Chances for Wharton, Cornell, top schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Well there are a lot more people here, so I'll just make another thread</p>

<p>Right now I'm looking at</p>

<p>Wharton(reach?)
Cornell(match?)
Duke
Dartmouth
UVA
UNC Chapel</p>

<p>This is from my thread in the UPenn forum
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
Asian male, I'm thinking of applying for early-decision for Wharton if I have a decent chance (or should I just apply early for Cornell, which I'm sure I have a much better chance at getting into?)</p>

<p>All A's as soph/fresh, 4 honors classes in each of those grades</p>

<p>Junior
AP Comp Science -A
AP US History - A
AP Stat - A
AP Calc AB - A
Honors Physics - A
Honors English - B (yeah..i know, but 11th grade honors english in my school is the hardest course, even harder than AP english)</p>

<p>Senior
AP Chem
AP Physics
AP Gov/Econ
AP Calc BC
Honors English (cant do AP english with a B in honors last year)</p>

<p>Sat's
Math: 770
Reading: 760
Writing: 780
Total: 2310</p>

<p>PSAT: 224</p>

<p>Activities
Fresh:
Swimming
Republican Club
Outdoor track</p>

<p>Summer: Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth</p>

<p>Soph:
National Honor society
Cross country
Indoor track
Outdoor track</p>

<p>Summer: took a course at community college Intro to Math (waste of time, i know)</p>

<p>Junior
National Honor society
Cross country
Indoor track
Outdoor track</p>

<p>Summer: I'm going to the Penn. Gov. School of Excellence (5 week program thats pretty competitve to get in)</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a finalist with my PSAT score of 224.
I have some other minor awards like winning the debate tournament at CTY, age group awards for local races, but nothing spectacular</p>

<p>I'm in PA, medium-level competitive school, not many Asians around here (good for me), I know I'm in the top 3% of ~400 kids. I'm very intelligent (my SAT score is w/o studying), I've slacked off a lot and managed to get all A's except for English this year. I've often felt contempt at the whole college application process and I'd rather have a few hours to chill every day instead of filling up every waking hours with extracurricular activities that i didnt ENJOY. I've often had the attitude "OK, I think it's stupid to show that you're a caring person by volunteering when, in actuality, you are only doing it to put an extra line on your resume".</p>

<p>There are three things about me that might set me apart from the typical math/science/academic/piano Asian, but I'm not sure if it's enough to give me a chance at Wharton.</p>

<p>I'm thinking that if I do apply, these would make good essay topics?:</p>

<p>e Bay - For the entirety of my sophomore, I ran an online business selling items for a multiplayer RPG game (I had to build massive connections to do this sort of thing single-handedly while spending only 2 hours a day on it).
Basically, I was an e Bay level PowerSeller with my own e Bay store and around $25,000 PROFIT in one year. I regret stopping after a year, but e Bay no longer allows the selling of virtual items. So.... this is the big IF: how much weight would my entrepreneurship carry?</p>

<p>Running - I'm not good at all, but I love it. I'm a LONG DISTANCE runner, so the amount of time I put into it is often underestimated. I run 30+ miles a week almost year-round. I have 2+ hours of practice pretty much every weekday of the school year, I run by myself every weekend, I train over the summer (last summer I logged over 300 miles). Now I'm naturally not a good runner, so I haven't won any awards except for local road races... whereas if I had spent all this time on an instrument, for example, I would probably be very, very good. Would colleges care about the extraordinary amounts of time and passion that you put into an activity that you're not that good at?</p>

<p>Bodybuilding - Again, this is an activity that dedicate large amounts of time to for its intrinsic value, not how well it would look on a resume. I started half a year ago, but it takes far more than the 3 hours a week that I put in at the gym; I've spent 10+ hours a week for the past few months reading up on bodybuilding topics. Anyone who has done it knows that bodybuilding is not as simple as it sounds. Should this even be on my resume? I know it would probably make a good essay topic, as I've almost doubled most of my lifts. This is completely on my own initiative and on my own time, which is probably a disadvantage for me, because there's no school bodybuilding club, competitions, etc. that would make my efforts "official".</p>

<p>Sorry for the long thread. I just want an honest assessment so I know whether or not I'm wasting my time. I am not very knowledgeable about the whole college app. process at all.

