Chances at Stanford, all Ivies except Dartmouth, and MIT

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 2400 ( CR 800, M 800, W 800 )
ACT (breakdown): 36 (R 35, M 36, W 36, S 35)
SAT II: Math 2 800, Physics 800, Italian 780, Spanish 800
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 5.6
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/400
AP (place score in parenthesis): Bio (5), Calc BC (5) (AB subscore 5), World History (5), US History (4), US Government (5), Physics C: Mechanics (5), Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism (5), Chem (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Differential Equations (class after Multivariable Calculus), AP Psychology, AP Language Arts, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National AP Scholar, National Merit Semi-finalist (10th grade)
Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Indian Dance, Vocals, and Violin; Classical Violin, Freshman Mentoring, Freshman Tutoring Club (founder), Robotics, National Honors Society (founder of tutoring department), Beta Club (founder of tutoring department), Relay for Life, Math Team, Debate Team

Job/Work Experience: Emory University Dept. of Chemistry Research Internship
Web Design Internship with the local middle school

Volunteer/Community service: tutoring, tutoring, tutoring; volunteered for my school’s AP Bio and Orchestra departments

Summer Activities: Summer abroad India, can provide more explanation upon request, start-up made 100k in first year, starting a non-profit

2

MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford are High Reaches. The rest are Low Reaches except for Brown and Cornell, which are matches for you.

3

Your academic credentials are fine. Your ECs have potential, but it’s hard to tell without more detail about the depth to which you have done them, and about your overall direction.

4

Me: sees this post
Me: No way.

MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford are reaches, but IMO you can expect an acceptance from at least one, provided your essays and recs are great.

5

Whenever of see perfect 36/2400 the first question raises in my head is why (supposedly a very intelligent) person getting a perfect score in one, risks taking the other test for a possible less perfect outcome?

6

Trying to grasp the reasoning process of a 17 year old kid, even a smart one, is a mug’s game.

I also don’t see the “risk” as all that high. I seriously doubt a 2400 kid is going to do worse than a 34 on the ACT (and vice versa) and no one with even a modicum of common sense is going to think that a small disparity in the scores is going “taint” an applicant. Obviously, by the same token, it’s a complete waste of time to take the other test, but…

7

@NickFlynn, Or may be it is extremely unlikely to be struck by lightning twice?

8

Well, this comes down to the question of “does anyone who knows anything at all about statistics actually value a 2400 over a 2350 or a 36 more than a 35?”

The answer clearly is “No” but lots people (including many on CC) who should know better seem to fail to grasp this.

9

To continue the point, everyone who expresses surprise at those little factoids like “Stanford only admits 32% of their 2400 scoring applicants” is largely missing the bigger picture.

10

I probably should have expressed this before, I only officially took the ACT, the SAT score is from a full length practice test I took at a college prep program I’m in that’s apparently like the real thing as far as length and everything, I just thought I’d include it anyways because of the score, I’m just sticking with the ACT, though. Also, this was kind of something I posted during lunch time so it’s not in depth at all as I copied and pasted from someone else’s post (lol) so I may not have been too thorough when doing it, I will post an updated one with all the information including essays, and what not, as well. Thank you for taking the time to read.

11

You will be very competitive! Just remember that your essay is a chance to differentiate yourself.

Also, it is not reasonable to say that any Ivy is a “match” because their acceptance rates are extremely low (all under 15%). Yes, it is fair to say that you will be a very good candidate at these schools and it is very possible that you will get into some of them (I definitely believe you will!), but with such low acceptance rates, no Ivy (or equally competitive school) should be treated as a “match” regardless of stats.

12

Great to hear, thank you for the feedback. I’m not expecting too much as I don’t want to be disappointed if I get rejected to my top choices.

13

gonna go with what polygot said.

remember, Ivies turn down and wait list perfect scorers all of the time. HOWEVER, your ECs are great as far as university is concerned, and if your essay is enjoyable, you will be admitted to at least one top school. Are you a URM? If so you will probably be admitted to most if not all Ivies.

Rice uni is a match for you. apply there.