Chances at somewhere like, say, HPYS?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Only recently have I discovered the EVER-INCREASING PROPORTIONALITY CONSTANT when it comes to how much anxiety increases with the nearing of an application submission deadline. Hence this thread.</p>

<p>Biographical information: Asian, moved to US in 8th grade, permanent resident, student at a suburban NJ high school in a NJ suburb rather near Philadelphia.</p>

<p>Applying to: Let me count the colleges: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, UPenn, Stanford, Columbia, MIT, Caltech, Cornell, UChicago, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Rutgers—and yes, that is my narrowed-down list.</p>

<p>Class rank: 2/199 last I checked (still trying to locate my GPA, but I think it was in the mid-high A+ range as of the end of junior year)</p>

<p>SAT's:
[ul]
[<em>]Highest single sitting was on Nov 2008, with CR 800, Wr 800 and Ma 760 (total: 2360)
[</em>]Superscore: 2400, with CR 800 and Wr 800 from above, and Ma 800 (from Dec 2005—I'll explain later)
[/ul]
Subject Tests:
[ul]
[<em>]Biology M: 790 (Jun 2008)
[</em>]Maths Level 2: 800 (Jan 2009)
[li]Physics: 800 (Jan 2009)[/li][/ul]
AP's:
Taken May 2008: Biology (5), Physics B (5), Calculus AB (5)
Taken May 2009: Chemistry (5), Physics C Electricity & Magnetism (5), Statistics (5)
Expected May 2010: Calculus BC, Physics C Mechanics, French (oh dear), US History, English Composition (oh dear)</p>

<p>Courses: the most challenging ones available for every subject area, each year. </p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
[ul]
[<em>]Newspaper (last two years; editorial section editor)
[</em>]National Honour Society (just inducted)
[<em>]Interact (basically service club) (all years; Officer)
[</em>]Environmental Club (all years)
[<em>]Quiz Bowl-type thing (all years)
[</em>]Book Club (last two years)
[<em>]Mentoring incoming HS students (last two summers)
[</em>]JV Tennis (all years)
[/ul]
Volunteering:
[ul]
[<em>]Science museum presenter (100+ hours starting this June, finishing up this month)
[</em>]Red Cross (oh, about 42 hours or so the summer after 9th grade)
[/ul]
Awards:
[ul]
[<em>]National Merit Semifinalist (Finalist application pending)
[</em>]French Honour Society (technically a society, but I see no functions that it carries out)
[li]AP Scholar with Distinction (obviously), superseding plain old AP Scholar[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Recommendations and essays:
[ul]
[<em>]Recommendation from maths teacher from 9th and 12th grade—expected to be anywhere between adequate and excellent
[</em>]Recommendation from French teacher through all years of HS—expected to be good-excellent
[<em>]Recommendation from counsellor—expected to be good-excellent
[</em>]Recommendation from 12th grade English teacher/newspaper advisor/book club advisor—expected to be anywhere between adequate and excellent
[li]College essays: expected to be between adequate and good[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Miscellanea:
[ul]
[<em>]Madly interested with physics. Had little opportunities at high school to show it, since the idea of a Science Olympiad team never quite took off.
[</em>]Took AMC stuff ill-prepared as a 9th grader. I remember I got 103.5 on AMC12, and something higher on the AMC10, and did horribly on the AIME.
[<em>]First honours. Worked hard to never miss being listed.
[</em>]The 6 AP exams I have taken so far were either not offered at all (Physics B), or not available to be as a 9th or 10th grader (the other five). As mentioned above, I'm taking courses for the ones to be taken this time around.
[li]No hooks: not related to any alumnus, not first-generation (both parents have graduate degrees), although might be low-income enough to qualify for financial aid[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Additional concerns:
This is the part where I get to rant aimlessly for a bit, and really why I would like to know my chances.
I applied to many of the schools I am applying to as a 6th grader, knowing I had no chance of getting into any of them. But I also asked for my old SAT scores to be saved, in case they came in handy later (they absolutely did for the superscore). That was when I was 12 or so.
Currently my main concerns are:
[ul]
[li]Extracurriculars. The reason should be evident. Also, no employment experience.[/li][li]Early graduation. I never had a junior year. I basically am graduating one year early because I can't wait for college as an intellectual challenge, and so on. I fear that the Ivy schools may especially look upon this with chagrin.[/li][li]Age.OK, so being 16 as a college freshman is unlikely to be a big deal. But it rather goes along with the early graduation concern.[/li][li]Supplementary materials although this should be the least of my concerns.[/li][li]Rejection although this is probably far more likely than I would like it to be.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>I sincerely apologize if I have taken up too much of your time with this post, but hope you understand why I am so utterly concerned. I hope for a reply, however uncertain it may end up being, and thank you.</p>

