chances at brown, stanford, dartmouth, princeton, MIT

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am currently a Junior
Ethnicity: Filipino (I know most Asians in HYPSM are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Indian. Would being south asian help at all? Or would I be better off leaving the race section blank?)
GA resident, private school
UW GPA: 3.91ish
-school doesn't rank, but think I think I'm in the top 1-3%
SAT I's (would it be worth my time taking this again?)
Math: 800
CR: 730
Writing:710</p>

<p>will probably take SAT Math II, Chemistry, and US History in May
Projected scores (Based on practice tests):
Math II: 800
Chemistry: 760
U.S. History: 800</p>

<p>Past AP's: US Gov and Politics-5</p>

<p>Current Load
1. Integrated Physics
2. Advanced PreCal
3. AP US History
4. AP English Language
5. Web Design
6. Advanced Spanish IV
7. AP Chemistry</p>

<p>My only B's have been graphic design freshman year and AP Gov last year(will a 5 on the exam atone for this)? I got straight A's last semester, but will probably get a B this semester in AP English language and A's in everything else.</p>

<p>Next year, I plan on taking AP Calc BC, AP Lit, AP Bio, Ap Physics C, and AP Stats.
-will mention Math, Chemistry, and Economics respectively as my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices.
EC's:</p>

<p>Boy Scouts
-Eagle Scout (just did my board of review). My project was building benches, pressure-washing old ones, and putting sealant.
-Senior Patrol Leader during 10th grade, Patrol Leader during 9th
-broke a national record for hiking. I hiked the Bartram Trail (100 miles/5 days, has a lot of elevation): honored by Governor Sonny Purdue and national head of boy scouts for this feat
-LOTS of community service projects
-raised money for inner-city kids to buy scout uniforms</p>

<p>Tennis (all 4 years)
-private lesons
-varsity tennis</p>

<p>Academic Quiz Bowl team (10-12)</p>

<p>I founded and am president of our school's food critic club. We go to restaurants about once a month and write critiques about them, which are published in the school newspaper.</p>

<p>Trumpet
-private lessons
-Superior Rating (9,10,11) at Solo Ensemble Festival
-Community Jazz Band (9-12)
-GISA all-select band member (11th grade) (top band members of private schools in GA)
-played for church on Sundays
-invited to play at school's open house 10th grade</p>

<p>Piano
-lessons
-invited to play at several concerts</p>

<p>Young Republicans (should i say this? i know prestigious colleges are very liberal?)
-helped a bake sale to fund troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
-helped campaign for John Mccain and senator Saxby Chambliss</p>

<p>Duke TIP summer program (summers after 9th and 10th grade, I respectively studied macroecon. and robotics)</p>

<p>Hobbies:
-food-trying at restaurants (and even cooking some by myself)
-camping/backpacking</p>

<p>Miscellaneous:
I also volunteer at the library during the summer.
I also made the state round for MathCounts in 8th grade. (Is there any way to say this even though it was in middle school)
I received national honors in 7th grade for the SAT math portion. (see above parenthetical statement)
-Traveled around Europe.
-I'm almost certain my PSAT score will qualify me for semifinalist standing in the NMS search.</p>

<p>Recommendations: I know several teachers at my school who like me and will probably write well about me.
Essay: talk about perseverance, about how I thought I could accomplish anything after my national record hike (would this sound too trite?)</p>

<p>-I'm also expecting to receive some school awards (2-3ish) by the end of this school year</p>

2

<p>You look good.</p>

<p>It’s fine to be a Republican, especially if there is volunteer/campaign work involved.</p>

<p>Absolutely retake those SATs</p>

<p>You might want to look at Williams, they love musicians.</p>

<p>All those schools are hard to get into, even with perfect stats, so pick some safeties.</p>

<p>Make sure your essay shows some passion for one of your activities.</p>

3

<p>Take the SAT again if you feel like you can do better…
Do not mention the Young Republicans…</p>

<p>I think you have a good chance to all of these schools it just matters how “lucky” you are. You will probably at least get accepted to one of them as long as you are not overly arrogant in your essays.</p>

4

<p>Your apps are pretty good. I think they bunch pacific islanders with the rest of the southeast asian and east asian ethnicity?? And definitely, if you haven’t already taken it a million times, retake the SAT, it can only help.</p>

5

<p>It’s great. I don’t think you’ll have to take the SAT’s again, and you have a lot of great EC’s.</p>

6

<p>would taking the SAT 4 times hurt at all? I’ve already taken it twice. The score I put on this thread came during my second attempt at the SAT, which all of my highest section socres came from.</p>

