Chances at Lower Ivies, Tough Privates

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Updated with more information.
I'm interested in:
Dartmouth
Cornell
Penn
Stanford
Northwestern
Tufts
Brown
Emory
Cal
UCLA</p>

<p>Safties: UCI, UCSD etc.</p>

<p>SAT: 2160 (CR 800, M 690, W 670)
Retaking it this October.
ACT: 35 (34 E, 35 R, 34 M, 35 S, 11 W)</p>

<p>SAT II: Math Level II - 770, Biology- 750 (Out of 780)
I'll take Lit and U.S.History, comfortable that I can do 750+ on both.
Should I do that, or retake Math II and shoot for a 800 (I left the last 5 blank, ran out of time. With a TI-89, I know I could have gotten an 800.)</p>

<p>AP Exams taken: Biology, Language and Comp, Art History, European History
Received 5s on every one.</p>

<p>(I plan on taking Physics B, Calculus BC, Macroeconomics, Literature and Comp, Government and Politics, Psychology, and U.S. History next year)
GPA: 3.84 (4.3 weighted)
I received 3 B+s in Spanish. All from the same teacher. A few A-s.</p>

<p>Class rank: Top 5%, approximately rank 18, out of ~730</p>

<p>Clubs and Activities: Editor of the school Newspaper, which usually receives many awards, and 3 of the last 4 editors have all gone to Harvard. We have a distribution of 2500. I control everything. We are completely independent of the school. Completely self-dependent. </p>

<p>Speech and Debate- Received several Top 10s in Student Congress. Got 1 ToC bid. Never got into the speech aspect.</p>

<p>Captain of men's varsity volleyball, 3 year varsity. (JV XC for fun, 4 years)</p>

<p>Designed web pages for local organizations, American Legion and Optimists and some others.</p>

<p>Interning at a Clinical Research Lab, doing research on an ADHD drug. Did it because I enjoy psychology. No pay, not interested in medicine. Research will hopefully be published in a professional journal. Also helping write a study for supplementing ADHD treatment with yoga for the NIMH. He is insisting on writing a letter of recommendation for me. He's a local professor, PhD in microbiology. I helped update the technology of the lab.</p>

<p>Founded Junior Statesmen of America chapter, Vice President of Spanish Club, several other random clubs that I did for fun (Including Philosophy, Octagon, College, History, and Republicans/Democrats)</p>

<p>Took some community college classes.</p>

<p>I have about 100 recorded volunteer hours with the India Association's cultural events and giving free school tours at a local museum (completely free, including transportation.)</p>

<p>With the Boy Scouts I've done 300+. I can possibly provide evidence, but it is not registered with the school, and I would have to go to about 20 different people to get verification for all of it. I'm not going to use it just in case I get audited.</p>

<p>Awards :
National Merit Scholarship Qualifier
I should be an Eagle Scout by application time, just have to finish my project (This is taking a lot longer than it should. If I were a Life Scout at the time of admissions, how big of a problem would it be?)</p>

<p>I received 4 Gallup Awards in one year of writing, I'll keep writing next year (Awarded by Quill and Scroll Society for well-written articles.)</p>

<p>Most Improved Men's Volleyball (lol, Coach loved me, decided not to give Coach's Award, which was disappointing.)</p>

<p>The only awards my school gives are to the top 5 GPA's and best athlete.</p>

<p>I'll have one very good letter of recommendation, possibly two. My journalism adviser is well known for his fantastic letters of recommendation.</p>

<p>I am also very confident in my writing ability, especially in terms of admissions essays.</p>

<p>Location
State or Country: Southern California
School Type: Public, semi-competitive (6 Ivy-bounds this year: 1 Harvard, 2 Cornell, 2 Dartmouth, 1 Penn)
Ethnicity: Indian (Not Native American)
Gender: Male
Parent's Education: Both have Master's from universities in India. Did not go to school here.</p>

<p>Applying to Penn (Possibly ED) , Dartmouth, Columbia, Cornell, JHU, U of C, Northwestern, Brown, UCLA, UCBerkeley, and some backup schools (Most likely UCSD, UCI, UCSC, UCSB)</p>

<p>I also had a question about how binding Penn is. If I get in to Penn ED, and can't afford it, what will happen? I'm most likely going to try to go to UCLA, UCB. </p>

<p>I'm still not sure where to go ED either. I'm split between Penn, Columbia, and UofC.</p>

2

<p>ED is pretty binding...(so i've heard) you need a PRETTY STRONG reason to get out of ED...(by then, you're probably screwed anyways, since you already withdrew your other apps)...</p>

<p>your ECs seem to be spread all over the place, what do you plan on majoring in?</p>

3

<p>If you're not 100% sure you want to go to school where you ED, do NOT apply ED. UofC has EA btw, not ED. EA is NOT binding.</p>

4

<p>Penn (Possibly ED): 65%
Dartmouth: 55%
Columbia: 55%
Cornell: 65%
JHU: 70%
U of C: 75%
Northwestern: 65%
Brown: 55%
UCLA: In
UCBerkeley: In
, and some backup schools (Most likely UCSD, UCI, UCSC, UCSB): In at all</p>

