Chances at Ivy Leagues and some UC's?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone. I am wondering about my chances at an ivy league school (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.). I know it's more of a dream than anything to attend one of those schools. More realistically are UC Berkeley and UCLA.</p>

<p>Demographics: Asian male
Low-Income family, from poor neighborhood (don't know if this makes a difference. From SF Bay Area.</p>

<p>9th grade classes (unfortunately I chose a lot of fluff classes, no Honors or AP available):
-English 9
-Geometry
-Biology
-French I
-Piano
-Prep for College
-Academic Readiness (required for incoming 9th graders)
-P.E.
All A's</p>

<p>10th grade (my school switched to period schedule; only Honors available was Chem):
-World History Acc
-Chemistry Honors
-French II
-Alg II/trig
-English Acc
-PE
All A's except one B second semester in English</p>

<p>-11th grade (basically I took the most difficult classes I could, my school is quite limited):
-Anatomy/Physiology H
-Physics
-French III
-AP US Hist
-English H
-Precalculus
Grades: A's all first semester, second semester projected I will have one B in anatomy</p>

<p>Summer of Junior year I will take an Art class at a community college so I can get all my classes I want for Senior year.</p>

<p>Senior year classes (changing back to block and AP's go the whole year):
-AP Literature
-AP Calculus AB/BC
-AP Environmental
-American Gov't/Econ H
-French IV H
Don't know about my grades as I haven't taken the class, but I think I will get mostly A's.</p>

<p>EC's:
-Not much I must admit. I will have done a state-wide piano exam for 4 years, and the last year I will be participating in the Panel, somewhat like a competition. Also, I probably will be competing in a regional piano competition. I play classical piano.
-Playing keyboard for church band.
-No community service hours. Is it too late to start? I will do some over the summer if it will help.</p>

<p>SAT I score: 1900, but will retake and will hopefully get 2000 or above.
SAT II's: -Literature
-Math iic
-US History
Don't know the scores yet.</p>

<p>Thanks for your input.</p>

2

<p>Your schedule of classes is weak, as you acknowledged. Unfortunately, a high GPA won't help a weak class schedule. Have you considered taking community college classes to help your schedule? Compounding your problems is a relatively unimpressive SAT score. To have a shot at an upper tier UC, you need to get your SAT up substantially. Unless you have a really strong finish, you will be competitive only at UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced, or UC Riverside. Save your money and forget about the ivies.</p>

3

<p>Yea, sorry to say, you pretty much have no chance at the Ivies whatsoever.</p>

4

<p>Ivies are going to be a very big reach for you. Even with a 2250+ SAT the top Ivies will still be reaches for you.</p>

5

<p>I don't want to sound too harsh here. You should be competitive at UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and maybe Irvine. UCSD may be a bit of a reach, however.</p>

6

<p>hello,
i applyed to UCI, UCSB and UCSB (out of State) as far reaches and got into all of them i had alot of EC's and communtiy service and started a foundation. My grad and class rank were good my SAT's not so good.....lower than urs already. Dont follow the stats exactly if you really want to go sumwhere apply becuse u never know...UCSD was a pipe dream fo my considering just my SAT's but if you are fully well rounded enough u should be ok. Keep up ur senior year grades!</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>

<p>The thing is that my school is in a poor area, so they don't offer much AP's or Honors courses at all. It is impossible to make my schedule look any better. I am already taking all the hard classes I can. However, it is true I could attend community college this summer. </p>

<p>I am also rank 1 out of 419, if that makes a difference at all. </p>

<p>I'm surprised. Even UCSD may be a reach? I thought I would have a good shot at Berkeley. Oh well, I guess I need to rethink things. :(</p>

8

<p>what the heck. Dont listen to all these people. Dont apply to ivys, its a waiste of money. You CAN try Cornell, but thats the highest youll get. You can get into Berkeley and LA for SURE(guaranteed), only if you get at least 2100 on SAT I, and over 750 on SAT IIs because of your rank. Your GPA is VERY good, you only have 2 B's throughout your sophomore and junior year. Im assuming your weighted(UC) Gpa is about 4.3ish and your unweighted is about 3.9. Your extra-curriculars suck(no offense), but UCs dont care unless you have the numbers. Just exagerate on your church activity and your piano. Dont start any extra-curriculars right now, just work on your SATs and your grades. Just hope that your #s and rank 1 will save you from rejections.
Thank GOD for your rank 1 because that'll help a lot. I had a friend who had 1140/1600, poor neighborhood, and 3.8GPA at his school. He got into all UCs because he was RANK 1 at his school. Good luck.</p>

