Chances for junior @ ivies and others? pleeaaase let me know

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>These are the schools I'm interested in. Could you evaluate my chances for some/all of them? : Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Brown, Harvard, Yale, University of Minnesota T.C., MIT, Columbia, Swarthmore, University of Chicago, Princeton.</p>

<p>I live in MN and I'm half-asian (i've heard that will hurt my chances :P). I also go to a pretty small competitive private school. We don't have many honors classes, except in math, and so far I've taken the most demanding courses at my school.</p>

<p>Stats</p>

<p>GPA: 3.95 uw (my school doesn't weight grades)
Rank: 1/100
PSAT: 225 (69 76 80), almost certain that I will be at least a semi-finalist
other tests to be taken soon. anticipating >2250 on SAT and >750 on each SAT II</p>

<p>9th grade schedule</p>

<p>Honors Advanced Algebra: A
Choir: A
Freshman English: A
Beginning Chem/Phys (required for all freshmen): A
Chinese III: A
Ancient History: A
Health: A
Physiology: A</p>

<p>10th grade...</p>

<p>Honors Trig/Precalc/Stats: A
Sophomore English: A
Chemistry: A
Molecular Biology: B+/A-
Chinese IV: A
Religion: A
AP Euro: A</p>

<p>Junior Year</p>

<p>AP Calc AB: A
North American Lit.: A
Physics: A
Chinese V: A
AP Chem: A
AP US History: A -</p>

<p>AP Biology (I'm taking this one online through Northwestern CTD): A</p>

<p>I'm a strong candidate for the highest gpa award at the end of this year, as well as for a foreign language award, and the history award (yes an A- is the highest grade in the class). english distinction probably too.</p>

<p>Senior Year (planned)</p>

<p>AP Calc BC
AP English Lang.
AP Physics
Chinese VI
Advanced Research
Ethics
Economics I/II</p>

<p>AP Statistics through Northwestern</p>

<p>School Awards: one each year for having the highest gpa, headmaster's list, english department distinction award in 10th grade, cum laude this year</p>

<p>ECs:
Piano - won/placed in a few state competitions, won about $4000 in prizes total, played on music da camera national tv, invited to and participated in Vienna International Music Seminar summer after my freshman year. This fall I was accepted into the University of Minnesota school of Music through PSEO and now the state will cover the cost of my lessons. </p>

<p>Karate - second degree black belt</p>

<p>School Newspaper - Grade 9: contributing writer Grade 10: staff writer Grade 11: News Editor Grade 12: Editor in Chief</p>

<p>Quiz Bowl: co-captain since 9th grade</p>

<p>Math League: highest scorer on my team, team leader</p>

<p>Community Service: Tutored elementary school children in 9th and 10th grade, about 50 hrs. per year. Teaching 1st graders Chinese this year. I also play piano at a local nursing home every week and I'll have 100+ hours from that when I apply to schools.</p>

<p>Summer Experiences: </p>

<p>2003: Vienna International Musicseminar, placed 6th in international competition there, and performed in 3 concerts. Traveled to Florence and Venice after that.</p>

<p>2004: Traveled to China for 3 weeks. Did the People to People Leadership Summit for Medicine and Healthcare. Took a CTY class called History of Disease.</p>

<p>2005: I'm either going to do science research through a very selective program, science research through my school, or maybe telluride, depending on which ones I get into.</p>

<p>If you could let me know what those chances are I would REALLY appreciate it!!!</p>

2

<p>Northwestern-match
Johns Hopkins-match
Duke-match
Brown-match
Harvard-reach
Yale-reach
University of Minnesota T.C.- safety
MIT-reach
Columbia-match/reach
Swarthmore-match
University of Chicago-match
Princeton-reach</p>

3

<p>you seem to have a hook in music. In my opinion, you have a decent chance at all of them.</p>

4

<p>thanks for the feedback! anyone have any other advice?</p>

5

<p>Northwestern- match
Johns Hopkins- match
Duke- match
Brown- match
Harvard- this is a reach for everyone, but you have a good shot
Yale- same as Harvard
University of Minnesota- dont know much about this school, but it looks like a safety
MIT- reach
Columbia- slight reach
Swarthmore- match
University of Chicago- definite match
Princeton- same as Harvard and Yale</p>

<p>You have really good stats, should have a great chance at any school you apply to.</p>

6

<p>Hey, I took CTY History of Disease too. Where'd you take it? Who was your teacher?</p>

