I’m an Indian Male from one of the highest-ranked public high schools in the country. I am in the Accelerated Program at my school which you have to test into. Our school is extremely difficult grades-wise but I am below average.
I have a 3.87 GPA unweighted right now with the highest possible GPA being a 3.92.
AP Classes Taken: AP Calculus AB & BC, AP Physics 1 & 2, IB Business Management SL & HL, AP HuG, APUSH, AP Gov, AP Spanish, AP Language, Theory of Knowledge, IB Design Technology
My main concern is my grades, I received a C in my first semester of AP Calc AB and a B in Physics 1 and APUSH. This semester I received a B in AP Calc BC but other than that my grades have all been A’s.
My school does IB tests so I didn’t take AP until this year but my grades were:
Head of Middle School Program at local schools (50+ students, 8 coaches)
Paid ~$1000 to coach debate program at my old (private) school/trimester
3x National Qualifier, one of 3 juniors in my district to achieve this out of over 500.
Volunteer
Head of local branch of larger non-profit (not teen-led) my branch raised $11,000 in 2 summers for the non profit.
Co-Founder/ Leadership of business club with 150+ members. We connect our members with internships, hold networking events with business executives, and are launching our own publication. We are expanding to 4 new locations next year in 3 countries.
Judge at Debate Competitions
Bike Club with over 500 miles biked in the last 6 months. We did a local 150 mile bike ride as part of a large bike organization.
Business Specific (Biggest Spike/Niche)
Cofounded a startup with my friend. Inadvertently, we developed a solution that can help prevent outbreaks and are working on implementing our technology in university medical labs and corporate workspaces. We raised 5,000 euros in grant funding and are receiving guidance from a former high level MSFT exec/Cambridge Comp Sci Grad. We also won 2 prestigious hackathons with our project landing us internships at Billion Dollar Fintech companies.
Other stuff?
CoCaptain of JV Tennis Team, highest ranked in the district. Varsity tennis team.
Did drumline for 1.5 years, got pretty good and will be a parade drummer over the next winter break.
1 yr Varsity Chess Team (Didn’t really do anything except show up one day a week to play)
Recommendations
One from my business management teacher of two years/former MBA & MSFT PM, it was a very strong recommendation, he referred to me as one of his best students ever.
One from the Math Teacher that I got a C & B in, didn’t see it but probably not too strong considering everything. She did explain that my low grades in that semester specifically were due to an adjustment period as I had just gotten in to an extremely advanced program.
One from my History Teacher, very strong as well. Not so much about my knowledge of history but how we had good conversations about politics and how I turned in good work.
One from former Teacher, Principal, and now “colleague” at my old Middle School. He talked about my growth and why he hired me to help coach their program.
I could find others I think?
I think the main thing I’m struggling with is how to reassure universities that I’m not bad at math. Math has always been a strong suit of mine but the teacher I had for the last 3 years has been notoriously difficult.
These are the schools I want to get into (For Finance/Business)
Ivy League
Stanford
Northwestern
UChicago
UMich
UC Boulder
NYU
Thanks! Let me know what I can do to increase my chances!
You may not be bad at math, but the competition applying to super-selective colleges will include many students who earned A grades in math (and other) courses with “notoriously difficult” teachers.
Which colleges do you consider safeties? Have you talked to your parents about cost constraints?
I think I’m considering these as my safeties: UW Seattle, UC Boulder, Rutgers, UCSD, UC Riverside, UCLA
I should’ve mentioned this but my mom is a doctor with degrees from Northwestern, UWash in St. Louis, and UMich. My dad is a CVP in business with degrees from IIT, UT Austin, and UChicago. I don’t really have cost constraints, the only issue is they don’t really want to pay if I don’t get into a good school which makes sense.
UCLA and UCSD are unlikely to be safeties for anyone (and they do not have true undergraduate business majors; nor do most of the Ivy League, Stanford, or Chicago).
How do you think I can strengthen a college’s confidence in my math skills? Also, I retook the courses online so in the cumulative GPA my school submits I only have 1 B, will this show anything? (It is written down as a “grade improvement” so it shows my original grade and what it was improved to)
You seem like a good applicant, besides the challenges you have had in a few classes. Would you share colleges that the lower 1/2 of your class regularly attend?
