Hello College Confidential—
I am a high school senior currently applying to colleges. Yippee! But the process is also super nerve-racking and I am applying to numerous selective institutions, so I am also a little worried about my chances. I will be applying EA to the University of Chicago and the University of Virginia, and will be applying RD to Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, and Stanford.
So, what are my chances? My stats are below—any feedback would be helpful, as I still have time to tweak and change my applications a bit!
GPA: 4.22/4.0 weighted, 4.0/4.0 unweighted
Class Rank: 5/141
SAT I: 2330 (800 CR, 730 M, 800 W, 11 E) 2nd time, 2290 1st time
SAT II: 800 U.S. History, 800 World History, 790 Physics, 730 German
APs: U.S. History (5), World History (5), Physics (5), Latin (5), Lang (5)
Current courses: AP Calculus BC, AP Gov, AP Lit, AP Chinese, AP Physics C, Senior Project (required), D.C. History (required)
School type: public magnet school with 10% acceptance rate, ranked 1st in Washington, D.C. and 72nd nationally according to U.S. N&WR. 16th best magnet school nationally. All classes considered Honors, but no grade bump (unfortunately) unless in an AP class
Courseload: no APs Freshman Year (not allowed), 1 AP Sophomore Year, 4 APs Junior Year, 5 APs Senior Year
All A’s except an A- in P.E. first semester of Freshman Year (hopefully this doesn’t hurt me…)
Extracurriculars:
Model U.N., 9-12, President, 8 hrs/wk
Student Government, 11-12, Class VP, rep. on Local School Advisory Team, 4.5 hrs/wk
“4by4” Business and Entrepreneurship Club, 11-12, Co-founder and Co-President, 2 hrs/wk
German Saturday School, 9-12, Newspaper Editor (last year only), 3.5 hrs/wk
Recreational piano, 9-12, 4 hrs/wk
Work/Volunteer Experiences:
Paid intern at D.C. public policy group, summer 12th grade, 40 hrs/wk
Volunteer camp counselor for Smithsonian Day Camps, summers 10th-12th, 40 hrs/wk
Volunteer at local soup kitchen to prepare meals for homeless, 9th-10th, 2 hrs/wk
Essays/Recommendations:
Recommendations from counselor, and two junior year teachers, probably very good.
Wrote an essay about how coming out as gay made me a stronger person and gave me sense of direction for what I wanted to do with my life
Supplemental essays about Model U.N. and liking Classical music.
Intangibles:
Middle class white male, nothing interesting here.
Hooks:
Nothing really aside from: three languages (German, Latin, Chinese), gay, family German heritage inspired me to study the language, leadership?