Chances at Harvard?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Hey everyone, I've posted this in the Chances thread also but so far the responses there haven't been too helpful (they all just say no chance, but don't really explain why or offer any suggestions)</p>

<p>Do you guys think I have a chance at Harvard? Helpful suggestions to improve my chances (difficult as this is my senior year) or comments would be appreciated.</p>

<p>I'm from a rural town in northern Wisconsin with less than 10,000 people.</p>

<p>Rank 1 of 232, GPA 4.0 UW</p>

<p>ACT
35 Composite
36 English
34 Math
36 Critical Reading
33 Science</p>

<p>SAT (only taken once, hopefully I can take it again if i do well enough on my SAT IIs the first time around):
2220 Composite
800 CR
690 Math
730 English (11 Essay)</p>

<p>SAT II Math I: 740</p>

<p>Studying for SAT II Math IIC, Chemistry, and Bio.</p>

<p>Schedule: (all filled with classes, no study halls)</p>

<p>Freshman: ( my school is very small so the classes may look unimpressive, but I took all of the hardest courses whenever possible)</p>

<p>English I
Biology
Geometry
World Culture
Phy Ed
Spanish II
Freshman Band
Freshman Choir
Information Processing</p>

<p>Sophomore:</p>

<p>Health
Honors American Literature
Honors Chemistry
Advanced Algebra
Honors American History
Drivers Ed
Spanish III
Concert Band
Concert Choir
Swing Choir</p>

<p>Junior:
Honors World Literature
Honors Advanced Inorganic Chemistry
Honors Advanced Organic Chemistry
Honors Advanced Biology
Precalculus
Advanced Grammar
AP Government (taking ap test senior year, will this hurt me? i didn't take because of schedule conflict)
AP Comparative government (taking AP test senior year)
Honors Spanish IV
Phy Ed
Jazz Band
Concert Band
Concert Choir
Honors Advanced Biology Student Assistant</p>

<p>Senior:</p>

<p>College English
College Speech
AP Biology
AP Spanish V
Honors Physics
Honors Anatomy and Physiology
College Calculus
Concert Band
Jazz Band
AP Psych ( if schedule allows)</p>

<p>Reagrding AP's, if my schedule absolutely does not allow enough time for me to take all the APs available, will this work against me and how do i let the colleges know this? for example, AP US history conflicts with my AP Spanish; both are only offered that one period. </p>

<p>ECs: (btw, my years of participation include this upcoming senior year, sorry if the list is kinda convlouted, i'm typing them as I think of them)</p>

<p>School doesn't give academic awards except honor roll, but here are some kinda academic related:</p>

<p>National Honor Society - 2 years</p>

<p>Highway cleanup with NHS - 2 years</p>

<p>Shadowing in the local clinic with different doctors (Ambulatory Surgery, Clinical)(40 hours a year, getting 40 more in 2008)</p>

<p>National Merit Commended, have yet to be notified if I am a semifinalist</p>

<p>Sports:
2 years JV cross country (2 years Most improved JV runner)</p>

<p>4 years varsity swimming (Athlete of the month, most improved swimmer)</p>

<p>4 years varsity tennis (2nd place conference individual, conference champions as a team)</p>

<p>Assistant Organizer for the Lakeland community tennis league (6 hours a week this summer)</p>

<p>Red Cross Certified Lifeguard and Swimming Instructor (3 years)</p>

<p>Music:
2 years of Wisconsin State Honors Band (1 of 18 clarinetists picked out of over 300)</p>

<p>7 1st Places at State solo and Ensemble (over past 3 years)</p>

<p>Community Concert Band - 7 years (3 hours a week, 40 weeks a year)</p>

<p>Piano with state and ditrict awards - 11 years</p>

<p>Clarinet with all-state, state and district awards - 7 years</p>

<p>Concert band - 4 years</p>

<p>Concert choir - 3 years</p>

<p>Choir accompanist - 6 years</p>

<p>Church:</p>

<p>AWANA Member(Community church outreach and volunteer organization) - 12 years (2 hours a week, 40 weeks a year)</p>

<p>AWANA Leader in training - 7 years (2 hours a week, 40 weeks a year)</p>

<p>Mexico Youth Mission (10 days, 9 hours a day spent in Mexico doing humanitarian work, building and painting houses, organizing community outreaches, etc.)</p>

<p>3 years Youth Districts Leadership Conference</p>

<p>Piano offertories in church - 2 years</p>

<p>Church infant/toddler care during services - 6 years</p>

<p>Work Experience: (indoor pool, for those of you who may be familiar with northern wisconsin weather in the winter lol)
Lifeguarding (year round)- 4 years
Swimming Instructor (year round) - 3 years</p>

