Chances at Top Schools =)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey! I just saw this website and thought I would get people's opinions on my "chances" =) I am not gonna talk about my essays because I don't want them to get stolen..they are REALLY good, in my opinion, because I worked very hard on them. </p>

<p>Here are my stats: </p>

<p>Schools applied to:
Stanford (early action)
USC
UCLA
UC: Berkeley
UC: Irvine
Pepperdine
Pomona
Claremont McKenna
Pitzer
Harvey Mudd
Harvard
Columbia </p>

<p>Caucasian Male, Nebraska, Big public school </p>

<p>GPA: 3.99 UW, 4.36 W (1 B+ in AP U.S!! BLAH haha =D ) </p>

<p>Class rank: 5/419.. top 1%</p>

<p>Courseload: Have taken all APs and Honors classes possible =) Also lots of music classes, I have a passion for the arts in all forms (minus drawing...can't draw to save my life!) </p>

<p>ACT: 32 composite (33 english, 35 math, 31 reading, 28 science- october 2009
11/12 writing-from June 2009 test (33 combined eng/writing)</p>

<p>SAT: n/a</p>

<p>SAT IIs: 630- Literature, 620 Math Level II, 600 Spanish </p>

<p>Honors/awards: NSAA Academic All-State for Swimming, Scholar Athlete, Top 3%, Delegate to Nebraska Boy's State, Delegate to National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine in LA, National Honor Society, chosen for Youth Leadership Lincoln Class XII, AP Scholar with Distinction<br>
3 Academic Letters
3 Varsity Swim Letters
3 Band Letters
1 Student Council Letter (was on StuCo for one year)</p>

<p>APs: 5 in AP Psych, 4s in English Lang and World History, 3s in Spanish Lang and US History </p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Band (4 years)- Varsity Wind Ensemble (9-12th), Varsity Jazz Band (best in the state, 11-12th) Marching Band (9th-12th) Section Leader- Alto Sax</p>

<p>Varsity Swim Team (4 years)- On varsity team since freshman year, club swimmer for 9 years, current team captain, competed in state meet last 3 years </p>

<p>Key Club (3 years)- Many volunteers outings/hours put in, current president and district lieutenant governor of the Nebraska-Iowa District</p>

<p>Choir (1 year)- Was unable to fit choir in last three years, tried out and made the varsity swing choir and made All-State Chorus </p>

<p>Volunteer at Local Hospital (1 year)- 3 hours a week in which I interact with patients and entertain them =) I love it because I get the feel for hospital life. </p>

<p>Theater (2 years)- Actor in various productions at school such as Little Women the musical and Our Town </p>

<p>I also take private Alto Sax lessons (3 years of lessons) and piano (10 years). I am very very involved in the community with my Key Club and other organizations. On top of that I have a life and am not a recluse =) I have a passion for music but more importantly, a passion to become a pediatric surgeon someday. </p>

<p>Teacher/Counselor Recs: Stellar in my opinion =) nicest things I have ever read. </p>

<p>Applying for Financial aid: yes </p>

<p>If I left anything out let me know! I might add some stuff that I couldn't think of before. I'll chance you back if you chance me! =) Please don't tell me to take tests again...just go off what I have now.</p>

2

<p>Stanford (early action): Reach
USC: Match
UCLA: Lower reach
UC: Berkeley: Lower reach
UC: Irvine: Low match/safety (don’t know how selective out-of-state)
Pepperdine: Lower match
Pomona: Reach
Claremont McKenna: Lower reach
Pitzer: Safe
Harvey Mudd: Lower reach
Harvard: Reach
Columbia: Reach</p>

<p>Your SAT subject tests will hurt, sorry. Your EC’s looks pretty good, with plenty of leadership, and you are from an underrepresented region (Plains), which will increase your chances. I’m predicting deferred from Stanford EA. Do you have like a real hardcore financial safety, though? I’d suggest you apply to at least ONE school you’ll surely get into with good FA (a state school?).</p>

<p>Also, I wouldn’t list NYLF Med as an honor, since anyone with the cash can do it. Just my $0.02.</p>

3

<p>yea im not the greatest standardized test taker. I really don’t think it will be a big hurt factor, my college advisor said they were in the ok he took em now lets look at everything else category. On top of my essays, i think I’ll be okay =)</p>

4

<p>oh! and I have a regents to University of Nebraska-Lincoln so a full ride so yea haha =)</p>

5

<p>^Yeah, they won’t get you auto-rejected, but they won’t help. I don’t think they DON’T look at them at all, although the SAT II’s aren’t extremely important. So are your essays particularly unique or something? Like so good they make readers cry? I am intrigued.</p>

6

<p>sent you what my essay was about in PM. let me know what you think. sorry im kinda paranoid about having the EVERYONE see what its about =)</p>

7

<p>Anyone else? Ill chance back</p>

8

<p>bumpity bump</p>

9

<p>I like your essay premise. Hopefully the adcoms like it as well. GL.</p>

10

<p>thank you very much!</p>

11

<p>You should be safe for
UC: Irvine
Pepperdine
Pomona
Claremont McKenna
Pitzer
Harvey Mudd
USC</p>

