Chance Me Por Favor

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey guys I was wondering if you could chance me for the following schools: Princeton (my #1), UMich, UVA, and UNC Chapel Hill. I’m a yellow female (Asian if you didnt catch on) and I live in Oklahoma

UW GPA: 4.0
W GPA: 4.5
Rank: 1/700
ACT: 33 – 34 superscore (I took the Sept. one, but ACT has been fooling around and has not posted my new score)
SAT: 2120 – 2150 (let’s not talk about this one)
SAT Subjects: Math 2 800; Biology 730

AP’s (I’m assuming that my AP score won’t be crucial to my acceptance): Chemistry, World History, Statistics, Language and Comp., Seminar, Spanish Language, Calculus BC, Biology, Physics C, US History, Literature, Research

National Merit Semifinalist (if its helpful in any way)

Activities I’ve been doing all four years:
Ballet/Dance: 4 hr/day, every day of the week, every week of the year, studied in China and at Princeton, World Ballet Competition Finalist
Students Working Against Tobacco: Founder and two time president, partnered with local Health Department
Faith-based: Church events coordinator, pianist, Sunday School Teacher, choreographer for missions trip dance, english teacher and piano teacher overseas,
School Safe Team: Talk with people, provide guidance to them when they go through suicidal phases
Chinese Club: Public Relations Officer, ambassador for a school in China to partner with a Georgia high School, helped facilitate in the contract
Young Democrats: Public Relations Officer to partner with local corporate sponsors to educate our predominantly conservative society of democratic/liberal views.
Internship at Peking University in China: performed autopsies
National Honor Society
Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica
Distinguished Graduate, Distinguished Service Graduate

Essays: My teachers all really like my commonapp essay so maybe it’s acceptable.

Thanks so much!

2

Sorry to not respond to this sooner. A few thoughts:

  1. Being Asian doesn't help, but Oklahoma is a favorable demographic that should offset it a bit.
  2. Your GPA and class rank are strong. Your ACT is ok but not stellar; SAT scores are on the lowish side.
  3. AP scores will not matter unless you have a bunch of 1's and 2's, which will raise questions about your courses preparing you adequately and possibly grade inflation.
  4. Your ballet is obviously your strongest area. Are you going to submit a supplement, and/or get a supplemental letter of recommendation? It's probably too late, but if your school participates, Princeton's Creative Arts and Humanities Symposium takes place in October, and is meant to be an admissions recruiting tool for high achievers in the arts.
  5. What do you want to study, and what is your long term direction?

Princeton is obviously iffy for anyone, but they had a 19.9% SCEA acceptance rate last year, and your ballet is a strong EC. I think you’re a strong candidate for the other schools listed, though state schools can be less holistic and pickier about test score cutoffs, so your low SAT might hurt you. Others on this board are much more knowledgeable about that than I.

3

As mentioned above, being Asian is not going to help, and the 33 just lets you to be in the door–nothing else.Your region (OK) will assist in your case, and I would say, your personal statement and interview will be the primary factors. You’re a legitimate candidate, but so is the case for thousands of others—hit it on the statement and interview.

4

@renaissancedad Thank you for your feedback!

  1. I will definitely be raising my ACT score, and I dont think I will submit my SAT. Collegeboard has not been my friend...
  2. Yeah, I didnt fail my AP Exams, I just don't want to waste the money to send the scores if they dont affect my chance of admission.
  3. I loveeee ballet, so I will definitely be sending in a supplement and take dance classes when I visit the campus.
  4. Overall, I'd like to go into medicine, perhaps physical therapy with special needs children..? Something that would be able to impact a lot of people.

Do you have any suggestions on how to increase my chances of getting in?

5

@boolaHI Oh okay, yeah I agree with my ACT score being barely acceptable. Do you have any specific advice for the PS and the interview?

6

@52balletvieta, if you don’t submit AP scores then adcoms may assume that you either didn’t take the exams or didn’t do well. I personally would submit them just so that isn’t a question mark.

