Chance Me? Princeton or Yale SCEA 2023

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey guys! I’m a second semester junior, and I’m planning on applying to either Princeton or Yale early next fall (probably Princeton). I wanted to get some feedback on how yout think I’ll stand against other applicants next year. All feedback is greatly appreciated.

  • I'm from Dallas, TX
  • Ethnicity: Asian (Pakistan)
  • Gender: Male
  • Charter IB World School (Don't send that many kids to big schools each year, maybe 1 or 2)
  • Intended major: Economics (possibly double major in Bio)
  • My GPA right now is a 4.65 W (3.98 UW)
  • My school does not offer rankings, but I know I am within 1st quartile (top 25%)
  • I did pretty poo on my PSAT and got a 1440, so I wont get National Merit Semi for TX
  • I have a 36 ACT (36,36,36,36) with an 11/12 on the essay
  • I have a 1590 SAT (CR 790, M 800) with a 23/24 on the essay
  • 800's on Subject Tests for Math 2, Biology, US History, & Spanish
  • I have taken all honors classes (besides PE) and my school only offers 3 AP's cause we are all IB, but I have taken them all. And I have self-studied for other that we dont offer. I have gotten 5's on them all and they are listed below:
  • AP Statistics
  • AP Microeconomics (self study)
  • AP Macroeconomics
  • AP Calc AB (self study)
  • AP US History (self study)
  • AP Government & Politics
  • I just started the IB Program this year and my courses are below:
  • History HL
  • English HL
  • Biology HL
  • FIlm SL
  • Spanish SL
  • Math SL
  • Theory of Knowledge

I am currently taking the most difficult courses my school offers, so this is the best I can do.

  • Extracurriculars
  • Lab Researcher @ UT Southwestern (proposed and researching my own project about stem cells with over $18 Million in funding from Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., and the National Institute of Health)
  • Robotics Researcher (gave keynote speech at robotics conference at MIT in 2017)
  • Founder of (Insert my Name) Productions (an advertising firm I started that had done ads for Nike and Fossil; I have also sold over $2 Million worth of canvas prints and apparel of my own photos)
  • Founder of Practical Learning Mobile Application (have received funding for the project and manage 20+ employees)
  • Speaker @ TEDx Event @ Southern Methodist University
  • National Youth Media Coordinator (For a Summer Camp program that runs across the US, I work under a Senior Media Coordinator) (My work has been published in magazines)
  • Youth Team Leader & Facilitator - Volunteer Organization (got into the news for making over 100,000 meals for Hurricane Harvey Victims)
  • Secretary of NHS (started a collaboration with our school & the North Texas Food Bank)
  • Class Officer in Student Advisory Council (elected into the position for 3 years straight; I have hosted multiple school events and have represented the school at the local Chamber of Commerce)
  • VP of Junior World Affairs Council (leading a project to help demins Kosovo)
  • Eagle Scout & Current Junior Assistant Scoutmaster (I've done like every scouting thing you can think of)
  • Other Information
  • Family income is about 150k per year
  • Because of my Stem Cell Research I'm really cool with professors at both Yale and Princeton, so I think I could get some faculty recommendations from them
  • I'm pretty good at writing
  • I love my teachers and they love me, so I think Ill have some solid reccomendations.
  • I'm also interested in UPenn, Yale, Oxford, Georgetown, and a whole bunch of other places.

Thank you!

2

Don’t get your hopes up is all I can say.

3

you are a very competitive applicant but of course Yale and Princeton are crapshoots for most applicants, even very qualified ones. Also keep in mind that at Princeton, you cannot double major. At Yale it is possible depending on the majors you combine but rather few people actually do from what I have heard.

4

You are a competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are amazing. Write good essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools. Craft some sort of theme that you want admissions officers to see in your application, if you love STEM, highlight your stem activities. Also, if you like writing, consider looking at the Kelly Writers House at Penn. Again, focus on essays and pick a school that you want to apply early to. You are an extremely competitive applicant.

5

You have the stats for Oxford, but 1) no double major- it will be PPE / Econ + Mgmt / Econ + Hist OR Biological Sciences and 2) no funding- figure ~$45/50Kpa (x 3 years)

6

Yeah you’re a shoe in. Apply for Cambridge if you can. Apply anywhere, you will probably get in.

7

OP, please ignore the post by soccer92749. He/she seems to only post comments referring to the admissions policy as random and harsh. Of course, based on what you say, you stand a good chance of being accepted. As always, though, you should apply to a range of safeties, matches, and reaches. Fwiw, Yale is less of a reach for you than it was for DS, who was accepted SCEA and has done well at Yale.

