Chance me Harvard REA and t20

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • US domestic * US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: Pennsylvania
  • Type of high school Uncompetitive Public High School:
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity Male/Black/Ethiopian:
  • Other special factors First-gen college, Fringe-rural:

Intended Major(s)
Linguistics, African and African American Studies, Near Eastern Languages and Civilization

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.00
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.625
  • Class Rank: 4/340
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 (790 Math, 750 EBRW)

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))

School offers 17 APs, will have taken 12 by graduation (Taking 5 Senior Year)
AP Gov (4), APWH (5), APES (5), APCSA(5), APCHEM(4), APLANG(4), APUSH(5)
Taking AP Calc AB (highest math course) and Spanish IV (highest language course) senior year.

6 Dual Enrollment:
Middle Eastern History
Intro to African Civ
Intro to Cultural Anthropology
African American Lit
Intro to Statistics
Microeconomics

Languages (important for extracurricular context)
English, Amharic, Tigrinya, Arabic, Ge’ez (Also referred to as classical Ethiopic; Liturgical language of Ethiopian Orthodox Church; ‘dead’ ancient Ethiopian language)

Awards

  1. Publication and Oral Presentation at (International Conference) (International)
  2. National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) Arabic Scholar (National)
  3. NACLO Invitational Qualifier (National)
  4. 2nd Place at State Science Fair (State/Regional)
  5. National African American Scholar + National Small Town and Rural Scholar (National)

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  1. 1 of 16 Arabic Exchange Students selected; NSLIY Arabic Program; Spent 7 weeks in Jordan to Learn Arabic; Full Merit scholarship from US State Dept. (12, Summer)

  2. President and Founder; Virtual Youth Exchange; organized English lessons and activities for 500+ youth in 10+ countries in Africa and the Middle East; recieved $1k+ in project funding (10,11,12)

  3. Independent Computational Linguistics Research; Developed multilingual speech recognition systems for Arabic+Amharic+Tygrinia facilitating ASR technology in East African societies (11,12)

  4. Youth Head, Translation Dept. Ethiopian Orthodox Church; Translate 20+ liturgical texts, and hymns from Ge’ez into English for youth; Reducing language barrier and increasing participation from youth (10,11,12)

  5. Research Intern; Local University, Designed psycholinguistics experiments to quantify grammar in language learners; Led a project on Arabic phonetics analyzing case studies (11, 12)

  6. Computational Linguistics Intern; Princeton University Project; Developed text-search tools for Ge’ez alphabet; Helped translate medieval Ethiopian stories (11,12)

  7. Founder and Host; Oral History Project; Documented stories from Ethiopian elders about oral stories; Analyzed the history of these stories and their impact on culture; 8500+ views (10,11,12)

  8. President and Founder; Black Student Union; Celebrate black culture and history through cultural events; Cultivate solidarity for black students (11,12) Had to fight principal to get approved

  9. Vice Captain; Quizbowl Team; Led 20+ student teams to first place at regionals, qualified for national tournaments (10,11,12)

  10. Board Member; Statewide Educational Equity Nonprofit, Organized events and workshops about educational equity for 4500+ minority students (9,10,11,12)

Essays/LORs/Other
Mathematics Teacher Rec: Pretty strong, had for 2 years and 3 classes
Government Teacher Rec: Also should be strong, had teacher for 2 years and advises one club
Professor from EC#5 Rec: Said I was comparable to his graduate students; expect to be strong
Personal Statement Essay: Should be good, a story about how I became interested in languages/Ethiopian literature; trying to weave race/ethnicity in there.

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
aiming for reaches because of good fin aid!!
We can afford the npc price at most reaches but prices become a little too high at the match schools.

Schools
Would like advice, Harvard is my first choice but I’m not sure if I’m competitive enough for REA.

  • Likely*Penn State, UMD
  • Match *UVA, BC?, BU, Villanova
  • Reach *Harvard REA, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Duke, Brown, UChicago
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