Chances for Ivy League? Unusual case

<p>Hi, I'm a Korean student who is currently in military service, and preparing for transfer application for class of 2014. Could you guys judge my strength of my application?</p>

<p>I've finished my freshman in Carnegie Mellon University majoring in Tepper school of business. I finished my year with a 3.9 GPA, and my SAT score is 2230(Taken in 2007). My high school GPA was 3.87. TOEFL, I took in 2006 and I received 280 out of 300. I'm taking one again later this year.
My Rec letters are pretty strong, as far as I know. </p>

<p>Actually, I applied to some Ivy league schools last year 2009, but I got rejected from every school which I've applied except Georgetown. I decided not to go and try my second luck after my service terminates. (Wharton, Columbia, Chicago, Stanford rejected my application)</p>

<p>After my rejection, I worked in Boston Consulting Group as a research assistant in summer of 2009, and then started my military service as an interpreter soldier in an ammunition battalion. I'm planning to publish a book later this year about military life in Korea, and also submit an article(If possible) about defense industries in Armedforcesjournal, or defensenews. (In high school, I don't have much ECs to stand out; I was a member in a hiphop club, and the captain and co-founder of school soccer team)</p>

<p>My why essays will be mostly about military systems and defense industries. I'm currently in an ammunition battalion, so I am gaining some knowledge about weapons and defense industries. Then I began to wonder whether there would be any possible ways for the arms industries to really cooperate for peace, and stand out for peaceful terminations of international conflicts. Furthermore, I came to pose a question whether if any organizations were willing to perform on an international scale and lead this kind of movement, to resteer the current management directions of arms industries. But I sensed that CMU was lacking in supporting my research questions, and other universities that I'm trying to applying to supported and had many professors who had some interests in this field. </p>

<p>I'm thinking of applying to Yale, Stanford, Penn(I'm not sure whether I should apply to Wharton or not), Brown, Chicago, Northwestern, Cornell. All of the universities except Penn I'll apply as economics or econ-poli sci major. </p>

<p>What do you think my chances are? I'm applying next year, so I have more time than other applicants, but I just wanted to know if my chances are better than I had last time I applied for transfer. Thanks!!</p>

<p>These are transfer applications.</p>

<p>You should probably apply to a back up school because all of these could go either way. Your grades are definitely not good enough for any Ivy’s, but being in the army will make you stand out. If you’re serious about going to college, apply to back ups.</p>