Chances at the Ivies, Rice, Duke, Vanderbilt

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys, I was just wondering my chances at the Ivies, and those other top southern colleges.</p>

<p>White/Male/Texas resident</p>

<p>Freshman year GPA: 3.5 (ouch, I know)
Sophomore year GPA: 3.8
Junior year GPA (so far): 4.0, of course we're not that far into the year so that doesn't matter much but I'm going to attempt to keep it obviously.</p>

<p>Top Decile.</p>

<p>SAT I: 2330, 740CR/790W/800M.</p>

<p>APs:</p>

<p>Psychology 4</p>

<p>This year I'll be taking English Composition, Chemistry, US History, and Music Theory (without class, I'm a very good musician).</p>

<p>Senior year: Calculus BC, Spanish Language, Government, Economics, Biology, Physics B, English Literature.</p>

<p>Volunteer Work: approximately 100 hours with school organizations and non-profit stuff I'm affiliated with. I've been volunteering my whole life but the 100 hours only counts high school, as I assume that is what is counted.</p>

<p>Clubs/ECs:</p>

<p>Math UIL, SHS, Habitat for Humanity, EHS (joining this year), Mu Alpha Theta, New Student Services.</p>

<p>NYLF Medicine</p>

<p>I play piano and guitar, specifically classical guitar lately, and blues piano. School doesn't have a jazz band so I'm not involved in organized musical ECs unfortunately.</p>

<p>I would greatly appreciate any opinions, and I apologize in advance if I left out any important details, feel free to ask any questions.</p>

2

<p>You're a Junior now? You have time. I assume the bulk of your APs are this year, and you plan to do a lot of extra curricular stuff, and the GPA will creep up with the weighted classes.</p>

<p>No one here can tell you that you'll get in or won't get in to your dream colleges, but to me you look like you're on the right track.</p>

3

<p>wow your sat's are incredible for a junior! GOOD JOB</p>

4

<p>You need to work on leadership positions in your ECs. You need 3 SAT IIs around 750. You need to justify your GPA with a really tough schedule. You need a lot of luck. You have a good shot at Rice. Look at Dartmouth.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the advice guys and girls. Or as they say in Texas, y'all, I didn't get 790 writing with that contraction though.</p>

<p>bandit, you're right, that's the one thing I know for sure is wrong with my stats, not much leadership.</p>

<p>Actually New Student Services is a leadership thing. There isn't a hierarchy exactly, but to get in you have to be chosen by the whole staff. So to whatever degree that counts, that is the case.</p>

<p>Does my schedule look tough right now? The bulk of my APs actually are in my senior year unfortunately because of the way my stupid school does their prerequisites.</p>

<p>I'm taking the most APs I can before then though. Wasn't even supposed to be allowed to take AP Psych.</p>

6

<p>Anyone else?</p>

7

<p>To give you fair warning for the AP Music Theory test without a class, you need to buy an ear training program and work your butt off. Unless you have perfect pitch right now, you will literally fail the test if you don't practice ear training.</p>

<p>And make sure you're brushed up on composing four part harmony.</p>

8

<p>Not to sound cocky, but I actually have been "diagnosed" with perfect pitch.</p>

<p>So there is a listening section?</p>

<p>Describe it please.</p>

9

<p>Alright, wake up people. Any new advice would be appreciated.</p>

10

<p>Come on guys and girls, y'all reply now, just kidding.</p>

11

<p>Your SAT is great and GPA is fine, I think, since you're taking so many AP's. Your extra currics are really going to hurt, though. Go for leadership positions. I don't see any "passions," so work on that and I think you have a good chance.</p>

12

<p>My ECs are my weak spot for sure.</p>

<p>I do have a passion, not in the lame college admissions sense though, where passion means you have to go out trying to win awards and accolades for your talent.</p>

<p>My passion is music, I have perfect pitch, I've been composing full length songs since kindergarten, and I've studied with professors of music at the best music schools where I've lived, these professors have all said they don't take the usual students, and that they don't usually teach private lessons.</p>

<p>I forgot to mention I won the school talent show. I know I'm a good musician though, I don't need to seek awards and honors to prove it to myself, and I frankly don't care if adcoms think I'm passionate about music because that's not going to be my major, and I don't need any gratification for it.</p>

<p>Oh and it may not qualify as "shown passion" but I'm in all the math related ECs my school offers. I'm not that passionate about math, I'm just talented at it.</p>

13

<p>Sorry, Godfather, but not caring that the admissions officers know you're a musician is a mistake. They're supposed to get a sense for the entirety of you, not just what they see on the trasncript. So if you're looking at Ivies, you'd better make that a major portion of your application if it's a major portion of your life.</p>

<p>"Shown passion" is not something they check off a list after you've earned such-and-such points doing such-and-such activity. Admissions is a very personal process; this is what these people do for a living!</p>

14

<p>I didn't say I didn't care if they knew I was a musician. I'll show them I'm a musician by telling them how it's governed my life. Not by writing the list of awards I've won on my application, mostly because those awards were won pre-high school.</p>

<p>Let's not get into the psychology of an admissions officer's mind, remember, they are people just like us, not gods.</p>

<p>I do agree with you that it's past what they see on the transcript, it better be.</p>

<p>Thanks for the help, if you have any other suggestions I'd be grateful.</p>

15

<p>It's great you are so passionate about music, and you're obviously very talented. HOWEVER, at the ivies, you are going to be competing against tons and tons of other students who are equally talented and passionate and have lots of awards. It's just important to remember who you're competing against......kids with your SAT score, "passions," and awards.</p>

16

<p>Yeah, that's true, I doubt I'll seem that extraordinary in the pool of Ivy applicants?</p>

<p>Which Ivies do you think I have a decent shot at? Which ones are way out of reach?</p>

<p>Also feel free to suggest any colleges outside the Ivy League, and remember the other ones on my list.</p>

<p>I've recently found that Emory seems like a nice school, as well as Tulane since I think New Orleans would be awesome for the music scene.</p>

17

<p>your grades are on-par with vanderbilt, but thats all i got...sry.</p>

18

<p>How does perfect pitch work? I know it's a congenital trait... but as far as the mind goes? Do you know if anyone has done any research on it? Or is it just the ability to record sounds in the mind kind of like photographic memory for pictures?</p>

<p>Just a tangential thought.</p>

19

<p>It is the ability to recognize a pitch and recognize the disparity between different pitches.</p>

<p>Picky people say that you have to be able to recognize chords with multiple notes to have perfect pitch. I can do that as well, but some say it's just single pitches.</p>

<p>Basically a person with perfect pitch has ears that are more acute to recognizing sound.</p>

<p>Any advice for me, now that I've helped?</p>

20

<p>Hmm, from what I can tell, you're well on your way to getting in any of those schools. For the ivies, try and find an obscure competition or volunteer work that shows that you're different than all the other applicants with near perfect stats.</p>