<p>i don't have legacy. brother doesn't count. parents had to have attended undergrad</p>
<p>I read somewhere that Harvard recieved 300 perfect scores on the SAT I two years ago (1600/1600) and rejected 100 of them. That means they accepted 200 of them. So statistically, if you scored 1600 you had a 66% chance at acceptance. This kid not only scored 1600/1600 but also had 3 SAT IIs (including writing) that were 800's. My previous chances of him getting in, 50%, actually may have been fairly generous to all you haters out there. :)</p>
<p>And it gets tougher every year. I don't think anyone has posted anything other than the fact that he has a great chance. If his chances are twice as good as the average applicant, that's 18.2%. What we are trying to do is keep people grounded. Many, many great kids with superior accomplishments are at their safety schools this fall. A few are sitting out a year because they had no true safeties. Check with Andi's son (great scrores, great ECs, everthing in place).</p>
<p>The valedictorian from our private prep school had 1600 SAT, perfect 36 ACT and was rejected from all Ivies except Penn.</p>
<p>wow he must have really screwed up on his ECs, essay or teacher recs.</p>
<p>He isn't considered a legacy since has parents were from Harvard grad, not undergrad. Right?</p>
<p>Is Ralph Nader going to write you a rec?</p>
<p>If he's legacy and posts those scores and does that kind of extracirricular stuff, how could he not get in?</p>
<p>He is not a legacy as has been said on this threat three times. I think he has a very good chance, mainly because of his extracurriculars. If Ralph Nader is really writing him a reccomendation, then his chances are as good as they can possibly. Of course, nothing can guarantee admission, but for a non math/science person who doesnt have things like USAMO and Intel, he's got as much going for him as possible.</p>
<p>jeez, the EC in Youth & Government is crazy</p>
<p>
[quote]
The question becomes...WHO has a better chance than him??
[/quote]
</p>
<p>rickpaul80 does obviously. He is perfect I've heard.</p>
<p>if it's the person that made that out of state berkeley thread, then i don't think so. it might be my competitive character coming out, but i'm just saying.</p>
<p>quiltguru, you have to be lying. what were his ecs. i think the poster of this thread has a very good chance. someone said his stats were the average harvard app. i disagree, although stats won't do it alone, 2400 is a perfect score and that's above average even for harvard. i was reading through that princeton review college essays book, and i saw some people who got into harvard who were nothing compared to ^^</p>
<p>your Stats are perfect, but although your EC's are quite impressive they lack 'personality'.</p>
<p>What I mean is, in addition to your essay, your EC's have to reflect who you are. Being the 'mayor' of your region is certainly a leadership role, but you have to make one thing clear for the colleges: that you are an ambitious and determined individual who excells at a certain (or several) areas.</p>
<p>AlexMartin,
I don't think quiltguru is fibbing. Remember that Harvard can pick whomever they want - subject to filling athletic positions, musical needs, development dollars. They are also looking to assemble an interesting class. If an applicant has impeccable credentials but doesn't help build the class, a school that rejects 9 out of 10 applicants may reject him in favor of someone more interesting - or appealing to the coaching staff, or whatever. Is it fair? Well, that's open to debate. </p>
<p>I think that a more valuable exercise than guessing chances is to offer suggestions to the OP on how to maximize his chances on being accepted at his first choice school. Applying SCEA is an obvious suggestion. However, applications just better as you do more of them. So, my suggestions is to apply RD to a likely admit school first. Its work, of course, but I don't think its wasted. The Harvard app would likely be better for it.</p>
<p>thanks, guys. what suggestions do you have to improve my chances, ohio mom?</p>
<p>AlexMartin, no, I'm not fabricating this. This very fine young man was actually quite fortunate in being accepted to UPenn because he had no safeties on his list. Obviously, the unknowns are the strength of his EC's (just from observation at my D's school, he partipated but was not a star in Forensics and played distant 2nd violin in the orchestra, but was a winner in our state's and the American Math Prize competition) and the quality of his application/essays and references. These are always unknowns. He's a 2nd generation American Asian whose parents assumed that he would have his choice of top Ivies. As you can see, this was clearly not the case. </p>
<p>So, arrogance has NO role in these admissions. Follow ohio-mom's advice. And everyone elses...find a safety you will love.</p>
<p>HW -
actually, start your application as soon as you can so that you can put it away for a couple of weeks and then look at it with fresh eyes.</p>
<p>Remember that what your application must do is give the adcoms a pretty clear view of who you are and what you can contribute to the College. To do so, you will need to do a bit (or a lot) of soul searching. To me, your EC's say that interacting with people is important, that being a citizen of this republic (or of the world) is important also. I hope that you see what I am saying even if I am guessing wrong. You want the real you to come through in the app, not some superficial and fuzzy cartoon of you that is temporarilly distracted by college admissions angst.</p>
<p>Who are you? An alien? Which planet are you from?</p>
<p>citizen of the world, as in having an obligation to help other humans, regardless of nationality.</p>