Chances for Amherst, UNC Chapel Hill, Cornell, Northwestern, ...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Please chance me as a transfer student for each of the following colleges
Amherst College
Brown
Cal Tech
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Harvard
NYU
Northwestern
Stanford
UNC Chapel Hill
UPenn
Williams College
Yale</p>

<p>Secondary School Academics
• Class rank: 2/406 (good school)
• GPA: 94%
• SAT I: 2160 (one sitting, did poorly on WR/CR so I am expecting 2250+ with superscore once I practice those)
• My Social Studies/European History AP teacher wrote a nice letter that talks about my ability in the humanities, how I was one of her best students, etc.</p>

<p>University grades
• I attend a respectable university known for grade deflation (average 2.7 gpa). This is not a CC transfer.
• Honors dual degree program
• First semester GPA: 3.7/4.0 - Microecon (A+), Honors calculus (A+), Newtonian Mechanics (A-), Honors Linear algebra (B or B+.. he hasn't decided. I misread half of the questions on the final.. literally, how does that happen?)
• Great recommendations from professors who went to Princeton and Berkeley</p>

<p>• Second semester: I would say it's not an exaggeration that I'll send in a 4.0gpa for my midterm report in the second semester. I slacked off way too much in the first semester.</p>

<p>Extra curriculars
• Founder and President of a politics club at the university with 15 members
• Officer in a social justice group at the university
• On the city board of the political party I support
• 11 years of piano lessons. When I was younger I won first place in a lot of music festivals, competitions, etc.
• 8 years of martial arts
• 6 months volunteering at the hospital
• Some volunteering at a christmas charity and I'm helping the community on New Years
• I have some students that I tutor weekly
I have done only what I enjoy with extra curriculars. I refuse to join a bunch of clubs or volunteer 1500 hours because it looks good.</p>

<p>Awards
• Academic excellence scholarships
• Math department award, which means I was one of the top 6 high school math students coming into the university (and there's a lot of students!)
• AP scholar
• A bunch of old piano awards (not sure if I can use those)
• Salutatorian of my HS</p>

<p>White male</p>

<p>Prospective major: economics (my passion!)</p>

<p>I am well aware that many of these colleges have very low transfer acceptance rates and that I will likely not get in, but it's worth a shot and I have some safeties like UNC. I hope that applying to so many colleges doesn't seem superficial, but I have researched their economics programs. I'm trying to be pragmatic given the low acceptance rates.</p>

<p>Let me know what you think and how I can improve my application!</p>

2

<p>what are your SAT subscores?</p>

3

<p>The ones that aren’t reaches are NYU and UNC.</p>

<p>However, other than that, I cannot chance you. Ask on the transfer boards for more information.</p>

4

<p>Catria, just saying reaches is a little vague. Are any of them low reaches or high matches? Do I have a chance of getting accepted to at least one of the top ones? I am worried about my first semester GPA but I think my great HS record and a 4.0 second semester will cancel that out.</p>

5

<p>I can’t even put a height on the reach… I think Brown and Cornell are low reaches but I’m not sure how high of a reach the others are, other than Yale, which is a high reach for any transfer.</p>

6

<p>Yale is less of a reach than Harvard, which had a 1% acceptance rate last year (haha!). Harvard is actually my top choice since I really like their program (and Greg Mankiw who heads the department). That one is pretty much a lottery ticket sadly. Cornell is 22%, so I think I have a good chance there. Brown is around 10% I believe.</p>

7

<p>Anyone else?</p>

8

<p>Bump…</p>

9

<p>Bump…</p>

10

<p>All of the Ivies and the high liberal arts colleges such as williams and amherst are reaches. I would definetly take the SAT again if you can</p>

11

<p>I am retaking the SAT at the last available date (January 26th). I think I will do a fair bit better given that I didn’t really study for my 2160.</p>

<p>I know that they’re all reaches, but there are different types of reaches. Are some of them attainable reaches? Also, does that imply that NYU and UNC Chapel Hill are matches?</p>

12

<p>Bump…</p>

13

<p>UNC and NYU seem to be pretty high matches, though.</p>

14

<p>Catria, no one has mentioned my first semester GPA here or in the transfer section. If I show that I have a 4.0 GPA on my midterm report for next semester’s grades (specifically getting an A in Honors Linear Algebra II), and if I get my SAT score over 2300, will that B in Honors Linear Algebra I matter?</p>

15

<p>I believe Cornell and the others you might want to get into will acknowledge that the transition period between high school and college can be rough, though.</p>

16

<p>I just didn’t know what to expect. It’s actually a testament to my ability that I ended up with so many A’s, because I literally did an hour of studying a day average for the first two months. </p>

<p>Should I write about it in my essays or will they get the picture once they see a 4.0 in the second term?</p>

17

<p>Bump: can anyone answer my last question? It’s really important to me.</p>

18

<p>Bump… 470 views and only one answer from Catria.</p>

19

<p>I wouldn’t write an essay about your grades; that’s what the transcript is for. The reason they give essays is to gauge your personality and character, and since 80% of applicants are academically qualified, you won’t be doing yourself anything except seeming one-dimensional. The Ivies and high LACs are reaches for everyone, but you should probably get into Cornell and at least one other Ivy, and NYU and UNC are high matches.</p>

20

<p>Do you think that I fall within the “80% of applicants that are academically qualified”? So once I’m academically qualified, they move on to EC’s, recs, and essays?</p>