Chances for Duke, Harvard, Yale, and Full-Scholarship

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Acadamics:
IB Diplomat
Courses: Art 1, Art 2, IB Art, Spanish 1, Spanish 2, H Spanish 3, H Spanish 4, IB Spanish, PE, H Civics and Economics, H Biology, H Earth and Environmental, H English, H Geometry, AP World History, H English 10, H Chemistry, H Algebra 2, IB English, IB History, AP Psychology, IB TOK, IB Chem, AP Human Geo, H Precalc, IB History 20th, IB English 12, IB Chem 2, IB Mathematics, IB Philosophy, AP Calc</p>

<p>Grades: All A's
GPA (Unweighted): 4.0
GPA (Weighted):5.38</p>

<p>SAT 1: 2260
SAT Subject Test:US History: 780, Mathematics: Level 1: 790, Level 2:770
AP Exams: AP World: 3, AP Human Geo: 3, AP Psych: 4, AP Chem: 4, AP History: 4, AP Calc: 5
Class Rank: 1/334 Valedictorian
Class Rank Junior Year 2/345 Junior Class Marshall</p>

<p>I am fluent in 3 languages. Arabic, English and Spanish and am originally from Palestine, present day Israel. I am a Muslim.No member of my family has ever attended duke, and financial aid is necessary.</p>

<p>EC's:</p>

<p>Athletics:
Indoor Track 2 seasons
Outdoor Track 2 seasons
Cross Country 1 season
Piedmont Hiking and Outing Club 2 years</p>

<p>Volunteering:
Volunteered every Wednesday since Junior Year from 6-8:30 pm at local Elementary School.
Volunteered every other Saturday at local Muslim clinic.
Volunteered every summer at local Hospital.
Volunteered regularly for Greensboro and High Point Youth Councils.
Total Hours: 600+</p>

<p>Clubs:
Founder and President of HPC Hiking and Outing Club
Founder and President of SADD Club
President of Ecology Club
Founder and President of HPC Red Cross chapter
Founder and President of Pennies For PEace Student Advisory Club
President of Youth Group at Mosque.
President of Senior Class
Member of High Point Kids Voting Student Advisory Board
Executive Board Member of Kids Voting GC Student Advisory Board
Vice President of High Point Youth Council
Executive Assistant/ Councilman for GYC for 1 year.
Chairman of GYC
NHS and HSHS member
Member of local Dabke (Arabian Dance) team- perform at local colleges and schools.
Organizer of yearly pennies for peace program which managed to raise over 10,000 dollars.</p>

<p>If there is anything left out, please tell me. I appreciate your help.</p>

2

<p>You should most likely be accepted into Duke; however, I don’t know much about your chances into Yale and Harvard. All of the information that you have shown us so far will give you a great chance into those schools, but I can never be too sure about those two universities. As for the scholarship, I would think you would get lots of money from Duke. That’s about all I know.</p>

3

<p>Answer the following question:</p>

<p>How do you stand out from the other 40,000 apps, Harvard receives?</p>

4

<p>You’ve got good grades and stuff but to be honest, the fact that you’re like president or something like that of what seems like every club at your school isn’t exactly a good thing…where’s the interest? You have too many activities, none of which really contribute to this focus. Harvard and Yale would rather you have like 1-3 activities focusing on what you like/want to do instead of 10 different ones with no focus. You might enjoy doing ALL these activities but it just seems unlikely that you’re equally interested in all of them…and therein lies the flaw. I read about this one student who saw something in school policy that he didn’t like and he spent all 4 of his high school years committing himself to changing it and that’s all he really did…guess where he is. Harvard (or some really nice place, Ivy for sure). I don’t want to rain on your parade but considering your info, I’m not sure your chances are strong at Harvard and Yale, pretty solid for Duke though.</p>

5

<p>Everything looks amazing except your SAT I score, which is on the low side for Harvard and Yale. You shouldn’t have a problem getting into Duke, and will probably get a lot of money through need- and merit-based scholarships. However, like StanfordCS said, there is extremely intense competition for Yale and especially Harvard. Most have stellar scores like yours (I’d bet that the valedictorian of each school applies to Harvard), and many have what seems like thousands of EC’s. Admission to ivies is much deeper than just grades and being president of 5 different clubs, so there’s never any guarantee of getting in. You look like a strong, but typical applicant. Try to find something that makes you stand out from everybody else.</p>

6

<p>Umm… im on an Arabian dance team and helped establish a program called “Adopt a Student” at a local underperforming elementary school in which students are assigned one student to “tutor and mentor” for a whole year on a once a week basis either before or after school. Im really interested in running and hiking. I would like to become a cardiologist and good health is at the top of my priorities, which is why i founded the red cross club and estalished a hiking club. I really dont see how there isnt any correlation between my EC’s. GYC and HYC both promote community service.</p>

7

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<p>Oh, please, let’s not exaggerate: Harvard only got 35,000 applications this year. ;)</p>

<p>My son was one who didn’t apply there because he felt they were resting on their name and “not making an effort”: While every other elite college sends you a full viewbook, Harvard sends a crummy pamphlet. And during several joint college presentations, the Harvard reps also seemed the least interesting and least informed. </p>

<p>Apparently, however, the Harvard name alone was enough of a lure for most of the rest of America’s students.</p>

8

<p>Harvard isn’t a bad school by any means, and I’m sure there are plenty of interesting people there, but prestige certainly isn’t everything.</p>

<p>The issue with your app is that it’s so ridiculously loaded. When you have so many ECs (and leadership positions, at that), it becomes dubious whether or not you actually put any time into them. Coupled with a bunch of IB classes and some sports, I don’t see how anyone could manage so many leadership positions. Colleges will be thinking the same thing, and you don’t want it to look like you put together a bunch of lame duck clubs for your transcript because then the college won’t pay attention to your ECs and they’ll regard you as misleading.</p>

<p>And yes, having a bunch of seemingly unreleated ECs (even if they are related to you) doesn’t look particularly good. Schools like variety, but also commitment to your passions. Should be fine as long as you breathe some humanity into your essays to show that you aren’t someone who only does stuff for your college app.</p>

<p>Probably in at Duke. Toss up at Ivies.</p>