Chance me for Wharton ED, Uchicago EDII, and other T20's

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics: Male, Indian, California, Semicompetitive Bay Area Public High School
Class size: 950
Intended Major(s): Econ or Finance
ACT/SAT/SAT II: Sat: 1550 SatII math: 800 SatII ush: 750
UW/W GPA and Rank: UW: 4.0 W: 4.5 School doesnt rank
Coursework:
Freshman: Can’t take APs, took 2 honors classes
Sophomore: Apwh (4) Only AP available (<10 sophomores take AP science or math) also took 2 honors classes
Junior: USH (5), lang (5), Calc AB (5) + 2 honors classes
Senior: Calc BC, Literature, Gov, Econ, Stat, APES

Awards:
-A few speech and debate awards from districts and for breaking to outrounds at invitationals
-AP Scholar with Honor
-VE Microcapital Challenge Gold Award (state competition)

Extracurriculars:
Forensics Speech and Debate (11, 12) - State Qualifier (CA), and made outrounds to many invitationals in public forum, also did speech in a couple events and broke to outrounds same thing as debate

Marketing & Management - Virtual Enterprise (11, 12) - COO of school’s company (leadership position i guess) idk if means much but we did aight in competitions

Business Club Vice President (11, 12) - self explanatory just facilitated meetings it was p fun

Biz Podcast (11, 12) - made a podcast took a few months, did an episode on every business venture i had its about helping teens build wealth and earn money its kinda cool

Cepheus Co. (9, 10) - Gaming “startup”, founded a game server by hiring web and java devs, graphic designers, ingame builders, etc had couple thousand unique joins and i shut it down

Reselling (9, 10, 11, 12) - Game accounts, Social media accounts, shoes, hype clothing and items. Have made thousands in profit, just a hobby ive carried throughout high school

Cross Country; Track & Field Member (9, 10) - got 2 var letters, 1 in each sport

Essays/LORs/Other: Haven’t written essays, have two LORs from APlang and APUSH im not gonna put numbers on them but theyre decent

200~ volunteering hours, half from coaching a special ed track team

Schools: List of colleges, ED/EA/RD, etc upenn ED and reg Uchicago ED2 and reg Ill apply reg for rest of T20 schools

*Personal note: * I think I don’t have enough APs (pre-senior yr) im concerned about that, also dont really have any good awards besides speech and debate ones and for extracurriculars i have 0 research and overall kinda seems week compared to all the other chance me top 20 threads lol.

I may or may not do an internship at a nonprofit and take on a marketing position for a restaurant before i send in my app! It’s my goal to do these but only if I get the time to, hopefully itll help my app

Thanks for everyones insight in advance it means a lot to me. I genuinely want to know whether certain parts of my app are weak so that I can work hard on improving it. That’s all I care about, putting in effort. I’m not nationally ranked in anything, not a super smart stem kid but I’m decent at things so the most i can do it be prepared!

2

Your scores, grades, and rigor look fine. Honestly, don’t worry about it. Your greatest challenge will be to find something interesting to write about in your essays. Pick something that is interesting and will make the admissions officer want you in the class.

Forget about the drivel that most kids write about: death of grandmother, mission trip, divorce, etc. Pick something that shows a side of you that your letter writers don’t see. Especially something about you as a person, a human that they can relate to. something about your personality, tastes, dreams, etc. You appear to be talented and bright enough, just give it some deep thought.

The reason I say this is that writing a lively essay is often the difference between acceptance and rejection at the Lottery schools. Your plan for ED1 Wharton followed by ED2 Chicago is solid. You might also throw in an EA application to Chicago at the same time as the ED1 Wharton app.

3

Your course rigor will be evaluated in the context of your school so you wont be penalized for taking AP courses that aren’t offered. Be sure to have match and safety schools on your list. The T20s are reaches for everyone.

4

Every T-20 is a reach for everybody. Applying ED1 can help, but even doubling a 6% acceptance rate means that there is a 88% rejection rate. You are competitive, but for the most popular colleges, for every competitive applicant who is accepted, 4-5 or more are rejected.

