Chances for a Junior - HYP

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey everyone,
I've already posted this before, but I didn't get enough responses, so I'm posting it again. (Although in the past most of my posted SAT scores were hypothetical, now they are actual scores - I finally took the tests :-) ).</p>

<p>Background:
I am an Israeli in origin; I moved here when I was in the 8th grade.
I currently live in the Boston area ... I hope that doesn't lower my chance for Harvard :-/ </p>

<p>stats:
W GPA ~4.7/5 UW GPA ~3.9 Rank top ~10/430
SAT I 2340 (800 M, 780 V, 760 W)
SAT II Hebrew 800, Physics 800, Math IIC 800 , U.S. History 780,
world history hoping for 770-800.</p>

<p>EC's
Jewish Student Union at my school:
-soph year: Israeli affairs coordinator
-junior year: Vice President
-next year: hopefully co President; if not, then Executive Vice Pres.</p>

<p>Young Judea (a zionist-activism organization)
-fresh+soph years: member
-junior year: Vice President
-next year: President</p>

<p>International Forum at my school
-I founded this club junior year. (and am the President, of course)
-we meet once a week and discuss current global events.</p>

<p>Hebrew College
-a secondary school; 6 hours a week (4 on Sundays, 2 on Tuesdays)
-from 8th grade till the end of this year.
-so far, am first in my class of ~200</p>

<p>"Kol Hanoar" ("The Youth's Voice") at Hebrew college
-a weekly publication I founded soph year. I am the editor, of course.
-includes news headlines from the Jewish world, 4 opinionated
articles written by students.</p>

<p>Writer and associate editor at school paper for the Global section</p>

<p>Etgar Lnoar
- a community service program at my temple. We help disabled kids learn Hebrew for their Bar/Bat Mitvahs (2 hours a week). This is my first year doing this, and will do so next year as well.</p>

<p>Awards:
-Kaufman award for outstanding academic achievement in Jewish studies.
-Grossman Family award (encompasses 1000$ scholarship) for leadership in my Jewish community.
-JCRC (Jewish Community Religious Council) award for my leadership at teh Jewish Student Union.</p>

<p>-National Latin Exam award 3 years in a row (assuming this year I score as high as I did these past 2 years)</p>

<p>Summer programs
-Keren Or program over the summer before freshman year
-David Project (pro-Israel awareness project) program summer before soph
-Camp guide at Young Judea camp summer before junior
-David Project program again this coming summer</p>

<p>What, in your judgement, are my chances?</p>

2

<p>You have wonderful stats but your chances probably aren't that great, I'm sure you know how competitive HYP are. Chances aren't that great for anyone, do you have hooks?</p>

3

<p>you will not get in to HYP</p>

4

<p>and why is that?
I am looking for serious, well-backed comments.</p>

5

<p>yeah, don't listen to ranger. i think his line of thinking is along the lines of "everybody has great GPA's and great SAT's, what makes you so special?" It's odd that when CC'ers see absolutely perfect scores they tend to be less optimistic than when they see somewhat more HUMAN scores. A real piece of advice: The fact that you seem totally committed to your religious/political Jewish clubs is really impressive, but you might also strive to demonstrate one way or another a variety of interests. Finally, write some damn good essays, do an interview, and get some reliable teacher recs. If you do that, you'll get plenty of admits to satisfy you.</p>

6

<p>Thanks madeinusa817! finally some constructive criticism :-)</p>

7

<p>anyone else?</p>

8

<p>Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are tough for everybody. While you are certainly a qualified candidate, there are thousands of others in the country who apply to these schools and have similar stats.</p>

9

<p>What can I do to strengthen my EC's?</p>

10

<p>Would you be a competitive applicant at HYP? Yes. Would you be a shoe-in? Absolutely not. The competition to get into these schools is very stiff, to say the least. Even kids with with great stats like yours have, at best, about a 30% chance of being accepted (which, by the way, is considerable better than the average applicant who has between a 10 and 15% chance).</p>

<p>If you're wondering whether you should apply, well, sure. You would be a competitve applicant. But, obviously, you need to consider other schools. I suggest you take a look at UPenn and Washington University in St. Louis. Both are great schools - US News ranked UPenn #4 and WashU #11. Both would be easier for you to get into than HYP, and both have large and active Jewish communities which, given your ECs, you might find attractive.</p>

<p>Finally, you need to add some safety schools to your list. My guess, given your stats, is that you will probably get into one of the top schools, but given the randomness of the admissions process, you need to apply to at least a couple of schools to which you are almost certainly going to get admitted just to protect your rear.</p>

11

<p>What about other Ivy leagues, like Columbia or Brown.
Are my chances there significantly higher?</p>

12

<p>All the Ivies are tough to get into. I think you would have somewhat better chances at Columbia and Brown, but significantly better, probably not. Columbia, as I recall, accepts only about 10% of its applicants and Brown only around 16%. Cornell is the only Ivy that is relatively easy to get into, but mainly because it is larger and accepts more students. It is, however, as academically rigorous as the others.</p>

13

<p>your ec's are pretty dull and all jew-oriented. maybe theyll take you for that, but i highly highly doubt it</p>

14

<p>^ that didn't come off racist at all.</p>

15

<p>To the OP, was my comment not serious enough?</p>

<p>amptron gave very good analysis. Like I said before, you have great stats and you would be a competitive applicant. I'm almost sure you'll end up at one of the best colleges, but of course, to places like HYP the competition is very stiff. Of course, look into colleges you have a very good chance of getting into.</p>

<p>Don't let anyone tell you 'you won't get in' just because there's nothing 'special' about you--it simply isn't true. Your chances are low because the schools are very competitive, but they are much higher than an average applicant's chances and your stats are very good.</p>

<p>Cornell's acceptance rate has dropped to around 20% this year, but you would be a very competitive applicant there.</p>

<p>Also, make sure that your top choices aren't just ivies, dozens of colleges are just as good as ivy leagues, and have departments that are better than most.</p>

16

<p>numerically speaking, how would you estimate my chances for HYP?</p>

<p>10%? 15%? 30%?</p>

17

<p>Better than a roll of a die, yet worse than a toss of a coin :)</p>

18

<p>30-40% I'd say...</p>

19

<p>Probably in that range, but I imagine under 40%.</p>

20

<p>sweet :-) </p>

<p>Does anyone else agree with this ~30% estimate?</p>