Chance the indecisive kid shooting for top tier schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>*<em>Hello! *</em></p>

<p>Location: Northern California, born in Sydney Australia (immigrant to the US)
Ethnicity: Lebanese/Chinese
Sex: Male
School: Large Public High School </p>

<p><strong>Stats:</strong>
ACT:35 (English 36, Math 35 (dumb mistake!!!), 35 science, 33 reading)
Recently took the SAT (waiting for scores)
SAT II's:
800 Math II 800 Physics 800 French
APs:
Freshman: French Language 5, French Literature 4 (self studied), Mandarin at Community College
Sophomore: European History 5
Junior: US History 5, English Language and Comp 5, Spanish Language 5, Calculus BC 5, Environmental Science 5 (no ap physics offered - took honors physics instead)
Senior:
AP Statistics, AP Macroeconomics and Microeconomics, AP Literature, AP Chemistry, (no ap gov offered)</p>

<p>Self Study Senior Year:
Multivariable Calculus through EPGY
Arabic on my own</p>

<p>GPA:
I've taken the most challenging course load possible at my school. Had to actually do a lot of convincing of the counselors to take the schedule I put together.</p>

<p>Freshman year 4.33/ 4 (4.0 unweighted)
Sophomore year: 4.6/ 4 (4.0 unweighted)
Junior Year : 5.0/ 4 (4.0 unweighted)</p>

<p>(10-12 academic) GPA 4.67/ 4.0
GPA: 4.0 unweighted
Rank: 1/367</p>

<p>Languages: Fluent in English, French, Mandarin, and practically Spanish. Learning Arabic</p>

<p><strong>Activities:</strong>
1. Citizenship Language Assistance Volunteer Agency CLAVA
Founder of nonprofit organization that allows linguists to use their language skills to help immigrants and others facing language barriers to pass the citizenship test or assimilate in general. We work with cultural centers in our area to spread the service.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Competitive Swimming (4 year varsity + Varsity Captain senior year)
Club Team: Have swam club for 10 years now. Spend more than 20+ hours/week practicing before and after school. Sectional level swimmer (CA-NV championships qualifier). Senior team swimmer for my club team.
HS Team: Rookie of Year (hs team) ; NCS Scholar Athlete; Part of county and school record setting relays</p></li>
<li><p>Amnesty International (High School Club Position)
-Treasurer (9-10) President (11-12)
-Organize fundraisers and campaigns to raise awareness at school.
-Applying to become West Coast Student Coordinator for Amnesty International</p></li>
<li><p>Indigenous Community Volunteer (Australian Non-Profit) / Oral History and Cultural Protection Project in Torres Strait this summer for 3 weeks (Not one of those pay-to-go programs)
-Was an ICV at age 17 and worked with the porumalgal community of the torres strait on a community project to raise cultural awareness in light of globalization
-Amazing experience that kind of left me with ambivalent feelings about globalization and our human condition -writing essays about this</p></li>
<li><p>Varsity Waterpolo (3 years Varsity + Varsity co-Captain)
Started as a varsity player since freshman year. Way for me to get involved at school in a team sport and share my passion for swimming with my peers. Found my self playing waterpolo for my school in the afternoon and attending club practices in the morning before school.</p></li>
<li><p>Senior Research
As a sophomore, prepared a science fair project about swimming and physiology
Won grandprize at school, 1st place at county fair.</p></li>
<li><p>Summer program at Wharton (UPenn) - LBW. Met a lot of cool people, learned a lot about the business world and leadership. Constructed a business plan that I am thinking about starting next semester (currently irrelevant).</p></li>
</ol>

<p><strong>Awards:</strong>
-Grandprize at Science Fair; 1st at county (nothing impressive, i know. not intel..)
-NMSQT semi-finalist (hopefully finalist)
-Lifetime CSF and Honors Society member
-NCS Scholar Athlete</p>

<p><strong>Recs:</strong>
Both will be great: one from history teacher who knows me as a swimmer and student, and one from calculus who's known me since freshman year. Counselor knows me moderately well (although she writes hundreds of them).</p>

<p><strong>Essays:</strong>
Work in progress. Trying to show appreciation of multi-culturalism, my passion for languages, global perspective, and interest in ethnic studies. Also, how many interest for global issues mixes with my passion for math to be a perfect fit for econ.</p>

<p>I'm still deciding whether or not to apply SCEA to yale, ED at columbia, or ED at Huntsman (penn). My sister goes to columbia if that means anything. Any advice on the strategy??</p>

<p><strong>Schools:</strong>
Yale (maybe SCEA?)
Harvard
MIT (linguistics or econ)
Penn (Huntsman ED maybe)
Columbia (Maybe ED)
Brown
Georgetown SFS
Dartmouth -econ?
Duke -int'l relations
UC Berkeley, USC, and UCLA
Stanford</p>

<p>Thanks in advance and have a nice day!</p>

2

<p>Everything looks excellent. You should pick between Yale and Huntsman Penn as your EA/ED (you’re fine with RD Columbia). You’ll be a competitive applicant at all the schools on your list.</p>

