Chance me? Harvard Hopeful

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Hi all,
This is my first post on cc, but I love reading the forums.</p>

<p>Well, I am aspiring towards my 3 top Choice schools as I get closer and closer to Senior Year (I'm just finishing Junior Year):</p>

<p>Harvard
Stanford
MIT</p>

<p>Here is my info, if you could please give me some idea of where I stand for Harvard?</p>

<p>I go to a competitive Private High School in California Bay Area</p>

<p>GPA: 3.96 UW, 4.0 Weighted (4.0 Scale)
SAT: Composite: 2310 (Math; 780 W: 800 CR; 730)
SAT II: Math II; 780 Biology: 800 Physics; 750 Chemistry; 800
Top 1% class rank
AP Exams: Macroeconomics; 5
Microeconomics; 5
Calculus BC; 5
Chemistry; 4
Physics; 5
Statistics; 5
English Literature; 5
Psychology; 5</p>

<p>These are only from Freshman year through Junior Year. Next year I will be taking AP Human Geography, AP Computer Science, AP Environmental Science, AP US History and AP Government</p>

<p>I plan to get 4's and 5s on all of those
Will have roughly 12 AP's upon Graduation</p>

<p>Academic Awards:</p>

<p>Physics Award- Freshman Year
Biology Award- Sophomore Year
Chemistry Award- Junior Year
National Merit Scholar (2280 PSAT composite)
Highest Potential in Science and Mathematics Award- Sophomore and Junior Year
1st Place in the AMC (Math Competition) in Junior Year</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>3 Years Varsity Tennis (So far, one more next year)
National honors Society
Tutoring Local Students
Bridge Program Math Teacher and Science Teacher (Teaching summer school to underprivileged)
Stanford EPGY Student</p>

<p>Founded, Developed and launched a business with a friend of mine for on line video-style tutoring and curriculum creation. Aimed at home schoolers and students in the Bay Area. Its a pretty big deal around here, branching out to East Coast High Schools soon. We did the coding.</p>

<p>Letters of Recommendation:
Will have glowing Rec's from AP Physic Teacher, AP Economics Teacher, AP Calculus Teacher, AP Chemistry Teacher and honors Biology Teacher (Honors is the highest Bio that we have)</p>

<p>Essays will be no problem, I have a knack for writing and have a lot to write about.</p>

<p>Not sure if there is much else to put, thanks for reaching the bottom!</p>

<p>Let me know what you think of me thus far.</p>

2

<p>You have a shot. What is your ethnicity?</p>

3

<p>Cortana: I am Caucasian/white male</p>

4

<p>oh yeah…u are going there for sure</p>

5

<p>“oh yeah…u are going there for sure”</p>

<p>You must be a 8th grader.</p>

6

<p>You have a good shot in light of your statistics and considering you’ve started a pretty well-renowned business in your area: make the essay good! Remember however that there are no guarantees; Harvard admissions is somewhat of a crapshoot, and they can fill their class four times over with kids who have done absolutely amazing things (in addition to completing amazing academic work), but good luck!</p>

<p>Oh, and please, please, please… Don’t submit teacher recommendations from all of those teachers… Pick the two your closest two and who can speak the most about you… You don’t need a bunch of redundant, glowing recommendations: quality over quantity. Having more than two or three recommendation letters is only going to make the Harvard admissions counselor who is reading your application at 11 at night a little cranky.</p>

7

<p>Thank you for the honest and helpful response. So, in your opinion, does the business help to “hook” me and push me through the threshold? I really want to know if it will be beneficial in the admissions process.</p>

8

<p>MIT will be tough unless there is something in your programming that gets you in.</p>

<p>Stanford and Harvard - going to be hard.</p>

9

<p>Yea I am expecting MIT to be a slim to none chance, even with my AMC first place and coding background. However, do you think Stanford and Harvard will weigh my business heavily?</p>

10

<p>what is your expected major?</p>

<p>is your business for profit?</p>

11

<p>I would like to major in either;
Economics
Physics
Chemistry
or Computer Science</p>

<p>Leaning most towards Econ</p>

<p>Right now its not for profit. Is that better than for profit?</p>

12

<p>Hi charlietidmarsh, please take a look at your inbox, I’ve PMed you regarding this topic :)</p>

13

<p>Non profits reflect better on you than for-profit. </p>

<p>Applying to liberal arts works better with an Ivy although if you have a lot of programming background, consider Yale for computer science.</p>

<p>Being a local, you should know a lot more about how Stanford admissions. I suspect your private school counselor can give you more advice than anyone on this board. It truly depends on your school track record at Stanford and if they take 5 kids each year, whether in your particular class, you can be one of the 5.</p>

14

<p>Texaspg- Yes I know ALOT about Stanford</p>

<p>Both of my parents went there for undergraduate and Graduate School. My Dad went to Stanford Med and he is currently a professor at the Med school. I think thats a pretty good hook as well.</p>

<p>My High School sent 11 out of 60 students there last year, and 4 are going this year. It is a very selectively small High School</p>

<p>In your opinion, would it be at all beneficial for me to say on my application to Ivies that I was interested in a Liberal Art like social science (not too far of a stretch form Econ)? And then of course I would major in Econ or Physics once I actually was accepted.</p>

15

<p>Ok, now I am miffed. With two parents from Stanford and one working for Stanford, what the heck are you doing here wasting our time! :p</p>

<p>If you said all this upfront, we would have told you the samething doglover said.</p>

<p>The legacy wisdom of CC says that if you are a legacy to one of the ivies, some of the other ivies admit you as long as you have the credentials. Stanford is a peer and so Harvard, Yale and Princeton should take your app seriously. The only reason I am pointing to liberal arts is because Ivies have more seats to fill in liberal arts and STEM area gets crowded with a lot of applicants and not enough seats to go around. Yale hands out likelies for computer science but Harvard and Princeton don’t normally do that.</p>