<p>Hello, I'm new to this forum and this is my first post. I'd really like to know if I have a chance of acceptance at any of the Ivies like Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell... Yale is my first choice reach. I'm also planning on applying to WashU, Hopkins, Northwestern, U of Chicago....</p>
<p>GPA: 3.9
ACT: 35
SAT II: 760 Math 2, 770 Chem
Class Rank: not available
AP: 5 on AP Chem. This is what's worrying me the most as I've only taken 1 AP course my Junior year (but also a two-part AP English class in which I will take the AP my Sr year). Although I will be taking around 5-6 AP courses next year, I feel like colleges may think my workload was not quite satisfying enough (my school does offer many AP's, starting from Soph year). I do have an upward trend in my academics though, because I've had a B+ in English since Freshman year but I got a 4.0 my Jr year.</p>
<p>Other stuff: I'm only going to summarize here:
- Captain of 2 Varsity Sports (probably 3 next year but one doesn't vote till the spring season starts so I can't list that)
- Participate on 3 Varsity sports
- I hold a school record for Track
- Working as a paid intern at a company for the last 2 summers
- Volunteering as a Soccer Coach's assistance at some youth club
- Was a State Finalist in Piano in 2008 (but before Freshman year started...so idk if I can list this)
- I've played Clarinet in band since 6th grade
- Passed the Level N4 JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Exam) (no I'm not Japanese)</p>
<p>I think of myself as a well-rounded person, and I'm not sure if that's enough for applying to the Ivies (I obviously don't have any awesome national competitions or anything). Extracurriculars aren't amazing but I do exhibit leadership qualities.
I plan on writing a great essay about how I took a curiosity to the Japanese language and was able to self study it and test out of Japanese 1, 3, (took 2 in Soph year and 4 in Jr year) and finally take AP Japanese 5 my Sr year. I then took a trip to Chicago to take the JLPT and also participated in a homestay in Japan last summer. I think it shows some sort of intellectual curiosity and demonstrates my strive to learn something I enjoy.</p>
<p>I pride myself on my test scores, but I am aware of many things I lack for these competitive schools. My high school is a private, college prep school that gets around ~15-20 maybe students into the ivies each year. My class size is around 170. Please let me know what you think my chances are, thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I think the big question is this: how does that one AP compare with your classmates’ schedules?</p>
<p>Most of the colleges on your list will evaluate you in the context that you’re coming from. If the culture in your school is that the ambitious kids take an AP or two as juniors, and then several of them as seniors, I don’t think you should worry too much about it. On the other hand, if the really ambitious students in your grade were taking 3 APs as juniors while you took one, that could be an issue. Even then, I don’t think it rules you out. It’s reasonable for a 3-sport varsity athlete not to overload himself. IMO, your grades and test scores do not take you out of the mix even at the most competitive colleges.</p>
<p>Another question: do you play any of your sports well enough to play in college? (OK, maybe not in the Big 10 at Northwestern, but in the Ivies, or D3 for JHU, Chicago or WUSTL?)</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. Many kids at my school take multiple AP’s as juniors - which is why I was worried. I could’ve taken AP history classes but as I’m not interested in history, I opted out of that and just took normal ones. I now see the consequences of that…</p>
<p>Would any of you like to give me a %-wise guess in your opinion of the chances I have at these top tier schools?
Also, is there anything I can do to make up for the lack of AP’s or is it kind of too late…?</p>
<p>P.S. Sikorsky: No I do not, the farthest I could get right now is making it to states so athletic recruitment is definitely a no-no.</p>
<p>nothing is specifically standing out except that your school rocks at sending kids to ivies and your ACT is good. (what’s your class rank???) If you write good essays you’ll have a decent shot at yale, apply EA to make it even more probable (with H and P sucking applicants away from the Y pile, the acceptance rate EA at Y should go up from about 14.5% to maybe 18%).</p>
<p>Orange, from doing alumni interviews for Harvard, I have learned that I can never correctly assess anybody’s chance of admission.</p>
<p>Your grades and test scores, as I said, keep you in the running. Write excellent essays. I hope your teacher recommendations will be glowing and say something substantive about you, but all that is kind of beyond your control.</p>
<p>Good luck. The deck is stacked against everybody at these colleges, but you never know.</p>