Chance me please! UCs, Brown, Cornell, UPenn, WashU, UChicago

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Hello, I'm pretty new here but I've spent a lot of time lurking and am going to try my hand at a chance.</p>

<p>I'm a rising senior and an Asian female from Illinois.
The colleges I'm concerned about are UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley, UPenn, Brown, Cornell, WashU, UChicago, NYU, aaand… well, I'll be visitng Williams and Amherst but am not sure if I want to apply yet. </p>

<p>GPA: 4.38 weighted, 3.74 uw
ACT: 35
SAT: 2330 (800 CR 800 WR 730 MA)
SAT II: haven't taken them yet….will in october
No class rankings
APs: AP World History (5), AP Gov (5), AP Psych (5), AP Lang (5), APUSH (5), AP Chem (4)
Senior Courses: AP Bio, AP Macro/Microeconomics, AP Lit, AP Art Studio, AP French, AP Calc BC (I'll have 13 by the end of senior year).</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: </p>

<p>Debate for 4 years (assistant captain 11th, captain 12th), various medals at tournaments, semifinalist at a state tournament 10th and 11th.
Science Olympiad for 2 years, JV (medals at regionals, went to state with varsity)
BPA (started 11th, placed 1st in event at regionals and made state… won a medal there too but not for a main event)
Speech team (started 11th, various medals at tournaments)
Started my own club for 2 years… but since it didn't work out I don't think it's worth much.
Art Club
Played viola since 7th grade and was in a youth symphony up to freshman year.
Was on badminton team freshman year.
National Honors Society
French Honors Society
National Merit Scholar (240 on PSAT)
AP Scholar with Distinction </p>

<p>Awards:
2 regional Gold Keys and 1 Silver Key from Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
NCTE Achievement in Writing Award (my only national award >_<)</p>

<p>My volunteering isn't great… like 50 hours total right now. I know. I'm a heartless human being.</p>

<p>Essays: Should be good since I'm pretty good at writing.
Rec Letters: Uh…. I don't know. I'm getting one from my APUSH teacher who definitely liked me but I wasn't her favorite, and one from my freshman Honors English teacher who'll be my AP Lit teacher this year. She liked me but it was a while ago… My counselor thinks I'm okay probably but we're not BFFs or anything. Might get an additional rec from my debate coach. </p>

<p>I'm happy with my test scores but I'm afraid my ECs are weighing me down! Halfway through high school I decided to go for a more social studies/humanities major rather than science and I switched clubs…. which I know shows a lack of commitment. Also quitting badminton and viola… probably not going to include them in my app. The various medals I've won at local tournaments for clubs don't mean much either, I know. I also have pitiful volunteer time. I'm hoping to rely on my art/writing achievements and debate.</p>

<p>Thanks for reading through this long post and chancing!</p>

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<p>You’ll get into the UC’s but you will be full fee.</p>

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<p>UCLA- High Match
USC- Match
UC Berkeley- High Match
UPenn- Reach
Brown- Reach
Cornell- Reach
WashU- High Match
UChicago- Match
NYU- Match</p>

<p>Ivies are reaches for everyone, but honestly you have very good stats and ECs to get you in and make you a competitive applicant! Your unweighted GPA is the only weak part of your app, but with your class rigor I’m sure it won’t be an issue. Best of luck to you!</p>

<p>Chance back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1670335-chance-me.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1670335-chance-me.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>UChicago is not a match lol. I’d say it’s about as reachy as Brown. Are you doing Wharton or CAS for Penn? </p>

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<p>You only list things you did in high school, so viola does not matter.</p>

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<p>I think the thing that will keep you back the most is your unweighted GPA. Even though you are taking rigorous courses, there are many applicants to these schools that have higher GPAs with these courses. That being said, every school is different. I know my school teaches AP and IB classes at a much more difficult level than most schools. If this is the case, it wouldn’t hurt to have your counselor include this information in your application. </p>

<p>Your ECs aren’t bad at all. Even though they don’t stand out too much, I still think they show leadership and interest. Definitely try to improve your community service and volunteer work if you can. Your SAT score is very impressive, which I think will help you alot. As for your application, you may want to include the club you started that you deemed unsuccessful. I still think colleges like to have students who are willing to create and try new things. Not everything can be a success, and they will realize that. Also you may want to apply early to any school that stands out the most to you, it will help your chance of admissions alot (especially at Cornell). That being said; </p>