<p>Do I stand a chance at all? I wish my school had more classes to offer, but I guess I do what I can with what i have. All of the people in the other chance thread say I have too many ec's, even though I've particpated in them for a long time; that very few of them are interesting enough or worth noting.</p>

<p>Any help with explanations would be very much appreciated.</p>

2

<p>You certainly have the academics, and coming from rural Mid-west you have a unique hook. Your ECs are respectable, but maybe not spectacular compared to other H applicants. If you have great recs, and great essays, exhibiting your enthusiasm (for something) you have as good as chance as anyone. Don't worry about negative comments, put your best work into the application, and see what happens.</p>

3

<p>coming from the rural mid-west is not a hook.</p>

<p>you're a typical harvard applicant though, so who knows what could happen.</p>

4

<p>Has anyone else from your school ever been accepted?</p>

5

<p>^I think one person got in around 6 years ago.</p>

<p>@ fauve: What EC's would you say are 'spectacular'? I have several state wide things and the AWANA program is an international club. Thanks for your help.</p>

6

<p>oh btw, should i include some of my music on a recording when i apply?</p>

7

<p>The first thing I liked about your stats was how your activities have logical connections, i.e. you do specific types of things and not everything absolutely possible. You focus on what matters to you, i.e. sports and music. Your grades and test scores are also exceptional, but that is a given in the Harvard applicant pool. I think you have a good shot, and as I am from a small town myself, I'm rooting for you! Make sure to write your essay on something original and you should have a good chance! Good luck!</p>

8

<p>CR1MSON- ECs which could be termed spectacular would be awards, teams or academic competitions on the regional (multiple states level) or national level. You have great ECs for your area, (the Mexico housebuilding trip for example), but the other applicants will have an equal or better array. This is no reason to be pessimistic, just realistic, so you can hone your unique voice in your essays and interviews. Despite what 1MX wrote, I still think rural WI is a plus. (There are a gazillion suburbanite applications, and if your life has been different from the mall/video/party circuit, it will stand out.)</p>

9

<p>thank you all for your kind encouragement. Now i just have to come up with a few essay topics. Right now I'm thinking about 4, I'll probably write all of them and then pick which one is best. I might get some more ideas as time goes on also. These are pretty general right now, I will definitely have to fine-tune them and make them stand out.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Music in my life, why it is important to me and how it influences myself and others...and how i want to use my God-given gift to give back to the people</p></li>
<li><p>What my volunteering in church and the community means to me, especially in a tight-knit community like mine, the reason for why i do it, even after all these years of hard work and commitment</p></li>
<li><p>My mexico mission and how the simple ideals and principles (hardworking, kind, altruistic) they had in their community, however poor, were perhaps the most poignant i have ever seen, and how i wanted to mirror them in my life</p></li>
<li><p>Why i have committed to sports and how I believe they can help shape and mature a person with qualities like dedication and perseverance</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Any suggestions for other topics or comments on how to make these stand out are very much appreciated, and thanks for all your kind and honest words.</p>

<p>CC is priveliged to have people like you.</p>

10

<p>you seem to be taking advantage of all possible things offered to you. i think the stuff you wrote down are pretty solid. I think one disadvantage is that you don't really have a hook. let's see what happens~</p>

<p>church, music, volunteer, lifeguard - that's almost identical to the stuff i do!</p>

<p>i'm an applicant to Harvard from WI as well. we rock!</p>

11

<p>"Regarding AP's, if my schedule absolutely does not allow enough time for me to take all the APs available, will this work against me and how do i let the colleges know this? for example, AP US history conflicts with my AP Spanish; both are only offered that one period." </p>

<p>Definitely ask your guidance counselor to include this in your letter or recommendation.</p>

12

<p>Your essay topics are right on the mark--you obviously have a great heart and that quality will come across. Try to keep your own voice in the essays, use examples of your experiences with people, and start them early so you have time to reread and edit them with a fresh perspective before sending them off. The essays are a great time to hone your personal goals and values as well as fish for admittance-enjoy and good luck!</p>

13

<p>My son is also rural midwest, smaller small than yours, class of 106. Not sure what his chances are.</p>

<p>I hate to make him retake the ACT, he got a 36 composite, with a 36 in math and science, 35 in english and reading. However, he only got a 7 on the essay part and not sure if I should make him retake that.</p>

