Chances for Ivies? What could be my matches?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Asian (LMAO)

ACT: 35
New SAT: 1550 (retaking)
SAT II: Math 2: 800, Chem: 800
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0? (IDK my school goes on 100 point scale but I got 2 92s freshmen year)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/~220 (valedictorian; highest weighted GPA of the classes of 2015, 2016, 2017)
AP (place score in parenthesis): World 5, Calc BC 5, Lang 5, Chem 5, US 5, Micro 4
Senior Year Course Load: 5 AP’s
Awards
-Qualified to the State Math Tournament by being a top performer in my region of the state (Our team placed 3rd at states but I couldn’t attend; should I mention in my applications?)
-All-State Violinist by achieving a perfect score in my state level audition
-Harvard Book Award
-Regional Science Fair 2nd place in Chemistry
-School Departmental Awards in Math, Science, History, Independent Research, Spanish, Arts/Music, Athletic Achievement

[ *] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-Math Team ( 9-12, Captain): A Team Starter, Advanced to the State Competition, Hold and Organize team practices. Am usually the top scorer for our team

-Local County Math Circle (9-12): Attend a local county math circle for motivated math students. held at a local university. 2 hour meetings each week

-Co-Founder and lead role in Science Club (10, 11). Weekly meetings with group or individual scientific challenges. Won some of the challenges

-Student government Secretary (9-12). Help organize spirit weeks, fund raisers, etc.

-Varisty Tennis Team Captain (8-12). Play singles for our varsity tennis team, starter since eighth grade, Winner of the scholar athlete award (9, 10, 11), rookie of the year award. All-League, All-Conference, and All-Section Honors

-School Orchestra concertmaster (9-12). Lead orchestra in tuning, bowings, fingerings, etc. We won first place at the Music in the Parks Competition 2015, and second place in the same competition in 2016

-School Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster (9-12)

-Local county youth orchestra (9-12). First violin. Play annual concert at Carnegie Hall

-Piano for many years. Earned top distinction at state music audition/competition

-4 honor societies-2 leadership positions (President and Secretary)

[ *] Job/Work Experience:
-Student Researcher at Ivy League University (10,11). Collected data and learned laboratory techniques: PCR, Western Blot, cell culturing, etc. Over 300 hours of research time in the lab. Wrote my paper on my own original research. Submit to Siemens, Regenerron (prob won’t win)

-Unique tennis job; unique not saying for privacy (9, 10, 11) 180 hours total

[ *] Volunteer/Community service (~200 hours total)
-Tutor (10, 11, 12). Help hispanic students in my school with math. Also lead end of year finals reviews for high school students. Go to the elementary schools weekly to help kids with homework (75 hours)

-Violin community service (10, 11) (80 hours)

-Volunteer tennis camp counselor (11). Helped run a camp designed for autistic children and other children with disabilities (30 hours)

2

There’s no point to retaking the SAT if you have a 1550. Colleges will think you’re shallow and overly obsessed with testing perfection.

3

While I don’t agree with @RoundGenius that colleges will think you’re shallow (they probably won’t notice or care), I don’t think you need to retake. I think you have a good shot but you sound stereotypical Asian I have to say.

Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Penn- High reach
Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth- Reach

You must realize that all these school are unique and “Ivy” does not mean the right fit. What do you want to do? Start with that then see what schools fit that. I think some good matches would be UCLA, Michigan, Virginia, UNC.

4

I second @drewharrahill, no college will think you’re shallow… Ivies won’t even notice… they spend like 15 minutes on an entire application. Plus, the application is extremely stereotypical asian, which can be a bad thing at IVY league universities. Basically pre med, a racket type sport, orchestra, math / science olympiad.

Plus, by saying you are applying to IVY league schools is basically saying you are applying to a sports league haha, apply to a school because you enjoy the feeling and environment, not because you feel like the name will give you so much. I’m not saying Ivy’s are bad, they just need to have a reason behind them.

5

@RoadTriptoCollege2017 You nailed it except the pre med part lol. How do you think I can beat the stereotype and improve my app in general?

6

@drewharrahill I will definitely look more into those schools. I actually visited UVA and liked it a lot so I will be applying there.

7

I agree with what others have said.

  1. no point in retaking the SAT

2)Yes, you do come off as a “typical Asian,” but you can overcome that through unique essays

  1. no one can really chance you for Ivies since they’re so unpredictable.

  2. make sure you are only appliying to schools that you genuinely like. And even when people say that they think that all 8 ivies would be a perfect fit for them, that’s nearly impossible.

Make your choices wisely and good luck!

8

The stereotype isn’t technically the worst thing in the world. What it means, you are competing against all of the other ‘stereotypical asian’ students, the ones that go to nationals and internationals and win in all the events I had previously listed. Personally I’m not experienced or accredited to give you a personal recommendation, but college services that are have done extreme things such as not reporting the racquetball sport at all. You can probably search and find the article I am talking about since its pretty specific