I am currently an incoming senior who plans to major in Econ with a focus in Finance and apply to NYU Stern School of Business as well as some other schools like Columbia College, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UCSD, Wharton at UPenn, McDonough at Georgetown, and Caroll at Boston College. My first choice is Columbia College, but I don’t believe I have a realistic chance. So my first choice is hopefully NYU Stern.
Basic Info:
- Female
- Asian (Vietnamese)
- Second Generation
- Not eligible for financial aid
- From California
Stats:
- SAT: 1540 (790 Math, 750 RW)
- ACT: 34 (34 English, 35 Math, 36 Reading, 32 Science)
- SAT Subjects: Math 2 (800) and US History (710)
- GPA: 4.0 Unweighted (out of 4.0) / 4.22 Weighted (AP classes are worth 5 points)
(My school does not do class rankings, but they did identify me to be in the top 15% or higher in my class of 500 students)
AP/Honors Classes:
- AP Calculus AB (5) (Sophomore)
- AP European History (5) (Sophomore)
- AP Calculus BC (5) (Junior)
- AP Human Geography (5) (Junior)
(I plan to take two more APs next year: AP Gov and AP Stats) - Honors High School English
- Honors Humanities
- Honors American Literature
- Honors Pre-Calculus
- Honors World History
Academic Honors:
- Music Teachers’ Association of California Certificate of Merit (completed all 10 levels through Advanced for the piano)
- National Honors Society (11th & 12th)
- California Scholarship Federation (10th, 11th, & 12th)
- AP Scholar with Honor
Extracurriculars:
- Solo Pianist for my marching band/concert band/orchestra throughout the past 3 years (10th, 11th, & 12th)
- President of Orchestra (I’ve also held lower-level positions for the music program for 10th & 11th grades as well)
- Lead Producer for band/orchestra shows and other performances (11th & 12th)
- Playing piano for about 11-12 years now
- Playing violin for 6 years now
- Key Club Vice-President and Treasurer (over 300 hours + raised over $500/yr through fundraisers) (9th, 10th, 11th, & 12th)
- Pianist for my school’s theatre company (I play instrumental for musicals) (11th & 12th)
- International Compassion Charities (my uncle’s volunteer organization) (11th & 12th)
Summers:
- I took Spanish 101 and Spanish 102 at a community college for foreign language credits for 2 summers
- Weekly percussion practices
- Volunteer (including teach piano to elementary school kids, serve food at Ronald McDonald House, feed and give out blankets at homeless shelters etc.)
In conclusion:
I know that NYU Stern’s SAT average is 1468, and I heard that the admissions rate is around 11%. I’m not super worried about my stats, but I’m more worried that my chances will be significantly lower because I have not done many business-related extracurriculars. I’ve only recently decided to major in applied economics/finance and go to business school since I’ve been really enjoying my math classes and the sections on practical economics or politics in my social science classes. (I do like piano and plan to continue it in college, but I don’t want to major in it)
I was given advice recently that since I’ve put a lot of emphasis and success into my piano and leadership activities, college admission officers will (hopefully) believe that I have the potential to work hard and be successful in any major I take. Therefore, my lack of business-related activities shouldn’t hurt me too much. What are your thoughts on that?
What do you think are my chances of getting into NYU Stern as an undergraduate? Also, could you evaluate my chances of admission into Columbia College, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UCSD, Wharton at UPenn, McDonough at Georgetown, and Caroll at Boston College?
Thank you so much for reading through this long post, and I appreciate all of your responses!