Chances for Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Caltech

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Student:</p>

<p>User Name: siegfried24
Gender: M
Ethinicity: Asian
Location: California
College Class Year: 2011
High School: Public
High School Type: Not too competitive, 2 national merit semifinalists out of senior class (a bit over 500)
Will apply for financial aid: no</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 4.00
GPA - Weighted: 4.83
Class Rank: Somewhere in top 5%</p>

<p>Note: My school has the IB program but I did not join to focus more on tennis. Will this hurt my chances?</p>

<p>Sophomore Year (all A's)</p>

<p>English 2H
Bio AP
World History H
Chem H
Pre-Calc H
Spanish 3
Varsity Tennis</p>

<p>Junior year (all solid A's so far)</p>

<p>English 3H
AP Chem
APUSH
AP Calc BC
Spanish 4H
AP Psych
Varsity Tennis</p>

<p>Scores: </p>

<p>SAT I:
CR: 800
MA: 800
WR: 780 (11 essay)
Probably not going to re-take</p>

<p>SAT II:
-Math II: 800
-Bio(M): 770
^ will take Chem and USH next year</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Significant Extracurriculars:
-Tennis: #1 in age group in Southern California as a sophomore
Top 10 in nation as a sophomore</p>

<h1>1 in age group in Southern California as a junior</h1>

<p>*Not recruited at H Y or S. I skipped a grade so I'm competing with kids a year older than me. I'm around #60 nationally for class of 2011 which unfortunately won't be high enough.</p>

<p>Tennis Community Serivce: I spent 4 hours a week last summer teaching tennis to underprivileged kids in the South LA/Compton area. It was quite an experience and caused me to reconsider my goals concerning tennis - more on that later.</p>

<p>Science Research: Last summer I did a biomedical engineering internship at UCI. I really enjoyed it and I am going to apply to several summer research programs on the East Coast for next summer.
- I may do some sport science tennis-related research as well just for fun.</p>

<p>Leadership positions:
(Not including volunteer/service work leadership positions mentioned below)
Asian Cultures Club President - We raise money for Asian tragedy victims, teach students about the different Asian cultures, etc. nothing too significant</p>

<p>Volunteer/Service Work:
Key Club Treasurer - I'm pretty involved in this - around 80 hours a year since freshman year so over 300 by the time I graduate
Volunteer at a hospital - around 125 hrs
California Scholarship Federation (largest club at our school with several hundred members) - Technology Commissioner, I keep a database on member participation/records.</p>

<p>Honors and Awards:
Plenty of school ones such as Departmental Awards in Science/Math
Tennis awards - MVP, sportsmanship, captain beginning sophomore year
Piano - Certificate of Merit Advanced, placed at a festival or two. Nothing special.</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure I'll qualify for AIME this year.
I hope that with my research next summer I can do well in Intel/Siemens.</p>

<p>Uncertainties: I don't plan on playing college tennis, except possibly at MIT/Caltech where the athletic atmosphere is much more relaxed and I feel I can concentrate a lot more on academic activities. So I'm not sure if being ranked so high will be helpful or not...</p>

<p>What are your opinions on my chances at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT and Caltech? Any advice is welcome as well.</p>

<p>Thanks for your time and thoughtful input. I appreciate it.</p>

2

<p>I think you have relatively great chance. You’re a very strong applicant (althoug you are Asian), but there are many of those. You cannot be sure, but you should try it.</p>

3

<p>GPA 4.0 and nearly perfect test scores: you’re the top of their acceptance range on all counts. So, what I’d suggest to you is that you show passion in whatever you’d major in and you’d probably get in easily. Your application is extremely impressive and highly intimidating. Get some great letters of recommendation from people that might be related to the field you go into. For the record: I am jealous of your accomplishment.</p>

4

<p>Dude you can get recruited if you are in the top 100. Maybe not as actively as you’d like, but I promise that it can happen. I have had friends get recruited to ivies that ranked in the 130s.</p>

<p>You’re still likely to get in to most of those places.</p>

5

<p>Woah…these are some of the best stats i’ve seen. 0_0 Your tennis skills are also amazing, so if you can focus on that in your essay, you should be a shoo-in. At an ivy league school. Which I think is downright amazing.</p>

6

<p>I’m not great at this but here is my chance to you from what I know:</p>

<p>Harvard - mid-reach
Yale - low-reach</p>

<p>I hate to say it but not taking IB classes will definitely hurt you chances a bit. Colleges know when your school offers AP or IB classes. Ivy leagues and top schools obviously look to see if you’re succeeding at the hardest of hard classes your school has. So if it’s not too late, try to take a few IB classes.</p>

<p>Other than that, the GPA and SAT scores are fantastic. </p>

<p>Harvard is incredibly picky (obviously). My friend last year applied ED with a 2400 and as the salutatorian, and perfect with everything else but got deferred. She goes to Yale now.</p>

7

<p>This is something an Ivy league admissions office will definitely consider and look at. But your junior schedule is weak–no AP English? Taking and passing with a 5 on AP English is clearly expected from any prospective Ivy league student. Since you’re unfortunately not in an AP/IB English, you should strongly consider taking the AP exam without the course. Also, take other AP exams that your school doesn’t offer–thats a huge bonus.</p>

<p>Besides academics, your extracurriculars aren’t strong enough. Yeah, you have mad tennis skills, but what I’ve realized from what Ivy League is looking for is the high quality of leadership skills. Being a president for your NHS club will put you way above the admissions process, since NHS is humongous. </p>

<p>Other than that…keep on scoring those A’s</p>

8

<p>Your stats are spectacular. Had a question about your post: *I skipped a grade so I’m competing with kids a year older than me. *</p>

<p>My niece is a nationally ranked tennis player and she told me that the age group you compete with is based on your age, not your grade. So why would it matter that you skipped a grade?</p>

<p>As for chances: amazing scores. Tennis: can you be recruited? (I know you said no, but why not?) Some of the less than positives: 1) you’re Asian, 2) you don’t have any work experience 3) you turned down an IB program, colleges won’t like that 4) your involvement in sci research gets you into Intel/Siemens. How much of that is your own work? 5) you participate in many stereotypical <em>sorry</em> Asian activities (volunteer at hospital, involved in an Asian Culture Club. Strong in tennis/Math/Sci)… you might need to break out of those traditional avenues. 6) your leadership and ECs look so-so.</p>

<p>Remember, it’s not just great scores that’ll get you in. Tennis would help, but you say you’re not getting recruited, so i don’t know.</p>

9

<p>Hi! I’m the one who did the NIH internship. Honestly, you’re a very strong applicant for any of those schools and I would say you’re even way stronger than I am. So, if the only reason you want to do it is make your app stronger i wouldn’t, because it is already strong enough. If however, you truly love science I recommend applying. ( P.S I also replied your pm)</p>