Chances @ Cornell, Brown, UCB, MIT, UCLA, Stanford, Columbia

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Regardless of whether money bought you your accomplishments or not (as other commenters are saying ;)), they are very impressive - I’d be shocked if you didn’t get into at at least one of the Ivy/Ivy-equivalents you list.

The ACT is good, but the thing they are pointing out is that any less would have looked bad (the woes of a rich asian haha). GPA is fine at 3.9 UW, especially for Cornell.

@anonymoose3 I tried my hardest to challenge myself and take several APs and Accels. Our school barely offers any honors courses in history, english, and foreign language so it’s difficult to ascertain a high weighted GPA. I would love to go to Cornell but I think I’d be a better fit at Stanford. My app experience has brought me to the silicon valley to do research with economists and programmers several times. I feel welcome there.

@anonymoose3 also as expected I was rejected at MIT

** I’d add that with the ‘teaching English in 3rd world countries’ + ‘cancer research’ + ‘CEO of app company’ you sound like you’re checking things of a list. That might be deemed suspicious.

@anonymoose3 my passion is pretty clearly apps. I showed that in my essays and in other things as well.

@anonymoose3 also I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do freshman year hence the cancer research and internships etc. but I wasn’t checking things off a list.

@appgodxoxo, great! Then it’s a very solid application. Congrats on your many achievements. Would you be willing to offer me advice as well?: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/1749263-chance-me-for-princeton-scea.html

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Anyone mind chancing me for Cornell, Brown, and Stanford

most likely not getting into stanford, though

MIT has almost similar admissions to Stanford except for the fact that MIT of courses puts a heavier weight on academics since it is a rigorous school. But they are similar in the sense that they accept people, not numbers.

@stanfordswag that’s good. the holistic admissions should help me a lot.

“While it is always in your best interests to maximize your academic performance, grades and scores aren’t a deal-breaker. As expected, many of the people I met in the first few weeks of school were high-school valedictorians, Google Science Fair finalists, etc. But I was surprised by the number of classmates I talked to who thought they had no chance of getting into Stanford and decided to apply only at the last minute, believing it was a crapshoot. Some of their high school counselors had even advised them against it. What these people had in common was not incredible luck, but a set of qualities that is valuable not only in college but in life: they all A.) pursue what they love and B.) are exceptionally resourceful. By this I mean, when someone throws them a bone, they don’t just bury it. They’ll use it as a shovel, then as a lever arm, then whittle it down into an arrowhead, or crack it open and scrape out the marrow for their winter food stores. You get the idea. It makes sense that Stanford wants students who are resourceful, because, well, Stanford has a lot of resources. It wants to be sure that those granted access to these resources can be trusted to make the most of them, and leverage them to achieve great things.
Another quality that set these people apart is that they pursue what interests them, not what they think looks good on a resume. Those who are passionate about what they do are also willing to work harder (can doing something you enjoy even be called “work”?) and ultimately achieve greater success. It’s really a win-win situation – if you are guided primarily by your own interests rather than external standards, not only will it shine through in your essay and make you a better candidate, but you will feel happier and more fulfilled in the long run.
So while getting perfect scores is one way to go about getting into Stanford, it is by no means the only way, and few people can treat numbers as a their sole motivator without getting burnt out. For those of you who are constantly stressed about your numbers and completely miserable, I’d say take a step back and reassess what is most important to you. If you align your activities with your interests (or find a way to make your activities interesting, not just practical), it will pay off on both an academic and personal level. And for those who feel that your numbers are suboptimal, don’t be discouraged – numbers are just one of several windows that Stanford peers into to understand who you truly are.”

-quoted from a Stanford Admissions blog

I don’t agree about the GPA. Your standardized test scores are really high, so the low GPA could always be accounted for by a hard school or any other number of reasons. And since you even said that your school is competitive, there you go. The colleges look at the college profile, which will show that your GPA is actually really good for a hard school.

If you break a certain number on the standardized tests (34 on the ACT 2250 on the SAT) and have a solid GPA, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, UPenn, and Dartmouth will all be within reach. However it looks like you’re trying to get into tech and science schools? Engineering? So I see why you singled out Cornell and Columbia. I think you have a really good chance for anyone of these schools really