Chances for Ivies and Other Top Schools!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi everyone, I’m a rising senior and it’s been a little bit since I was very active on CC, but since it’s summer again I wanted to just do this for fun and get some casual feedback before college app season since I have a bit of free time for the next few days haha. Feel free to let me know and give some feedback on anything (college list, ecs, recs, etc). Thanks!

Schools Applying To (Order of Preference):

  • ED to UPenn LSM (dual degree program)/Wharton
  • Harvard
  • Stanford
  • Oxford (UK)
  • MIT
  • Princeton
  • Yale
  • Columbia
  • UChicago
  • Brown
  • Duke
  • NYU
  • UC Berkeley
  • WashU St. Louis
  • Drexel (safety, already accepted with full ride)

State: Missouri
School Type: Large Public High School (2400-2500 people)
Demographics: South Asian Male
Fields of Interest: Neuroscience/Behavior and Economics (dual major, ideally)

Test Scores:

ACT: 35 (E 36/M 36/R 33/S 35) with 10 on writing
SAT: 1560 (M 800/RW 760)
PSAT/NMSQT: 1500
SAT II: World History 800, Math II 800, Chemistry 800, Physics 800
APs: Calc BC (5), World History (5), Physics 1 (5), Comp Sci A (5)
Junior Year Courseload: AP (Chemistry, Lang, Stats, Spanish, Physics 2), non-AP (Science Research, Anatomy)
Senior Year Courseload: AP (Bio, Econ, Psych, Seminar), non-AP (Organic Chem, French 4, English)
GPA: 4.0 UW/4.67 W
Rank: No rank, but top 1% of 600 person class

Clubs/Extracurriculars (All the things on my common app):

  1. Student researcher from 2.5 years in neuroimaging lab at WashU St. Louis under a national project
  2. Founder and CEO of global youth impact firm (20-person team stationed in many different countries) promoting young entrepreneurs in emerging market countries through web-dev/media. Worked with 10 entrpreneurs to date in Africa, SE Asia, and Latin America.
  3. Summer 2019 visiting researcher at Oxford University's John Radcliffe Hospital in UK at in neuroimaging
  4. Taekwondo athlete for ~10 years. Instructor at my local Taekwondo school and state/national level competitor. Teach ages 5-50, all levels, different levels of black belts. Coaching for competitions and tournaments.
  5. Founder/Coordinator of Students for the Advancement of Interdisciplinary Science (SAIS). My team organizes an annual TED-style conference w/ community leaders to introduce peers to unique applications of science in business, law, technology, and more (STEM outreach basically -- this one's completely just for fun)
  6. 2018 summer intern at neuro-opthalmalogy lab at UPenn on neuroimaging and retinal structures
  7. Founder/President of Investment and Economics Club. Teach students about and participate stock market simulations and competitions like Wharton Investment Challenge.
  8. Regional chair of the STL Model UN and president of school MUN. Administer 2 conferences every year with over 20 schools and 500+ students and participate at intl conferences like MUNUC.
  9. Former Regional Outreach Leader at Peerlift, expanding STEM and other educational opportunities and programs to students in my community and neighboring school districts. Presented opportunities to board of directors of several school districts in local area.

Honors/Awards (ones on my common app):

  1. 2019 Intel ISEF Finalist and winner of the Drexel Scholarship Special Award (8/1842 students chosen) -- for research at WashU
  2. Master of Taekwondo under Kukkiwon (4th Dan Black Belt)
  3. Taekwondo State Level Medalist (2018 MO Gold/State Champ, 2018 IL Gold/State Champ, 2018 KS Silver)
  4. Other science research awards: JSHS State Finalist, MJAS Science Fair Winner, STL Regional Fair Winner -- for research at WashU
  5. 2017 MO State SIFMA Stock Market Simulation Winner

LORs (teachers are confirmed, outside of school not yet):

  1. Science Research Teacher (had for 3.5 years, offered to write a LOR)
  2. AP Spanish Teacher (non-native English speaker, but was very close to her and would love talking to her about linguistics and connections to global affairs -- in Spanish of course)
  3. Oxford Professor/WashU Lab Mentor (depending on the school)

Comments: Just a little bit about me, my main academic interests are mainly in the biological/computational basis of behavior and global affairs/global economy!

Will appreciate any feedback!

2

Budget?
EC’s are all over the place and aren’t long-term.
It shouldn’t be a laundry list. “Let me throw everything against the wall and see what sticks”.
Researcher? Research involves time and investment. Adcoms know this.
Is your name in ANY of the published “research” as an author?

3

@“aunt bea” Thanks for the comment. I separated research awards from my research to keep things uniform, but I’ve presented all of my work from the local up to the intl level. Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to formally publish my manuscript yet but I may be able to submit some the work I presented at ISEF or JSHS in a journal this summer.

Regarding randomness, I understand your point. I simply put 9 ecs because of the structure of common app, but my main focus is within 2 fields: neuroscience/STEM and business. Sorry if it was too much at once!

Thank you though :slight_smile:

4

Simplify it-streamline it.
The adcoms will be VERY cautious this upcoming season, given the scandal at the colleges.
Budget?

5

@“aunt bea” Ah sorry I didn’t notice the budget question. Fortunately, I’m very grateful to say that tuition isn’t a hurdle.

I hate saying this because it sounds very pretentious and stuck up, but my family’s situation is currently stable and I luckily can focus on applying to programs that suit my interests better.

6

If you will be happy and excited to go to Drexel, then you are all set. If not, add some match schools. Your whole list is reaches and high reaches.