<p>Reaches: UPenn, Brown, Cornell, UChicago, Williams, Amherst</p>

<p>High Matches: WashU, UC Berkeley, UCLA</p>

<p>Matches: NYU, USC</p>

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<p>@batman4321‌ Thanks for the detailed chance! My unweighted GPA is a little low, but I take a ton of honors/AP classes…hopefully that’ll make up for some of it. Good luck to you too :)</p>

<p>@bradybest umm tbh im not sure. i am interested in business but i’m kind of undecided if i want to go straight into a business program or choose another major first. i’m going to say CAS… i hear wharton is super hard. and yea haha i live close to UChicago so it’s more familiar and i know its definitely a reach for me.</p>

<p>@noel597‌ sorry if my words were a little confusing! I was in the youth orchestra freshman year too and i also played in my school orchestra sophomore year… but neither of them resulted in much lol so i dont think ill talk about it anyways. also i started in 4th grade not 7th just an edit from the post :)</p>

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<p>@gtho1108‌ thank you for the chance! my unweighted gpa is pretty worrying but. Idk guess too late to worry now. Also my school doesn’t do unweighted so I think that means they don’t show it on transcript? But colleges can probably figure it out anyways lol.
I’m glad my ECs are okay, and thanks for the advice on the new club. I’m looking into more community service now. And I’m definitely going to apply to as many colleges EA as I can!</p>

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<p>Why’s the GPA so low?</p>

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<p>@PSC2IVY‌ lol let’s just say i’m not spectacular at any classes involving math. racked up the Bs… my major isn’t going to be anything heavily math related but it hurts my gpa :p</p>

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<p>Wow I have the same scores and GPA as you. All I can say is that UChicago won’t mind the low GPA because the only thing that affects their rankings is test scores. And you have great test scores, so I’m pretty confident you will get in there. </p>

<p>Penn and Brown are a whole another story - they both care very much about G.P.A.</p>

<p>Have you started the UChicago essay yet?</p>

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<p>Umm, Uchicago definitely cares about GPA. Dude, what are you smoking haha? GPA translates into class rank and to them, that is VERY important in keeping their ranking high.</p>

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<p>Clearly you are not bad at math from your ACT score… jeez, I don’t know how someone can get a 35 and not be “good at math?”</p>

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<p>@CollegeGoer789‌ well…I’ll just hope they overlook my bad gpa and focus on my test scores haha. And I’ve looked at the prompts but haven’t really written an essay yet. Not sure which one I should do. </p>

<p>@PSC2IVY‌ well the breakdown of my act was 36, 36, 36, and 32 for math. I’m not horrible at it but it’s definitely not my best point. Plus math class is just. Not fun for me </p>

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<p>So basically here is my take
Everywhere Else: Reach (Pssst. Apply to Emory, you would be a perfect fit)
USC/UCLA/UCB: Match
NYU:Safety (yes, I think you’ve done that well, haha. GOOD JOB!)</p>

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<p>@PSC2IVY‌ haha thanks!! For a school like Cornell, do you think it would be a high low or medium reach? If I have good essays do you think id have a chance? Edit: what do you think about my chances at nyu stern?</p>

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<p>Honestly? Cornell and NYU Stern are high reaches, sorry. Unless your high school has grade deflation placing you in the top 10% to 5% of your class GPA wise, it’s even more unlikely. My recommendation? Apply everywhere in the U.S. News & World Report top 20 and statistically speaking, there is a very likely chance that you will be admitted to a highly prestigious institution. Albeit it will not be of your 1st choose but you will thank yourself nonetheless when you receive an acceptance in the mail.</p>

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<p>I wish you luck!</p>

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<p>@PSC2IVY‌ thanks for the honesty! I guess I’ll just have to try my best and see how it goes :slight_smile: I’m applying to quite a few in the top 20 but not all haha</p>

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<p>@PSC2IVY‌ Well she doesn’t have a class rank so that is why I said GPA doesn’t matter that much. All they care about is what % of their class is top 10% because that affects U.S News rankings.</p>

<p>And as you can see from how they spam market to every qualified and unqualified potential applicant that rankings mean a lot to them. By bringing their acceptance rate down, their rank goes up.</p>