8

If this completely real, I think your chances would be extremely solid. But I have no idea how you are able to participate in IB, self-study 6 APs, hold several club leadership positions, and run 3+ high earning companies, become a published author, speak at several notable events, donate what seems like hours of your time, AND do research with a 18 million dollar budget. Can you explain to me how you manage to do all of these things?

9

And you’re an eagle scout?

10

@piranhavator Yeah, I’m legit lol no point in asking for advice if I’m going to fake it.

I haven’t really found IB to be that challenging, but people I’ve talked to just say its because I have a good study schedule that I follow, but I expect to be completely overwhelmed next year. I also think the structure of my school is really helpful because my grade is 80% tests and 20% class participation. And class participation is literally just doing the hw, you dont even need to ge tthem right. And I’m a good test taker so I dont really bother myself with daily hw (I still do it, but I dont need to stress about it cause its not a grade). And more tests are essays or presentations, because we’re IB which are my strongsuits, so school really isn’t that bad for me. I try to self-study AP’s that are similar to the honors courses that I’m taking at school, so its not much of a hassle to just learn a few more concepts and I’m a strong essay writer so that helps. The AP’s were also mostly in Freshman and Sophmore year before IB, just so I could get the AP Scholar with Distinction Title, and I don’t know if im going to continue doing them this year because I haven’t started self-studying yet. Clubs really aren’t that bad, elections for positions are pretty easy since I have such a lengthy resume so I’m a shoe-in for a position, and meetings and usually during lunch, so it’s not hard to manage at all. And all the clubs I am apart of at school are spread across Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so Im never that overwhelmed.

The businesses are probably my crown jewel, and I try to start a major project a year and put the others aside. So, after I made the advertising business in 9th grade I hired a team of my friends to take it over, so it became self-sufficient with me only having to deal with contracts and emails. I don’t do much of the actual photography or editing anymore, that’s what they are hired for, I only recently came back for the project with Nike because it was such a big deal. So, the same goes for the practical learning app, which I am developing called Pilot. It’s basically an app to teach people (college students, or older) about everything you arent taught in school like how to do taxes, buying a house, etc. and I got funding for it, but I instantly hired a team for it and now they are doing the entire thing. One member of that team is a manager who overlooks everyday tasks, so I really never have to do much of anything.

All of my time is being spent on STEM cell research at UT Southwestern, and I’ve structured it so that I only have to go on weekends for 8 hours a day, so it basically like school on the weekends. This usually overflows onto the weekdays and Im usually hiding at the back of class writing my summary of what happened at labs. So, in that case Im still adapting to how I manage my time.

I dont know where you got the publishing a book from, but that has been a dream for a really long time. So maybe next year? And speaking at events is truly just because of contacts I have from school. TEDx was an event I had attended in the past, so I jumped at the opportunity to audition and it turns out my friend’s dad was on the selcetion board so I got in. And last year I did research on robotics and I ended up having to write a 3500 word paper about it for physics, and my dad is an MIT grad, so he called up a buddy there and asked if I could come to the conference and he ended up reading my paper and asked me to speak. Completely unexpected, but crazy cool.

And when it comes to volunteering, I’ve been doing that since I was little and as I’ve gone up the ranks I just have more people under me, like as Youth Facilitator I have about 800 youth and 50 team leaders under me. So, when we prepared the 100,000 meals it wasn’t just me, but it was all of us spending a weekend just making sandwiches in the gym.

And I got my Eagle Scout beginning of sohpmore year, so I haven;t had to stress about Eagle Projects or anything. I completed like 45 merit badges and I’ve honestly given up ever since. But I remain active and attend troop meetings as a Junior Assitant Scoutmasters at out meetings every other Sunday.

So, how do I manage it? I really don’t a lot of the stuff is done by other people, but I did start it before at some point but I have taken a higher position to allow for me to diversify myself. And it we’re being real honest I dont sleep that much, I probably get an average of 5 hours a night, but I surprisingly haven’t gotten hooked to coffee or anything. I think stress is what keeps me going.

11

@IxnayBob Okay, so now I have a follow up. My current list is as follows:
Yale
Princeton
Oxford
MIT
Harvard
UPenn
Columbia
Georgetown
Northwestern
Berkeley
Carnegie Mellon
NYU
UT @ Austin (this is my safety cause I’ll have auto admission)

I have been told that I have way too many reach schools, like the Ivy clump at the top and that I lack in my match schools. I really want to go into investment banking and I’ve heard that you need to go to a target school to have a good chance at jobs post-college, so that’s why the list is built like this.

