Chances At Harvard

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi, please rate my chances. I had an injury this past season for water polo and my 100% chance at college polo is around 50/50. Please consider me as both a recruit and a non-recruit. If I am a non-recruit I plan to stand out in research and being an Eagle Scout. Thanks in advance. Also, sorry if it’s kind of long.</p>

<p>COLLEGES (in order of preference)
Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Brown, UC Berkeley, Cornell, UCLA, UCSD, UCI</p>

<p>GENERAL
Asian Male
Junior
Attending National Blue Ribbon Public High School
Living in Southern California</p>

<p>TESTS
SAT I: 2330 (780V/ 770M/ 780W)
SAT II: 790 Biology 780 Math IC 760 US Hist
National Merit Finalist
5’s on 5 AP tests thus far (Euro, US, Bio, Lit, Env Sci) and a 4 (Spanish)</p>

<p>SCHOOL
GPA: 4.57 (UW) 3.9 (W)
Rank: Top 5% (my school doesn’t rank). Otherwise I’d be at least top 10 out of 360.
Taking the hardest classes in entire class</p>

<p>Taking seven additional AP’s as a senior</p>

<p>SPORTS
Varsity Water Polo
- I may be recruited and may not be. Chances are probably 50/50 depending on
course of my injury. Please consider me as a non-recruit.</p>

<p>CLUBS
Key Club 9-12 (Treasurer, Council, and President)
Science Club 9-12 (Head Scientist, President, Board)
Junior Statesmen of America 9-12 (International Counsel and Board)
National Honor Society 10-12
California Scholarship Federation 9-12 (President, Treasurer)
Spanish Club 9-12 (President, Vice President, Secretary)</p>

<p>RESEARCH AND SCIENCE
Cancer Research Institute 9-10
Cancer Research Internship 11-12
Siemens Westinghouse Regional Semi-finalist
Participated in AACR (American Association of Cancer Research) National Meeting
Summer student at City of Hope National Research Center
Summer student at Children’s Hospital of LA
State Science Olympiad
Young Scientist Award (given to 1 junior every year)</p>

<p>OTHER
PSAT National Merit Finalist
Bob Thompson Athlete Scholar Award
All-American Scholar Award (top ten water polo player in nation in terms of scholarship)
AP Scholar with Honors
Eagle Scout (with many other BSA awards)
Piano for 12 years
Part time job tutoring dyslexic student in reading and math</p>

<p>P.S. I’m sure I will have AMAZING recs and my essay should be pretty good as well. Thanks again everyone!</p>

2

<p>GPA: 4.57 (UW) 3.9 (W)</p>

<p>I think you mixed up which GPA is weighted (W) and which is unweighted (UW). At my school UW has a maximum of 4.0 if everything is perfect, and W is always the same or better.</p>

<p>I think you have a very good chance at Harvard. However, don't put much confidence in my opinion because I'm just a junior like you!</p>

3

<p>didnt you already ask about this????</p>

4

<p>you have an excellent chance. good luck!!</p>

5

<p>Are you a junior or a senior because your SAT I looks like junior but it hasn't been administered yet. You also would not know if you were National Merit Finalist unless you were a senior because we just found out like 2 weeks ago.
You seem to have a good chance but not a sure shot for all of them.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, thats kinda weird... how did you find out your new SAT I scores already?</p>

7

<p>I think he just took the SAT Writing and combined that with the old SAT.</p>

8

<p>Lakers 08 is right...I talked to Harvard and since they are more concerned with my water polo than my SAT, they told me to do that...same goes for all the other schools.</p>

9

<p>If you are recruited for Water Polo you are in. Very little doubt about that in my mind. The thing to remember is that if you are a recruit apply EA because the recruitng status doesn't play as large of a role in RD. I know this personally and am waiting to see whether being recruited RD will help push me over the bubble I fear I am on.</p>

