, and specify what types of things I was tasked with, I.e. constructing a report on a series of holdings that a particular mutual fund has and presenting their performance, etc relative to the performance of the fund.</p>

<p>I'm not sure whether to send any supplementals, because on one hand they explain 2 prominent extracurriculars in detail, but on the other hand, no admissions officer wants to read a stack of papers for any single applicant, so it could work against me. </p>

<p>So any way, let me know what you guys think. Any feedback is welcome and I am grateful for any input. </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Duke - High match
Vandy - High match
Columbia - Reach
Stern - High match
UCLA, UCB - Match
Northwestern - Match
Dartmouth - High Match
UMich - Match
BC - Match
GTown - Match
Notre Dame - Match
UNC - Match</p>

<p>Safeties look good. I would also suggest looking into UVA. While not really a “safety” school, it has a great business program and you’d be a match there.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the input. Anyone else? I’ll chance back</p>

4

<p>Columbia is a reach for anyone.</p>

<p>Duke- Low Reach
Vandy- Match
Michigan- Safety
GTown- Match
UNC- Match
Dartmouth- Low Reach
Stern- Match
Notre Dame- Low Match
NW- Low Reach</p>

<p>Chance Back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1517788-chance-johns-hopkins-ed-will-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1517788-chance-johns-hopkins-ed-will-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>Duke - Reach
Vandy - Low reach
Columbia - Reach
Stern - High match
UCLA - Match
Cal - Match
Northwestern - Low reach
Dartmouth - Low reach
Michigan - Low match
BC - Low match
GT - Match
ND - Match
UNC - Match</p>

6

<p>It appears that you have gone to great lengths to gloss over your weak points and describe your perceived strengths with tremendous verbosity. It also seems that you place considerable value on opinions of questionable origin.</p>

<p>It is good to accentuate your positive and minimize your negatives. However, you should not pretend that your negatives don’t exist. Your UW GPA is 3.75 after freshman year, but all the schools on your list (except UCs) will look at your freshman year. Similarly, your school does not rank, but they will likely know that the Valedictorian’s W GPA is 4.4 - meaning that your W 3.9 is probably outside the top 10%, even top quartile. By the way, how is anyone guaranteed admission to Princeton?</p>

<p>You have great SAT scores - I wouldn’t even worry about taking it again in October. Your AP scores are also impressive. However, why have you only taken four APs as part of your course work, with only three/four more senior year? If your high school limits you, be sure to note this on your application.</p>

<p>Your list of schools lacks focus - they are all prestigious business programs lack anything else in common. New England/South/West Coast. Big city/small city/suburban/rural. Large publics with 30k+ students (and 70% in-state) and small privates with fewer than 6k students (and less than 10% from home state). Big time, national athletic programs and Div III athletics. Schools where 80% of undergraduates live on campus and schools where less than 25% live on campus. It will be difficult to create a dozen quality applications, including essays for schools that are at least similar. It will be impossible for schools this diverse and unrelated.</p>

<p>You have relied greatly on a couple ECs (hardcore camping and internships) to impress adcoms. I don’t see anything on your extensive list that shows your personality or passion, or frankly much of a time commitment. The camp and interships that you place such faith in scream out “rich, privileged kid” which means that you have access to opportunities not available to most students. This minimizes the impact of these ECs as well as creates a higher level of expectation for other areas of your application.</p>

<p>Based on the information that you have provided, I would say that you are a long shot at all the schools on your list except UCLA, BC, F&M and Rutgers.</p>

7

<p>I am compelled to refute your points if for no reason other than to maintain my ego, lol. </p>

<p>First of all, I concede that freshman grades are a consideration, but they will not make or break my application. I omitted them because my freshman GPA was a ~3.42, and weighting them equally would misconstrue my GPA as being lower than the one that colleges will probably consider, because a 3.75 is a better representation of my recent performance (soph/junior). While they will see freshman grades, they will not weigh them even close to as much as more recent years, as stated by people at the information sessions I have been to so far. </p>

