THIS IS NOT ME, THIS IS JUST SOMETHING I WAS WONDERING
Objective:
ACT: 36
SAT: 2400
SAT II: 800 Chem, 800 Bio, 800 math 2, 800 US history
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.00
Weighted GPA (out of 5.0): 4.9
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1 (valedictorian)
Senior Year Course Load: All AP’s, extremely rigorous
Major Awards: Valedictorian
Subjective:
Extracurriculars: none
Job/Work Experience: worked at burger king (1 summer)
summer activities: studying, extra AP classes
Volunteer/Community service: ~10 hours (required)
Essays: Good
Other:
State (if domestic applicant): CA
School Type: Public (extremely well, many students to top schools)
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Income Bracket: ~500,000$
Hooks: None
Reflection:
Strengths: GPA, test scores
Weaknesses: ec’s
Hypothetical chances are useless, so don’t waste your time and everyone’s time by posting these kind of things. First of all, based on this you’re not even guaranteed into anywhere. All it says is that you’re a rich Asian student from California (which adds to the diversity of campus-not.) and probably got coached/tutored for hours in order to gain perfect scores on these standardized tests. There is nothing that makes your case compelling- if colleges wanted a perfect test taking machine, there are plenty more students from China, India and South Korea etc. that would be there to replace you. EC’s are absolutely terrible and would get you rejected unless you win like Intel, USAMO, get into RSI etc.
@Unknownsam4 These types of “hypothetical” posts may annoy some respondents here, but I’ll answer none the less.
When I started freshman year, I told my parents I wanted to focus on studying and not join any ECs. My dream school at the time was Yale, and my plan was to get a high SAT score and excellent GPA and make it in based on those merits. I spoke to my CGC and she told me exactly what @blu5959 told me – Ivies don’t want test-taking machines. They want diverse classes of interesting people with an array of talents. In fact, you can search results threads here on CC from various Ivies, and you will see that weak ECs kill the chances of stellar students with very high numbers.
Case-in-point: Participate in ECs! You’ll have a great time, make some friends (that’s how I met my gf), discover your passion and ultimately realize who you really are.
An Asian male from California is a brutal demographic group. The applicant described in the OP is academically prepared for college. That does not get him very far with the private schools listed above, though UCB and UCLA should be pretty straightforward.
Consider this applicant:
Asian male from Southern California
Overcame a heart defect, and wrote about it in his essays; did research related to the subject
SAT 2400, ACT 36, SAT II 800s in 5 subjects (Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, US History)
4.0 UW GPA, 4.98 W
Took toughest course load ever at his high school; started taking college courses as a HS freshman
Valedictorian
ECs include STEM activities (see awards; Simons Summer Research Fellow; 2 time Physics Olympiad national semi-finalist; president of math and physics clubs, and founded a chapter of the Mu Alpha Theta math honors society), piano, basketball, taekwondo (3rd degree black belt)
Awards: Intel STS 2nd place ($75K award); Intel ISEF 1st place; Davidson Fellow ($10K award); California State Science Fair student of the year; National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium 2nd place; DOE National Science Bowl 4th place
This applicant got in most places, but was rejected by Stanford and waitlisted by Harvard. He eventually got in to Harvard off the wait list.
@renaissancedad Damn. I knew it was bad, but that must have been brutal. That is a fantastic application.
As for your hypothetical (yes, these are annoying), it would be an automatic rejection in my opinion. How could you expect to get in to any competitive school with no extracurriculars??? No voluntary volunteer work??? This hypothetical person appears to have nothing to them, and like the above post said, faces an extreme anti-hook. Chances at any of those schools in my opinion - 0% (not joking).
Valedictorian, 2350 SAT I, 800’s on 4 SAT II’s, 5’s on 15 APs. Rejected from 13 top private schools.
The good news is that the UCs are excellent, and use mainly GPA and test scores. But for private schools, it is essential - even more so than for general applicants - that applicants in this group differentiate themselves.
@Unknownsam4 You need to stop with the hypothetical posts. What you’re proposing is actually quite unrealistic, unless you’re Superman or have a 220+ IQ. YOU ARE A RISING SOPHOMORE. DO WHAT YOU CAN TO MAKE THE MOST OUT OF YOUR HIGH SCHOOL LIFE. And it also appears that you think that getting into college is purely based on academics. 10 hours of volunteer work is extremely laughable (especially since it’s required), and to colleges, you’ll seem like a recluse who spends all of his time locked in his room studying for some dumb $90+ that will never help him in life. Sorry to be extremely blunt, but that’s how life (and college) works. If you really want to worry about “chances” or colleges, I suggest you come back after your junior year with actual numbers and things you’ve done.
I understand this is a hypothetical chance thread (which is not recommended) but even if you do get into Caltech, note that Caltech doesn’t accept any form of AP scores for credit (meaning you’d have to take the course or otherwise test out), so the AP scores wouldn’t mean much.
I recommend not posting hypothetical chance threads and doing useful or fun stuff outside of HS classes.
Perfect scores and no ECs will get you nowhere. Go outside and do something with your life. Colleges want somebody who will not only benefit from the school but also give back.