Chances...Good academics blah ECs

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone, i was hoping to get chances on the following schools: UNC, Upenn, cornell, mcgill, berkeley, wake forest</p>

<p>im white male from NJ
GPA- 4.4 weighted, 4.0 unweighted
have taken all the hardest classes offered. transcript looks v good, all As and A+
rank: school does not give us a ranking, just percentile- top 10%
APs:
Chem-5
US History-5
German-5
English Lang-5</p>

<p>next yr im taking
AP Stat
AP Calc
AP French
AP Euro
Physics H (school doesnt have AP)
Honors Eng (school doesnt offer AP En lit)
theology </p>

<p>SATs- 2350
V-800
M-760
W-790</p>

<p>SAT IIs
Math IIC-750
Chem-780
US History- 780</p>

<p>academic awards
Merck State Science test, 2nd in the county
National french exam 11th,5th, 6th place nationally over the last 3 yrs
math league "2007 league outstanding acheivement award"
yale book award
National Merit Commended student (hpefully semi/finalist, score 223 but in NJ its right on the cutoff)
2 regional 2nd place awards for public speaking</p>

<p>ECs-- this is where im probably going to have a problem, nothing special here
soccer- 4 yrs, 2 varsity
track- 2 yrs, both varsity
bball- 2 yrs
bunch of clubs and volunteeering, will be pres of french club</p>

<p>work experience- i work in a restaurant, 40hrs/week-summer
6-12 hrs/week school year</p>

<p>Im very interested in nutrition, this summer im taking a nutrition class at local community college, have also had a mini internship at the hospital i volunteer at w the nutritionists there</p>

<p>i really appreciate your input, everyone on this site really seems to know what theyr talking about</p>

2

<p>Unfortunately 223 won't make semifinalist in NJ. I had a similar score and it was too low for the cutoff in Maryland.</p>

<p>UC Berkeley, Penn, and Cornell are obviously reaches. Emphasize your interest in nutrition, very few kids go into college with that interest.</p>

<p>You'll get Wake Forest and McGill and probably UNC-CH.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

3

<p>thanks for your input</p>

<p>anyone else? id really appreciate it. im thinking unc is going to be my first choice so id like some more predictions on that one</p>

4

<p>you have excellent academic stats, and it's not like your EC list is non-existant. I think you have a very good chance at your first choice school, UNC. cornell is a reach, as is upenn (for everyone) and berekely (out of state applicant)</p>

5

<p>ok thanks. </p>

<p>bump</p>

6

<p>I dont see why Cornell would be a reach? Maybe I'm missing something</p>

7

<p>You're ECs are pretty decent to be honest.</p>

8

<p>yeah I'm not seeing how your ECs might present that big of a problem...</p>

<p>sure, they might be a little less than some of the really intense people you see on the forum, but they're definately enough for the schools on your list. </p>

<p>combined with your very solid stats, this is how I see it:
UNC- yes
Upenn- maybe a bit difficult due to those ECs, but definately a chance
cornell- a better shot that UPenn, but still not certain
mcgill- yes
berkeley- being out of state doesn't help your case, so maybe as good a shot as UPenn
wake forest- yes</p>

9

<p>I really don't see how Cornell is a reach either. A basically perfect GPA and SAT, along with sports and some decent awards? I think you have a great shot at Cornell.</p>

10

<p>He's from New Jersey. A disgustingly over-represented state as far as elite admissions and certainly as far as Cornell is concerned.</p>

<p>There will be another 500-1000 or so if not more boys from New Jersey. A lot of them will have better scores and much better ECs.</p>

11

<p>Yeah but I think with him working through the summer and school year that helps him out and makes the ECs look just fine. Maybe I'm trying to be positive since I'm in a very similar situation (from MA, slightly lower GPA, hoping to get into Cornell) but I see it as a high match.</p>

12

<p>People have this idea about Cornell being a 'lower tier Ivy'. It's numbers may be higher than the others but its not that much easier to get into. Part of Cornell's problem is that it just isn't as popular as other schools and its freshman class is much larger (3,000+ versus say Columbia's 1,300).</p>

<p>He's got a shot, for sure. Great scores and pretty good ECs. But match implies more than a 50/50 shot, which I don't think 2 varsity sports, math league, and a job really imply.</p>

<p>And Ivy admissions are so random that realistically a 2390 scorer with better ECs could be rejected.</p>

13

<p>Won't the cutoff for semifinalist drop by a couple points this year because the writing section was recentered?</p>

14

<p>you think so?? im reallly hoping for national merit semi/finalist status. my score was last yrs exact cutofff for NJ (223) so it would suck if they raised it by one point</p>

15

<p>ses, correction, 223 will make semi in NJ. Last year the cutoff was 223 and the PSAT got harder this year (commended went from 203 to 200) so chances are NJ's cutoff isn't going higher. For the OP's chances, strong SAT's, mild SAT II's (750 in math II is not impressive for top schools) and great grades-obviously.</p>

<p>You should get into Wake forest and McGill without much trouble. UNC-CH is looking good as well, match. Penn's a reach and so is UCB while Cornell is a low reach/high match (depending on how the whole 2 schools thing turns out). Your ECs as you said are "blah", not bad, but obviously not great. I would consider applying ED to Penn if you like it, because regular will be rough for everyone. I think Cornell you've got roughly a 50-50 RD and ED should not be a hassle there. I'd advise you add other schools to your list so you don't get disappointed with rejection from your reaches.</p>