<p>As for class rank/weighted GPA, one of the reasons my school does not rank is because of the fact that you get so little extra weighting for AP’s. My school functions on a 12-point GPA scale where a 12 is an A+, a 11 is an A, etc. The scale that exists states that a 12 is a 4.33, a 11 is a 4.0, etcetera. Thus, my ~3.75 average puts me at slightly above an A-. People could potentially, and have, taken all-intro/regular courses and are ranked above me because they got all A’s in a much easier courseload. Thus any ranking system would be inherently unfair because the top 10% would consist of the top 2-3 kids and then a bunch of morons who took easy classes. BTW, the top kid at my school has been admitted to Princeton for 14 consecutive years so our valedictorian is a good bet to be accepted (in 2012 we sent 11 kids to Princeton, and that’s not even including the other ivies and Stanford). </p>

<p>As I previously stated, I took every ap and advanced course available to me outside of English 11/12 that I could without going to summer classes. </p>

<p>As for my school list, it is only July, and this is a preliminary list. I will obviously narrow my list down later, and I do not think I am being unreasonable to ask where I stand right now. Rest assured that I have reasons for attending each school I listed (lots of family on the west coast, I am from the northeast, friends/siblings in college have advocated for certain schools, legacy at Michigan, etc). I didn’t pick these schools out of thin air, so don’t assume that I did.</p>

<p>I have no idea how I am supposed to express personality through a simple list of extracurriculars without being a theatre kid. I’m pretty sure they read essays for that reason. They wouldn’t reject me from a business school because I don’t sing and paint. Outside of the typical school clubs, I show a clear economics/monetarily oriented list of extracurriculars, including several leadership positions. </p>

<p>As for a lack of time commitment in my extracurriculars, I think 3 years of football is a very significant time commitment. Freshman football is what it is. JV and varsity football at my school are one big group because the school is pretty small. I went through all the same practices and workouts that the varsity kids did, and the only difference was that while I dressed for Saturdays, I played in JV games on Mondays. 2 straight years we went to the state championships, which because of playoffs made our season last from summer practices in August through mid-December. That does not even include multiple workouts a week through the entire offseason, including the summer. </p>

<p>Additionally, I have done community service for my school for years, performing many hours of service, and an internship isn’t a one-day thing. You clearly did not read too closely into my post.</p>

8

<p>That post was longer than I anticipated it to be lol</p>

9

<p>11 kids to just Princeton? I wish I went to your school lol. The #1 at my school last year will go to MIT for engineering, albeit he is an Asian genius. The #2 was rejected from Princeton and will go to Clemson Honor’s. The #3 will go to the #87 LAC…then the vast majority are going to unknown schools or community college. I’ll probably go to the best school out of my class if I go to Miami and definitely if I go to GTown.</p>

10

<p>I’m not sure why you feel compelled to “refute” an opinion. Apparently you don’t really consider “any feedback is welcome”. I stand by my assessments, even with your additional information.</p>

<p>If your high school sends large numbers of kids to highly selective schools, your GC would be able to provide much more valuable feedback than arguing with complete strangers. This is especially true since you state that your school is “pretty small”. He will know exactly how you stack up against comparable peers from your school in recent years.</p>

11

<p>Given the point you made about 11 kids last year from your school being accepted into Princeton and “that’s not even including the other ivies and Stanford”, perhaps it would be relevant for you to say where you stand among the rest of the students in your class (if you have already said this, my apologies).</p>

<p>Here is my opinion on your chances at the schools you have stated (the ones I know anything about, that is):</p>

<p>Duke - Reach
Vandy - Low Reach
Columbia - Reach
UCLA - Match
UC Berkeley - Match
Northwestern - High Match
Dartmouth - High Match
UMich - Match
Boston College - Match
Georgetown - High Match/Low Reach
Notre Dame - Match
UNC - Match</p>

<p>Just my opinions. Best of luck to you in the applications process!</p>

<p>Chance me back please? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1527858-chance-me-harvard-yale-etc-will-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1527858-chance-me-harvard-yale-etc-will-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>Everything seems like a match except columbia which would be a reach.
Please chase me:<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=1527740[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=1527740&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

13

<p>I never rejected any opinions, I merely refuted them</p>

14

<p>Rmldad, i find your opinions pretty interesting and would love it if you could chance me:<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1524541-chance-thread-columbia-university-2018-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1524541-chance-thread-columbia-university-2018-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I think you are decent applicant at most of the schools. Make sure you discuss how that UBS internship was throughout the college process. I know that UBS is a highly sought after bank for internships. While, your gpa is a little low, I know that schools like Yale value senior year grades the most so there is hope yet. Also, re-take the Sats(2300+ looks better) Otherwise, that camp you did is pretty neat and I think your ECs can make up for other portions.</p>