Chances for Princeton, Yale and Cornell?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone I'm new here (I am a girl by the way.) I'm currently a junior and my top choice for college is Princeton. However I'm currently very shaky on my situation right now so I want to know, based on your opinions, of my possible chances of getting into Princeton, Yale, and Cornell.</p>

<p>Currently I have a 3.98 Unweighted GPA (only one B on my transcript so far which is in Honors English 10B) and 4.69 Weighted GPA (AP and Honors classes count as 5.0 score.) However, my highest SAT score so far is 1990, which really makes me feel insecure because the average SAT scores among the Asians in my school are around 2150 to 2250. (I am Chinese.) </p>

<p>Here are the classes I have taken each year (note that I tried to take the hardest classes possible for each year with a couple of exceptions)</p>

<p>9th grade: Honors English, Honors Chemistry, Honors Algebra 2, Honors Spanish 3, Dance, Foundations of Technology, and AP US History. </p>

<p>(I got a 5 on my APUSH exam and 770 on the SAT II US History Exam. I also won the academic excellency award for AP US History at my school.) </p>

<p>10th grade: Honors English, Honors Physics, Honors Biology, Honors Precalculus, Honors Spanish 4 and 5, AP US Government, Studio Art 1 </p>

<p>(I got a 5 on my AP Govt exam. I got a B in English for the 2nd semester.)</p>

<p>11th grade: Honors English, AP BC Calculus, AP World History, AP Physics C, AP Psychology, AP Studio Art</p>

<p>(I am aiming for 5's on all of these exams and I hope to get at least a 4 on my AP portfolio. I got all A's in first semester of junior year.) </p>

<p>12th grade scheduled classes: AP Language and Composition, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Human Geography, Multivariable Calculus</p>

<p>(Note that there are only 5 classes in 12th grade because Bio and Chem take up 4 periods of my schedule in total.) </p>

<p>Several majors that I am currently considering are Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Pre-Med, and Astrophysics. </p>

<p>Outside of academic work, I take ballet and Chinese folk dance classes 3-4 times a week and I have volleyball class once every week. I enjoy art very much and I have a decent amount of talent. I also enjoy dance very much as I have been dancing for nearly 14 years and have performed at interesting and famous places. </p>

<p>I also hold club leadership positions. I am president of Science National Honors Society and future vice president of a club called Future Doctors of America. I am also in other clubs: Physics Club, Organization for Humanitarian Aid, Model United Nations. I was accepted into National Honors Society this year, and I am an active participant of National Art Honors Society and Math Honors Society.
I participated in Johns Hopkins Model UN Conference this year as well.</p>

<p>I am hoping to get an internship at Johns Hopkins called Applied Physics Lab over the summer. </p>

<p>I will also give some commentary on other people's posts in this forum, and I would greatly appreciate other people's input on this topics as well. Thank you! :)</p>

2

<p>Also the other colleges I’m applying to are as follows: </p>

<p>Johns Hopkins
UCLA
Georgetown
Emory
Vanderbilt
University of Virginia
Virginia Tech
University of Maryland, College Park
University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Carnegie Mellon
Purdue
Georgia Tech</p>

3

<p>Bumppppppp</p>

4

<p>First off, Princeton, Yale and Cornell are a reach for everyone. Though you have some good EC’s and grades your SATs are really letting you down, any chance you could retake them? The same I think goes for Georgetown. I can’t speak for all the schools on your list but I would say that for you JHU, Emory, Carnegie and Vanderbilt are mid-reaches but you have a good shot of getting in… can’t speak for the rest however. Also since you’re firmly set on princeton I would advise applying early action (get you SATs up before) you might have a better chance! Good Luck</p>

5

<p>What State are you in?</p>

<p>You should take ACT to see if you can get better scores. You should also take SAT Math II if you are interested in engineering and probably SAT Physics since you are doing the AP now.</p>

<p>Ivy league is a lottery. With the best of everything, you probably still have the same probability as other applicants at 6-13%.</p>

