Chance me, I'll chance back

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey guys!

Trying to finalize my college list, and it sees pretty weighted towards reach and super-reach schools. I’d love some tips on which are safeties vs matches vs reaches vs not even worth applying to (cough Stanford). Thanks in advance! Here are my current schools:

University of Chicago
Stanford
University of Pennsylvania (Huntsman Dual-Degree Program)
Brown
Georgetown (School of Foreign Service)
Cornell (College of Arts and Sciences, Legacy)
Johns Hopkins
Washington University in St. Louis (Because no supplement… why not!)
UC Berkeley
Claremont McKenna
UC San Diego
George Mason (Honors College, Early Action, Recruited for speech team with scholarships)
American University (Honor College)
UC Santa Barbara
UC Irvine
San Diego State
San Jose State

It’s a pretty ridiculous number of schools but UCs are all one app and I get fee-waivers for most so I’m making do.
Here’s my stats and stuff:

California
White
Male
Low-Income
Public high school in wealthy area

Testing:
ACT - 36 Composite Single Sitting (36M 36E 36R 35S waiting on writing)
SAT - 2330 Single Sitting (800M 780R 750W)
Subject Tests - Math II 800, Literature 730, Spanish Reading 750, Spanish Listening 740
AP - Calc AB 5, Human Geo 5, English Lang 5, Spanish Lang 5, Spanish Lit 5, Statistics 5 (and a couple that I took for no reason without self-studying or taking the class so they’re 3s or 4s, probably won’t submit)

Grades:
Expected after 1st semester senior year:
UW: 3.8 UC: 4.25 W: 4.28
Really weak 9th and 10th grade years, very strong upwards trend (9th 3.8, 10th 3.8, 11th 4.8, 12th 5.0)
Senior year class load: AP Calc BC, AP Art History, AP Microecon, AP Gov, AP Physics, AP Comp Lit

Awards:
-2nd Place in a speech event at speech and debate national championship
-2nd Place at an international debate tournament
-1st Place FRC Robotics World Championship
-1st Place Boys State California Oratory
-1st Place Boys State California Legal Advocacy

Extracurriculars - these are just a few highlights I have more stuff I can add but don’t want to waste your time:
-Robotics: 2 years Business lead for hs robotics team, raised about $140,000 each year, and was invited to Japan for a sponsor tour
-Debate: 3 years Finalist for the US National debate team (Top 15 in the country, many individual awards, coaching middle school debate, and invited to a tournament in Korea over the summer
-Local Homeless Shelter: 9 years Volunteer for a long time, first ever minor on the board of director for a couple years, and head of a group of high school students that intern at the shelter
-Business Consultant (Paid): 3 years Coaching and working for local startups and larger corporations coaching on pitch decks, business strategy, and marketing
-Spanish Translator (Paid): 3 years Translating Venezuelan birth certificates, translating online college courses
-Entrepreneurship: 2 years Work with a small team to develop a GPS bike computer, pitched to local angel investors, project eventually failed but makes for a cool story and shows my interest

2

University of Chicago- reach
Stanford- reach
University of Pennsylvania (Huntsman Dual-Degree Program)- reach
Brown- low reach
Georgetown (School of Foreign Service)- high match
Cornell (College of Arts and Sciences, Legacy)- match
Johns Hopkins- match
Washington University in St. Louis (Because no supplement… why not!)- match, but you could get waitlisted if you show no interest
UC Berkeley- match
Claremont McKenna- match
UC San Diego- safety
George Mason (Honors College, Early Action, Recruited for speech team with scholarships)- safety
American University (Honor College)- safety
UC Santa Barbara- safety
UC Irvine- safety
San Diego State- safety
San Jose State- safety

Out of your 17 apps, you’ll probably end up with at least 13 acceptances. You should also apply to UCLA if it’s one app to all the UCs. Like me, you’re low income and I definately think you stand a good shot at Stanford. Your ECs, especially related to entrepreneurship, are cool.

Chance me back: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1936788-predict-my-results-stanford-mit-princeton-cmu-and-others.html#latest

3

University of Chicago- low reach
Stanford- Reach cuz its Stanford
University of Pennsylvania- reach
Brown- Low Reach
Georgetown - Match
Cornell- Match
Johns Hopkins- Match
Washington University in St. Louis- Match, but def do the supplement, optional basically means required xD
UC Berkeley- Match, but it’s Berkeley so who knows
Claremont McKenna- Match
UC San Diego- Idw to say safety cuz UCs can be unpredictable so super good match
George Mason(Honors)- Match
American University(Honors)- Def Safety
UC Santa Barbara- Safety
UC Irvine- Safety
San Diego State- Safety-> feels kinda out of place compared to the other schools you’re applying too LOL
San Jose State- Safety-> same thing as San Diego State

Your test scores are really good(hella jealous xD) and I think you’ll get into most, if not all of these schools, cuz ya know Stanford and Ivy Leagues are reaches for everyone

4

Thanks! Very encouraging!