10

<p>you have no chance. Well......maybe you have a small chance....I don't know, if you get recruited you're in, but does Harvard care a lot about waterpolo? About your research, it looks amazing, but has it actually resulted in somethig productive? was the research at an obscure or well known institute? the aacr thing sounds impressive but is it really selective? Your scores are high enough, but the siemens thing is not worth putting on your resume cause its local. Your 12 years of piano isn't really much either cause you didn't list any accomplishments in that area. Anyway, too much obscurity in the information you have provided. Give some details, and I'll give you my opinion of your chances.</p>

11

<p>seth blue, you have no idea what you're talking about. The siemens regional semifinalist is certainly worth putting on a resume, which you would know if you knew anything about the competition. kenli, did you do a team project and enter with a current senior? The thing is, you probably can't count on research as a hook unless you win a bigger award, either at ISEF, Intel, or maybe at Siemens next year. Have you been listed as co-author on any publications? </p>

<p>fyi, plenty of kids who apply each year are Eagle scouts, so you probably wouldn't stand out like that. </p>

<p>You have a decent shot, which is as much as any of us have (without the recruiting, that is). good luck.</p>

12

<p>asterstar, i think you're the who doesn't know what he/she is talking about. Okay, so maybe i didn't mean not worth putting on the resume, what i did mean was that he should not rely on it too much cause its only local. and he really doesn't have much that stands out. Overall, he's a competitive applicant who definetelyn stands a chance, but no more than several other thousand other applicants to Harvard. Just so you know, the admission process at Harvard and equivalents has undergone dramatic change this past decade. They are looking for well rounded CLASSES, NOT students. If he was asking for say cornell, berkely chances, i would say his chances would improve by 50%. </p>

<p>So kenli, unless there is something extrordinary you left out, I would say you won't stand out as an applicant, but you'll be considered. If you were a URM, well, it would be another story. With that said, your stats are better than mine.</p>

13

<p>oops, forgot the a in extraordinary.</p>

14

<p>siemens regional competition = entire sections of the US, such as southeast, etc....it is certainly NOT local. look it up before you say anything. And don't tell me what's necessary to get into Harvard, because I have a sibling who goes there, and I myself am applying this year. Like I said, I think kenli has a decent chance as of now, and if he wins better research awards, that chance will be improved. Even if he isn't recruited for water polo, Harvard definitely won't not look down upon the time he has put into that activity and the skill he has acquired. It is certainly not unheard of for people with kenli's stats to get into Harvard. You also don't even know about his essays, recs, and interview, which are very significant intangibles.</p>

15

<p>i normally dont comment of people who apply to harvard. not because i didnt apply there, but because they are all similar on paper.</p>

<p>but, i think you deserve to get in. obviously if u think u will get recruited, you must be good. not many asians in that boat. also your grades are superb. i dunno how you do it. you are unique</p>

16

<p>okay, asterstar, so i was obviously not stating that he has no chance. You need to get it through your head that harvard has loads of really smart asians and whites with super high numbers. All I'm saying is that his chances would improve if he had some sort of talent or passion say for an instrument, math, science ect, literature and has excelled or at least demonstrated a love for one of them. Whatever, that's my opinion. just so you know, yes, he does deserves to go in cause he's hard working and smart, but so are loads of other applicants to Harvard. They're all the elite of the elite, so he's in for tough competition, especially some of those applicants will have national level accomplishments, be rsi scholars, URMS and such. Asians are over represented, therefore, they must excel above all other races, although its sad that it is expected out of them and not URMs, that's life. blame it on stereotype and rascist love.</p>

17

<p>Your exact words

[quote]
you have no chance.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I think he has a decent chance, his scores are pretty much the best possible all around. He plays water polo at a pretty high level. And he's done a bunch of extracuriculars, he's above the 50% bar.</p>

18

<p>it was a joke, at least sort of. okay it wasn't funny, but that was my first impression of his chances. Thinking more critically, I decided he does indeed have a chance. Not above 50, but certainly not much below it. he just needs something to distinguish his already impressive, but not ubber impressive resume. So please people, quite reprimanding me for something I wrote down impulsively. I'm only human you know.</p>

19

<p>Okay, my bad. I took it a bit too literally.</p>

20

<p>its okay, no offense taken.</p>