5

<p>No offense, slipper, but no one could ever have those chances at schools like Penn, Dartmouth, Columbia, etc, especially this application year.</p>

<p>Reaches: Penn, Dartmouth, Columbia, Brown
Low reaches: Cornell, JHU, Northwestern, Berkeley
Matches: UCLA
Safeties: the UC backup schools you listed</p>

<p>I don't know anything about U of C, sorry.</p>

6

<p>Darn it ivycmm, seeing that post was as close as a nerd will ever get to ecstasy. You stole it right out from under me.</p>

<p>Seriously though, thanks, for the help. I think I generally know what chances I have, I just want some reinforcement from the community.</p>

<p>Is there anything you would recommend to make my application more well rounded?</p>

<p>Also, this probably belongs in learning disabilities, but it isn't ethically accepted over there, for obvious reasons. If I was diagnosed with ADHD (which stereotypically receives the blame for my specific problems, including showing work in math classes, meeting stringent grading standards in AP Biology, and staying awake during lectures), should I let the school know? </p>

<p>It is on my medical record, but my parents, being the controlling/overprotective people that they are, kept me off of Ritalin. I don't mind that much, in fact, I'm happy about it. However, would it help my chances? I've dealt with it, any teacher I've had will tell you I've had it. I still feel somewhat wrong putting it on there since it doesn't alter my everyday activities, only shows up in the long run.</p>

7

<p>I don't have any specific information, but my intuition is that mentioning your ADHD wouldn't help. As someone put it, colleges aren't looking for sympathy or excuses. (I wondered about the same thing myself but decided to leave it off my app.)</p>

8

<p>haha I'm not sure why I'm even on college confidential any more, but I just happened to notice that you are applying to a lot of the same places I applied to last year, so this may help.</p>

<p>Scores: V 780 M 770 W 770
3 800's on my II's
I'd say these are comparable to your ACT scores</p>

<p>Grades:
24/423, not as good as yours</p>

<p>Extracurrics:
Band for 4 years, some community service (much less than you), Science Olympiad, program at Penn summer '07 (I was rejected anyways haha)</p>

<p>White from California, both parents went to grad school</p>

<p>Rejected: UPenn Wharton, Stanford
Waitlisted: University of Chicago
Accepted: UC SB, SD, LA, and B, CMC, Pomona, Northwestern, Brown</p>

<p>I'm going to Brown.</p>

<p>As you can see you have better grades, much more extracurrics and Community Service, with comparable scores. You will do fine.</p>

9

<p>Worrying me a little :-/</p>

<p>Those are fantastic scores. I feel like we're in the same boat. Imperfect GPA, good test scores, decent ecs. </p>

<p>I'd be ecstatic with Brown. If I go to Berkeley or LA, I'm perfectly happy as well. If I don't get anything... I'd be a little disappointed. </p>

<p>I don't know. I can ace any standardized test. I can learn the material quickly, and remember it, I just can't keep my work ethic that strong all year. </p>

<p>Material: No problem.
Busywork: Problem. (Makes sense with ADHD.)</p>

<p>I'll keep working on my grades. Not mentioning my ADHD.</p>

<p>Retaking SATs in October. Got a PhD to write my rec. Doing ED to Penn Wharton. :(</p>

10

<p>DO NOT ED IF YOU NEED FIN AID. If you are accepted, but they don't match what you need, you are SCREWED.</p>

11

<p>What do you mean by "not match what I need?" I'm working with the Financial Aid office already to make sure I can pay for it somehow. They won't change what they already quoted right?</p>

12

<p>They shouldn't, but you never know. I'm just saying, if they can't give you enough, you are screwed because going against ED carries severe penalties.</p>

13

<p>If you do ED Wharton there is a high chance you will be deferred. They defer everyone, from what a bunch of my friends told me who did it. Then about half were ultimately accepted, and another half rejected.</p>

14

<p>if i may ask, what is your school newspaper called?</p>

15

<p>I don't think I'm going to apply ED Wharton, as I'm more interested in Economics and Pre-Law. However, I've been talking to them about Financial Aid for a while, and I think I should be fine there.</p>

<p>I pm'd you the name of my paper.</p>

<p>Should I even bother retaking the SATs in October? I might just take some extra SAT IIs to see if I do better than the ones I did.</p>

16

<p>Bring
Up
My
Post</p>

17

<p>With regards to (Penn) ED and financial aid, Penn has a policy to meet 100 percent of a student's demonstrated need for financial aid. You'll be doing a lot of paperwork and sending a lot of files to your financial aid officer, but as long as you need the money and can prove it, Penn will have you covered.</p>

<p>ED has an out clause anyway; if a college fails to make attendance financially feasible for a student then he/she can back out of the agreement.</p>

18

<p>What can I possibly put down under Honors?</p>

<p>Besides NMSQT, I didn't get many honors, academic or otherwise. My school doesn't do Magna Cum Laude, etc. Anything that you think I would have done :)? I'm digging deep here.</p>

19

<p>
[quote]
Chances at Lower Ivies, Tough Privates

[/quote]
</p>

<p>That's what she said!</p>

20

<p>I lol'd, but only due to the context. I think you might be the first person to ever use TWSS on this board.</p>