Chances ED! I'm so excited

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>Hey I'm applying ED and here are some of my stats, please be honest and helpful -</p>

<p>*Rising Senior
*GPA= 4.978 Rank=8/680something
*Bad freshman yr (ranked 20), just about straight A's since then.
*SAT I= 800 M, 720 CR, 770 Writing... 12 on essay
*SAT I second time = 800M,750CR, 720 Writing... 12 on essay
*SAT II: Math IIC=780, Chem=780, Phys=800
*Public suburban high school
*1/2 Indonesian, first generation american on father's side. born in jakarta
*Poor, single mom, live in a trailer park.</p>

<p>AP Courses:
*Sophomore year took AP Physics C Mechanics. 5
Self Study Physics C e&m. 4
Self Study AP Calc AB. 5
*This year took: Bio 5
Calc BC 5
Psych 5
Stats 4
*Next yr taking Chem, Spanish, lit, and Self study art history.</p>

<p>Activities/talents:
*about 50 hrs library comm service
*Fluent in English, Indonesian, malay. Competent and can converse well in Hindi, Urdu, Spanish.
*Literate in arabic
*Attended NJ Governor's School engineering.
*FBLA, been webmaster, treasurer, parliamentarian.
*Science League, 3 yrs. won a plaque for physics
*National Honor Society member
*National Science honor society, running for pres
*National Spanish honor society, running for VP
*Math League, AIME participant. running for vice pres
*Teen advisory board: library based comm service club, secretary
*Work on weekends... cause im really poor.</p>

<p>*Recommendations will be excellent
*Interested in Physics or Molecular Biology
*Lifelong goal is to volunteer to practice medicine throughout south/southeast asia and studied the languages for this.
*Essays will be about my mother getting trapped in indonesia for yrs because my father was taking her to visit his parents and didnt let her leave
*my goal of becoming a doctor in asia and helping those in poverty. Will talk about a doctor in indonesia that paid for my sisters medicine we couldnt afford and she would have died without, and how even the mosques wouldnt help.
*and not sure about the third one.</p>

<p>Thanks, any constructive criticism and feedback would be nice!</p>

2

<p>I won't tell you your chances because it would be stupid to guess. I'll just tell you what I pick up off the bat: Your SAT scores are within range, and your taking Physics C as a sophomore is a good sign. I think you could move that class rank up a little in the first semester of your senior year, but I wouldn't compensate essay quality for that. Your AP scores as a whole, though, show that you took hard classes and did well in them. Your SAT score is good, but taking your ethnicity in account, and to be on the safe side, view it as average. Your essays are really unique,a nd your situation as a whole is admirable. I like your extracurriculars. One tip is to make sure you list all your extracurriculars on a separate sheet, even if they don't fit into the boxes for Princeton. </p>

<p>About your essay, keep this in mind: make sure it is unique, but also make sure you aren't writing the essay to show how hard your situation is. Make sure you display what you learned from the situation. Make sure you show why you want to go to Princeton in particular...even if you don't state it directly, show what you would contribute, what your talents would contribute. </p>

<p>I wish you good luck.</p>

3

<p>I think your application will stand a great chance because of your background and situation. I really like how your languages tie in with your lifelong goal (esp as my goal is quite similar to yours ;)). Your academics are well qualified as Paco de Lucia commented. I don't think your ethnicity detracts from your achievements at all; they're good scores for anyone.
However, some things to work on : It would be great if you could get those Pres and VP positions, because leadership speaks volumes, and the more the better. Good luck with those. In the context of your life long goal/mathsci academic focus, 50 hours and library work may be a little pale in comparison with people who have more service hours with service that is people-based. For example, teaching/caretaking of working with disabled/elderly/very young. This is esp true if you want to claim that you're interested in medicine - you may be questioned on how you know you want to be a doctor if you don't have activities where you're really working with the sick or disadvantaged.
However, you are first generation, you work, have a difficult family background, some money problems, all of which Princeton is sympathetic with. You can make this work for you - and take note of Paco de Lucia's advice about the essay. </p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

4

<p>Paco, you must be crazy. Why would someone want to improve a class rank of 8/680ish? That places this person in the top 1-2 percent</p>

5

<p>Haha, sometimes I can get a bit picky. I just meant that psychologically, being in the top five or so might make a difference, however small the difference in GPA between the different people. I did note, and I reemphasize, that the OP should not compromise his essays for his GPA. I think that as long as he stays in the top ten, he should be somewhat secure, but if he has an opportunity, he should try to pull the rank up.</p>

<p>Sorry, and no offense...I sincerely wish you good luck.</p>

6

<p>no offense taken, thanks a lot guys! you all rock</p>