Chances for A Nervous Senior

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>I have just been looking at a few schools and Yale seems like an outstanding place to go to college. If you could evaluate my app below, it would b appreciated!</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 UW and 4.1 Weighted
Rank: 1/327</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
Human Geo- A+
Civics- A+
Hon Geometry- A+
Hon Eng- A+
Spanish 1-A+
Band- A+
IDS/P and IDS/L- Both A+s
Health and Gym- A+</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Anatomy- A+
Spanish 2- A+
Hon Alg 2- A+
Hon Eng- A+
World History- A+
Personal Finance- A+
Biology- A+</p>

<p>Junior Year:
AP Bio- A+
AP US- A (ugh..he doesnt enter it on resume as an A+..even though my percent is over 100)
AP Eng- A+ first Sem A second semester (99 percent)
Chem- A+
Hon PreCalc- A+</p>

<p>Senior Year:
Calc BC
AP Chem
AP Eng
Ap Euro
Physics
Gym (ugh)
Stats</p>

<p>ACT: 32 (took in June and am expecting at least a 34)
SAT: I took in June and would b suprised if all my scores were below 750+ each.
Recs: GREAT!
State of Residence: NE</p>

<p>ECS:
FBLA- Executive board member, historian, and treasurer (9-12)
SADD (9-12)- Class Rep 3 years
Science Club (11-12)- President and Founder
AcDec (9-12) Captain 2 years
NHS (11-12)
Quiz Bowl (9-12) Inactive though
Olympus Club (9-12)
Philosphy Club- Cofounder and VP (11-12)
Volunteer Work:
Red Cross- 300 hours
Cancer Society- 100 hours
Sunday School Teacher- 300 hours
Congressman Office Volunteer- 150 hours
Founded organization to raise money for Serbian Orphans who lost parents during Balkan Wars (personally raised 1000 dollars)</p>

<p>Awards:
1st Place in Cell Bio and 3rd in Health Science at State Science Olympiad
1st in Health Science and 3rd in Disease Detectives at NE Regional Science Olympiad
1st in State Econ Challenge...flew to Houston for free and got 5th Place in Midwest
---at Econ Challenge also won first in state at microeconomics
2nd in State Finance Challenge
3rd in Regional Economics Challenge
4th in state at Cyber Security Competition
Friend of Alexander Hamilton Merit Award Winner
President's Gold Volunteer Award
Represented my HS at state leadership seminar
Local Radio Station and News Station's volunteer of the year award
At least commended for National Merit
Won Like 16 regional AcDec Awards (was a top scorer at all of the competitions we were in)</p>

<p>--Have a paid internship at local med center this summer as well...will send in abstract with app and may submit a research report to Siemens</p>

<p>So, how do my chances look guys?!?</p>

<p>“AP US- A (ugh…he doesnt enter it on resume as an A+…even though my percent is over 100)”</p>

<p>You do know an A and an A+ get the same GPA, right [at least by Princeton’s grading standards]? So don’t worry about that…</p>

<p>Not to be blunt or anything, but I really don’t think this thread was that necessary (and hopefully you aren’t just trying to boast about your achievements). Obviously your grades are fine, and your ECs are good. Truthfully, we aren’t the Yale adcoms, so we cannot give you an accurate chance because we don’t know 100% exactly what they want to see. You’re definitely qualified, and that’s all that matters. So apply and see what happens.</p>

<p>Peytoncline-</p>

<p>I really appreciate the response. Ya, lol I am definately not trying to boast because I scores and stuff are only average for Yale and the like. The reason I was posting this thread is bc a friend of mine with nearly perfect SATs and ECs was flat out rejected and I was trying to decide if it was even worth filling out the application.</p>

<p>It’s worth filling out the application. But really, you shouldn’t be thinking about your chances for any single school–that’s bad strategy. You should be thinking about building a reasonable list that includes reaches (more than one or two if they are highly selective schools), matches, and true safeties. I think it’s quite reasonable for you to include very selective schools, like Yale, on your list. You will probably get into some of them–but it’s hard to say which ones. Yale accepts people like you, and rejects people like you.</p>

<p>You might want to be careful about your awards as it appears, after a little searching, that they are team awards. If so, you should be clear about that on any application.</p>

<p>Ya, some of them are team awards (econ challenge and science olymp). With the econ challenge, I won top scorer in the competition though so that should work individually. Then, in all honesty and independent of any “ego thing,” I was the whole team on my science olympiad team. I mean my partner didnt even read the tests…I was “required” to have a partner because my sponsor wanted everyone to participate. Can I make that known to the admission officer?</p>

<p>No hooks (unless you’re also a URM?), but fine-to-good stats if you have raised your ACT and/or SAT to what you have claimed. As Hunt said, you should be in contention for some good schools. My problem is that I don’t really see a direction… you seem a bit all over the map and it confuses me as to what actually drives you. I personally don’t think that people need one single “passion” (as a side note, that word is so cliche) is necessary, but I do feel you’ll need to show that you did more than build a haphazard list of achievements.</p>

<p>Apply early if you can.</p>

<p>If you make that known to the admissions officer they’ll almost 100% of the time reject you because you are being really arrogant. Even assuming it is the truth, your teacher recs should say that, NOT you.</p>

<p>booyaksha-</p>

<p>Thanks so much for the feedback. Ya, I have kind of realized that my ECs are somewhat scattered. However, my awards and ECs focus on three categories (at least I think so): Science (Bio), Economics (Buisness), and Community Service. I am planning on majoring in biology with a minor in econ, so officers might, in light of that knowledge, better understand that. Additionally, community service is just something I love doing…I will write an essay on that, so, again, colleges will be able to kind of get a better feel for me.</p>

<p>Your school doesn’t seem to be rigorous at all. Straight A+ grades across the board?</p>

<p>Hey The Government-</p>

<p>Well, while I appreciate the response, I do not appreciate the hasty conclusion that my school is not rigorous because I have high grades. I spent about 6-8 hours a night on homework, so I earn my grades. Is my school grade inflated? I don’t know. We have over 320 kids and probably 5 of them have a 4.0. Of those five, about 3 of them are taking the most difficult schedule possible. Idk…however, I do not think it is fair at all to diminish my accomplishment (even though not a huge one) without any real concrete detail about my school or the other students in it.</p>