Chances for Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and other Ivys

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello,

I would really appreciate your help chancing me for Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, MIT, and other Ivy schools.

\Also, I was wondering if you had any advice on whether I should re-take the SATs or AP tests. I am not thrilled with the SAT score and wonder if it’s worth retaking it. However, I am not sure how much incrementally better I will do, and the test is quite expensive given my financial situation. Will any incremental improvement in my score boost my chances at these target schools? Or will it not make a big difference in the grand scheme of things? Also, I wonder if there is a negative risk to taking the test twice and not showing any improvement in scoring?

Thank you very much for your help!

SAT I (breakdown): 1540 (M 790/V 750); (6 5 6 Essay)
SAT II: None
GPA (out of 4.0): roughly ~3.8-3.9 (converted from international % scale)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school does not rank, but probably would put myself in the top 5% of graduating class in terms of academics
AP (place score in parenthesis): Physics (5), Microeconomics (4), Macroeconomics (4), Calculus BC (4), Computer Science (4) (self studied and took some of these as freshman in high school, hence some 4s instead of 5s; not sure if it’s worth retaking some of these)
Major Awards: Competed in international mathematics and physics contests (won a Bronze medal); have some awards from Swimming, Chess, and DECA competitions at the city and state levels
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Vice President of DECA and FBLA (business clubs), swimming, chess, piano
Job/Work Experience: newspaper delivery, research with physics professor at local university
Volunteer/Community service: performed ~300 hours of volunteering service across various organizations, including the local library, local community center, school, etc.
Intended Major: undecided- Physics, Math, or Engineering
School Type: Public, large
Ethnicity: Asian
Income Bracket: lower middle (working class)
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): parents didn’t go to university (only community college); not sure if this helps at all, but brother is doing a graduate program at Harvard and went to another Ivy for undergrad, and his wife (my sister in law) went to Columbia

2

Your 1540 SAT1 puts you in the competitive bracket for the highly selective schools as far as test scores are concerned, so I would focus test prep time on SAT2’s. Most of the schools on your list at a minimum recommend submitting 2 SAT2 scores. Are you a junior (in which you have plenty of time) or are you a senior (you are really behind the 8 ball if that is the case). It is not worth retaking AP’s which you have already taken.