Where did you see about an optional supplement for WashU? I’m looking for it but I dont even see an optional one, just want to make sure I’m not missing one because “optional” really is a misnomer

5

My daughter looked over the WashU app yes and didn’t see any supplemental. Not sure where that info is coming from.

6

^yeah there’s no supplement for WashU. What you could do, thought (and what I’m doing) is applying for a scholarship to show interest since I can’t visit.

7

Yes, that’s good. I hear the Danforth is near impossible to get but good luck. Maybe one of the other ones will come through.

8

Your gpa is a little low: obviously, but like you said there is an upward trend and DAMN, your standarized test scores make up for it. Going to be honest: some of these schools are lower than your safetys but if money is a problem then maybe applying to them to get the full ride might be a smart idea. The list is good, but theres a lot of schools. I would def say to really look and see which ones you’d actually go to (especially a lot of them are out of state). I think you have a really good chance at all of them. You might have a little bit more difficulty with Brown (because its really small) and Stanford (their admissions is really weird-I don’t know what they’re looking for at this point) Washington St. Louis (once again because it’s smaller), and JHU (size and they seem to care a lot about GPA in my experience). Goodluck! I hope this helps

9

Wow your scores are amazing!! They definitely make up for/if not add to your gpa. From what Ik school love an upwards trends almost as much as a steady high gpa and combined with your strong ECs you stand a chance at nearly all of the schools you listed. Although, I do agree with others that say that you do have a lot of safeties, not that it is a bad thing but maybe just not worth applying to that many. Good luck!!!

10

University of Chicago reach
Stanford reach
University of Pennsylvania (Huntsman Dual-Degree Program) reach
Brown reach
Georgetown (School of Foreign Service) match

Cornell (College of Arts and Sciences, Legacy) match
Johns Hopkins high match
Washington University in St. Louis match
UC Berkeley match
Claremont McKenna match
UC San Diego safety
George Mason (Honors College, Early Action, Recruited for speech team with scholarships) safety
American University (Honor College) safety
UC Santa Barbara safety
UC Irvine safety
San Diego State safety
San Jose State safety

11

University of Chicago- Reach
Stanford- Reach
University of Pennsylvania (Huntsman Dual-Degree Program)- This is one of the hardest programs to get into Reach
Brown- Reach
Georgetown (School of Foreign Service)- Match
Cornell (College of Arts and Sciences, Legacy)- Match
Johns Hopkins- High Match
Washington University in St. Louis (Because no supplement… why not!)- Match
UC Berkeley- Match
Claremont McKenna- Not sure about this school
UC San Diego- Low Match-Match
George Mason (Honors College, Early Action, Recruited for speech team with scholarships)- Safety
American University (Honor College)- Saftey
UC Santa Barbara- Safety
UC Irvine- Saftey
San Diego State- Safety
San Jose State- Safety.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1939231-please-chance-me-i-am-stressed-out.html#latest

12

I don’t need a long reply to say this, but your scores and EC’s are too good to keep you out of any colleges in your list!! I wish I had those scores!

13

University of Chicago reach
Stanford reach
University of Pennsylvania reach
Brown reach
Georgetown match

Cornell (College of Arts and Sciences, Legacy) match
Johns Hopkins high match
Washington University in St. Louis match
UC Berkeley match
Claremont McKenna match
UC San Diego safety
George Mason (Honors College, Early Action, Recruited for speech team with scholarships) safety
American University (Honor College) safety
UC Santa Barbara safety
UC Irvine safety
San Diego State safety
San Jose State safety

chance back PLEASSSEE

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1939524-unique-applicant-chances-desperate-for-honesty.html#latest

14

you have quite the resume !! i’d say that especially if you’re getting fee waivers, err on the side of having more options rather than having fewer. you seem like a good candidate for the schools you’ve listed, and you’ll never know if you don’t try. go for it! best wishes!! chance me back?

15

Your stats and ec are amazing. I feel like all the schools that you listed have high possibilities of acceptance. You have many safety schools. Some top schools and ivys are reached for everyone but you definitely are in the higher chance of being accepted because of your amazing awards and EC. Good Luck!

Please help chance me when you have time!

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1939488-please-chance-any-help-is-appreciated-high-act-low-gpa.html#latest