My point - your college plan should not be “I’m going to a T-20 college”. Not because you’re “not good enough”, but because body and their third cousin wants to attend Wharton or UChicago, and there are simply not enough places for more than a fraction of the people who, like you, have the right qualifications.

That is the bad news. The good news is that there are literally hundreds of colleges out there in which you cane thrive and earn a degree which will allow you to accomplish everything you want to. You have done well in school, you have done well on your standardized tests, and you have done meaningful things outside of school. You managed all of that in a “semi-competitive” high school. Despite the claims to the contrary, the differences between the colleges which so attract you and hundreds of others out there is far smaller than differences between the different high schools in your area, and, in many cases, non-existent.

5

You’re definitely a maybe, a little unilateral, but I agree with @sgopal2 that this may hinge on your writing. But that’s a bit more than just being interesting. It needs to show attributes that make them want you in the class- that’s more than drives or solitary pursuits or quirks. You need an idea of what those traits are. And to write in a way that “shows, not just tells.” I think you can try to have some fun with the essay- but make sure the points you make are relevant to a college admit review.

Have you met the recommended hs coursework? Do you have the years of langage study they ask for? Stats and APES do make the sr courseload seem lighter, what other options? Do you have a chance for APEuro? Any AP science? Etc. It’s tough to figure what you did take.

6

You are a great student. I would encourage you to find your interest or strength or pursuit that can differentiate yourself from most of your peers from the Bay area California. Good luck!

7

bump

What do you mean by unilateral? Also thanks for the essay tips, I was wondering if you know of a link to essay(s) that were particularly impressive.

I took all the AP humanities and maths that were available at my school. The only APs i never took or signed up for were sciences. I just dont like science and I knew that even if I signed up for one just for fun it would’ve dragged me down in my other classes. I do have 3 years of language study (didn’t want to take a 4th) and I have more than enough credits to graduate once the time comes. Thanks for your reply

8

Johns Hopkins publishes “essays that worked” every year. You can read the essays and the AO’s comments. There are several years of essays posted. Read them and you’ll get the drift of “show don’t tell.” You can also see how, reading between the lines, different characteristics of the writers come through loud and clear without being explicitly stated. Here’s the link:
https://apply.jhu.edu/application-process/essays-that-worked/

9

I wouldn’t go entirely on what a book, articles, or blogs say. Those essays, without the context of the rest of the actual app and supp, plus LoRs, are what worked for other applicants. You do want your own voice to come through. Adcoms focus on what they want to see in you, you want them nodding as they read. “Impressive” means memorable, but for the match they look for. It’s not as calculated as I make it sound, but it needs to be relevant. If you have an idea what traits they look for, that helps a lot.

Unilateral refers to too much in one arena. Most of your ECs are related to business. Speech and Debate and the Special Ed work are great. You dropped the sport. A lot of kids don’t show all their ECs, thinking some side activities are negligible (not related to their major.) No, sometimes those make the difference, depending. So, anything else?

10

I would be careful of reading “successful essays”. Essays that were “successful” because they portrayed the writers very well, and that had to be pretty unique to each individual. Rather than spending time reading other people’s essays, time would be better spent on reading good books/reflecting your experience/writing and revising. Good luck.

11

I dropped the sport to focus on my other ECs, the only other non business related thing I might put on later is having active role in a nonprofit but i need to work some hours before I do that. Is being unilateral really bad

12

The content of what you write is less important the style itself. A good writer will be able to capture interest and tell a cohesive story. Avoid the standard 5 paragraph essay that you learned in English class.

Admissions readers have seen just about every essay imaginable. So you won’t find something unique that hasn’t been tried before. But the way that you write can be convincing. This is what we mean by “show not tell”.

13

The message matters. The point. Not bec you’re being graded. But because you’re applying for an admit. Show, not tell refers to showing in the essay, "exemplifying, " as someone else recently put it.

14

If everything points in one direction, some may see you as “one dimensional”.

But if you have a variety of activities, some may see you as “unfocused”.

15

If a college values branching out, trying new things, not just your set interests, then yes, unilateral is an issue. After all, they hope you’ll branch out in college.

A lot of kids think “spike” is an asset. Nah. Accomplishments are good, but tippy tops see themselves as a community of more than just kids studying for their degrees or just focusing on post grad plans.