Chance/Where Can I Improve?

<p>So this is my first time on the website, and I wanted to get a feel for my chances at HYPSM and gain some insight from you guys as to where I can improve. I'm an Asian male rising junior from California. </p>

<p>SAT: 2210
SAT 2: Math 2c: 770 French with Listening: 800 Chemistry: 740
Unweighted GPA: 3.94
Rank: Top 5 %
AP (maxed out school offerings): four 5's and one 4 (chemistry)
Senior year Course Load: will definitely be most difficult
Major Awards: none?</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (leadership in parenthesis): 1) Started my own free program for educating students. My program has been implemented in 5 countries (thx to internet) as well as around my community. 2) Research, however not too scientific in the sense that it is not something I could submit to Intel like competition. Have been published in a college journal though. I also write for a french newspaper. 3) Designed my own curriculum for teaching students French, and then went back to my homeland in Asia and taught French their in impoverished schools. 4) JSA (President, 3 years)/Internship at Law Firm starting this upcoming year, 6) Compose and play instrument/sing in my community, 7) Work with my church (am part of a group that plans activities for people from ages 5-20 to do weekly. Give weekly lectures about how to be a leader at the church, and help other kids with their presentation skills so that they can give these speeches too. 8) theater (main roles 2 years in a row, and hopefully 2 more years) 9) various other school clubs (president/vice president in 3 of them). </p>

<p>Volunteer: My program, soup kitchen (I'm going to try to go more often next year), summer counselor, all the common stuff- a bunch of hours though</p>

<p>Work experience: nothing major at all. I teach music, but only to 2 people. </p>

<p>Recommendations-one will be amazing, I know that, and another should be decent. Counselor will be generic
Additional Rec: one from Harvard professor who I did some research with</p>

<p>State: California
School Type: Public School
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Asian
Hooks: None what so ever (well I am fluent in 5 languages, and I taught myself 3 of them, so Idk)</p>

<p>Can you guys tell me what my strengths and weaknesses are! I only have 1 year to improve this, and I feel like I'm running out of time. I was thinking about applying for some of the prestigious camps next summer that are offered to rising seniors, and also gaining some more awards.</p>

<p>bump? anybody?</p>

<p>I think all you really need is a sport to do. You don’t need to be great in it, but it shows you work hard and are part of a team.</p>

<p>As I read through you’re ECs, every single one is completely different from the last. There’s no real focus on what you want to potentially major in, or no real deeper dedication for a single activity. Instead of joining more, pick something you like, excel at it, win awards, compete, whatever to show that there’s something you really care about. If you weren’t aiming for a school like Harvard, I’d say you’re already in.</p>

<p>@CrimsonNight Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that I do baseball and tennis! (baseball=JV, but I’m dropping that) and tennis=varsity-4 years).</p>

<p>@smarty99 my main interest lies in French, and French culture, etc. So my program relates to french, I taught french in impoverished schools, I sing my music in French. But I also want to show that I could do other things. My thoughts were that I should try to win some writing awards, and try to make like a camp next year (MIT Launch, TASP, etc). Also do you know any awards/competitions for foreign languages? And do you think I could get into Duke with these stats?</p>

<p>If your high school uses Naviance, or some other college admissions tracking system, you should check to see how many kids have been accepted from your HS to Harvard with your GPA. If your HS doesn’t use Naviance, ask you guidance counselor, as they can provide you with school-specific information that will be more accurate that any advice you get on CC. When thinking about Harvard, I think notjoe recently said it best:</p>

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<p>Yeah HYPSM have a lot to do with luck. Do you guys think that I would be a strong competitor though? What about for Columbia, Uchicago, Cornell, Brown, and Duke?</p>

<p>If a student has the stats – and you do – you are a competive applicant for any top school, but as so much of selective college admissions comes down to how an admission director “feels” after reading your file, it’s impossible to be any more specific. At the top of the Harvard forum there is a long thread you should read:<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1420290-chance-threads-please-read-before-posting-one.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1420290-chance-threads-please-read-before-posting-one.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I have read that post before actually. Still I feel that students on this board, who have gotten into HYPSM, have some credibility. Just want some input on some other schools. Can someone tell me if the following are reaches, good shot, or most likely to get in: uchicago, columbia, cornell, duke, ucla, umichigan. So yeah, bump for these schools.</p>

<p>Randy97,</p>

<p>Here is a website that can assist you in answering some of these questions:</p>

<p>[Best</a> College Comparison - Rankings & Reviews | FindTheBest](<a href=“http://colleges.findthebest.com/]Best”>http://colleges.findthebest.com/)</p>

<p>When you search on any particular institution, it will come up with a graphic displaying the acceptance rate of the institution. So, in a heartbeat, I can see that the approximate acceptance rate at University of Chicago is 13%. You can also find the average SAT and ACT scores of admitted students for each school that publishes that data. Those sorts of statistics will give you a good starting point from which to make your own judgments.</p>

<p>Gibby frequently mentions Naviance. If your school uses this tool, it’s invaluable. When I look at Naviance for my sons’ school, I can see 1) the admission rate for students applying from their school; 2) the range of test scores and GPAs of a) students who apply and b) students who are admitted to a particular school; and 3) how many students apply/are accepted in any given year.</p>

<p>I can then compare those statistics with those presented at websites such as the one cited above, to see whether 1) students from my sons’ school are more or less likely to be admitted given particular scores and grades; and 2) how my sons stack up in relationship to these measures.</p>

<p>With the investment of a few minutes of your time, you can determine first-hand the relative chances of acceptance at any school in the country, rather than relying on the guesses, hunches, and opinions of posters here.</p>

<p>“So this is my first time on the website”</p>

<p>This person has posted before under Derek1. Stats and EC’s change with every post. </p>

<p>Anyway, here’s a reality check - I did a quick back of the envelope calculation and an unhooked ( hooked = URM, recruited athlete, development, celebrity, legacy with great stats) domestic candidate’s chance of being accepted is around 3.3% (slightly higher for SCEA and lower for RD). If you exclude academic superstars - which I am not because I can’t estimate this - the chances would be even lower. The point is, for the average applicant, the chances of admission is about 1 in 50 in the RD round. Anyone asking to be chanced has to ask themselves first if they have 1 in 50 type qualifications unless they are hooked.</p>