[/quote]
</p>

2

<p>I know you can get Duke and Chapel Hill no problem. People much lower in every area then you have gotten them.</p>

3

<p>Yeah and UVA is prob. a safety</p>

<p>Also, I posted this in the other thread</p>

<p>
[quote]

Also... in 8/9 grade I had a different e Bay venture that I did on and off.. not big really, netted about $2000. Is this worth mentioning to convey consistency, if nothing else?</p>

<p>And 9th grade Republican Club.. I actually worked the polls for Bush (something I regret now), but should I put that in my application or should I leave it out because of possible political differences? It doesn't mean much anyways :/

[/quote]
</p>

4

<p>totally off-topic, but how do you run 2 hours a weekday and still only have 30 miles a week? thats like 20 minute miles there. </p>

<p>on topic, ivies are a crapshoot, but youve got a good as shot as any</p>

5

<p>Alright thanks, after 3 threads that's basically the consensus</p>

<p>And as for the running, practices are with the team. They usually begin 20 minutes after school to give you time to get changed, 10 minute warmup, 20 minute stretching, etc. Actually it tends to be up to 3 hours before I get home. And a lot of my mileage during the school year are higher intensity intervals, like 6 x 1200's (3 laps each) with a recovery time in between each. In the summer I worked up to 50 miles/week but they were slow and easy. So I get home at 5-6, and then I need 2 "recovery hours" after a hard practice/meet because I just want to relax and eat. </p>

<p>I know this isn't anything special for anyone dedicated to a year-round sport, but if I had had an extra 3-5 hours a day, it would've mean a hell of a lot of debate tournaments, volunteering, and time for clubs. Or maybe I would have just sat at home and did absolutely nothing.</p>

6

<p>hey what gov school are u goin to?? im goin to sciences</p>

7

<p>Information, Society, and Technology.. was going to do global entrepreneurship but a friend recommended IST</p>

8

<p>I listed weightlifting on my activities list, not sure if it helped though. Of couse, I had been at it for 2 hours a day for the 3 solid years and not just 6 months.</p>

9

<p>You have a good chance, not much more you can say in this forum.</p>

10

<p>Good chance for all of them. Try to do ECs that you truly enjoy and it will stand out.</p>

11

<p>renix: yeah, it sounds pretty pathetic on paper, I just started after I got injured in the beginning of indoor track and it's been very hard to do while running track/xc since they conflict with each other. </p>

<p>But by the time I apply it'll be a year and that'll probably count for something more than a year of student council, for example?</p>

<p>gryffon, diginet: thanks, that's what everyone's been saying. I was going to start up my business again (with my own website instead of e bay) this summer anyways.</p>

<p>So I didn't plan this at all (I really didn't think about college at all before this week when I visited Cornell), but it's going to look like this:</p>

<p>8-9 grade: small time e Bay selling, about $2000-3000
10th grade: powerseller silver level, e bay store $25000
11th grade: e bay bans selling virtual stuff
end of 11th grade: start my own site to continue business(money is good too)</p>

<p>Hopefully I wont need any leadership activities? Oh well</p>

12

<p>NO CHANCE ANYWHERE!!!!!</p>

<p>jk jk... c'mon, with good essays and recs u r probly in</p>

13

<p>i think you have good grades and scores but im sorry to say i don't know why everyone is saying that you've got great chances sure you have the scores but hardly any ecs and no commmunity service</p>

14

<p>Haha snake, I actually tend to agree with you</p>

<p>Either colleges will really really like my e Bay business.. or I don't really have any business applying</p>

<p>But I dont think anyone knows for sure</p>

15

<p>wow holy crap somebody else who is a bodybuilder. Never thought I'd find somebody like that on here. I am a bodybuilder also. You say that there are no competitions -- that is totally wrong. There are local competitions year round in which you could compete in; I've competed in two and placed fifth in both (one out of 22 contestants, the other out of 13) ..good luck, and hopefully we'll get into a school together ;)</p>

16

<p>Yeah I imagined it would be rare on here</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice, but I'm not in any shape to win any comps right now... only started in Jan. and I've had to gain strength w/o gaining mass because of my runing.. the whole low reps high weight thing while eating SLIGHTLY above maintenance. My lifts are around 200 for bench, 260-270 dead (trying to get this up), 230-240 squat(NEED to get this up), 5'10" 160lb. You got 5th in a comp? What are you r stats?</p>

17

<p>haha sweetness. Yea I got 5th in a bodybuilding competition; not a powerlifting one. Haven't done max lifts for a while, but I could tell you what I'm repping at 5's (currently cutting..)</p>

<p>6'0", 186lb's @ 9% BF (gah can't wait to bulk), 330 Squat, 280 SLDL (not regular, have never done), only 230 bench (rotator cuff sucks balls)</p>

18

<p>Back when I was young and spry and in highschool I was doing a 250 bench, never maxed on dead lift but 300 was pretty easy, and never maxed on squat for real but my projected was around 600.</p>

<p>5'9-10ish, 210lbs my in highschool days. lost some weight after highschool.</p>

19

<p>That's crazy! That squat is definately disproportionate... I mean I could see my bench/dead (what do you mean by "pretty easy?") being up there by the end of the year, but my squat probably won't be anywhere close.</p>

<p>Isn't it supposed to be dead>squat>bench?</p>

20

<p>I don't know, I wasn't too concerned about any max lifts except for the bench. It means I found a a bar with 300 on it and decided to try to dead lift for fun in the middle of my workout. It wasn't too hard to pick it up, meaning I could have lifted more. Lifting is strange though, you'll grow fast for a while in the beginning then you may hit a plateau for a little while which is frustrating.</p>