Chances for Harvard- 2016

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>I would greatly appreciate it if at least a few people could chance me for Harvard's 2016 early admissions. I know most of it is based on just luck, and I might not make it at all. However, I'm definitely not going if I don't at least apply, right? I am a junior.</p>

<p>Academics-
GPA- 4.8 or 4.9
Class rank- 1 or 2 out of 68
AP- I will have 8 APs when I finsh.
Sophomore year- AP Environmental (4)
Junior year (just took these exams so I don’t have the scores, I think they will be fives) - AP US History, AP Biology, AP English Language
Senior year- AP Physics, AP Government, AP Literature, AP Spanish
- I will be taking Calculus online senior year, because my school only offers AP Calc. I didn’t want five APs senior year. However, if AP Spanish gets canceled, which is very possible, I will take AP Calc.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars-
- Quizbowl- 4 years. 1 of 2 co-captains. We won state one year, and got second place this past year. This is the activity I have been most involved with, and I might write one of my essays about it.
- Model UN- 4 years. Honorable mention delegate at GSU competition last year.
- Mock Trial- Five years. I have won a judge’s award for Most Effective Attorney every year I have participated.
- Student Government- 6 years
- Beta Club- 4 years
- Math team- 2 years
- Dance- I have taken ballet since 7th grade.
- Guitar- I took guitar lessons for eight years.</p>

<p>Awards
- Citizenship award
- Headmaster’s Honor Roll- five years straight
- 1st place in medicine/health category at Intel science fair, 2008
- Rutger’s book award
- Mock Trial- Most Effective Attorney, four years
- Model UN- Honorable Mention
- Quizbowl- State Championship in 2009
- Junior marshal
- Math team- High Point Award
- One of my stories was chosen to be published in a book of teen essays. </p>

<p>Community Service
- lots of random community service around the school- moving things, helping in little kid classrooms, setting up for events, helping with marathons
- I have helped teach ballet classes for little kids for four years.
- I help out with a mentoring program for economically disadvantaged 5th grade girls at a local public elementary school.</p>

<p>Summers
- 2010- NYLF medical forum, summer program at Yale
- 2011- I will go to SC Girl’s State, and then on a month-long trip to Guatemala.</p>

<p>Essays
- One essay will be about why I want to be a pediatric craniofacial surgeon (I have very specific stories), and how my lifelong dream of being a doctor has shaped me as a person.
- Another essay will be about my experiences in Guatemala during the trip I will take this summer.</p>

<p>Reccomendations
- One rec will be from my beloved Spanish teacher and Quizbowl coach, and another will be from an English teacher from a few years ago.
- I am also going to have my Headmaster write a letter about me. He will be at a different school next year, but we are very close and he knows me very well. </p>

<p>Supplemental materials
- As a supplement, I am sending in samples of my writing and pictures of my artwork. My art is unique- hand-sewn stuffed animals. I design the patterns and then make them completely by hand. They are very interesting. I feel like this is something that no one else is going to have in their application</p>

<ul>
<li> Race- White</li>
<li> Female</li>
<li> South Carolina</li>
<li> Private, noncompetitive high school</li>
<li> Financial aid- I don’t need it, but I might apply. </li>
</ul>

<p>All feedback, positive or negative, is appreciated. Thank you!</p>

2

<p>I’m pretty sure that colleges do not look at activities and scores from middle school years. They only look at high school materials.
I would advise you to take AP Calculus senior year because it will make you more competitive and colleges like seeing students taking the hardest classes.
Have you taken the ACT/SAT/SAT II’s?
Those are extremely important in the admissions process and high scores are important.
Your recommendation letters, essays, and EC activities look pretty good.
Keep in mind, however, that there are many students who take far more academic courses/tests and are part of the IB program.</p>

3

<p>I forgot a couple of things actaully-
SAT- 2250- W-800 R-760 M-690 (taken a while ago, this will go up)
ACT- 33
SAT II- just took last weekend. Biology, Math 1, and US History.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>I was accepted to the SC Governor’s School for science and math, but decided not to attend.</p></li>
<li><p>I am a National Merit semi-finalist (I think?). I just know that I have gotten into the first round of National Merit, still waiting on the second letter in September. </p></li>
</ul>

<p>hershey5- I know that other students have taken IB classes, but surely admissions people will understand that those were not available to me? My high school is very noncompetitve, we really just don’t have things like IB, or activities like debate or Science Olympiad, we’re just too small. We have very few AP offerings. Also, I am still debating about AP Calc, my main issue is that the teacher who is teaching it next year is very difficult, she is from Romania so her accent is thick and she yells at you if you ask for help. I’m just not sure if I want that in an AP level course. If the same teacher who usually teaches it was teaching it, I would definitely take it.</p>

4

<p>Oh please winzipper2013. Her SATs are fine! Actually they are quite similar to my daughter’s, and she was accepted this spring!</p>

5

<p>The number of AP courses taken is on the low end comparing to typical applicants at Harvard. The SAT and ACT scores are both fine but not the strongest. So the essays and recommendation letters will be critical. You probably should check if Harard requires Math 2 for SAT II. You probably also should consider to find a teacher from senior/junior years to write your recommendation letter.</p>

6

<p>Atb922 I want to go to harvard for the class of 2016 too. I hope we both get in, I’m nervous already and can’t apply for at least 6 more months!</p>

7

<p>I think winzipper is full of it. honestly i have heard of several people who got in with SAT scores in the 2100 range and the 30-31 area on the ACT’s. And idk how you could possibly not have enough AP courses. you are doing a very good job from what I can tell. keep up the good work! I will also be applying next fall. and my test scores are not as good as yours, I will need to bring them up a bit i think! sigh. lol. good luck to us all!</p>