3

<p>^Wow!!! You sure amazed me. Your definitely an above average applicant to these schools by CC standards. My honest bet would be that you get more than half of these schools which would be great. In my opinion your one of the best and most well-rounded applicants that I’ve ever read about on CC. Yah you haven’t done intel or started a non-profit organization or whatever, but your definitely got A lot of stuff going good. Good Luck :)</p>

4

<p>thanks so much for the encouragement! what do you think about harvard though?
also, do you think it would be better to apply to yale RD than SCEA? i’ve heard the applicant pool is extremely competitive in the early action round…</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

5

<p>I wouldn’t hesitate to say that you have an above average chance at harvard. Being above average by CC’s standards is quite an accomplishment haha. As far as yale SCEA goes, if you want to go there, apply, you dont need to be worrying about the competition. Your as perfect as an applicant gets and then some, lol i like how you just throw in the fact that you know 4 languages in there… Apply Yale SCEA, get in, and then go and cure cancer.</p>

6

<p>you guys are too kind. i only wish the admission officers were as easy to impress.
i always though my ec’s were super weak because my school doesn’t really have much of the debate/decathlon/math olympiad/science olympiad involvement type stuff. i know improvement is pretty much impossible at this point, but what do you think is the weakest part of my profile right now?</p>

7

<p>also, thanks again!</p>

8

<p>If your not 100% sure you want to go to a school, don’t apply ED because I think you will get into to most RD and won’t need that extra bonus for ED. </p>

<p>Good luck, not that you’ll need it. Your a very impressive candidate!</p>

9

<p>^I agree. Personally if it were me, I wouldn’t go into ED or any other binding agreement cause I’m pretty sure you could get into a good amount of colleges. Unless your 100% set on going there AND have visited the campus, don’t go into a binding agreement. My advice is to try and write a good essay. Your essay doesn’t have to be great (but it would help) but don’t let it be bad because it could hinder an otherwise great profile.</p>

10

<p>im no expert or anything but you sound like a genius :stuck_out_tongue: everything you’ve done is really impressive…makes me feel like ive wasted HS…anyways good luck with everything and i wish ya the best</p>

11

<p>i spent a month at penn and do like huntsman a lot
im just not sure i want to commit to business or global business
thats why i think a more well-rounded school might be a better fit
although i did love penn a lot.
is huntsman basically impossible to get into RD? that’s what i’ve heard.
also, i’m not a genius; I think its obvious because i got a 4 on AP french lit (frosh year) :slight_smile:
thanks a ton though.</p>

12

<p>Yale reach
Harvard reach
MIT high match
Penn match
Columbia low reach
Brown high match
Georgetown low match/ in
Dartmouth low reach
Duke match
UC Berkeley safe in
USC def. in
UCLA safe in
Stanford low reach</p>

13

<p>Thanks for chancing me earlier :)</p>

<p>I must say that your entire resume is extremely impressive. I’d say for schools like USC, UCLA, Berkeley you are in for sure while a few others like Georgetown, Duke, Penn, and maybe Brown, your chances are really good. As you already know, the rest of the schools on your list are the best schools in the world, so nobody’s chances are that good for them, but I’d say that you have an advantage over most applicants.</p>

<p>I also agree with others that you should not apply ED to any schools unless you are 100% absolutely sure want to go there because I think you might find that you end up getting into at least a few great schools.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

14

<p>Yale (maybe SCEA?) - low reach/reach
Harvard - reach (like always)
MIT (linguistics or econ) - low reach/reach
Penn (Huntsman ED maybe) low reach for getting into penn, not sure about huntsman
Columbia (Maybe ED) - low reach
Brown - high match / low reach
Georgetown SFS - i dont know what sfs is, but high match for gorgetown
Dartmouth -econ? - low reach
Duke -int’l relations - high match
UC Berkeley, USC, and UCLA - 99%
Stanford - low reach</p>

15

<p>Your application looks about as good as it gets - there are no weaknesses. I think you will get into either Harvard or Yale. If you want to do the Huntsman you should apply ED.</p>

16

<p>thanks. i think my ec’s are my weakness though
i’m not sure i want to be bound to penn though, as it is not my first choice.
is it worth applying to huntsman regular decision?</p>

<p>thanks for all the advice !</p>

17

<p>Woah man … nice stuff … i would say they are all matches … MIT is a big quirky in admission though</p>

18

<p>thanks a ton man!</p>

19

<p>gotta get that bump bump pow</p>

20

<p>Wow, really nice stats. If I were you I would be looking to get a lot of acceptance letters early-mid next year :slight_smile: I hear Hunstman is extremely hard to get into and you really need to** pour your heart out into the essay ** so going ED seems like the better choice, however since UPenn is not your 1st choice you might not want to do it, you probably don’t even need to go ED/EA to any of your schools you’re just that great of an applicant lol You have a really good shot at your schools.</p>

<p>Just curious, what would your target language be for Huntsman?</p>