<p>Chance me</p>
<p>This is a long one, so brace yourselves.</p>
<p>Hey guys, </p>
<p>I am a rising senior this year, and while I have been a pretty hardcore slacker (I really, truly am trying to turn a corner on that, though) through most of high school, I think I am a decent applicant for most of the upper tier schools, but probably not the top ivies and Stanford themselves. My targets and reaches include Duke, Vanderbilt, Columbia, NYU Stern, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Princeton, Northwestern, UPenn, Dartmouth, UMichigan, Boston College, Georgetown, Notre Dame, UVA, UNC, etc.</p>
<p>Safeties include F&M, Rutgers, NYU Undergrad(? Not sure about this one)</p>
<p>So, here are my stats: </p>
<p>Male
Caucasian
State: NJ
Income Bracket: 250k<
School Type: Small, Private, Catholic School</p>
<p>GPA: Unweighted: ~3.75 not including freshman year, which I've heard is not looked at many schools, a list I know to include UC schools and Stanford (I'm infamous at my school for my slacker ways in grades 9-11 but I intend to really try this coming year to boost grades and give my teachers good rec material)</p>
<p>Weighted: ~3.9 (My school doesn't have any honours classes and AP's give a minimal bump; our future valedictorian has a weighted GPA of ~4.4, and he is a guaranteed lock for Princeton)</p>
<p>Rigour of Courseload: I have always taken the most difficult courses available to me with the exceptions of 11th and 12th English, as I will not be taking AP English either year. (This includes advanced biology and chemistry in 9th/10th grade respectively)</p>
<p>School does not rank</p>
<p>SAT: 2260 - 720 M, 740 CR, 800 W (one sitting, only studied the night before, so I'm absolutely certain I can break 2300 if I study for my October take)</p>
<p>ACT: 31, not sending and not retaking</p>
<p>SAT2's: </p>
<p>800 Physics
760 Bio M
750 Math 2
720 US History</p>
<p>AP Scores: </p>
<p>Taken with a class: </p>
<p>European History (5)
US History (4)
Physics B (5)
Italian Language and Culture (4)</p>
<p>Self-Studied (I took 7 tests this year to get the AP Scholar award):</p>
<p>English Lang and Comp (5)
(I didn't take AP English even though it was offered at my school, so I guess it's technically self-studied)</p>
<p>Human Geography (4)
Biology (4)
US Government (4)</p>
<p>Senior Year Courseload:</p>
<p>AP Physics C
AP Calc AB (I might skip into BC if my school lets me)
AP Art History
International Relations (post-ap course)</p>
<p>EC's: </p>
<p>3 Years Football (1 freshman, 1 JV, 1 Varsity, we were conference champs for 2 consecutive years)</p>
<p>Rugby (1 year on a school team, we were state champs that year)</p>
<p>Russian Club</p>
<p>History Club</p>
<p>School Economics Club</p>
<p>Officer and Coordinator of a Statewide Nonprofit Economics Club that has chapters in 10-15 schools (Financial Leadership Development Club)</p>
<p>4 years (2009-2012) of hardcore wilderness canoe trips and camping for 3-6 continuous weeks in Ontario, Canada during June-August (it's a very strange extracurricular but I have it on good authority that colleges love it, especially for essays and interviews, as I've spoken to 4 staffmen who were attending Dartmouth and said it straight-up got them in since they all wrote essays about it and it was all their interviewers talked about)</p>
<p>Summer Internship (2013) at a UBS wealth management and investment banking chapter in LA (I stayed with family for its duration) under 2 Senior Vice Presidents, in an office that managed approximately $1.5 Billion collectively. (Apparently they're considering giving me a $2-5k, UBS sponsored scholarship)</p>
<p>I am currently trying to leverage my way into another gig at Gabelli Funds in NYC (the manager of the fund (Mario Gabelli) was on CNBC recently, mentioned a stock (GGG), and it instantly surged several points, so he's a big leaguer)</p>
<p>Community Service: </p>
<p>Tour Guide for the families of applicants to my school</p>
<p>Community Service Coordinator at my neighbourhood food pantry </p>
<p>Retreat Leader for a school freshman retreat hosted by the school Monastery</p>
<p>Tutor and serve food to underprivileged kids at a local neighbourhood house for several hours on a bi-weekly basis. </p>
<p>Member of a middle school mentor program at my school</p>
<p>Big Brothers annual football service program and clinic (annual football service program done with the Big Brothers organisation, 3 years)</p>
<p>Participated in and donated food to Christmas Gift Drives and Thanksgiving Food Drives</p>
<p>Hurricane Sandy Relief Program (A number of other schoolmates and I went to a nearby inner city area that was heavily affected by Hurricane sandy to distribute food and gifts before Christmas came)</p>
<p>Awards/Recognitions: </p>
<p>National AP Scholar (8 4s or higher, average of 4 or higher)</p>
<p>National Merit Commended Student (I scored a 211, and my guidance councillors told me the cutoff is never higher than 205 or so)</p>
<p>National Italian Exam Honourable Mention: 9th and 11th Grades, ~30th and 7th in the country, respectively. </p>
<p>School award for Highest average in the grade in Italian during 9th grade (trivial)</p>
<p>Leadership Positions: </p>
<p>Co-President of Russian Club (possible,
I'm not sure yet)</p>
<p>Freshman Retreat Leader</p>
<p>Community Service Coordinator</p>
<p>Officer/Coordinator of the statewide Financial Leadership club</p>
<p>Middle School Mentorship position</p>
<p>Recommendations: </p>
<p>From my physics B/C teacher (2 consecutive years). He writes good recommendations but I was only an "eh" student in his class. I performed but I was quiet, not very outspoken, so he probably feels pretty neutral toward me unless I show up to school this year with my full throttle, in which case it should be pretty good. He should like me just for taking physics C though, which is infamously difficult, and according to the other members of the grade, is only for the "geniuses". I haven't taken it yet, so I can only speculate (and hope for the best).</p>
<p>From my AP Euro (10th) and international relations (12th) teacher. He automatically loves kids who take IR since every year there are only 3-6 kids who take it. Additionally, he loved me in 10th grade since I was a slacker who he kept writing progress reports talking about how I need to "work to my full potential" for the first 2 terms (of 3). When I finally pulled myself together and stopped slacking for the rest of the year, he loved me, and wrote in his next progress report that "when I work to my full potential, I am a top student in the program", which is significant since the top 20 or so kids at my school go to ivies or other top tier colleges every year. He wrote a letter home at the end of the year that was glowing and he said if I still have it, which I do, he'll bade it off of that.</p>
<p>I know that this is getting really long, but this is the last part.</p>
<p>I am considering getting a pair of supplemental recs as well. One would come from my staff man last year from camp, who could give better perspective on what happens there and also happens to be a professor at the University of New Hampshire, so it should at least be well-articulated. </p>
<p>The other would be from the branch manager at the UBS office I worked at, and would be a summary and assessment of the work I did, and specify what types of things I was tasked with, I.e. constructing a report on a series of holdings that a particular mutual fund has and presenting their performance, etc relative to the performance of the fund.</p>
<p>I'm not sure whether to send these recs in assuming that I get them, because on one hand they explain 2 prominent extracurriculars in detail, but on the other hand, no admissions officer wants to read a stack of papers for any single applicant, so it could work against me. That is a separate dilemma, however. </p>
<p>So any way, let me know what you guys think. Any feedback is welcome and I am grateful for any input. </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>