Chances For Top Ivys, Universities, and LACs? Will chance back.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone! I'm trying to assemble a list of what schools would constitute as Reach, Match, and Safety schools. I'll strive for brevity in this post, and hopefully I can receive some helpful feedback on my choices. I will chance everyone back (Just give me a link). </p>

<p>Background:
White Male from Maryland
Good Public High School, Mostly Rural, sends 1 to 4 kids to top 20 schools annually
Well-off financially but less than <150,000; Would apply for FA
Class of 2014 (Junior)</p>

<p>Academics:
Program: Most Challenging
GPA: 4.00 UW
SAT: 2220 (800CR, 690M, 730W) (One sitting)
Rank: Projected as 6/~370
AP: 3 last year, 5 or 6 this year, All 5's so far.</p>

<p>Brief Summary of ECs:
Violin (Concertmaster of a few groups)
Gay-Straight Alliance (Vice Pres)
Student Council (Treasurer)
Lots of stuff involving Chinese (Leadership where available)
Honors Societies</p>

<p>Recs/Essays/Supplements: At this point in time, I'm hoping for some really impressive recommendations: my teachers, guidance counselor, and even my principal frequently recognize me in a way I have rarely (if ever) seen. I'm also a talented writer and will probably have strong essays; I have plenty of interesting/emotional experiences I could talk about too. I think this may be one of the strongest components of my application. Depending on what my teachers think, I may submit a brief poetry supplement as well.</p>

<p>General Notes:
My rank is not at the very top despite my GPA/curriculum because of the way my freshman electives were weighted (Latin and Chinese); guidance counselor said this really wouldn't matter. No idea what happened on the SAT, but I'm expecting to have a 2330-2400 on SATs and 770+ on SAT IIs based on practice tests.</p>

<p>I'm only one of two people at my school (if not one of 5 or 6 in my county) taking the AP Chinese exam and absolutely LOVE the language and culture. After having been there (went to Western China) I've been striving for fluency. I'm one of strongest Chinese students in my class and my teacher has been giving me extra resources to learn with. It's probably one of my passions, along with community leadership (student council, GSA, other stuff) and writing. I will probably talk about these things in essays, short questions, etc.</p>

<p>~~~Schools~~~
(In no particular order)</p>

<p>High-Reach: Harvard Yale Columbia
Mid-Reach: Brown UPenn Stanford Pomona
Low Reach: Georgetown Tufts
Match: UVA UNC (both OOS)
Safety: Vassar (Have special connection), UMD College Park, Boston U</p>

<p>Planning to double-major in Chinese and another social science or humanities (not sure at this point what discipline to go into). I will apply as a Chinese or East-Asian Studies major. Brown, Yale, Columbia, Vassar, and Tufts are my top schools at the moment. I'd be happy to go to any of them and honestly have no clue which one I would enroll at. </p>

<p>Comments, Feedback, Advice? Suggestions for good schools with strong language programs and a gay-friendly environment? I will chance back :)</p>

2

<p>You have really strong scores and ECs and you’re very competitive for almost every top school. Your SAT composite is good but the math section is weak for the top schools (Harvard, Yale, etc.).</p>

<p>High-Reach: Harvard Yale Columbia
Mid-Reach: Brown UPenn Stanford Pomona
Low Reach: Georgetown Tufts
Match: UVA UNC (both OOS)
Safety: Vassar (Have special connection), UMD College Park, Boston U</p>

<p>I think ^ is really accurate, but the only thing I would change is making UVA a low reach/high match because the OOS acceptance rate is around 20% or less, and projected to be lower this year. Of the schools in the first two categories, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got into at least 2-3, but some are simply reaches for everyone. Good luck!</p>

<p>Chance me back? (title is a joke lol)</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1428544-can-i-use-yale-safety.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1428544-can-i-use-yale-safety.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>I agree with ^</p>

4

<p>Stanford is definitely a “high reach”. It is arguably more difficult than all of your other schools, perhaps save Harvard. Have you seen it’s acceptance rate? Anyway, UNC may be a low reach because the vast vast vast majority if students are in state. You seem to be qualified to apply anywhere; acceptance is often based on chance.</p>

5

<p>For some reason, Stanford has been very generous in accepting applicants from my school relative to other schools in the same range of selectivity (Unfortunately, HYP was the exact opposite). The average accepted SAT composite score was already below my current composite score. In addition to that, Stanford only graduated 1 person in my prospective major (Chinese) according the NCES data I looked at, so I brought that down from High-Reach to Mid-Reach, for the reasons mentioned above.</p>

<p>Yes I know my math section is weak hahaha I got back my Student Answer Service and found that I even missed the first question. I basically flipped out during one of the math sections, and all the questions I did miss were in that one section. I had a similar flop on the writing and missed some easy questions too… though I got an 11 essay so it brought me up quite a bit :)</p>

<p>Thank you! Chancing everyone back now.
Does anyone know of any schools with strong EAS/Chinese programs that I didn’t list?</p>

6

<p>I think you really are under selling yourself. I think the only ones to consider reaches are Harvard and Yale. I think the rest are extremely possible. Good luck</p>

