Chance Me: Ivy League Schools, Top Privates, and top UCs

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I declared Political Science or Economics for all schools listed below. All are regular decision applications as well.

Privates:

Harvard College (EA, but was deferred) - Social Sciences
Brown University - 1) Political Science 2) Public Policy
Chapman University (possibly a safety) - 1) Political Science 2) Economics
Claremont McKenna College - 1) Government 2) PPE
Columbia University in NYC - (College) 1) Political Science 2) Sustainable Development 3) Poli Sci - Statistics
Cornell University - (Arts and Sciences) 1) Government
Dartmouth College - 1) Government 2) Quantitative Social Science 3) IR
Duke University - (Arts and Sciences) 1) Political Science 2) PPE 3) Economics
Johns Hopkins University - 1) Political Science 2) Economics
Northwestern University - (Arts and Sciences) 1) Political Science
Pomona College - 1) Politics 2) PPE
Princeton University - 1) Political Science 2) Woodrow Wilson Public Affairs 3) Hist. and Pract. of Diplomacy
Stanford University - 1) Political Science 2) IR 3) Economics
WashU in St. Louis - (Arts and Sciences) 1) International & Area Studies 2) Economics
Yale University - 1) Political Science 2) Ethics, Politics, and Economics

Public:
UCBerk - 1) Social Sci (econ)
UCLA - 1) International Development Studies 2) Pre Econ
UCSD - 1) International Business 2) Economics
UCSB - 1) Economics (I actually got the invitation for the Chancellor’s Reception today)

***I’m reaching for the stars Lol.

SAT I (breakdown): didn’t take
ACT (breakdown): 33, 12 on essay (one sitting)
SAT II: 700 Math II, 670 APUSH
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.6 (was impacted by special circumstances, elaborated on below)
Weighted GPA: 4.2
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): no rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Chinese (5) AP Lang (5) AP Chem (3) AP Stats (3) AP Calc AB (5) APUSH (4), will be taking APCS, AP Macroecon, AP Lit, and AP Poli Sci this year
IB (place score in parenthesis): school does not offer IB
Senior Year Course Load: AP Economics, AP Poli Sci, AP Computer Science, Physics, AP Literature, Virtual Enterprise (career class for business)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with Distinction, National Finalist in The American Rocketry Competition, First Place at the International Space Settlement Design Competition (2015)

Extracurricular Activities:
-FBLA (Vice President of a section)
-ACA (organization to increase political participation among Asian communities across California, I’m the co-founder, we host events such as mayoral candidate forums and speakers such Sharon Quirk Silva and Ted Chiang from Sacramento to speak on issues that affect Asian Americans)
-School District Student Rep (advocated for the passing of a municipal school bond bill in Sacramento, talked with senators and legislators, bond ultimately passed)

-Board Director for leadership program based in another city (this was the commitment that impacted my GPA my junior year, my school has block periods on Wednesday and Thursday, and events for the leadership program took place on Wednesday nights, driving to the other city took 1-2 hour in rush hour, events would start at around 6 and I’d get home at like 10 pm and not have started any hw or studying for the next day yet, Thursday I would have AP stats, AP calc, and AP chemistry, and teachers commonly scheduled tests and quizzes on that day for the extended periods, so by the time i finished eating dinner it would be 11, and I wouldn’t finish hw until like 1-2 am, and start studying for the next day’s quizzes and tests as much as I could but feeling extremely tired and dejected) (i elaborated on this in my additional information section)

^^^I’m currently a board director for the program and have even worse time commitments senior year

  • Campaign Director for local mayoral campaign (did it sophomore and senior year, organized voter registration drives, handled logistics with regard to volunteering opportunities, organized operations for phone banking and neighborhood canvassing) (we ended up losing both years, this was my common app topic)

-Intern for Local City Council Member
-Head Intern for Local Congresswoman (work in her office after school nowadays)
-Student Columnist for a local community newspaper

Volunteer/Community service: volunteering for campaigns and voter registration drives, not sure how many hours