6

<p>Thank you very much for your input! Yes I will be retaking my SATs in October and I hope I will get over 2150 and hopefully up to 2200. I feel that 2300 is an impractical goal right now unless I do make huge improvements over the summer. And I will apply early action to Princeton :slight_smile: I’m well aware that the Ivy League process is very grueling so I will be very happy if I get into the mid-20’s ranked schools.</p>

7

<p>I live in Maryland and I go to a school that is highly populated by Asians which makes it very difficult to stand out against other extraordinary applicants. I will consider taking ACTs if I have time over the summer to study for both standardized tests.</p>

<p>Also I will be taking my SATs for Math II, Physics, and World History in June. I am aiming for 800 on Math and above 760 for Physics and World History.</p>

8

<ol>
<li>You need to raise that SAT.</li>
<li>What makes you special, compared to everyone else? What makes your activities different? Your ECs are great, but not over-the-top, which will likely be a liability for you.
An Ivy is a reach for everybody, but if you don’t differentiate yourself, it’s going to be even more difficult.</li>
</ol>

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<p>I’m not sure if this will help my application very much (I haven’t mentioned the small details yet) but I am locally well-known for my dance solos that I perform annually (especially for Chinese New Year.) My solo dances usually incorporate a lot of acrobatic moves and interesting character plot. I’ve performed at places such as the Strathmore Center, National Mall, in front of the Jefferson Memorial and Kennedy Center, and also at several high schools and colleges (such as University of Maryland and Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University.) I’ve also been on the Chinese local newspapers very often because of my solo dances (and a reporter wrote a short biography about me when I was 10 years old.) Recently last summer, I received the opportunity to perform at the Shanghai Expo 2010. I’m not limited to ballet and Chinese folk dance, as I also do modern/contemporary and jazz dance. </p>

<p>For art, I have been doing Chinese calligraphy/painting since 4th grade and I have taken sketching classes before. Right now, I do art for enjoyment and charity purposes. In National Art Honors Society, I participated in the Memory Project which is where I draw a portrait of an orphan and send the portrait to him/her along with a letter. I intend to get more involved in the organization that takes care of these orphans and perhaps expand charity ideas and make unique fundraisers to send money and support to these children (I hope I will get elected as an officer for NAHS, once the elections go underway.)</p>

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<p>***I believe what makes me special is that I have unique interests. I love the sciences and math, but I am very into dance and art, which are essentially polar opposites. I consider myself a well-rounded student because I’m strong in humanities (history, art) as well as sciences (I enjoy biology and chemistry, but I have grown very fond of physics over the 2 years despite all the stress and headaches I’ve gotten from learning this difficult material.) However, I think my greatest pitfalls are English (my CR scores are always the lowest), foreign languages, and my test taking abilities. Because of the extreme pressure I feel from my friends and peers who do extraordinarily well in schools, especially on tests, I tend to crack under pressure whenever I take standardized tests, which would result in me obsessing over the correct answer on a question and losing time to finish each sections. I’m trying my best to move away from this habit. </p>

<p>And for the EC’s, I explained my dancing/art careers in more detail in the above post. ^ </p>

<p>And one of my unique qualities is that I want to exceed my parent’s expectations. My parents just want me to have a happy, simple life and does not expect much from me in terms of grades (they are fine with B’s.) However, they sometimes overlook my achievements and accomplishments so I feel very motivated to get into a top-tier college to “wow” them and make them feel proud. </p>

<p>But thank you for your input! ***</p>

11

<p>Like others have said–the ivies are basically lottery among qualified candidates.
RAISE THAT SAT!!! or take the ACT!!!
that is the best advice i have for you. make sure you have some schools you would want to go that are easy ins.
Good luck!</p>

12

<p>Thank you! My safety schools are Purdue, UMD, and Virginia Tech. :slight_smile: And I’m perfectly fine with going to UMD for school.</p>