9

<p>Thanks for the encouragement. I forgot about Cornell. Lol. How does it rank among the other ivies? I highly doubt I will get in the 750's range for all my SAT II's. History I am sure I scored high, but not math iic or lit. I will probably retake them both though next fall. So for ec's, UC looks mainly at numbers? I mean I don't have a lot for sure, but I AM passionate about piano. Doesn't Princeton and other ivies waive application fees? If they do I am sure I am eligible for that. Also, I heard that most ivies can pay almost full scholarships and are looking for more "economic diversity", so maybe it can give me some little advantage? Oh well. :(</p>

10

<p>virtuoso_735:</p>

<p>UCB/UCLA: Reach</p>

11

<p>Thing is that, princeton and other ivys will be a HUGE reach for you. For example, there are tons of people out there with +2250, Straight A's, and crazy extra-curricular activities. Do you HONESTLY believe that you have better chance than them? Cornell is ranked one of the lowest out of the Ivys, but still a good school. You dont have to get above 750s. Just get your scores HIGH. If your "passionate" about piano, go to competitions and swipe those trophys. Economic diversity dont mean anything, like what i Said, there are TONS of people out there with the same situation like you and FAR better stats than you. Look in to the big world, not the small SF Bay Area. West Coast has an unfair advantage and especially if your asian, its even worse. Ivys tend to pick people asians who stand out. Stand out doesnt mean good at math, violin, piano, and science.</p>

12

<p>i did panel too..trust me, it won't be that big of a boost unless if you get young artist guild..this coming from someone who got panel with a 2110 sat and so-so gpa and got rejected practically everywhere (UCLA/UCB/Stanford etc.)</p>

13

<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>

<p>Again, like I said, I think it's somewhat unfair that I go to a school that is rather limited in its course selection. I mean if I could I would take as many AP courses as I could; indeed I would fill all my class slots with AP's and still get A's and B's in them if I could, but the fact is that I cannot even get the classes. I'm pretty frustrated and sad over that reality. Oh well.</p>

<p>I could have done more in EC's for sure. Piano of course is my main EC, but I don't have any competition wins or anything. It's not easy to win, trust me, probably just like its difficult to get into a prestigious college...</p>

<p>Would it be too late to start doing community service this summer? I can probably go to the local library every day for 2 hours except Sundays and do something there. By the end of summer I can probably get more than 100 hours in. Would that help me at all?</p>

14

<p>Colleges will take the school's lack of aps into account. There is a box on the common app. for the guidance counselor to check off if you took the most competitive schedule possible. This can help you if your school offers few aps and honors classes. This can make you competitive in the ccs. The ivies are a reach, but with great recs. you may be able to pull it off. Have your gc write a rec. explaining your school's lack of aps. Take some cc courses, and study everyday for the sats. With a bit of hard work and perseverance, you can pull of a 2100+. Remember that since you are in california, you can attend a ccc and transfer even into berkley and ucla.</p>

15

<p>Your lack of ec's will hurt you, I am sorry but do you have any job experience? This also counts, if you are unable to do any since you have to work.</p>

16

<p>yea it is hard to win a piano competition-actually, there truly is some luck involved. sometimes u just simply play better at one moment then the time u actually perform..but competitions give u an incentive to play piano..so i'd say go for them..they would help regardless, esp. in UCSD's point formula thingy</p>

17

<p>You can take APs online through the UCs and other programs.</p>

18

<p>Thanks again for the replies.</p>

<p>No, I have never held a job. I believe that is to my detriment as well. </p>

<p>Suze, would you direct me to more information on AP courses online? How much do they cost? Do they offer summer sessions.</p>

19

<p>sorry dude, but Ivies are fantasies for you. Go to Purdue or something like that, u can rebond back with the good graduate programs</p>

20

<p>My most reasonable choice for me now is Berkeley. I guess ivies were just a dream, a whim really. Oh well. Berkeley is a really good school, and I've heard that local students get priority.</p>