<p>He got a 9 on the essay on SAT I, which he took with no prep, and got a 2290, 800 on math, 750 on English, 740 on reading. Again, he could probably do better if he did some prep but not sure if he needs to. He is running out of available SAT dates and still needs to take SAT IIs, where I would anticipate an 800 in either math.</p>

<p>Not sure how he compares to the OP of thread since they both were hoping for the rural midwest hook.He is 1 in class of 106, 4.0 unweighted, 4.2 weighted, currently in 2 APs, won numerous math contests, Eagle Scout, active in sports with all-conference awards, active in band. Our school only offers AP online, so he is a bit handicapped and I am wondering if they will hold the lack of such classes against him. We had a very good all-state football lineman with good grades and a decent ACT, 33 composite, who tried very hard to get into Harcard and they wouldn't take him, and I had read that they really would be interested in good football players with ACTs that were a bit lower, so I wonder if they held the small school against that student.</p>

14

<p>I don't think they would hold the small school against him, perhaps there was an issue in the recommendations or some spot on the character profile?</p>

<p>As for your son, did he indeed take the online AP courses? They are challenging and prep well for the AP tests (Though the new physics course offered in 06-07 was awful, rife with errors.) Concerning his tests, his scores seem fine, it isn't clear if the ivies look deeply at the writing section. His ECs might need some examples of leadership, or sports awards/titles on the state to regional level. Are the math contests national? That would be a draw.</p>

15

<p>I think out football player was loved by teachers as well as coaches, so I never figured out why they didn't take him. Was third in his class of 120, good GPA and what I thought was a good ACT for an all-state football player.</p>

<p>i was hoping the essays on tests would not be held against my son, I hate the subjectivity. He obviously is good at the mechanics of writing from his other scores. He is currently in AP Calculus and AP Chemistry on-line, he took all the weighted math and science he could at our school first and some college math online last year, as he finished hs calculus as a sophomore.</p>

<p>He was captain in basketball and all-conference in tennis, but not state level. The math contests are regional, not national. He has done pretty well on AMC and AIME math tests, which MIT looks at anyway.</p>

<p>He will get glowing recs from his high school physics/chemistry teacher, a woman who is brilliant in her own right. I was hoping whatever he writes for an essay would make up for his score on ACT essay. I had no idea until we visited Harvard that people actually pay people to help them write essays. </p>

<p>I am now puzzled as to whether the small public school is a disadvantage.</p>

16

<p>Crazy mom - you are livingup to your name! Making anyone retake a 36 act is indeed crazy. The writing scores do not hold that much weight. With his athletic and academic abilities I think he has an excellent chance. Of course Harvard selections are very unpredictable. My D got in with much less. I expect he will be in Cambridge next year....</p>

17

<p>Thanks for recognizing my lunacy, LOL! Hope your D likes it. I was surprised when we visited, my son likes it way more than I did. Looking at the OP in this thread though, seems to be a very good candidate, as did our school's football player, yet great kids are turned down by Harvard all of the time, so it is hard to tell. Thanks for the encouragement.</p>

18

<p>The only real disadvantage to a small school applicant might be in the case where he or she is recruited for sports and th Academic Index is calculated. There, the class rank number is lowered on the charts for small class size. (For example, for a graduating class of between 100-149, a person ranked number one could only earn 76 points out of maximum of 80. As this is only one of 3 scores (the other being SAT/ACT, and third being SAT II average), it isn't hugely damaging, just irritating.</p>

19

<p>You're welcome crazy mom, I think that this site does two things very well. It supplies a huge amount of valuable information that helps inform both parents and students. It also paints a somewhat false picture, especially of the top tier (HYPSM) school admitance process. Reading these threads even Stephen Hawking would question his chances. The site is full of over-achievers, closet racists and helicopter parents. My simple recomendation is: If your child has excellent stats, then apply - you never know!</p>

20

<p>I wish your son best of luck in his admissions crazymom. Does your son have any other long term volunteering? I know they definitely like to see volunteering and longterm committment, and being an Eagle Scout is great.</p>

<p>Also, hello to aloha sam...wisconsin rocks :) . good luck to you.</p>

<p>I really appreciate all your help. If you guys have any other comments or something comes up later please post...I'll probably be on these threads for a while, considering I'm starting to apply.</p>

<p>Some people have mentioned I should tie in my four topics previously mentioned together. Perhaps I can emphasize why I think my volunteering and my music are especially important in giving back to the community, and maybe talk about the ties of a small town there. Maybe I can even go as far as tying in my Mexico mission by telling what I learned about community while I was down there and how I am trying to apply those in my community as well. Not sure how I would tie in sports or my non-volunteering activities to a small town however. Any ideas/comments?</p>