Chances, (I know)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Basically, I incredibly underperformed in high school, didn't do my homework, but sat home and taught myself french and german to the point of near fluency (fluent in reading and writing, certainly), and spent hours writing literary and philosophical essays. I intend to major in french.</p>

<p>GPA (weighted), 93.03
Top 25 percent, but not top 20 percent
SAT I; Math 680, English 660, Writing 630
Woodcock-Johnson rendered IQ of 147 (average)
ACT Composite: 36
SAT II's will be taken in october, in English Lit, Bio, and French
AP scores
AP World-5 (failed class), APUSH-3, Bio-3, English-4 (on both), Env. Science-5 (didn't take class or study, used as a test of my skills in deductive reasoning), Euro-5 (didn't take class), German-3, Econ-4 (on both, but only took macro in school), French-4, Human Geo-4 (didnt take class), Govt US-5, Govt comp-4, Psychology-5</p>

<p>Senior Course load
AP German IV
AP French IV
Ap stats
Ap US govt
AP comp govt
AP macro economics
Speech
Theatre
AP psychology
AP English IV</p>

<p>Things of note;
skipped German II, went from german I to German III pre-ap
Skipped from French I to French IV AP with a year off in between
AP scholar with distinction
Held highest grades and honors in all foreign language classes i've been in since 10th grade.
Two glowing recommendation letters from my German Teacher and My senior french teacher, a haitian national who thought i was a native speaker when he first met me.
President of German club
President of French Club
Founder of Guitar Club
Also contributed and helped organise a monthly DIY art collective </p>

<p>three well written samples of writing, one on the methods of Oscar Wilde, one a reflection on my high school career (the reasons for blowing it off in pursuit of my extracurricular studies), and one as an example of the extracurricular essays I would write for myself while not caring about school, a 5 page and sourced comparison of the Tragic Hero's archetype and endearing traits, using House of Leaves and Moby Dick.</p>

<p>Also included was a list of works that influenced me, including multiple works from well known authors in English, French, German, and Latin (I read De Re Publica by cicero as a translation excersize). All works were read in their original tongue, and I wrote papers on most of them for my own review. Also included in this list were my music Preferences and artists (Free jazz and 60s electric blues), my visual art inspirations (Basquiat, Matisse, and Haring), and my prefered Poetry (auden for english, Rimbaud and Verlaine for french)</p>

<p>I am happy to post my essays to anyone interested, as they will play a large part in my admissions.</p>

<p>(please excuse my spelling and grammar, I've spent the better part of today knee-deep in studying portuguese, Catalan, and French. Sometimes my english gets a bit funky after intensive foreign language study.)</p>

2

<p>They’re not going to want a kid who repeatedly states that he/she is too good for school.</p>

3

<p>^I paid quite a bit of attention to that in writing my essay on my high school career, as to not come off like, for lack of a better word, an arrogant prick. There was alot of stuff going on, my mom was a single parent low income educator, ive held a 20 hour a week job since sophomore year, I had to clarify that I never felt myself too good for school, just pursued my studies privately.</p>

4

<p>Your SAT is pretty low, for all your supposedly sky-high IQ (no offense, I just tend to doubt most IQ tests reflexively; I may just be misinformed.) And no matter how much you like foreign languages, they’re not going to take a kid who blew off school so hard that he failed a class. I mean, I blew off a couple classes sophomore year, then promptly turned my act around the next year. Do you know what that level of “blowing off” entailed? B+s. Two of them. At one of the two best high schools at my state. I would have had to affirmatively work at it to fail a class. If you had a C or two in order to accomplish that much outside of school, we might be talking, but failing? You’ll probably find a place at a good college, but that sort of attitude toward class is going to prevent you from the best ones.</p>

5

<p>Essays can be found here
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1193053-chances-harvard-wesleyan-ct-brown.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1193053-chances-harvard-wesleyan-ct-brown.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Wouldn’t your AP scores make you a national AP scholar?</p>