7

<p>Yes it would hurt you. Colleges don’t like to see the SAT more than 3 times. And I don’t think you need to retake the SAT. Your scores are already very good. The SAT is not that important (just get your scores in the middle 50th percentile of the schools you’re applying to which I think you already have). Your time could be better spent volunteering, doing ECs, etc. I personally wouldn’t put the Young Republicans club on your app in case you get an application reader who is strongly liberal. It probably isn’t significant, but something like that could put a subconscious bias in an admission officer’s mind.</p>

8

<p>Hi.</p>

<p>Here are a few comments:</p>

<p>1) Your list of colleges need more focus. Do you realize that Brown and MIT offer really different educational and social experiences? Which do you prefer? Once you have an answer, drop one from the list and find more schools that fit your preferences.</p>

<p>2) Your strongest extracurriculars are your Eagle Scout award and the fact that you have played trumpet in elite ensembles outside your school. Every school on this list is looking for awards at the state, regional, and (especially) national level. Piling up more school awards will not be as helpful as playing in All-State Band.</p>

<p>3) Please be yourself. The fact you are a Republican will not hurt you any more than the fact you are a Southerner. These schools want diversity of all kinds. If you hide it under a bushel, how can they see your light?</p>

<p>4) No schools care about your middle school talents. They are looking at HS only.</p>

<p>5) Waste of time and energy and money to retake SATs. You are already scoring in the 98th/99th percentile. You win already–at least on the test-taking portion of this process. As stated above, your chances have more to do with your extracurriculars than your academics at this point. </p>

<p>6) Returning to point number 1 above, you need to think about safeties: what do you want in a school? All we know is you want one of the most difficult to get into. But that is a lousy criterion for a thinking person. Think about your true preferences, the kind of environments you like, the kinds of people you want to hang around? Again, the people who choose MIT are very different from those who choose Brown. And Dartmouth folks are really different from Brownies, too. You need to refine your list.</p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p>Mark Montgomery</p>

9

<p>Georgia Tech
Vanderbilt
UVA
UNC Chapel Hill
Wash U in STL-this is a fairly competitive school, but somebody in my school’s graduating class with not as good academic stats got in.
Emory
UGA</p>

10

<p>I’ve heard that Dartmouth is strong in biology/natural sciences and has a decent math program. It also provides many outdoor experiences; you may be able to tell with my experiences in boy scouts that I am really into camping/backpacking.</p>

11

<p>I repeat: look at Williams. Music talent really helps there, especially if you indicate you would like to participate in their ensembles.
I rescind my SAT advice, I didn’t know you had taken them more than once.
Your safeties look ok to me, but you might want to consider CMU-I think it is under-rated, and a great techie school, but less selective than MIT. Pittsburgh is fun, too.</p>

12

<p>I believe Filipinos are lumped together with Asians, at least on the racial breakdowns I’ve seen. </p>

<p>I wouldn’t retake the SAT again–it’s unlikely to go up after this many tries.</p>

<p>Your list of safeties consists largely of matches, not safeties.</p>

13

<p>@glassesarechic. There are lots of students at my school with not as high GPAs/SATs who get into those schools I mentioned as possible safeties.</p>

<p>@oldbatesiedoc. I’m not sure if Williams is really good in areas I want to major in.</p>

14

<p>you might want to focus on your talents a little bit more. schools like those want to see students that specialize in one or two areas. If your applying to a school like MIT then you will want to take some courses in robotics, but probably should specialize in something else due to the fact that they except many students that excel in engineering. Also cornell has great programs in the env sciences and will like seeing the boy scout thing.</p>

15

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<p>Nonetheless, those are (for the most part) competitive schools. There may have been other factors influencing those kids’ decisions that you aren’t aware of, and your race is a hindrance. I just advise you not to be cocky. Simply by virtue of the competitive nature of admissions to most of these schools, they can’t be safeties.</p>

16

<p>@ glassesarechic. Would I be better off leaving the race section blank, as it is optional?</p>

17

<p>dude are you kidding, filipinos aren’t pacific islanders…</p>

18

<p>^They are, actually. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I’m not sure, as they would like assume you’re white or asian regardless.</p>

19

<p>@glassesarechic. You mentioned that my race would be a hindrance at the list of schools I mentioned as possible safeties. Well, none of the students i knew at my school who got in to those schools (with the exception of this one hispanic dude) were URM’s. The rest were white and Asian.</p>

<p>Ok, out of all the schools on here, I think Brown is the one I know the least about. Can anybody give me an objective review of Brown.</p>