7

<p>Just get your math section up! Also try doing an interesting community service project! The only real reaches you have are definitely harvard and yale! Good luck!</p>

8

<p>you’ve got a strong shot at all of these schools, and i’d say you’re most likely going to get into most of your “second tier” and below choices, but for your first tier choices (+ stanford) there will obviously be high level of equally qualified applicants. You’re application is strong/unique enough that you could end up getting into one of your top schools or stanford</p>

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<p>Also I strongly encourage you to send in music supplements to the schools that accept them! Make sure to have a strong schedule your senior year!</p>

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<p>I usually get 800’s on the practice tests in math, I just hope my math anxiety doesn’t get the best of me again!</p>

<p>I do a lot of community service for student council and am VERY involved in the community in general just because of all my student council work. So I guess I could get hours for that (same for some of the orchestra events, which count as volunteer work in many instances).</p>

11

<p>Going with your current SAT…</p>

<p>I just did some research for your schools, but realized that my projections are basically the same as collegebound’s (oh, wait, is that your own?), except that Georgetown might actually be a high (as in tough) match. That’s just my non-expert opinion though. If you really can score >2300 on your SAT, that would improve your chances for all of these schools. Your EC’s are solid, but if you have time, you can always do more…maybe academics and community service?</p>

<p>You have a very strong resume though. I envy your 4.0.</p>

<p>PS. It’s cool that you’re interested in learning Chinese. I’m Chinese, but forgot most of it from my youth. Although I go to Chinese school every Saturday, I keep on putting off actually, you know, seriously relearning it…</p>

12

<p>Thank you everyone! And yes those are my projections. I must be doing a pretty good job at predicting my chances… Let’s hope some of them come true!</p>

<p>I’m hoping I can get into at least one ivy with what I have right now, though I’ll have a lot more leadership in what I’m currently involved in by the time I’m a senior (if things go according to plan) and the scores should go up as well. I did get a 2400 on a practice test one time, but I don’t think that will actually happen on the actual exam. That said, I figure my composite will go up at least 50 points…</p>

13

<p>You have great stats! Great SAT I and IIs, AMAZING GPA, and AMAZING APs! If you show colleges how interested you are in Chinese and humanities, this is the most-likely scenario (I’m focusing on the Reaches, not bothering with the Matches and Safeties):</p>

<p>Harvard: High reach
Yale: High reach
Columbia: High reach
Brown: Reach
UPenn: Reach
Stanford: Reach
Pomona: Match
Georgetown: Match
Tufts: Match</p>

<p>I would advise you – since you have great stats – to make the Ivies your top colleges, and focus on those schools especially. If you brought your SAT I up to a 2330-2400, you would have an even better chance at the Ivies.</p>

14

<p>I think your interest in Chinese makes you very unique and definitely convey this in your app. </p>

<p>Harvard: High reach
Yale: High reach
Columbia: Low reach
Brown: Low reach
UPenn: Mid reach
Stanford: High reach
Pomona: Match
Georgetown: Match
Tufts: Be careful. Tufts is very conscious of being the “Ivy-Reject” school.
UVA UNC: Match
Vassar (Have special connection): Safety
UMD: Safety
College Park: Safety
Boston U: Match</p>

15

<p>Could someone suggest some good match schools with a strong Chinese program and a vibrant gay community? The last is probably my main criterion, because I’m going to receive a fantastic education at any top 20-30 school, but I really need to be in a place where I’m supported for who I am (which unfortunately is not exactly the case at my current school).</p>

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<p>Dude you’re a junior there’s no point of chancing you lol- you have great shots at all of those schools good luck</p>

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<p>Best of luck! Get those test scores up and be you’ll be fine. I’d look into some ‘‘diversity’’ promoting schools such as Rice/Emory. Maybe that’ll give you an edge with LGBTA</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1438214-please-chance-me-rd-cornell-duke-emory-northwestern-vanderbilt-washu-st-l.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1438214-please-chance-me-rd-cornell-duke-emory-northwestern-vanderbilt-washu-st-l.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I never had an interest in Rice after attending an information session and after plugging my financial data in to the net price calculator, I was DEFINITELY not interested in the school at all (I got barely a few thousand dollars in aid, while most other schools want me to pay half price or less). I’m not sure about Emory though.</p>

<p>I’m most looking on the East Coast for colleges, maybe a few on the west coast. </p>

<p>I don’t want to go to a school that is seriously trying to seek out LGBT diversity, because that usually gives the implication that the school has a struggling gay community, which I especially want to avoid.</p>

19

<p>bumpppppppppppp</p>

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<p>The whole chinese aspect really is good - maybe you could write your essay on the experience you had in china? Could be useful in really tying together what seems to be your “hook” </p>

<p>High-Reach: Harvard Yale Stanford
Mid-Reach: Brown UPenn Columbia
Low Reach: Georgetown UVA Pomona
Match: UNC Tufts
Safety: Vassar, Boston U
Low Safety: UMD College Park</p>

<p>UMD College Park might not even be worth the application fee. You’re a shoe-in at BU and if your connection is good as Vassar then you stand an extremely good shot there too</p>