Chances at Ivies

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi there,
I am looking at East Coast and West Coast schools. In particular, Harvard, Stanford, UPenn, Princeton, and Dartmouth interest me. Right now I'm planning to apply early to Harvard next year. Here are my stats:</p>

<p>-- Personal --
Junior at very competitive Illinois public high school
White, upper-middle class
Parents both attended Dartmouth
Brother currently attends Harvard</p>

<p>-- Scores --
GPA 5.2 (top 10%, school doesn't rank)
PSAT 236 (99th percentile)
SATs: haven't taken SATs yet, practice tests in 10 Real SATs were 1580-1600
ACTs: haven't taken ACTs yet
SAT II: took Physics freshman year, got 730 (86th percentile)</p>

<p>-- Courses --
* Taking economics course at community college next semester (plan to take one college course over the summer too)
Junior year APs: AP US History, AP English - predicted As in both classes (these are all the APs available to me this year without having taken summer school)
Senior year APs (planned): AP Physics, AP Calc BC, AP English (comp), AP Euro Hist - plan to work hard and get all As
Will graduate with 3 years of Chinese, 1 year of Latin</p>

<p>-- ECs --
Improv troupe 10
Scholastic Bowl 9,10
JETS 10 (only soph on the team)
Some minor ones (such as ping pong)
Tennis (not on team, plan to try out this year for JV)
Volunteered at senior center last summer (3 hours per week)</p>

<p>-- Work experience --
I have my own business that takes 35-40 hours per week helping people with computers. I currently have over 80 clients (families, senior citizens, non-profits, small businesses), and I go to approximately 15 jobs per week. I've been doing this for two years.</p>

<p>I do all sorts of stuff, from simple fixing to programming for business clients. In the course of a day (even on school days, since I get out at 12:30 thanks to a packed morning schedule) I'll drive all around the area and meet new, interesting people.</p>

<p>I have registered my business name and conduct my business entirely on my own. I'll be hiring employees soon. This business is my passion, and I think my devotion to it shows--it is a full-time job in terms of hours.</p>

<p>The summer after 10th grade I worked in downtown Chicago at a search engine. I programmed payment systems and user management systems. 45 hours per week, Jun-Aug.</p>

<p>Thanks for your help and consideration!</p>

2

<p>sorry, but don't apply to the ivies. you're just not good enough, and i think you'd be wasting your money. apply to harvard ed if you're set on it, but certainly not yale, princeton, or d'mouth.</p>

<p>look at all the ucs. and maybe stanford.</p>

3

<p>ranger29-- chill out. fcs-- it seems like you have a very strong chance of admission, particularly at dartmouth because of your legacy. if you get those scores on your real sats, you'd be in good shape. your main weakness is your ecs.</p>

4

<p>I personally think you have a shot at some of the schools you like. Your EC's are a little sparse, but your other stats look good. They'll like the initiative you took to start up your own business. Good luck next year!</p>

5

<p>Yo who the F* is this ranger dude. All he ever does is go around saying people won't get in to whatever college they are asking about...anyone else notice it?</p>

6

<p>that's not true. i tell several people they got great chances at HYP. its just that everyone wants to be nice and tell people with 1400s from the top 10% of their class they're a shoo in at Harvard. get real!</p>

7

<p>look at
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=18188%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=18188&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

8

<p>OK, that's acceptable. But this kid got a 236 psat, a really good GPA and owns his own company. I don't know what more you want.</p>

9

<p>no sports, 730 on SAT IIs, (most apply with 800s), few clubs, no awards at all!</p>

<p>the lack of awards is what i based my post on.</p>

10

<p>OK. I have no awards, but the school I come from doesn't offer any. We don't have valedictorian, don't have honor roll, don't have anything of the sort. I know a whole bunch of schools in my area that do this as well. It's entirely possible that this is what this kid is coming from.</p>

11

<p>When you guys say I have sparse ECs, I can see what you mean. Let me try to explain my situation a little better though.</p>

<p>Freshman and sophomore year I participated heavily in scholastic bowl, which meant 2.5 hours twice a week and one tournament (7 hours) every other week.</p>

<p>I also had a bunch of smaller EC commitments, like being president of Tech Corps, where kids get to hone their computer skills in labs during study hall periods, ultimate frisbee, track (didn't participate for the whole season), computer club, ping-pong club, out of the box club (where we went on weekend outings to a bunch of cool places, like corn mazes and Native American sweat lodges), JETS.</p>

<p>This year, however, I have begun to focus on my business instead of school clubs.</p>

<p>I consider my business a huge extracurricular. It is a full-time commitment (35-40 hours per week) that requires both the discipline of a job and the initiative of a leadership position. I would hope that the college would see it that way too. I'm seeking ways of proving to the college that it is a big part of my life by proposing to the local newspaper that I write a weekly computer help column and by publishing some of the many custom computer manuals I make weekly.</p>

<p>I also forgot to mention that this year I am coaching a 5th and 6th grade girls' park district basketball team. That's about 5 hours a week from Nov-Mar.</p>

<p>Thanks again for your insights. I hope this clears any EC confusion up.</p>

12

<p>Regarding awards and SAT IIs:</p>

<p>I don't have any huge awards, but I did win second place in an essay contest for a bank and I got a gold medal from the National Latin Exam. I think I got some other medals for Scholastic Bowl MVP and JETS, but I didn't think these were significant enough to list.</p>

<p>I am planning on taking many many more SAT II tests at the end of this year: Bio, Math 2, US History, and possibly Chinese.</p>