8

<p>HarvardParent – 8 APs is on the low end? Really? What are your sources? Where is it published that the average matriculant has 8 or more APs? Of the four people from my kid’s school going to Harvard the range is from 2-5. An n=4 certainly doesn’t make an average, but this school sends dozens of kids to top 20 schools and 8 APs is definitely the exception. There are some very poor schools that don’t offer APs, there are many fine schools that offer many APs and the kids there might take several of these classes and self study for even more and there are some very rigorous prep schools where the kids rarely take more than 2-3 APs per year because all the classes are challenging. Harvard has enough matriculants from these type of schools that I doubt 8 APs are at the low end of the average student accepted.</p>

9

<p>The real issue is course load distribution. Four AP courses by the end of Junior year is the problem, which means on anverage 2 AP course per year for sophomore/junior years. This will lead to the question whether this student can handle the academic demand at Harvard. She will take 4 AP courses for senior year but we will not know if she can handle it before the admission decision is made.<br>
There are threads about admitted students for the last couple years and you will be able to see how many AP courses those who are admitted had taken by the end of the Junior year. Seven to eight AP courses are typical.<br>
There are poor schools which do not offer a lot of AP courses. I doubt that is the case here. Anyway, Harvard admission office will know the number of AP courses offered at the apllicant’s school and will judge the applicant based on the number of courses taken vs. the number of courses offered.</p>

10

<p>At my kids’ school there are no AP courses in the 9th or 10th grade. None. This is quite typical of rigorous prep schools. 4-6 AP classes is the typical load of an upper end student who will likely end up at a top 20 university. Additionally, the valedictorian will have a gpa in the 3.8 to 3.9 range. Someone gets a 4.0 once or twice a decade. The school only offers 3 math AP, 3 science AP, 1 english, 1 history and 1 in every language. No one takes all of them. No one questions whether kids from these schools can hack it in the big leagues. Without exception our kids going to the ivy league find college far easier than high school. There are maybe 30,000 high schools in the US. You know about yours. You clearly don’t know about ours. And there are lots of HS like ours, so beware of the advice you give out telling kids that 8 APs are on the low end for Harvard. At your school, maybe. At our school, practically unheard of and not at all typical of our HYPS matriculants. Your child going to H doesn’t make you an expert on H admissions. It makes you an expert on your kid’s particular case. There are kids on this board who take the advice of people like you seriously and I think you should be careful before you rain on the parade of some kid who’s killed him/herself to take 8 APs. They may not be as far behind as you seem to think they are.</p>

11

<p>My accepted daughter took 3 or 4 APs (can’t remember). Our small rural high school offers about 6 AP classes. She followed a fairly unique course in high school, electing not to take math her senior year, and an online AP science class, however loaded up w/3 languages, independent poetry, music theory, jazz. Her local interviewer applauded her non-standard approach by following her true desires vs. what is typically “expected” for a very bright senior. The school, believe it or not, seeks diversity, including academic pursuits. More so, may I say, than some others.</p>

12

<p>sidelines,</p>

<p>You missed the very last sentence of my last post. Let me repeat again, student will be judged based on the number of AP courses taken vs. the number of AP courses offered. The bottom line is the admission committee want to know whether the student took the full advantage of what is offered. </p>

<p>I would also suggest you to go through the threads on the admitted students from the last four years and see for yourself if 6-8 AP courses by the end of Junior years are typical. </p>

<p>I have no interests in raining on the parade. abt922 posted here for advice and suggestion so she can enhance her chances of admission. A honest assessment of the potential strengths and weakness is helpful, not hurful.</p>

13

<p>I was only allowed to take 1 AP sophomore year and 3 junior year. Like sidelines said, you should not judge my situation while knowing nothing about it.</p>

14

<p>Lots of hate on this thread… Anyway, to the OP, I think 8 is fine, but then again, harvardparents opinion is completey valid and you shouldn’t bash him/her for posting his opinion. This is a public forum, after all.</p>

15

<p>Public high schools in South Carolina is not different from other public high schools in the region. Typically, there are around 20 AP courses offerred. So it all comes down to your choice. Best of luck.</p>

16

<p>I, too, am a junior hoping to be accepted into Harvard College. I however have one problem (if, indeed, it is a problem) - I am a Ghanaian student and I honestly do not know much about AP’s and some of the stuff that is posted on this forum. Does it mean all hope is lost with me?</p>

17

<p>HarvardParent- did you even read the original post? It’s not a public high school, it’s private, and we certainly don’t have anywhere near 20 AP offerings. Again, don’t judge a situation when you know nothing about it. </p>

<p>Teabrodo- I would think that your international status would make an admissions committee judge your application differently, so you probably shouldn’t worry. If you have questions, though, email the admissions offices of the schools to which you are applying.</p>

18

<p>omg do you go to byrnes?</p>

19

<p>No, I don’t go to Byrnes. I have never heard of it, actually.</p>

20

<p>I went to a small catholic high school in south Louisiana and never even heard of AP or IB classes until the summer before my senior year. I never took one AP or IB class. I also scored only a 2060 on the SAT (however I got a 34 on the ACT) and I was accepted to Harvard this year. So don’t worry about the number you’ve taken, there’s no golden ticket. Just do your best, challenge yourself, take the hardest classes, and BE WHO YOU ARE. No one is guaranteed but apply anyway, it can’t hurt.</p>