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<p>You will easily make it into those safeties :slight_smile:
chance me back</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1133349-northwestern-university-chances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1133349-northwestern-university-chances.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

14

<p>Hey,
I’m a 2015 Princeton admit, so I can maybe give you a bit of info of how we compare academically and extracurricularly.
Just reading your academic record makes me a bit jealous; your AP schedule is intense this year, and I hope you do well (I took BC calc, AP Gov and AP Bio last year, and the workload was tough; ended up with 5s though, so that was good!)
Your GPA is a bit better than mine, and your classload is a bit more intensive, so I’d say that academically, you’re doing great, but do really try for 5s on those APs, that’ll certainly look good. Your SAT is a bit surprising; it definitely seems like you’re stronger as a math/science student than an english student, so if that’s keeping your overall score low, at least try to load up on SAT IIs that play to your strengths. No matter what though, you should really try to improve that score; just for reference, mine was a 2330.
Your extracurricular dance work seems very impressive; if possible, I’d try to use it for some community service as well, if you haven’t already.
So, overall, I’d call you a very well qualified candidate. Your two biggest hurdles now are bringing your SATs up, and writing great essays. Since you’re not as strong in english, make sure you start early, and have at least one great editor who is willing to help you with all of your writing for the apps. Essays are a great way to differentiate yourself from other top students academically, and show your personal voice, so don’t neglect them.
I wish you the best of luck, and hope to see you at Princeton next year!</p>

15

<p>I know that everyone is telling you to raise your SAT and I believe that you should. You must understand going into this process that Asians are overrepresented which means, that you are competing with other amazing Asians for spots. At my school all the URMs got the spots at Stanford and Princeton. As one of the 3 asians who got into a Top 10/ Ivy, I can tell you scores aren’t everything, but you definitely need to get a high score. I got a 35 on my ACT and got into 3 Ivies of the 5 I applied to. Just remember, as Asians, we are disadvantaged, but we need to take that in stride while competing for a seat in college. Enough of that for your schools, I will rank them with your current score in mind</p>

<p>Princeton probably not high high reach
Yale High high reach
Cornell high reach. it had a 18% acceptance rate this year, just get your scores up
Johns Hopkins. lower reach than cornell. IF you ED here, I am pretty sure you will get in
UCLA crapshot. with a 21% acceptance rate, I would say mid reach
Georgetown mid reach
Emory low reach
Vanderbilt low reach
University of Virginia low reach
Virginia Tech match
University of Maryland, College Park match
University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) high match
Carnegie Mellon high match
Purdue low match
Georgia Tech low match</p>

<p>Good Luck. Don’t overlook Penn!!</p>

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<p>Thank you very much! I’m curious of what your extracurricular activities are :slight_smile: I’m also slightly worried that I do not participate enough in competitions like most other qualified candidates and that I do not win enough awards for competitions. I will definitely do my best to raise my SAT score by a lot. ^^</p>

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<p>Thank you! Yes I understand very well that Asians are disadvantaged so I feel that getting into at least the mid-20’s schools would be very impressive. However, how come Princeton would be considered not a high high reach for me while Yale and Cornell are a high reach? O.o Nevertheless thank you very much for chancing me ^^</p>

18

<p>Bumping this up.</p>

19

<p>Actually, I heard that now that Princeton and Harvard are re-starting their Single Choice Early Action programs, it will actually be HARDER to get in during those early rounds because the competition will be absolutely amazing. All of the super genius national champions of everything are apparently applying to those 2 schools early, and I’ve been told that only super duper competitive people should apply then (when I asked a couple of people in the world of adcoms that’s what they said)… If you think that’s you, go ahead, but if not, maybe you should reconsider and apply somewhere else early (so atleast you’ll feel better if you get into that other place early on) and then apply regular to Princeton. Good luck either way…</p>

20

<p>Thank you for the input. I am applying early action to Georgetown, Yale, and UNC. I heard that UVA will institute Early Action (not 100% sure) so hopefully I will be somewhat successful :)</p>