Do you think I am being unreasonable with my list? Should I restructure it?

12

Assuming that you are in-state for UT Austin, you have a very good safety. In my opinion this completely changes my reaction to the point that the rest of your list is so far into the reach territory.

Do you have any budget restrictions? I would be inclined to run the NPC on everything on your list. Actually, I am not convinced that I would pay full-pay rates at Berkeley or NYU if in-state rates at UT were the alternative (not everyone will agree with me on this).

I agree that you are pretty much devoid of match schools. However, I don’t see the point of adding anything to the list unless you would significantly prefer it to UT Austin. You might want to ask yourself the question: “Assume that I get into UT Austin and that I am rejected everywhere else, is there any other school where I will be unhappy that I didn’t apply”. Personally I am also inclined to go with two safeties rather than one.

13

@Whoknows2023, I’m too tired now, but I will PM you tomorrow.

14

@DadTwoGirls Thank you for the advice. Yes, I am in-state, and I was told by my counselor that mathematically the lowest I can go is the top 5% of the class, so I will automatically be admitted to UT Austin. And I have been saving money from my companies to pay for my college tuition once the time comes around, so I am prepared to pay full tuition at any of those schools if necessary (obviously it would be nice to get some aid, but it’s not a restraint). I had other schools on the list like UChicago and Dartmouth, but I ended up taking them off not because I wouldn’t attend but because I didn’t want to have to write all of the essays that would come from my current list of 12.

I just wanted to get your opinion of why two safeties are better than one? Because I initially had Southern Methodist University as a backup given that for whatever reason I am not admitted to UT Austin, but I decided to remove it because of the extra essays. However, if there is a value in applying to 2 safeties I’m all ears.

15

I know that you are not asking me, but as a senior that is currently waiting to hear back from some schools I believe it is best to have two safety schools. For example, you could compare who gives you more money to go there (aka which one costs less and gives you more benefits). And to be really honest, most colleges (especially privates) have similar essay prompts that you could recycle your essays for each school by making some small adaptions. The only ones that will add to your essay load would be the “Why (insert college name)” essays, but these shouldn’t take a lot of work since they are usually about 250 words (around 2 paragraphs in a standard essay).@WhoKnows2023

16

Focus on your essays this summer. Don’t just write your Common Application essay and your supplements for whatever school or schools you may be applying early to, but try to get as many out of the way as you can, even for the ones that you are only thinking about applying to in the RD round. Essays could be what gets you accepted or not at any of these schools. Your stats and ECs are great so your essays and letters of recommendations will probably be factors in your admissions decision.

Also, try coming up with a theme for your application. Preferably, you want to demonstrate through the ordering of your ECs, your essay topics, your letters of recommendations, and your major choices that you have passion as well as skill in a specific academic field

17

hey there! i’m a current sophomore and i honestly think you have an amazing shot at any school you apply to. you should definitely apply to other elite schools too, like stanford or caltech. i feel like you could definitely get into stanford if you write about your extracurriculars and why you’re passionate about them in your essays. also, would you mind if i pm you for a little advice?

18

I’m honestly not sure why some of these forum-goers have commented really generic answers that they give to every other “chance-me” thread. These are probably the most spectacular extracurricular activities I have seen on this site. Not even considering your work ethic, GPA, Stats, your spike is so huge that I doubt many schools will end up rejecting you.

Just keep going the way you’ve been going and it’ll turn out just the way you want it to.

The essays don’t have to be spectacular, just be truthful. Your spikes are too big to overlook.

That being said, do not get off-track and mess it all up from now until then, but I trust you won’t.

19

I stumbled on this thread looking for impressions about Yale, as my child will be attending next year. I just want to say that you have the stats to apply to the schools you want. Focus, focus, focus on your essays. I am convinced after going through the process that the essay IS the differentiator. A great sample essay that is available on the internet was from the kid Michael Brown who was admitted to 20 top schools - I believe it is on the Forbes.com website. His essay is a perfect example of demonstrating in the essay who you are as a person and what you value - this may have nothing to do with your interest in STEM. My child has STEM interests like you but also was very involved with journalism in high school which strengthened her writing ability. Also, I want to echo what someone else posted about finding a “theme” for your application and making sure you have safety schools on your list. Good luck, your list of achievements is impressive.

20

And by the way, you made me break my rule about posting on Chance Me Threads!!!