Chance Me, Kinda Weird App

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>I'm applying not only to Harvard but also Duke, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Caltech, Yale, Berkeley, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Carnegie Mellon. So, if you can, please chance me for all. </p>

<p>My top choices are Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, and Berkeley.</p>

<p>I'm a little bit strange, since I'm applying as an 11th grader, and I goto an IB school, so I don't have any IB/AP Test scores to prove my proficiency yet.</p>

<p>Anyways, some stats:</p>

<p>GPA: 4/4 (UW) 4.82/5 (W)</p>

<p>Class Rank: 1/149 (We have quite rigorous classes grading-wise. Only two students haven't had a B yet, and the other student took one less advanced class than I did, sophomore year. There aren't any ties for valedictorian either. That said, we are not a great school by any means. The best universities we sent kids to last year were Babson, Rice, and UT)</p>

<p>SAT: 2200 (800 math, 680 cr, 720 wr-8 essay)</p>

<p>SAT II: Math II:800, Math I:800, Phys (not sure but...):700+ (90% sure it should be)</p>

<p>Awards/Honors: AIME Qualifier 2 time, USAJMO Qualifier 1 time, TMSCA 2 Time State Champion in Mathematics, Number Sense and Calculator</p>

<p>Sports: Varsity Table Tennis, 3rd place state winter games tournament</p>

<p>ECs: Metroplex Math Circle Assistant, Copy Editor for Newspaper, Math/Science/Computer Science Team, Class Pres (9, 10), Key Club Pres (11), StuCo Parliamentarian (11)</p>

<p>Rigorous courses taken/taking:
SL Physics, SL Math, HL Math, English III IB, History of the Americas IB, French III IB, Chemistry SL, Local University Computer Science and Statistics (received A's in both)</p>

<p>Distinguishing Features:
Only USA(J)MO Qualifier ever in an 80 mile radius
Founder of the website Online</a> Math Circle | The World's First Online Math Circle
Very rural background, 2 hour drive from the nearest big city (Dallas)
Applying Early as school in my area isn't challenging enough</p>

2

<p>work on the sat.</p>

3

<p>The extracurriculars are good, but with that sat, it’s hard to tell if they’ll take you seriously, because it’s academics first, then extras In most cases.</p>

<p>By the way, I have a math website that teaches math too! it’s really popular in My school and I’ve received various thank you emails from strangers.:P</p>

4

<p>I think you are a very qualified applicant. I don’t think your SAT is low by any stretch. All they want is you to be in the Middle 50% (which you are). All it depends on now is whether or not they feel you add something unique to the campus.</p>

5

<p>Wait, how come you’re applying as an 11th grader?</p>

6

<p>yeah dude, if you made usajmo you were a soph max last year…</p>

7

<p>Your math website has no math on it… good luck nevertheless</p>

8

<p>You should be good for at least one of those, but add a safety school or two as a back-up parachute.</p>

<p>What, you don’t like Brown and Penn?</p>

9

<p>Your credentials are really impressive…but 12 reach schools? Maybe you should look at what you really want in your college experience (class size, location, curriculums, etc.) and narrow down your list a bit. The only similarity I see in all 12 schools is that they are all brand names.</p>

<p>I agree that you probably want some safety schools in there, because applications to places like Harvard are always a gamble. But good luck!</p>

10

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<p>What exactly are you referencing?</p>

11

<p>Do you have the intention of graduating early? If not, I honestly would not advise applying after two-and-one-half years of high school if you wish to maximize your prospects of admission to the most selective institutions. Even so, I would recommend that you retake the SAT at either the December or January test date to potentially enhance your competitiveness.</p>

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<p>Poliscience was referencing the fact that shrig94’s SAT score was in the vicinity of Harvard’s fiftieth percentile for students attending. There’s the commonly circulated and rather spurious wisdom on this website that attaining some arbitrary score on the SAT (e.g., 2100, 2250, 2300, said college’s nth percentile) is sufficient and surpassing the given distinction will provide no additional admissions assistance.</p>

12

<p>I believe applying early before you finish senior year may hurt your chances. I think you do need a 8 semester transcript or something equivalent.</p>

13

<p>I have a friend who was actually admitted to Johns Hopkins junior year-- I don’t know the exact details though. He chose to finish high school, and his eventual choice was to stay in-state-- he couldn’t afford it.</p>

<p>But Harvard, no offense to JH, is a cut above.</p>

<p>A 2200 is decent, but I wouldn’t say by any means a “strong point” of your application. Your GPA is excellent, but it could mean anything-- without some sort of standardized comparison as to the rigor of your classes (no AP/IB in your first two years?) it is impossible to hazard a guess about the “rigor” of your school. Like, I have a 3.92 unweighted, but have 4 5’s and 2 4’s on AP exams. I know some people with 4.0’s, but haven’t made over a 3 on an AP exam.</p>

<p>Your EC’s are pretty nice, I assume you want to study math, computer science or engineering?</p>

<p>However, the clincher will be your essay and recommendations. First, I don’t know what teachers would say if you asked for recommendations. From what I know, recommenders are generally teachers (who like you) that taught you junior year in a core academic class, preferably a “difficult” or AP/IB level one that you did well in.</p>

<p>Far as your SAT writing/reading scores, (though these are by no means a measure of “true” writing ability necessarily) I honestly don’t know what sort of essay you would be able to hash out that would set you apart from the several tens of thousands of others.</p>

<p>This said, I suggest you wait a year and apply before Nov. 1 for all those schools next year. You’ll have time for a really great essay, as well as getting some AP/IB scores, and making nice with prospective recommenders.</p>

14

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<p>Well, there truly isn’t an essay topic with which experienced admissions officers aren’t already acquainted. The general narrative, details, and sequence of events may truly be specific, but it is quite unfeasible to be thematically or topically unique. But most importantly, college essays should strive for grammatically sound constructions and overall clarity (although not necessarily at the expense of an impoverished diction) and advertise some unique quality or element of diversity.</p>

15

<p>To clear up some things guys:
I have my ACT results, 34 comp, 35 math (fail), 34 science, 34 English, 31 reading (fail).
Also, I am graduating early, and my recommendations will definitely be some of the best they read, simply because I goto a small school and have an intimate relationship with the two teachers that are recommending me.
I don’t think that I will be retaking the SAT, though I might take the January SAT II. By then, I should score 800 math II, 750 plus physics, and 700 plus chem.
Thanks for the advice so far!
P.S. Gatech is my safety.</p>

<p>Edit: I also forgot to add that my school choice was based on schools with respectable mathematics or computer science programs, good research, and strong social connections (which tend to be ‘brand name’).</p>

<p>Edit 2: Online Math Circle will have its first lecture December 4th. Hence, we do not have much more than a few community problems up yet.</p>