Chances for Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Caltech, Wash U

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everybody,</p>

<p>I am applying to HYSM, as well as Brown, Columbia, UCLA, UCB, and Williams (legacy on mom's side). I was hoping that you all could chance me - I'd be happy to chance back! Thanks!</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>SAT I: 2270 (800 M, 760 W and 710 R)
SAT II: Math 2 (790), US History (760), Physics (780) - Math 2 was pretty bad, but I took it a long time after having finished precalculus with no preparation, and was banned from taking it again by my college counselor (he said retaking it would be like grade grubbing).
AP's: Calculus BC (5), Spanish Lang (5), US History (5), Physics B (5), AP Statistics (5), AP Government (5)
GPA: 3.75 UW (really bad first semester of freshman year, and consistently bad english grades (B+/A-))
Senior Year Courseload: Honors English, AP Comp Sci, Comparative Political Systems, Non-Euclidian Geometry, AP Physics C</p>

<p>Financial Aid: No
Income Bracket: 300,000+
Ethnicity: Indian
State: CA
High School: Prestigious, private high school (always on those "top high schools in the USA" lists).
Hooks: None except for Williams, where I have a legacy (thanks mom!)</p>

<p>Summer Activities: Traveling to lots of countries with my family</p>

<p>Job at biotech firm, where I input the firm's chemical and substance inventory into a newly created database for the state</p>

<p>Camp counselor at Science camp for little kids and teens</p>

<p>Interning in Argentina's national observatory</p>

<p>Educating impoverished kids in India</p>

<p>UCLA Summer precollege program</p>

<p>Harvard SSP</p>

<p>Volunteer Hours:</p>

<p>160+ hours as a camp counselor</p>

<p>60+ hours on the admissions board of a nonprofit that helps kids from poor socioeconomic backgrounds with very few resources meet their potential</p>

<p>40 hours as an intern in Argentina's national observatory</p>

<p>25+ hours as an admissions officer for my HS (giving tours, working school fairs, open houses, speaking on panels,etc.)</p>

<p>100+ hours teaching and educating kids from slum's and villages in India</p>

<p>I don't even know how many hours from classmate tutoring through our school's program, elementary school tutoring, and middle school tutoring - probably north of 100 easily.</p>

<p>EC's:</p>

<p>Theater (have been in multiple productions)</p>

<p>Admissions Officer for School</p>

<p>On Admissions Committee for nonprofit that supplements the education of kids with very few resources</p>

<p>Co-President of Debate club</p>

<p>Co-President of club that goes and tutors at a local middle school</p>

<p>Founder and President of a Global Problems club (we fundraise to help areas of conflict/problems around the world after voting).</p>

<p>Kung Fu (Black belt)</p>

<p>Major Awards: National Merit Commended, AP Scholar with Distinction. Not too much else. I'm a published poet, if that counts (lol, I wrote the poem about finance).</p>

<p>Essays: Fairly personal, so I'm not going to share, but they were pretty darn good. 8/10 at least.</p>

<p>Other:</p>

<p>My hope, if accepted at one of these universities, would be to pursue a degree in math. While my senior year course load seems light in terms in "hardcore" math, that's only because I have already finished Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations (the last two were taken at UCLA, where the professor was blown away that I was only 16 when I took them, considering I was in the top 5-7 enrolled kids). I also may have repeated a couple things across categories the categories I created above - might have overdone it in an attempt to be accurate about everything. </p>

<p>Thank you all so much!</p>

2

<p>Obviously your test scores and grades are all good. However, since you have so many ECs and volunteer projects I can’t tell what the one thing is that really defines you and the one thing that you’re really passionate about. Now it seems that colleges are looking for only a couple of ECs that you are really dedicated to instead of a long list of things that look good on paper. Since I don’t know you, and I don’t know what you spend the most time on, I can’t say that this exactly applies to you, since you may have elaborated on one or two ECs in your essays or elsewhere. However, I can say that college counselors don’t know you either, and what they might see is just a long list of things to make you sound good.
I also think that colleges are starting to see through all of the “I saved a third-world country village from starvation” stuff on the applications, so your “educating impoverished kids in India” may not hold so much weight.
Overall I think you have a good chance at UCB and UCLA and probably Williams. I’m not familiar with Ivy stats since I’m not applying to any, but I would say that Brown and Columbia are slight reaches, only because everyone applying has remarkable stats. It also depends on if you applied early or not.
Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Thanks bigbang394! So I completely understanding what you’re saying. The thing with almost all my extracurriculars is that I love kids, and so a lot the work I do involves them in some way. While I clearly didn’t do a very good job of tying this fact into my post, I tried to make it clear in one of my college essays, and have founded a way to genuinely bring it up in almost all of my interviews. As for the “educating impoverished kids” part, I totally understand how that might come off. I actually wanted to do a program in which I would “help save starving kids in Africa,” but my parents convinced me to go to India with them. My grandma actually runs this impromptu school out of her house, in which kids from neighboring villages and slums come to learn. I was aiding my grandma for a good portion of the summer by teaching the older kids math which was becoming a little too complex for her to teach. Nonetheless, thank you for your insight! Also…bumpity, bumpity, bump.</p>

4

<p>I am also just realizing that there is a small discrepancy in the post and the title of the post; yes, I have also applied to Wash U and Caltech.</p>

5

<p>bumppppppp</p>

6

<p>@bobchillax maybe if you tell the 10 ec’s you will mention in the application people can give more accurate predictions + you have a fair shot at almost everywhere provided you can link your ec’s with your major.</p>

7

<p>@Bored1997‌ I don’t think I quite understand what you mean by the 10 ec’s that I will mention in my application. All my extracurriculars have been provided in my stats post above. Did you mean my essay topics, which I haven’t shared? </p>

8

<p>@bobchillax not all universities will allow you to submit a resume some will only allow you to send the 10 activities listed on commonapp.</p>