<p>Berkeley (out of states), UCLA (out of state), and Columbia are about the same difficulty for you, and they’re reaches for you.</p>

<p>Harvard and Stanford though are probably out of the question.</p>

<p>Are you retaking subject tests in December? Scores in the 600 range are really hurting your chances, and your ACT is on the low side for UCLA, Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, and Stanford. Another point of concern is your courseload. It’s great that you took everything you could from your school, but your school does not offer too many AP courses, which will hurt you. </p>

<p>You have strong extra-curriculars, and hopefully you can work some sort of artsy theme in your application. If colleges feel that your background in the arts will be a great asset to their student body, your chances would be greatly improved.</p>

<p>Your EC’s are pretty focused towards the arts, which is great, but your courseload is relatively weak for your reach schools and your standardized tests aren’t stellar. I don’t think you’ll be getting into Harvard and Stanford, though you have a reasonable chance at UCB, UCLA, and Columbia. As of now, the best thing you can do to improve your chances is to retake your subject tests in December, though that option is probably gone now due to the late registration deadline being long past. Keep working on your essays!</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

12

<p>I’ve already sent in all my stuff. And actually I took really hard classes. so I’m not worried about courseload at all. thanks for your input though.</p>

13

<p>Why are you asking for people’s opinions when all you are doing is ignoring their valid points? They are just trying to be realistic.</p>

14

<p>Stanford (early action): Extreme reach
USC: Match
UCLA: Lower reach
UC: Berkeley: Lower reach
UC: Irvine: Safety
Pepperdine: Lower match
Pomona: Lower Reach
Claremont McKenna: Lower reach
Pitzer: Safety
Harvey Mudd: Lower reach
Harvard: Extreme reach
Columbia: Extreme reach</p>

<p>I’m sure you’ve already heard it, but the scores put you below the 25th percentile in those extreme reach schools, and since you’re an unhooked applicant… Everything else looks good though.</p>

15

<p>What are these “hooks” everyone talks about? I am hoping my essays that I worked very hard on stand out to Stanford. I really wanna go there. And when you mean scored do u just mean my SAT IIs? B/c my ACT is in their range so I felt good about that, at least.</p>

<p>@Beowulf- I just wanted to see what other people think. I don’t think I’m totally out of the running for the more elite schools. I wouldn’t have applied if I didn’t think I had a chance. Sorry if I seem defensive but saying I have no chance is not necessarily true, I think.</p>

16

<p>Stanford (early action): Reasonable-BIG Reach
USC: Match
UCLA: Match-Reach
UC: Berkeley: Reasonable Reach
UC: Irvine: In
Pepperdine: Match
Pomona: Reasonable-BIG Reach
Claremont McKenna: Reasonable Reach
Pitzer: Match-Reach
Harvey Mudd: Reasonable Reach
Harvard: HUGE Reach
Columbia: HUGE Reach</p>

<p>I see you really want to go to California, haha!! can’t blame you… I went to LA for 5 days last year for DECA and I LOVED IT! :)</p>

<p>Anyway, extra-currics are great, you’re from Nebraska which should score you big points as an under-represented region, transcript and GPA are great</p>

<p>Your boards aren’t Ivy Material… ACT is fantastic, but Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley, and Pomona (your 5 biggest reaches) will accept minimum 34 (1500+); and the SAT II’s are a killer</p>

<p>Essays and Recs are great!! My only suggestion is to replace one of those 5 with a safer school, like Nebraska, Wash U in STL, Mizzou, Michigan, or Northwestern</p>

<p>Hope this helped!!</p>

17

<p>I already got in UNL with regents haha. Ik my sat IIs suck but I have so much else to offer I don’t think those tests will kill me =) and I woulda took em again b/c i took these when I was doin a musical but my college advisor who attended stanford told me not to bother b/c they were fine, not great but that I still have a shot at them =)</p>

18

<p>You have decent scores and ECs…</p>

<p>USC-low match
UCLA-low match
UC: Berkeley -low match
UC: Irvine-low match
Pepperdine-in
Pomona-match
Claremont McKenna-in
Pitzer-in
Harvey Mudd-reach/high match
Harvard-high reach
Columbia-high reach </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;

19

<p>decent ECs? mkay then… lol</p>

<p>I don’t really want anyone else to chance me anymore. These opinions seem very fickle so we’ll just see where I get accepted…</p>

20

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<p>Please don’t get cocky. While your ACT is within range and your EC’s are strong, I see no national awards or any pull factor which will certainly get you accepted to your high reach schools. I don’t think that H and S are impossible, but I doubt you will get in early. Read the Actual Results threads on both forums for a reality check.</p>

<p>Also, we are high school students also, so take our opinions with a grain of salt–but realize that many of us have lurked around CC long enough to read through the actual results threads and understand how selective these schools can be. If you don’t want our opinions, don’t bother to check this thread.</p>