Summer Activities:
-traveled to China as part of a volunteer group for an organization that helps pay for the surgeries of children with congenital heart disease,
-participated in a medical study that correlated the effects of asthma and exercise (i have asthma, and ended up losing 10 pounds at the end of the program)
-organized field trips for the US Dept of Energy Solar Decathlon, and started a social media campaign for the local team competing in the competition
-Worked for local congresswoman on her re-election campaign, was hired as intern after she won
-Attended an experimental economics workshop where we dealt with stock simulations and analyzed maco/micro economic trends in a lab setting

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
One from an ex-Mayor of Irvine who I’ve known since 7th-8th grade and has watched me grow since then: 9
One from an adviser to the leadership program I participated in my junior year: 9 (we have deep philosophical talks about life and the like, she understands me more than most people do)

Teacher Rec #1 (rating 1-10, details): 7 (Calc teacher probably wrote a semi-generic one, she has a rep of being a bad writer, I didn’t know until after she submitted)
Teacher Rec #2 (rating 1-10, details): 8 (Lang teacher knows me pretty well, I was a really active participant in her class)
Counselor Rec (rating 1-10, details): 9 (chill guy)
Interview (if any) (rating 1-10, details): I’ve had a couple here and there, overall they are generally pretty good, but for Duke, my interviewer wrote me back saying she gave me a 5/5 recommendation and used the maximum amount of characters possible for her report (she sent me an excerpt that basically said this was one of her first 5/5s in her 20 years of interviewing)

Applied for Financial Aid?: yes
Intended Major: Poli Sci or Econ
State (if domestic applicant): CA
School Type: large very well known competitive public school
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: M
Income Bracket: 100k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I’m pretty sure my stats are an anti-hook lol

I’d appreciate any feedback please. I also apologize for the lack of formatting and messy post, I am new to CC, sorry!

I personally feel like I’m really reaching out of my zone, but I feel that things will work out one way or another. Might as well take my chances.

2

Just curious, since you applied to the other seven Ivies seemingly indiscriminately, why didn’t you apply to Penn as well?

3

It was primarily due to timing and Penn’s essay and the program I would have applied to would have required a Penn-specific 650 word or so submission. I honestly just didn’t have the time and thought my time would be more wisely spent revising my other essays. People have asked me that a lot haha, but could you tell me your thoughts on my profile?

4

Hmm… this may sound rather arbitrary, but I think it’s going to be very hard for you to get into top privates (primarily because of your GPA, but also the fact that you are Asian). Colleges expect school to come first, extracurricular activities second. While you may have an excuse for a low GPA, I don’t think it’s a good one, considering the fact that you could’ve avoided the drop in it. UCs are very GPA focused, so that may hurt as well. Although you did get deferred from Harvard, I’ve heard that it’s very hard to get accepted after that.

5

@ap012199 Ah yeah, that’s what’s always going through my mind nowadays, but I just feel like I want to go to a school that will accept me more as an individual rather than a student, although that’s also important. That’s why Duke really struck a chord with me. Thanks for your input!

6

Harvard College- I can’t really say on this one but it looks like rejected
Brown University- accept
Chapman University - accepted
Columbia University in NYC - waitlist but honestly I see you getting accepted
Cornell University - accepted
Dartmouth College - waitlist/accept
Duke University - accept
Johns Hopkins University - you don’t seem like such a great fit for that school but I can see you getting accepted
Northwestern University - accept
Pomona College - not sure idk much about this college
Princeton University - reject
Stanford University - anything about your essays? if they’re eh reject but if not I see an acceptation
WashU in St. Louis - accept
Yale University - waitlist
UCBerk - accept
UCLA - accept
UCSD - accept
UCSB - accept

You’re a strong candidate and I see you getting in to many of these schools, your GPA and course rigor really tell me that you’re a hardworking student and you’re dedicated to proving yourself you remind me of me haha. I think you can get into many of the schools you applied to. The only thing that is stopping you from anything is your gpa and ec’s IN SCHOOL you seemed really active outside of school rather than inside if that makes sense but it shouldn’t be such a huge problem. Your GPA is honestly fine as long as you show colleges your intentions and what kind of person you are in your essays I think you’ll be good and you could get into Stanford as well.

chance me back?

