Chance me: Harvard, NC public schools, etc.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I am a senior at an Early College in North Carolina and I would like to know if my stats and accomplishments are good enough to get into a top school (looking especially into Duke, University of Chicago, Stanford, or Harvard). If not, then what would be the highest school that you think I could get into? I wanna make sure applying to the schools in the next year would be worth it or a waste of time and money.

SAT: 1440 (14 writing, 680 reading, 760 math)
ACT: 27 (english-27, math-29, reading-29, science-26, writing-24)
Subject: BIO(E)-640 MAT(2)-660 SPANISH- 790
GPA/Grades: Straight A’s whole high school career (only 2 B’s, both 1 point away from an A) and GPA UW 4.7, W 3.9.

AP classes: School offers none, but being in an early college, all my high school classes are honors and I have been taken at least 3 college courses every semester. In the end of early college I will have my high school diploma and an associates of science.

Talents: I speak 2 languages completely, English and Spanish, learning French privately. I’ve been playing piano for about 7 years and play publicly twice a year in a concert. I am quite good at debates and am part of a Debate Club, but it’s not a real Debate Club where you travel and actually debate so that club Does Not Count.

Clubs/ Sports: My school offers none because they want me to concentrate on college work. However the my school does have National Honor Society which I am a part of and I am also a part of Phi Theta Kappa for the college. Nomianated but didn’t get into Governor’s School. Did the NCCDI internship program, which was a paid internship program statewide for minorities. My school recently added DECA, which I immediately joined.

Volunteer/Internships: Doing an explorer’s program with boy scouts (sort of like job shadowing in a way), doing Wells Fargo, hospital system, and law. Did Intership with NCCDI as stated above, where I worked at a non-profit and had to congregate with other state participants in Raleigh. I volunteer largely with my school by tutoring kids in advanced mathematics and by helping plan school events such as Angel Tree, holiday events, dance, etc. I also participate in my church and do things like teaching recreational sports in VBS, mission trip to DC, and going to needy and old to cheer them up. (I have recently become agnostic though, and church participation may decrease in the future).

Past activities: Used to do karate, sports (baseball and soccer), and Boy Scouts (Had to leave all do to parents having to work more and not being able to take me), all middle school and before. Did Math Olympiad in elementary. In high school, I do piano, church stuff, and volunteer at the Red Cross.

Future Plans: I really wish to double major in astrophysics and business and minor in biology and work for NASA in the future. I plan to do extensive research on specifically black holes and/or space travel and colonization. After NASA, I plan to start my own private space comapany, similar to SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. Then when I retire I plan to run for senate.

What makes me special/life story: I was born in Peru and my parents had a great life with great careers. However, a temporary dictator-like government robbed my dad’s company and we moved to the US legally but became illegal by temporary visa. I have learned to accept my life and faced struggles due to my status. Despite bad reputation of illegals, I have pushed those ideas beside and moved on ahead and being the best student I can be, encouraged by my parents. I saw both of my parents moving up in life despite their status and I can see that I can do that as well and I hope to repay them in the future for what they did and for raising me well. I have used my struggles as a strength and factor of encouragement to get good grades and participate.

I am really worried about getting into a school, because of my status and thus my ability to pay. I am also worried that my scores are too low in the subject test, and I didn’t do much outside of school.
I plan to apply to Harvard (first choice), UNC Chapel Hill, Stanford, Apalachian, UNC-charlotte, UNC-Ashville, University of Chicago, NC State, Duke, UCLA, and Columbia.

Sorry this is long, but thank you very much!

2

What about colleges in Peru? Fujimori is gone.

3

@WISdad23, I kinda assimilated in the American culture too much. I have known only the American life and going back will feel wrong and not my preference. Like some people prefer college in the city over rural, I guess I prefer American college over foreign. And besides this, I am fluent in Spanish but have not been too adjusted in the technical words in Spanish, such as “enzyme”, “derivative”, and “ionic bond”. I will just have a hard time due to not going to school there and learning the technical language in Peru.

4

Although your story is great, you need to make sure in your essay that it’s about you, not about your parents. Nobody cares if you talk about how your parents struggled without relating or connecting it to how you struggled. For example, my parents came to America with only $100 and are now living the American dream, each one making 6 figures. However, I didn’t really struggle since they were poor when I was around 2, and I can’t relate to it much. I am sure you do have struggles based off of your situation, but make sure to focus on your issues over your parents. The main issue is your SAT and ACT - yes, your story is amazing and you are a very active minority member, but your test scores are way too low to not have your application thrown out before they get to hear your story. Also, they really don’t care about your future plans, because everyone can say something as ambitious (if not more) than yours. At this point it’s a very high reach for all non NC-schools (submit your SAT, it’s much better than your ACT). If you can bring your SAT up to, say, a 1500 or so, then you are definitely on your way to being accepted to Harvard, Duke, etc. Best of luck!

5

Harvard (and most of the schools on your list for that matter) doesn’t have a business major. Also, they do not allow you to double major (they do not use the word major but instead call it a concentration). They do allow you to do a minor (which they call a secondary). I’m afraid if you write about wanting to study astrophysics, business and biology, adcoms will likely not take your application very seriously. Finally, astrophysics is extremely math intensive and your scores on standardized tests do not reflect a high aptitude for math. You should work on bringing your standardized tests score up and also research the schools you are applying to so you know what they offer and, more importantly, you are able to convey what “you” bring to the table. I don’t agree with the above poster who said that if you bring your score up a 1500, you are well on your way to being accepted to Harvard, Duke etc. A 1500 means they will more than just glance at your application but with an admittance rate of about 5% for Harvard you will need to demonstrate why they should accept you and reject the other 19 kids in a group of 20 applications. Make sure you have match and safety schools. Good luck with everything!

6

@Multiverse7 , thank you for your advice. I am definitely retaking both the SAT and ACT this October (hoping its not too late to turn in those scores. However, I thought you could do a “double concentration” as long as your thesis connects the two subjects?

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You can dual concentrate as you say if you can connect the subjects but astrophysics and business would be a stretch even if they did offer a business concentration. I think the main point I was trying to make is that astrophysics is a very demanding concentration and anyone who tells the admissions committee that they want to major in astrophysics and also business all the while pursuing a minor in biology will be seen as being more than a bit naive…

8

Your stats are so so but Harvard loves illegal immigrants, minorities and financially disadvantaged so you do have hope even though your stats are very average.

9

Gee, @WorryHurry411- aren’t all those illegal immigrants, minorities and low income kids so lucky? You know, cause I see them all over Harvard. They’re just clogging up those elite schools.

10

@WorryHurry411 , I know you will not care – in fact you may be proud – but you are now the second time I have clicked the ignore button.

To be clear: not because of your beliefs, but because of the unhelpful and passive aggressive way you chose to express them, and humiliate a high school student in the process. Shameful.

“Speak only if it improves upon the silence.”