Chances for Caltech/Harvard/MIT??

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I have somewhat of a strange profile.</p>

<p>Transcript (HS):
GPA: 4.0/4.0 at northern California public school
Rank: 1/~930
Race: White
Essay: Wrote about trying to be a normal kid while taking college classes from 8th grade thru now
Recs: My HS Latin teacher - should be great; my linear algebra professor from the local university should be excellent too</p>

<p>Classes: All honors/AP
5's on AP Chem (7th grade), Physics C (8th grade) , Calc BC (7th grade), English Language, Biology (6th grade), -- the other APs were in HS: Statistics, Latin, American History, European History, Psychology</p>

<p>College classes (local university) -- all A's except for one class
Intro Microeconomics, Intro macroeconomics, linear algebra, multivariable calculus (B+), women's studies, intro to art history, spanish I and spanish II</p>

<p>Hmm test scores:
SATI - CR: 790; Math: 800; Writing: 800
SATII - Math II: 800, Latin: 800</p>

<p>Extracurricular:
I was never an extracurricular star throughout HS because I was busy with the extra classes and also trying to have fun, but I did a few things passionately:
-- President of Latin Club (last two years)
-- Founded an organization at the local university I take classes at that helps low-income members of the community file their tax returns so they can get earned income tax credits
-- I am the leader/arranger in my HS a cappella group. I also play the piano, but I'm not that good.
-- I complete on my school's math team.</p>

<p>Want to study: economics and/or linguistics -- I'm a quantitative thinker, but I don't really want to do physics or anything like that.
Other info: Don't have any legacies really (parents went to second-tier state schools); older sister goes to UCLA though</p>

<p>Applying to: Harvard, Caltech, MIT, Yale, Brown, Swarthmore, Williams, Pomona, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA</p>

<p>Any comments would be appreciated</p>

2

<p>Your stats look great, there’s not much more I can say…also keep in mind that Harvard requires 3 SAT IIs, it’d be a shame if you overlooked that since your academics are almost flawless.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for your note. I’m studying for the US history exam for 2 weeks from now. For many reasons, I am relaxing this year by taking mostly electives at my HS (except for the required humanities classes and gym ugh). But this has given me time to study and see my friends more.</p>

4

<p>OP-For Caltech you need to take a science SAT II</p>

5

<p>Very good chances, ec’s are weak though.</p>

<p>If you do not get in it will be because of your extracurriculars.</p>

6

<p>If you signed up for only US history for the November test date, you can just mark down another exam on that day and pay for it later - I’m sure you’ll have no problems with any science SAT IIs!</p>

<p>and if you get a chance, I posted my chance thread here for georgetown’s language program but no one has responded to it, any advice at all is appreciated.</p>

7

<p>I don’t think you have much of a chance at MIT/Harvard/Yale.</p>

<p>You do have a somewhat of a chance at Caltech I think. I can’t really say anything about Stanford as I’m not familiar with it at all, and everything else you have a good chance.</p>

<p>Really most of the ivyish schools aren’t really interested in a kid who spends all his time taking advanced classes. When I visited Harvard the adcom said at the info session that taking 18 AP’s and getting 5’s on all of them does not impress them. How have you done on math team? How accomplished is the a capella group you founded?</p>

8

<p>Ughh really? Another science SAT II? I guess I can sign up for one, but it’s been a while since I took these courses.</p>

<p>I’m so behind on the admissions game. I didn’t take all of these advanced classes because I was thinking about college in the future. I told my parents I was really interested in math really early on, and my teachers saw that I was ahead of the game early on, so I soaked up a lot in a short amount of time and went straight to the HS for these classes when I was in grade school. That’s what I mean by calling my profile kind of strange. I was a young kid taking classes with high schoolers, which is why it’s been important to me in recent years to be as normal as I can. I guess I could take the chemistry exam in a couple weeks as well. Looks like I’ll be hitting the books more after all…</p>

<p>I didn’t found the a cappella group. It’s weird because it’s sort of a class but sort of an extracurricular – as in, we get credit for it, but it’s before school. I really liked it when I did it freshman year, and I had taken piano so I could read music. I asked my teacher if I could try arranging a song, and with his help, I arranged our first song at the end of the year. Over that summer, I arranged a lot more, and after that, it became my de facto “job” to arrange a lot of our pieces. This year and last, I’ve been the “pitch” (pretty much I conduct the group). Our teacher gives some guidance, but for the most part, at least now, it’s a “student-run” group.</p>

9

<p>I think you’ll be fine and for test prep spark notes actually has some really good stuff up on their site for SAT II’s and even some practice tests you can take to prepare for the chem one</p>

10

<p>Essay: Wrote about trying to be a normal kid while taking college classes from 8th grade thru now</p>

<p>No offense, but you don’t seem like a normal kid whatsoever. Your grades were always stellar so why did you waste time on those when you could’ve been doing ECs. IMO you would’ve had an even better chance if you got 4’s on all your APs and a 2250 on your SAT with some great ECs than with grades alone. I’m just being honest…</p>

11

<p>

Wow, that’s ridiculous.</p>

<p>If when colleges say they are looking for academic potential in their students they aren’t lying, there should be absolutely no reason any college would reject you.</p>

12

<p>Sorry but Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and MIT is not going to happen with those ECs. You have a better shot at Caltech</p>

13

<p>Heh, you may be right. As I said, I wasn’t really a normal kid, which is why I’ve been making up for it in the last couple years. I didn’t really have my eye on college admissions way back then. And then, I slowed it down a little bit because I still wanted to enjoy my teenage years and spend time with friends.</p>

<p>I guess extracurriculars are my main problem. But do you really think that this would preclude my chances of going to Harvard or even some of the LACs I’m applying to? I guess it’s not a huge deal – I’ve visited all of these schools and I think I’d be happy at any of them.</p>

14

<p>I guess it didn’t seem like a waste of time. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I was extremely bored in grade school. It seems like I’m really abnormal, but I was actually not a child prodigy or any kind of genius. I was just really interested early on and took it upon myself to get ahead in math at a young age. After that, my teachers realized that I would need to be enriched, and before I knew it, I was taking the AP exam for calc. After that, I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing, so I enrolled in college classes. I was just really interested at a very young age; that’s the only reason.</p>

<p>I appreciate all of your replies though – very helpful feedback.</p>

15

<p>You still have a strong shot – really, colleges will have a hard time turning down a val of a class of 930 with a 2390 SAT I, 2400 SAT II, and such an advanced level of course-load.</p>

16

<p>I don’t know about the essay topic eagerforivy. I had tried doing the same thing {I feel your math struggle} but failed epically. Good luck, strong chances. You will get into at least one ultra-selective university, provided you don’t have a criminal record. 790/800 shows you are a solid thinker/writer.</p>

17

<p>Thanks, everybody!</p>