7

@adrinitis For Stanford, I wrote pretty unique essays. I was born in Missouri and have a rather strange background, so I approached the roommate essay quite differently. I’ve revised it quite a bit and had a lot of people look at it, they’ve all said it was solid. Although I think you’re being a bit too optimistic for me, I really appreciate it!!! :slight_smile: I’ll definitely chance you back.

8

High reach: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Duke, Dartmouth, Cornell, Pomona, Brown, WashU, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins

Reach: CMC, UCLA, UC Berkeley

High match: UCSD

Low match: Chapman

You’re in: UCSB

Most of the privates are high reaches for you because of your UW GPA. A 3.6 UW will place you near the bottom of the applicant pool.

While CMC is as selective as many of them, they’re less focused on UW GPA and more on leadership and experience, which you thoroughly demonstrate.

Your GPA is on the low end for the average UCLA/UC Berkeley in-state admit, but your ACT is on the high end.

Chapman isn’t a safety for anyone (no school with less than a 50% admit rate is), but you will most likely get in.

An invitation to Chancellor’s is a very good predictor for acceptance to UCSB.

9

Strong EC’s, but your test scores and esp GPA are weak.

Harvard College - Deferral says a lot. Rejected
Brown University - Reject/WL
Chapman University - Accept
Claremont McKenna College - WL
Columbia University in NYC - Reject/WL
Cornell University - WL/Accept
Dartmouth College - Waitlist
Duke University - Waitlist
Johns Hopkins University - Accept
Northwestern University - Waitlist
Pomona College - Reject/Waitlist
Princeton University - Reject
Stanford University - All on the essays. Rejected if you don’t demonstrate “IV”. You seem pretty earnest and self-aware and if that comes off in your writing I’d probably say expected outcome is WL.
WashU in St. Louis - Accept
Yale University - Reject

Thought it was interesting that you applied for Econ at JHU, but not at Columbia/Harvard

10

Hi noble_seven7, as asked I’m going to focus on chancing Duke Trinity RA. I’m going to be completely honest in my evaluation because you won’t get anything out of it if I’m not.

  1. GPA is the number 1 criteria they look at. Your GPA of 3.6 is going to hurt your chances. I read your extenuating circumstances surrounding the leadership program. I think some on the admissions committee will be sympathetic, but I think others won't because for all these top 10 schools they repeatedly state in their admissions info that GPA is their number one consideration. Translation: do what it takes to make it your number 1 consideration too. And there are many applicants who do amazing things/programs and still have perfect GPA. So regarding GPA, hopefully you'll get lucky with who reviews your application and it will go in your favor.
  2. ACT score is above the 32 average score for Trinity, you should be fine there.
  3. Extra Curricular Activities: you're in excellent shape particularly for someone pursuing political science. You shine in terms of following your interest.
  4. Honors/Awards: I didn't see any? I scanned through but a didn't see an honors/awards category. I apologize if I missed it.
  5. Common App Essay: To get a 5 on this, you have to be genuine, insightful, well written with no grammatical errors, show intellectual vitality.
  6. Recommendations: It looks like you've got that covered.
  7. Location: this matters to Duke as they try to get at least one or two students from each state to attend every year. California is usually in the top 3 states they admit from, so this is in your favor.
  8. Race: I hate to bring it up because this should not matter, but it does. In my son's case, we were keenly aware that a limited number of white males would be admitted to Pratt. This puts even more pressure to have higher test scores, gpa, and standout activities relative to this group. In your case, it's tough because your group is difficult to compete against given their overall high achievement in every area. Again your GPA concerns me in this regard because it matters more than any other criteria.

To sum up: I’m a firm believer that if Duke wants you they will overlook shortcomings. To want you there has to be something that makes you standout from the other applicants AND/OR they are looking for something specific that you satisfy. You know the old saying “luck favors the prepared”? You increased your odds by doing the best you could. Now it’s up to luck. Hope you get good news in March. :smiley: