Chances/Anything to improve?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I apologize in advance for my lack of formatting :P</p>

<p>Graduating year: 2011 (rising senior)
Ethnicity: Indian-American
Competitive Public high school in PA (3-4 to HYPSM and an additional 10-15 to top 10-20)</p>

<p>Intended major: most likely International Relations. My dream is to join to the Foreign Service or work in government.</p>

<p>TESTS/GRADES</p>

<p>Course Rigor: all accelerated or AP (school doesn't offer separate honors courses)
APs: World History (5), Calc AB, waiting for: Physics (B), Chemistry, US History, Language and Comp</p>

<p>Next year's APs: Calc BC, Gov and Politics, Economics (Micro and Macro), Spanish, European History, Lit, and Psychology</p>

<p>GPA: 4.00 UW, I'm not sure what my weighted is.</p>

<p>SAT I:
First Try- 2260 (740 M, 740 CR, 780 W, 10E)
Second Try- 2340 (740 M, 800 CR, 800 W, 12E)</p>

<p>PSAT: 217 (78 math, 76 reading, 63 writing FML) </p>

<p>SAT II US History: 800
SAT II World History: 800
SAT II Physics: 800
Is there any need for me to take another since I have two history tests? </p>

<p>RELEVANT SCHOOL ECs:</p>

<p>Viola in school orchestra, also play guitar for fun
Newspaper (9,10,11,12), Managing Editor next year
MUN (9,10,11,12), Parliamentarian next year
-First place at University of Pittsburgh MUN (2010)
Represented host school in a model G-20 summit involving schools from four different countries
Forensics (10,11,12)
Student Body Senator (12)- I represent all the kids from my municipality, which is the largest in our school district.
FBLA- Emerging Business Issues, 1st place at regionals, 2nd at States, National Qualifier
Local quiz show (11,12)- only junior selected, captain next year
-Planning on starting a quiz bowl team next year
Fencing team (11, 12)
NHS (11, 12)
Mock Trial (10)
-Voted Outstanding Attorney
Math tutor - taught standardized testing concepts to fellow juniors (11)</p>

<p>SUMMER ECs
Research assistant at the University of Pittsburgh Dept. of Cardiology (2008),</p>

<p>Selected to attend local seminar on international affairs sponsored by local World Affairs Council (2009)</p>

<p>Took a summer course in international relations at U. of Pitt, highest score in class (2009)</p>

<p>Worked in Allegheny County Executive's office- got to write/edit press releases, prepare letters and generally help out around the office (yep, that means coffee/clipping newspapers) (2009-present)</p>

<p>Taught chess for free to local elementary students, continuing this summer</p>

<p>Was one of four local students selected to meet with and ask questions to Google CEO Eric Schmidt prior to the 2009 G-20 summit, I subsequently was interviewed by an NPR reporter</p>

<p>Currently an assistant to a professor at CMU in the Public Policy school.</p>

<p>Bottom line: decent grades/scores so far, ECs are nothing special</p>

<p>List of schools (anyone got any other suggestions?)- I am applying to mostly reach-ish schools. If I can't get into any, I can always go to Pitt for free because my father teaches there. I don't see the sense in going to a good, but not great school and paying $40,000 a year when I can go to a decent state school and save a lot of money for grad school.</p>

<p>In some semblance of an order at the top, and disorganized near the bottom.</p>

<p>Princeton (Top choice by far, might as well try)
Harvard (What the hell, might as well try)
Georgetown SFS
UChicago
Columbia
Brown
Johns Hopkins
Duke
Pittsburgh</p>

2

<p>Oh yeah, I’ll chance you back if you want.</p>

3

<p>Princeton reach but you have a great change
Harvard again reach but you have a great chance
Georgetown SFS match
UChicago low reach with a good essay
Columbia mid reach
Brown mid reach
Johns Hopkins match
Duke match
Pittsburgh safety</p>

4

<p>Strong GPA coupled with great test scores makes you a stronger applicant in the pools for all of those schools. As was said earlier, Pitt is a an easy safety, and you’d most likely get into SFS, Chicago and Hopkins, with Duke, Columbia and Brown being lower reaches and Princeton and Harvard being one tier above that.</p>

<p>Obviously, Gtown’s EA policy will make EDing difficult, but I think that, as a whole, you’re gonna do fine.</p>

<p>And I was in WHO.</p>

5

<p>Bump 10char</p>

6

<p>Sorry for doing this, but bump again.</p>

7

<p>Oh the lovely city of pittsburgh
if i had to take a guess i’d say you are a Fox Chapel kid?
theyre the only people in the area i know that send their students to HYPSM consistantly
and i know for a fact there are tons of Indian students there i met a bunch at Model UN competetitions ive gone too. Fox Chaple UN in mad intense
haha well i digress
id say your in at Duke & Brown, i dont know much about Hopkins, except their lacrosse team
Georgetown will be harder just bc of your intended area of study but youre doing all the right EC’s for that
Havard Princeton always dices rolls, but it looks like your app can weight those dice a bit :wink:
Columbia a slightly lower Ivie but same with Georgetown and UChicago your goddamn popular area of study will hurt but you got it well off with your scores
so dont worry</p>

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<p>Haha Dorkoa, yep, I’m from FC. Thanks for the chance.</p>

9

<p>Your stats are solid, test scores are solid as well. (dude be happy with your writing on PSAT, mine looked like 76 78 56 =__=)
Well tailored ECs for what you’re going to be doing in college, so that’ll really help.</p>

<p>JHU, Cornell, Brown, and Duke looks to be match, Chicago and Georgetown are well within your stats range as well. If you like chicago and georgetown, you could EA to both of them as that would really secure your spots. Princeton and harvard are reaches for non-hooked, and columbia i think you’ll get in. (ED will probably ensure that you get into columbia)</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/954601-hypsm-hopeful-chances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/954601-hypsm-hopeful-chances.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>haha yes! i knew it</p>

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<p>oohindu, my parents work for the foreign service and the US ambassador at our current post graduated from Georgetown - he cannot stop praising it for its amazing program in international affairs :)</p>

<p>I think your chances would go a little like this:</p>

<p>Princeton - Reach (but they are for everyone)
Harvard - Reach (for everyone as well)
Georgetown SFS - Low Reach/ Match
UChicago - Match
Columbia - Low Reach
Brown - Low Reach
Johns Hopkins - Low Reach
Duke - Low reach
Pittsburgh - Match (maybe even safety?)</p>

<p>I also know several state department officers here who graduated from Duke (I’m guessing they’ve also got a killer program on international affairs?)</p>

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<p>But, if I were you, I think I’d also add Dartmouth to your list. It has by FAR the best study abroad program in…the world :slight_smile: And if you’re planning on joining the foreign service, studying abroad for a semester (I’d recommend more :)) would help you a lot. :)</p>

13

<p>Ok, thanks for the advice!</p>

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<p>Bump. BTW, I got 5s on all my AP tests this year, not that that makes much of a difference.</p>

15

<p>If you don’t mind me asking, did you do any studying to improve your SAT score the second time around? If so, what did you do?</p>

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<p>I just have to scratch my head at some of these comments. Great chance at Princeton, Columbia is a low reach. Unfortunately, neither is true. With an under 10% admissions rate, neither of those statements is close to true for an unhooked ORM from the mid Atlantic with median scores.</p>

<p>Throw the applictions in like so many will from your school and region. With a strong app none of your schools is impossible. But many with your profile and stats will not get into any ivy/peer, so I’d give a lot of thought to whether you really want Pitt or want to add a few schools between it and the very top schools.</p>

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<p>@Swimstar I actually didn’t study too much the second time around, as opposed to the first time. I guess I got screwed by the curve on the March 2010 test, because I got a similar raw score the second time around on math, +1 better on reading, and a 12 essay on the writing. I guess studying for AP Lang and Comp helped me out with critical reading and essay writing.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice Redroses! I figured that my chances were at least slightly inflated. How do you think my chances are for schools like Hopkins or Georgetown? I was counting on those as two “high match” schools. And would applying ED to Columbia significantly increase my chances?</p>

<p>I would be perfectly happy with Pitt, especially doing the honors program. I’ve practically grown up on campus and I enjoy living in Pittsburgh. I think that the schools just below the range I’m aiming for are great, but going to one over Pitt honors wouldn’t be worth forking over $40,000 a year. The equivalent of a full scholarship to a top 15 public school would be enough to justify going to Pitt in my mind.</p>

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<p>Harvard - reach due to the spontaneous nature of their admissions
Princeton - same as Harvard
Georgetown SFS - ?? I don’t know much about Georgetown
UChicago - match
Columbia - low reach
Brown - high match
Johns Hopkins- high match
Duke - high match
Pittsburgh - ??</p>

20

<p>Thanks. I’ll chance back, just post a link or PM me.</p>