7

Your stats and scores are fine for any of the top schools. But as you know, its a very unpredictable process. Just pick one of the top schools on your list, and apply ED. The farther down your list, the higher your chances of ED acceptance.

But the thing that caught my eye is that you are the “CEO” of a global firm that employs 20 people? How on earth did you manage to do that in high school? Did you form a corporation, create a payroll, and secured an income stream? How does someone who is a junior in high school do that? Don’t you have to be 18 to sign incorporation papers?
If I were the adcom reader, I would immediately flag this under the ‘suspicious’ category. I know you are just trying to be honest. But everyone embellishes a little. I would resist this urge. With the recent college admissions scandals, the adcoms will be super suspicious this year. If it looks too good to be true, they will assume you are not being honest.

8

Agree^. If you are already a “success”, why would you bother with school?

That’s what they’ll ask.

9

Just out of curiosity, how did you already get accepted to Drexel with a full ride before the apps even open for the year?

10

This borders on unilateral. Where’s the real kid? Right, you don’t need to be CEO to do some good. And other than more stem, what have you done for your local community, rolling up your sleeves, digging in, over time? Not onesie twosie with a club.

So many kids misread what top colleges look for. They think being “Mr Man” is all it takes. That it’s, “If I just show I’m best.” But this is holistic.

The stats are good. I’d advise you to carefully consider how you present. It’s not a job resume.

And you note WH and econ, do you have more social science, incl AP level?

11

@milgymfam, OP was an Intel finalist, Drexel gives 8 scholarships to it’s choice of the 1800+ finalists. It is a strong signal that this is a really able student.

Meaning you started in 9th grade. A 14 year old being part of a ‘national project’ would be unusual in the extreme- suggest finding a way to frame that (& your stints at UPenn at 16 and John Radcliffe, likely before you are 18) so that it makes sense to AOs.

This is a very, very odd thing to write. FL teachers are often non-native speakers. Are you suggesting that this teacher’s rec will be so good that it will in some way make up for the supposed weakness of being a non-native speaker? Similarly, the “in Spanish of course” comes across as showing off in a way that your noting that finances are not a problem does not.

RE: Oxford- you know that there is no ‘double majoring’ between neuro and econ/business at Ox, yes? You are all in on one of the other. You should make the interview cut, after that (same as everybody) it will be down to the tutors at interview- and whether it’s what you really, really want.

12

Your resume smells of wealth, connections and exaggeration, some adcoms would love it and others would hate it. It looks like your day is 36 hr long to accommodate all ECs, sports and rigorous academic load, it may raise a red flag.

13

@collegemom3717 Thanks for clarifying that about Drexel and ISEF.

Regarding the FL teacher, it surprises me that many FL teachers are actually non-native English speakers because she is the only one at my school (out of our ~20 teacher FL department). Of course this is just my very localized experience with FL teachers. This has caused many of my peers at school to question her as a good recommender, but looks like people on CC see it as perfectly fine (which is good!). Due to that circumstance, I’m actually one of the only students she’s writing a rec for, since very few people end up asking her.

That last comment was more of a casual joke, sorry if it came off as pretentious :neutral:.

When I apply to Oxford, I’d like to study Experimental Psych and Linguistics as my fields of study. I appreciate Oxford’s emphasis on the humanities (especially language), and I think this would be a great connection to global affairs based off the course description and what I’ve heard about this joint course.

14

Obviously, you don’t know much about Oxford- odd, given that you are doing a summer *in neurology[/i ]there.

Are you referring to the old trope that Cambridge = STEM / Oxford = humanities? Get yourself up to date. Oxford is higher ranked for neuro (& a fair few other sciences) than Cambridge. Similarly, Cambridge is higher ranked in some humanities subjects than Oxford.

If you take that path you will have to sell both sets of tutors (pysch & liguistics) that their subjects are where your heart really, really is, and neuro was the vehicle that got you there. Alignment of where you spend your time & the subject you are applying to study really matters at Oxford.

15

Unless you would be totally excited to attend Drexel I would look to round out your application list with some schools that fall between Drexel and NYU in terms of selectivity. As I’m sure you know it is impossible to predict admission to the very top tier colleges as there is simply not enough room for all of the well qualified candidates.

16

Sorry- that “obviously” was a bit snarky. I stand over my point, but apologize for the tone!

17

For various reasons, a FL teacher is often not the best humanities choice. Not because he/she isn a native speaker.

Do make sure you know how these schools differ, what each looks for, and how best to show that.

18

I think you are a fantastic candidate for all of the schools listed! You already are accepted to Drexel with a full ride , so you can just shoot for the stars and see what you can collect.

Other than the Intel award, I have no idea how your your activities and research are viewed by the AOs at colleges. Showcase them in your resume , with the more prominent ones first and don’t take up too much space with the older less important activities.

If accepted to Penn, you are done. Otherwise you have to join the roulette with everyone else, but you have a very good acceptance in your pocket going into this.

19

How did you find the time to do all of this??? 4 perfect scores on subject tests, almost perfect SAT/ACT, perfect GPA/AP Scores… ISEF, CEO, national athlete, and founder/leader roles in MULTIPLE other ECs?

I am a rising senior and I can barely keep up with school, dual enrollment, and publications for A SINGLE research, let alone other clubs like debate… sigh

20

Yeah, OP’s extracurriculars seem far-fetched and impossible, but I know someone with a fairly similar resume–not necessarily in all that OP does, but in the time commitment and high level. Yes, a real person.