2

<p>If it’s a constant, how can it be increasing?</p>

<p>EDIT:
Please get off the fancy writing high horse, this is an internet forum, not teatime.</p>

<p>Anyway, might as well say a few things.</p>

<p>Why did you apply in 6th grade?
About your main concerns: on this forum, work experience is nowhere nearly to be commonly as found as a laundry list of EC’s. Your EC’s aren’t particularly AMAZING, but they are something. Don’t worry about not having work if you didn’t have work. As for age, there was another thread discussing skipping grades and many people said “they don’t care”. </p>

<p>What are Supplementary materials?</p>

<p>Applying to: Let me count the colleges: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, UPenn, Stanford, Columbia, MIT, Caltech, Cornell, UChicago, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Rutgers—and yes, that is my narrowed-down list.</p>

<p>HYPSMC, reach
UChicago, Columbia, low reach
Cornell, UPenn, UCLA, Berkeley, Rutgers, high match</p>

3

<p>I know, it’s rather paradoxical. Perhaps I should have said “EVER-INCREASING PROPORTIONALITY FACTOR.” Even “EXPONENTIAL GROWTH FACTOR” would have done. Oh well.</p>

4

<p>Yale made it very clear in their info session that if you will not be 18 some time during your first year there, you are at a heavy disadvantage in the application process.</p>

5

<p>My question is why are you graduating early? Does your high school offer opportunities at a local college or community college? I could have graduated this year but I decided against it because 1. I could become a better applicant. 2. Have fun senior year and 3. Because then I will be more mature freshman year because while college is fundamentally a intellectual experience, I think I will have more fun and find the experience more enriching if I am older.</p>

6

<p>I’m not gonna argue against you graduating early, you know yourself best but why did you apply in 6th grade? Out of curiosity. :)</p>

7

<p>Thank you for the evaluation, fireshark.
[ul]
[<em>]christiansoldier: I did not know Yale had this policy. Thank you for letting me know. I will keep this in mind.
[</em>]er, practically everyone else: Early graduation was a rather hard decision, but I feel I have exhausted my academic options here. I applied in 6th grade to get a feel for the whole process, although inevitably much has changed since then and I have had to rewrite my essays because they were awful back then. Now I look back at that and think that had I entered college at that age I would not have been ready at all. Right now I feel sufficiently mature intellectually and socially to enter college. But who am I to say? [pessimism]I’ve probably made the biggest mistake I will ever make in my life.[/pessimism] [optimism=ironic]Or it could be worse.[/optimism]
[/ul]
PS: fireshark: By supplementary materials I mean research, portfolios etc.
PPS: fireshark: Not to cause any trouble, but I respectfully refuse to stop writing in this manner. It feels quite natural to me.
PPPS: fireshark: Is “low reach” more or less probable compared to plain old “reach”?</p>

8

<p>I think it’s a really strange that you applied to top schools in sixth grade. Would your parents honestly have allowed you to attend if accepted?!</p>

<p>That said, I think that your chances are pretty good despite your early graduation putting your at a disadvantage. Your scores are obviously amazing (an 800 SAT Math in sixth grade?! Wow!); your EC’s are fine, despite the lack of work experience; your awards are okay; and everything else looks good. PLEASE try not to come off as pretentious in your essays, though.</p>

9

<p>Applied to college in 6th grade… what were you thinking? </p>

<p>Don’t write your essay in hard to understand, flowery writing. Because it’s simply bad writing. </p>

<p>Have a junior year. And a senior year. Best advice I can give. There’s no point in applying to college as a sophomore. </p>

<p>Best of luck. Cornell, UChicago, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Rutgers are attainable. The rest are less probable, but possible. Colleges will not like the fact that you are only in 10th grade…</p>

10

<p>The age factor and your ECs, like you said, are the parts going against you. I admire you for wanting to go to college this early though. It’s great and all, but if you would now regret going to college if you were accepted in 6th grade, could the same happen in 10th grade? Using admissions alone, getting into the top top schools like HYPSM is almost impossible to do while graduating early with only decent ECs.</p>

11

<p>All: Sorry for being pretentious. Graduating after three years, not two. Too busy to write any verbs in my sentences. (Literally a quick reply.) Thanks for the advice.</p>

12

<p>Your main disadvantages are EC and age. But I think you already know that.</p>

<p>If you have your heart set on going to HYPSMC, then you might want to rethink your decision. If you’re fine with Berkeley/UCLA/etc, then best of luck!</p>

13

<p>Wow…you have great SAT, AP scores, and ECs!!
Princeton-reach
Harvard-reach
Yale-reach
UPenn-high match/mid reach
Stanford-mid reach
Columbia-match
MIT-high match
Caltech-high match
Cornell-low match/match
UChicago-low match
UCLA-in
UC Berkeley-in
Rutgers-in</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/803462-my-chances-brown.html#post1063452305[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/803462-my-chances-brown.html#post1063452305&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;