Also, you probably know that your entire college list does not include majors in finance or business, right? I would confirm Stanford, Northwestern, U Chicago, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton, Dartmouth and Columbia to make sure they have a major that is acceptable to you.
Yes, the program that I am in is very competitive. Many students in the lower 1/2 go to schools such as UW Seattle, UMich, Tufts, Rutgers, UC Schools’s including USC, UCLA, and UC Berkeley.
What do you think I can do to increase a college’s confidence in my knowledge in mathematics? I was hoping the success of my startup would make up for some of it?
Since a number of your schools do not have finance at all, and you got an 800 math, I do not think math will be your problem. I think you will be perceived as a good student that hit a few bumps in the road. I have a slight concern with your recommendations and the fact that you requested 4 - and some seem better than others. No need to explain, but something feels a bit off there to me.
As far as your real question goes; how to make yourself a stronger applicant, I would look for commonalities among your activities and think hard how you are going to present them to colleges - using the format they offer. I like what you did with debate, and maybe you should have similar depth with your venture and then choose a few other things that can make you really deep in maybe 4 or 5 things - and then the rest can be filler. That will be understandable because of how far you have gone in your best few.
Hard for me to imagine ivy’s/Stanford are possible, but I will not count you out from the others listed assuming your school is one of the true top. Good luck.
Thank you for being honest, that is definitely what I need right now! What is the best school you think I can get into with my stats? I would be perfectly happy going to an amazing school like NYU, UMich, UC Berkeley, WA in St. Louis, some of the “higher acceptance Ivies” like Cornell, or their Ivy Equivalents. My dream schools are Duke/UChicago, how attainable are they?
With regards to my recommendations, I am a junior right now so they were for pre-college programs. I didn’t want to overload one person with all of my applications so I had each one submit a few. The one’s that I wanted to get into the most I used my better recommendations.
I can’t know for sure. Your college counselor would know better than I would given his/her experiences with your high school. Based upon the information you shared, I think NYU and Michigan would be excellent for you as they actually have finance and love high test scores.
Getting into them is just hard to predict - so maybe. I would put Wash U in that same category. My gut is that group is your ceiling, so no Cornell-like schools or Duke, Chicago, Northwestern. I do not have enough experience with the U cals and the way testing has changed to make a call on those. Boulder and Rutgers will both be admits.
Thank you for your help! One last question, my startup is currently in talks with UW Seattle, Duke, Harvard, and WashU to implement our technology into their Medical Labs. We have already integrated a more basic form of our tech in a prestigious institution, is there any possibility this might increase my chance of admission? Is there something else I can do on this end to make my startup more “attractive” i.e. get more funding ,recognition?
I think if you developed a technology and were able to sell it to universities, that is absolutely awesome. I would not expect admissions to connect the dots, but if you are able to use a relationship you developed to help tell your story in a written recommendation “about you” - that would be great. Wait, did I just suggest another recommendation? Add Babson to your list. It might be a better fit than a number of schools you have been mentioning.
Since this question differs from your “chance me” question, and because you will get a lot of good advice of how to make a startup more attractive in general, not as an EC, you may get better results by starting a new thread to ask this question.
You are mostly competitive for any college, but as an Asian man, it is a bit more challenging. The C in math would also hurt you a bit, especially for for major that require strong math chops.
All the colleges on your list except CU Boulder are reaches for anybody. CU Boulder is a safety. The UCs are as @ucbalumnus describes them, and listen to @michaeluwill about majors. I also agree with @michaeluwill about admissions chances.
Great! Do you think I should have my teacher write about that in his recommendation or get someone else (my mentor) to write about it instead? My business teacher wrote an amazing recommendation and did spend at least a quarter of the page on it because he was the first person I ever talked to about it.
I was thinking that if you sold to the head of the medical school at a college, for example, he/she might write for you. I think it is great if one of your other 4 recommenders (can’t let this go) discusses your business, but it would be even more powerful if it came from a client from a particular college.