Chance me (International, Harvard)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey there, </p>

<p>may anybody summarize my chances to get into Harvard? I'm currently applying for Oxford University, London School of Economics and University College London for 2013 entry. One of my friends encouraged me to give Harvard just a try, although my SAT score is really mediocre (at least partly due to the fact that I'm a non-native - but no excuse anyway). Do you think I would have any chance if I did well on the SAT IIs (guess, they're going to be Maths and Physics) and got good recommendations?
Please be honest as I'm actually thinking to have no chance at all whilst my friends tried to convince me of the opposite. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance, guys!</p>

<p>Objective:</p>

<p>SAT I (breakdown): 1940 (M: 790, CR: 570, W: 580)
SAT II: n/a yet
TOEFL: 109/129
German Abitur: 1.0 (best attainable) so equivalent GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 2/80
Intensive courses: English (15/15), Maths (13/15) Further examination subjects: Social Sciences (15/15) and Physics (15/15)
Other minors: History, Spanish, Religion, PE, Art, Music, Philosophy, German, Latin, </p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: spokesman of my year, member of the student representation (person in charge for public relations) - introduced social media communication between representation and students, founder and leader of soccer society, organized and introduced an annual soccer competition between our and our co-operation school, organized a charity concert for disadvantaged children in Afghanistan and raised several thousand euros, gave tutorials for younger students in Latin and Maths, won a management competition (business simulation), won a Math Olympiad on regional level, playing soccer at a competitive level (got offers for sport scholarships in the US), captain of my team while winning the states championship
Job/Work Experience: currently interning 6 months at Deloitte (Audit/Consulting) in the Enterprise Risk Solutions department (probably 3 months in Germany, 3 months in London), two-week internship at a lawyer's office
Volunteer/Community service: Voluntary youth tourist guide and group leader in Spain, see above
Summer Activities: See above
Teacher Recommendation: Are actually perfect (as for everybody)
Counselor Rec: Great</p>

<p>Other</p>

<p>State (if domestic applicant): n/a
Country (if international applicant): Germany
School Type: Public school
Ethnicity: German mother plus Tunisian (i.e. North-African) father
Gender: M
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None</p>

2

<p>Maybe I can just bump it… International applicant too, but anyway Good Luck!</p>

3

<p>Try Bates or Bowdoin; they are reachable for you since no SAT need to be used.</p>

<p>I assume your safeties are in Germany…</p>

4

<p>Safeties are Manhattan College, Colorado College and Trinity College…or unis in Germany</p>

5

<p>Any other thoughts?</p>

6

<p>Sebastian, your chances are particularly hard to predict. On the downside, your SAT is pretty low and international applicants are accepted at a much lower rate than US applicants. On the upside, you have some extremely interesting extracurriculars and, unless something has changed in recent years, a 1.0 Abitur has to be fairly rare – here, A’s are passed out like Halloween candy at many schools but teachers in Germany are extremely reluctant to give 1’s.</p>

<p>Can you re-take the SAT? You’re obviously a smart guy and I know you have been taking English classes since 4th grade, so the language is not all that challenging if you take some practice tests. Silverturtle created an excellent SAT prep guide that you can view or download from CC – it’s especially strong in explaining the smallest details of English grammar rules that often trap SAT test-takers.</p>

<p>Yes, you should apply to Harvard, but you might also consider applying to other Ivy League and top schools as well. Extracurriculars are very important to these schools, but each may have a slightly different opinion of what factors make you a must-have student. Because your particular strengths will be viewed differently by each admissions committee, you would vastly improve your odds by applying to a range of top schools.</p>

<p>I would recommend that you also apply to Cornell, which has a much larger incoming class size and should thus increase your chance of acceptance. I’d also suggest Brown, which often wins the “happiest students” title and is off the radar of choices for many Europeans (my son attends Brown). In both these cases, you can somewhat avoid the “Landsmann” problem – that you need to be one of the handful of top German applicants to get accepted.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for your advice, LoremIpsum! I assume by what you’ve wrote that you know Germany and the educational system quite well. Have you been here once?</p>

8

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</p>

<p>I lived in (West) Germany for 15 months and attended a Gymnasium during my teen years many decades ago. Meine Eltern waren Volksdeutscher und ich war der einsiger Amee in der Schule. ;)</p>

<p>We also hosted 3 different 16-year German exchange students in a row 12-15 years ago. Standards for getting high grades hadn’t changed much by then, as I recall.</p>

9

<p>I see :slight_smile: What a coincidence: I live in West Germany, too.</p>

10

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<p>East and West Germany – I’m showing my age; my first son was born just a week or two after the Berlin Wall was first broken open. What an exciting time!</p>