If I were you I would talk to your GC about the Princeton Creative Arts and Humanities Symposium. Ask if your school has participated, and/or if he would be willing to nominate you. It’s probably past the deadline (I think the program is at the middle/end of October), but if he were supportive I would ask him to call Princeton admissions and discuss whether they would be willing for you to submit an application. They are interested in attracting strong arts applicants, after all.

It’s clear that you are very service-minded, something that you may want to highlight in your essays. I’d emphasize that after your ballet as a major theme. Relating your ballet to helping children with physical issues could be interesting. Your internship in China doing pathology also sounds like it might be interesting.

7

Hmmm, short of telling you what to write, I would keep in mind the following. All of these schools have very qualified applicants, so your essay should not be about qualifications, per se. That said, all the elite schools, are trying to compose a very well rounded class, so your task is to articulate what you would add to their respective academic community. Thus, you need to have a very thorough background of the school, so they know you have done your homework, and at the same time tell them what you bring in terms of being unique.

By way of background, middle D is at Yale, so I have been through the routine…lol.

8

I assume that you know that Princeton has its own ballet company, correct? When we visited there, they strongly encouraged submitting a performing arts supplement with your application if you had deep expertise in a performing art. If you are that good, I imagine they’d want to tap you for the company and that would give you an edge, possibly.

Nice split leap!

9

@mamaedefamilia Yes they do have their own ballet company! I have a friend in their company that graduated from my ballet school. I will most definitely send in a dance supplement though my camera quality isnt the best.

Thanks!

10

Thank you, @renaissancedad and @boolaHI ! Much appreciated!

11

@52balletvieta It might be worth hiring somebody to film your supplement so it really shows what you can do! Or you might use some footage from dance competitions that you have done. Either way, good luck. If you can maintain those grades while dancing at that level, I think your transition to college will be a smooth one.

12

@mamaedefamilia Okay I will do that then! Thank you so much :smiley:

13

You don’t submit official AP scores at application time. But you should put in the self-reported scores on the application. If one of your AP teachers is writing a recommendation, there’s a good chance they will mention the score.

14

Internship at Peking University in China: performed autopsies: If you could not provide convinced evidences regarding this that you want to enforce in your EC, be careful.

15

@J2H239 What do you mean convinced evidences? If my counselor writes about it in her recommendation do you think that would suffice?

16

Hi @boolaHI ! Sorry to bother again, but my ACT score has improved to a 35, do you think that would give a little more edge over a 33, or is it still just a “let me be in the door” kind of thing?

17

35 is a very solid score, whether it moves you up, well that’s hard to say at a place like P., but it certainly does not hurt. You are in a very good position, and given your region, my thoughts that it will now come down to your essay and interview. If you want me to to give you some remarks on your essay, just pm me. Best–

18

A bit more edge. But frankly at this point there’s nothing that would make you ‘more likely’… such is the lottery. :slight_smile: Make sure your essay’s good … :). You’re super competitive and your odds are better than most, but that’s all people here can say.
And if your GC writes about it, it’s sufficient. :slight_smile:

19

@52balletvieta I disagree with most the posts in terms of being asian, I don’t think you are at a major disadvantage in comparison to the average white applicant the admit rates are similar. Also, I don’t know on what universe an ACT score of 34 is bad personally that’s what I got and I’m not ashamed of it at all that’s like 99th percentile score? Wow all these negative comments, no wonder asians are obsessed about test scores. You have excellent academic credentials and really good extracurriculars, I would say you have a 60%-70% chance at UVA based on gpa and act score aswell as number of AP courses. UNC is tricky because it’s tougher for out of state applicants but I still think you have a good shot I would say 40%-50%. Have you not considered applying to a UC, I hear it’s asian heaven at the university of california.

20

UCs are top notch, but as an OOS you would be paying full retail, without any aid. I would consider also perhaps another Ivy, Rice and Vandy.