7

<p>frainy - I took it at Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University. My teacher's name was Chia. What about you?</p>

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<p>I took it at Loyola Marymount too. But the summer before you I think. It's good that you didn't have the teacher I had. I can't remember his name, maybe Mike? He was really strange, and didn't seem that qualified. MaN, he was really bad. He basically just made us take notes all the time. I thought that the program was really fun however, and I guess I did learn a huge amount. It was a great experience to be around so many intelligent students. Did you say you took Cty before your junior year? I didn't know that you could do that. Who was your RA? I had Tara C.</p>

9

<p>thats really funny! I definitely heard of Mike from some people who took History of Disease the year before me, they said he was super moody and stuff. I think Chia was pretty good, but our TA was really not the nicest person. Overall, I definitely learned a ton too, I'm sad that I can't do it again (you have to be under 17 i think) :( My RA....her name was Rachel. Didn't really like her though she treated us like 5 year olds.</p>

10

<p>I just bopped over here from the retake SAT II Math IIC thread, and I see you are from MN. My son (also "half-Asian") was in Lancaster CTY last summer--some of his hallmates were in the history of disease class, but he was in another class. </p>

<p>"I also go to a pretty small competitive private school." </p>

<p>I wonder which one that is. You should be a lock for acceptance at U of MN TC if you do well in the PSEO course(s). </p>

<p>Has anyone ever told you about the AMC math contests?</p>

11

<p>Why don't you have Carleton, Macalester and Stanford on your list. Those are great universities that are in keeping with the schools on your list.</p>

<p>You have a shot at all the universities on your list. Minnesota-Twin Cities is a shoe-in.</p>

12

<p>All this looks great and all, but wait a second. You're asian. (Or half, anyway.) Which basically means the piano and karate stuff is null. (Sorry, but almost every single asian applicant has piano awards racked up.) Unless this Vienna International Music Seminar business is actually some serious business, I can't say I know. If this is really big time stuff then I apologize.</p>

<p>Here's what I predict.</p>

<p>Northwestern will probably take you because you were editor in chief of your paper. Every kid who goes there was the editor of their school papers. Write a good essay though just in case. They are suckers for good essays.</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins will also probably take you.</p>

<p>I'm not sure about Duke, but I'll give you a good chance.</p>

<p>Brown will probably not take you. They like artsy ones. They also like foreign languages a lot and you having Chinese will probably not do anything because of your ethnicity. </p>

<p>Harvard will probably not take you. You're not from a New England prep school so you're vying for like what, one of 4 spots? </p>

<p>Yale and Princeton might take you.</p>

<p>MIT and Columbia might not take you because they are *******s like that.</p>

<p>I don't know enough about Swarthmore to judge.</p>

<p>You'll get into U of C because their entire school is Asian and obsessed with getting straight As.</p>

<p>U of M is obviously going to take you.</p>

<p>(Guess which one of those schools I go to, haha)</p>

13

<p>thanks for the input everyone, but - yikes, do i have the option of saying that i'm caucasian? should i?</p>

14

<p>check your birth certificate/school transcript/wherever else it may be recorded (especially your transcript, of course)</p>

<p>but it might not be on there, i know it is where i'm from, but i'm not sure if that's universal</p>

15

<p>You have the option of saying NOTHING about your ethnicity on the common application. </p>

<p><a href="http://app.commonapp.org/index.cfm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://app.commonapp.org/index.cfm&lt;/a> </p>

<p>"The following items are optional" is what it says at the heading of the box asking for ethnic self-identification data. I've heard that something like 20 percent of the applicants at many top schools decline to self-identify as members of a particular ethnic group. (Check the common data set information for some of the schools you are interested in to check this.) </p>

<p>I recently had an interesting conversation with an African woman (a first-generation immigrant from a country in central Africa) who has a daughter here in MN whose dad is "white." So the daughter could self-designate as "white," or "black," or maybe as something else on some ethnic identification forms. The mother REFUSES to let her daughter, whom I have met and whom most Minnesotans would, I think, identify as "black," to check off "black" on those forms, because she doesn't want her daughter to gain opportunities through anything but her achievements--not the color of her skin. (The daughter has considerable achievements, by anyone's standards.) </p>

<p>Other people take a different approach. I like to check "other" and write in "human" on most forms that ask for ethnic identification. I think I will advise my son to omit that information entirely when applying for college, to make the point that he is human, period.</p>