Chance Me: Harvard SEAS

General Info:

Asian Male
Middle-Upper Class Family
Californian
Intended Major - Applied Math

Statistics:

3.99 UW GPA
4.68 Weighted GPA
No Class Rank Provided by School

SAT: 1560 (800 Math + 760 Reading + Writing)
SAT Subject: Math II - 800, Physics - 800
ACT: 35

AP Courses:

  • AP Calculus BC(5)
  • AP Statistics(5)
  • AP Chemistry(5)
  • AP Physics C: Mechanics(5)
  • AP Biology(5)
  • AP World History(5)
  • AP US History(4)
  • AP Econ/AP Gov(5)
  • AP English Language(5)
  • AP English Literature(5)
  • AP Computer Science(5)
  • CHEM-108
  • Honors Physics
  • Multi-Variable Calculus taken at Community College

Extracurriculars:

  • CM Level 5 - honor student for CM Level 4 and Level 5 (piano for 6 years)
  • Karate Black Belt - 1st degree and competed at local tournaments
  • Debate Team -
    -Captain of PF in 11th Grade
    -VP in 12th Grade
    -Qualified to TOC 3 years
    -Qualified to Nationals 3 years
    -Varsity Public Forum for 3.5 years
    -Varsity Extemporaneous Speaking for 3.5 years
    - Lots of awards on National Circuit tournaments
  • California Scholarship Federation - volunteered at misc. events, Secretary in 11th Grade
  • Science Bowl - went to Nationals 2 years, Secretary in 11th Grade
  • Model United Nations - part of club for 3 years, competed in B MUN, SCVMUN, etc.
  • Computer Science Club - VP in 11th Grade, won different hackathons
  • Volleyball Team - 3 years, Team Captain in 11th Grade
  • DECA
    - Qualified to ICDC for 2 years
    - competed at local conferences
  • FBLA
    - Qualified to Nationals for 2 years
    - competed at local conferences

Volunteering/Job Experience:

  • Sandia National Laboratories - researched Nuclear Physics for 3 months
  • UC Berkeley - researched under prof. for 3 months in Applied Math focus
  • Teen Advisory Board - part of board for 4 years, 150 hours
  • Shiva-Vishnu Temple - part of board for 3 years, 200 hours

Total Volunteering Hours: 300+ hours

Letters of Recommendation:

  • AP Calc BC teacher
  • Prof. at UC Berkeley

Other:

  • National AP Scholar
  • National Merit Scholar
  • Ranked Top 20 PF Team in California
  • Ranked Top 50 PF Team in California
  • Ranked Top 100 PF Team in California

Welcome to College Confidential.

You seem like a wonderful applicant, as are most students who will ultimately be rejected. As Harvard receives more qualified applications than they have seats in their freshman class, Admissions uses a student’s teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR), essays and interview report to choose one high performing student over another. They look for wonderful scholars of good “character” – that’s an old fashioned word meaning the way you develop your inner qualities, intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning. Unfortunately, none of those qualities can be gleaned from a post like yours.

The best that can be said from your post is that your GPA and test scores are within Harvard’s range, so you will be a competitive applicant in the SCEA round. Do you have a chance? Sure! How much of a chance is anyone’s guess. Best of luck to you!

You have excellent stats. If you get rejected it certainly will not be due to your grades or ECs, or the lack of.
However, as Gibby mentioned, thousands of other applicants will have just as impressive profile as yours. The only way to be almost guaranteed admissions with your stats is if you are good enough of an athlete to get recruited. You listed volleyball. Are you good enough to be considered a division 1 caliber athlete? If so, you should be reaching out to the coach to start a line of communication.

@mallooz267 Your grades looked great, but I guess there are many students with that set of grades in California. Think Harker or BASIS schools, for example. Your ECs are good but they seem too spread-out. You didn’t mention any significant end result from those ECs such as, e.g., a publication or a trophy from TOC. My bet is you will get “deferred” in SCEA and a 60-40 chance at regular admission.

Your grades are excellent. Stats are within range. I don’t see anything screaming this is a person who excels in math. What makes you a person of national standing in this field? I would say you will be deferred in the first round.

Your grades are good enough. your ECs have no big spikes for Harvard, and more important is, your leadership is not good enough(leadership achievement). It depends on if you have any hooks, like legacy… if not, ED Harvard has weak chance for an Asian man…

Anything that starts with “qualified” isn’t going to mean much, even at the national level. Now if you win or place at the national level that means something.

@CrystalKing Could you elaborate on "leadership achievement " please?

You are a competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are great. Narrow down your EC list to reflect the activities that are most important to your application. You do not want to overload an admissions officer with too much information about what you did in high school. Write amazing essays and you could get accepted to Harvard or other schools that are very selective in admissions

Your objective stats are excellent, but try to narrow down a list of extracurricular activities as best as you possibly can. It won’t work in your favor if your EC’s are all over the place.