chances for ED ????

Colleges and Universities A-Z Haverford College
1

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>im a rising senior at a prestigious high school in new york city. my average is an 89 (nothing to be impressed about) and most of my courses have been geared towards humanities. i've taken three AP courses so far (english language, spanish language and us govt) i didnt do that well on the exams (3's) and im taking two more AP courses for senior year (english lit, ap calc AB). </p>

<p>my regents for math and science arent spectacular (90's for math, low 80's high 70's for sciences) however, my english and history regents are better (95+)</p>

<p>my SAT combined is a 2020 (yet again, unimpressive; 690V, 700M, 630W)
im going to retake my SAT IIs this fall and im also taking the ACT this october.</p>

<p>my EC's are a little better though</p>

<p>FRESHMAN YEAR:</p>

<p>-volunteered at local hospital about 110 hours
-volunteered for a saturday sports summer camp as an instructor's assistant for volleyball. participated in sports day and attended field trip.
-joined the REd Cross Youth Group </p>

<p>SOPHOMORE YEAR:</p>

<p>-was part of an empowerment program called Chinatown Youth Initiatives (CYI). Participated in a series of leadership and empowerment workshops revolving around Asian American issues such as media representation, social justice, self and community identity, politics and government, writing and the arts...etc. We interacted with community leaders and attended an Asian film festival. i was also part of the yearbook and participated in their annual Chinatown Beautification Day as a team leader. There were over 350 people in attendance for that event and it was a record success for CYI.
-in school, i also became part of my school newspaper and wrote for the sports department. this was also the year in which i became part of the jv volleyball team at stuy.
-i also created my own awareness club in school regarding falun gong (and had a pretty hard time with it; i've been turned down by a couple of teachers when i asked them to be the club advisor since they didnt want to be involved with something that is viewed as a "cult" and i've also had my club meeting signs vandalised. there was a lot of negativity revolving that club and it's still ongoing.)
-Volunteer for Buddhist Temple during saturdays (cook lunch for senior citizens and chat with kids and elderly after lunch)
-second year at Red Cross</p>

<p>JUNIOR YEAR:</p>

<p>-part of Oxford Health Plans' SIP Program (Summer Internship Program).
I worked as a teacher/counselor at a summer day camp (worked from 8am-6pm, mon-fri). it was pretty rigorous work. a lot of responsibility and dedication was expected of me. i basically did the same things an elementary public school teacher did ( made lesson plans; taught math, english, science and history. planned recreational activities, gave proper attention in case of nosebleeds, insect bites, bruises, scrapes and falls. made up my own tests for my students, made up own homework and classwork and graded everything, took my students to breakfast and lunch, dismissed them, addressed parental concerns, supervised kids on field trips...etc.) there was a lot expected of me and it was a learning experience for both my kids and me. the SIP program also required the attendance of several community service events and training workshops in order to graduate (in which i met all requirements so yayyy =]).
-volunteered again for the saturday sports summer camp as instructor's assistant again. i was also the yearbook photographer and became part of their dragon boating team.
- appointed as Special Events Coordinator at Red Cross YG, and then this summer, i was promoted as the Special Events Executive Board Member for Red Cross YG
- second year as part of school newspaper staff
- contributed to school's departmental arts and literary magazine
- second year as president of my own club</p>

<p>i have a pretty good teacher recommendation from english teacher but a pretty average one for science. i plan on continuing with Red Cross and my club as well as writing for school newspaper for senior year. For Red Cross, I'm planning a new fundraiser for the 06-07 school year and i'm really hoping to see it happen.</p>

<p>I know I'm pretty average academically. What are my chances?</p>

<p>What are some other reaches, matches and safeties? Please give some suggestions! Help of any kind is appreciated! THANKS!</p>

2

<p>someone pleaseeeee help...:(</p>

3

<p>"Chances" posts aren't really popular with the HC scene as it's a little out of character for the place and the kids it attracts.</p>

<p>There're plenty of HC kids from Stuy, B-Sci, B-tech, Horace Mann, Town-Harris, ect... how do you compare to your friends who applied before from your school?</p>

<p>Just skimming your post, I'm most surprised at the number of times "not impressive" and "not spectacular" appear. Hopefully, you are either very modest and have issues conveying it or, unfortunately, possibly have issues with self-esteem or these things are an accurate reflection of your resume. In addition, "participated" (instead of "led") appears one too many times as well.</p>

<p>You can guess-timate your chances from the HC admissions web page and what I posted earlier from "Class of 2010 profile". Also, there was a series in the NYT last year about HC admissions and athletic recruitment as well. A lot of kids with your numerical stats or higher AND who were recruited athletes were waitlisted or rejected.</p>

4

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/ref/sports/2005_RECRUIT_SERIES.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/ref/sports/2005_RECRUIT_SERIES.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

5

<p>In re-reading my post this AM, I did not mean to be so harsh.</p>

<p>You have done a lot in high school, more so than many people, but you are applying to a college that is considered one of the best in the country. You can be modest without being self-deprecating as that isn’t a pattern you want to establish for yourself and is out of character with the schools in which you are interested. That was the main point of my reply. It's a given that most applicants will have volunteered in numerous community and school activities, be in the top 10% of their high school class (91% were in the class of 2009), ect ... Those few that weren’t, attended schools that don’t rank or have some MAJOR hook. Being Asian at HC (unless you’re Hmong, Laotian, or something other than Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Japanese) doesn’t help as we’re already overrepresented (2% national population and approx 15% at HC)… although I like your activism.</p>

<p>If HC really resonates with you, you should apply ED as you never know and I’m not on the committee. Good luck.</p>

6

<p>HC Alum, i really value your input and I thank you for your honest opinion. I know Haverford is a really tough school to get into and that at this point, I don't have much of a MAJOR hook. I think the low self-esteem that seem to resonate in my post is due to my fear of getting my hopes too high. Once again, thanks for helping me out, I really appreciate it :D</p>

7

<p>No problem... got to take care of the "peeps". :)</p>

<p>Talk to your GC, if they recommend that you apply here, they probably know something that you are not clearly conveying in your post. Honestly, I was too distracted because of your self-critique. In your application, I think the weakest part probably is not going to be your stats (although they are some what so-so) but rather how you portray yourself with the words you may choose. Fortunately, this is something that you can change.</p>

<p>some schools you should further investigate include bryn mawr (fabulous resources), oberlin, Hampshire and Bard. Also, many large public universities are very good too and you can find a community there as well cause there are so many students (Rutgers and also UW Madison). In particular, Madison (cause I spent a summer there in college doing protein research) is AMAZING- diverse students, large intel community, activist students, nice students cause it's in the midwest, beautiful lakes and great academic resources.</p>