Chances for a black val??

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>or sal..if this asian chick ends up beating me w/e</p>

<p>SAT: 1300 (670 M, 630 Cr) 720 W
SAT II's: 690 Spanish, 680 World History
Rank- 1-2 out of ~400 (i wont no officially until next week)
GPA: 3.8 UW, 4.75 W
Courseload: I am taking mostly IB classes w/ one AP on the side. i will have passed (hopefully) 7 AP/IB exams by the time i apply next year</p>

<p>EC's
Spanish Club- 10, 11 (Vice President)
Interact Club 9, 10, 11 (Service Officer)
Quizbowl team- 10- 3rd place at districts, 11 :(...
Forensics- 10 (2nd at districts) 11- hopefully i will make it to states!
Elementary school volunteer/mentor since 9th grade
Humanitarian Club 10, 11- treasurer
Junior Class Council
Varsity Field hockey</p>

<p>work experience-
volunteer at hospital 9-11
part-time at Mcdonalds (15 hrs/wk since Sept)</p>

<p>Awards
a bunch of school awards in mathematics, biology, spanish and history
hopefully i will become AP Scholar w/ distinction and National Achievment Scholar Semi-Finalist</p>

<p>btw i am a junior but i still want to know what i can do to improve. NOBODY in my school gets into top schools beyond UVA, so naturally, anybody i ask is like "you're gonna get into wherever".</p>

<p>i am THINKING about applying to
Harvard
Princeton
Yale EA
Brown PLME
Duke
Cornell</p>

<p>i will def. try UVA, William and Mary (would they be considered as "matches"?)</p>

2

<p>Ivies and Duke are high reaches Cornell a low reach. UVA and William and Mary are very feasible if you're in-state, so I'd call them matches. Obviously have safeties lined up. I'd say you have to raise your overall SAT score to at least 2200 to even have a shot at HYP+ Brown PLME, that's how competitive they are. Duke and Cornell may be in range with 2100.</p>

3

<p>in at UVa, low reach at W&M, Cornell, reach everywhere else</p>

4

<p>I will admit that black val is a rare combo, but your SAT is weak, and in a way it really calls into question the quality of your school and undermines your status as val. If you could just throw down a 1500/1600 you could go Ivy. buy 4 or 5 books and study them! practice practice!</p>

5

<p>i would say you have a shot. i think they're still reaches but only slight reaches</p>

6

<p>HYP are far reaches. Brown is a reach. Duke and Cornell are low reaches/high matches.</p>

<p>your SAT scores are simply too low, and your ECs aren't impressive enough to outshine that, despite your rank and GPA.</p>

<p>and how can you be an AP Scholar with only one AP class?</p>

7

<p>I took the world history and government exams and received a 5 and 4, respectively.
thanks for the feedback guys! :)</p>

8

<p>if you can improve your SAt 100 points (which will be easy since you're still a junior) then you'll have a REALLY good chance at getting into those schools.</p>

9

<p>
[quote]
I will admit that black val is a rare combo

[/quote]

do you have hard evidence to back up that claim (just wondering)?</p>

10

<p>i am also curious as to where you got that. I know a few of them, and i thought it was pretty common.</p>

11

<p>Work on your SATs, they aren't hard to improve if you put a good 10-20 hours into practicing. I raised my score 200 points that way. The official SAT blue book is very good, skim through it and do the practice tests (all of them). </p>

<p>Anecdotally speaking, I do not know of any Black vals in my school's history and i do not know any in any of the nearby schools. This is definitely because i live in a town where the population is 1% black though.</p>

12

<p>It depends where you're a black val at. If you're a black val in NY or NJ, then it's a big deal...if it's one of the Dakotas or Wisconsin or Minnesota, then your val status is (or should be...if Ivy League adcomms are composed of reasonably intelligent individuals) worthless.</p>

13

<p>"...if it's one of the Dakotas or Wisconsin or Minnesota, then your val status is (or should be...if Ivy League adcomms are composed of reasonably intelligent individuals) worthless."</p>

<p>I'll have to think about that some more but why? Assuming the percentage of Blacks in those states is pretty small it would seem a bigger deal to be number 1 when your 1 percent of the population. Maybe your saying the schools aren't as good, but I still think you would really stand out in a community like that, and I would give props to any kid willing to stretch while dealing with that.</p>

<p>It reminds me of a Black person being the best at say golf.... alright maybe ice hockey....</p>

14

<p>
[quote]
It reminds me of a Black person being the best at say golf.... alright maybe ice hockey....

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Hi Shrinkrap!</p>

<p>There aren't too many goalies with their name inscribed on the Stanley Cup more than this one...</p>

<p>Grant</a> Fuhr - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>

<p>OK, he's bi-racial. The point here is that while people of color may be unusual in certain circumstances (Val in either Dakota - I wouldn't say it would be unusual in Wisconsin, I used to live there - wouldn't surprise me), you can't rule 'em out. The fact that she is a val (or maybe sal) still says a lot, though. </p>

<p>I would say that more than the test score, what may hold back the applicant are the ECs. They are the standard fare for val/sal types or even the top 10% of a class. Perhaps the OP doesn't have the opportunities available, but I don't know if the Adcom will be able to discern this.</p>

15

<p>All these people saying far reaches for HYPS underestimate AA.</p>

<p>Black + val + 2020 SAT + hard courseload + decent ecs = in at some/most of the reaches.</p>

16

<p>^i think that there interpretation is just as valid as your baseless one...</p>