Chances/Strategy for a Very Unique Situation...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Ok guys - first post. I'm in what I imagine is a pretty unique situation, so let me give you a little background. Then, based on that, it would be awesome if I could get your opinions on my chances and how to improve them.</p>

<p>Background:</p>

<p>As an 8th grader I got a 2310 score on the SAT {800M,770CR,740W} (I like to say 2340 with superscoring {770W}, since I did indeed get that, but I erased that test from my file since the other scores were too low) and was the highest scorer in the country for math, critical reading, and combined scores for the JHU/CTY talent search. A couple months later I also got an 800 on the Math Level II subject test. I was big (or my parents were, I should say) on math competitions and stuff like that in middle and high school, but I burned out right around the start of 9th grade. I attended one of the top schools in the country from grades 7-10, but my grades began slipping in the 8th grade and I finally called it quits at the start of 10th grade year and left. I spent the next half year at a top public school, but by the end I was showing up for barely half my classes. You see, around the time I left the private school, I got into entrepreneurship and started my own company, and by the Spring of that year I was so busy that I was excusing myself from my second class to go to the bathroom, and then really hopping in a cab to meet clients for the rest of the day. (A lot of this doesn't matter because obviously it won't show up on my college application, but I'm just trying to give you the full story.) So I left that school a month before the end of the year and I've been homeschooled ever since. My business has been pretty successful (not crazy Facebook successful, mind you, but for someone my age it's pretty impressive - I was a semifinalist in the world's biggest and most prestigious startup competition and the 80+ page business plan I wrote myself has been received by investors as on or above the level of many multi-million dollar companies going public). Also, during sophomore and junior summers I attended an intensive 3 week summer program where I got an A and a B the first year, then 2 As the next, in 4 college-level classes at a university (each class was a full semester of legit college work crammed into 3 weeks).</p>

<p>So, to recap, right now, I have:</p>

<pre><code>- A 2310 SAT score and an 800 Math Level II subject test score, both from 5 years ago
- No legitimate high-school grades (as a homeschooler I've focused primarily on developing my various businesses)
- 3 As and a B in college classes
- All my business achievements
- And a lot of other achievements (perfect scores on NLE exams, highest in the state on NEML, like a 24 or 25/25 on AMC8, but all years ago)
- Legacy status at Harvard from my mom, and my dad is on the medical school faculty
- Homeschooler
- Early decision application for Harvard
</code></pre>

<p>Because I'm obviously not ready to be a strong candidate, I'm taking an extra year, so this year is really my Junior year now. What else do you think I'd need to be a lock for Harvard when I apply ED this fall (that is if you could say anyone is lol)? I know I need a minimum of 3 subject tests, so I plan to take the Latin and Literature subject tests and I expect to get an 800 or close to it on both. Would that be enough? Do you think they'd want me to retake the SAT or Math Level II since they're so old (let's assume for the purposes of this debate that I'll get 800s across the board this time if I do take them)? I'm also taking the PSAT this Do you think taking some challenging college classes this year would be useful or would it not do that much? Should I really kick it into overdrive with my company and try to achieve some milestones of success with that before applying (funding, manufactured products, acquisition, etc)? As I see it, I have two options:</p>

<p>Option 1: Be Exceptional</p>

<p>Keep everything I've done on my record, and show how much I excelled back in middle school and the start of high school. Show colleges that I have as much potential as anyone they're admitting, but raise doubts about whether I'll develop it and put it to use if I'm granted admission (I would - I've changed and matured a lot since then when I left HS and didn't think I'd go to college; problem is how I convince colleges). Raise questions about past schools and ensure contact with my first school (I left on bad terms with the headmaster, who has a direct line to Harvard, though all the other faculty stuck up for me). Raise questions about what exactly I've been doing the last four years, and why I have no grades, no subject tests, no APs, no won math contests, etc. Make it look like I'm one of the smartest kids they could admit, but also one of the laziest.</p>

<p>Option 2: Be "Just Good Enough"</p>

<p>Forget about everything I did through Junior year. Wipe the slate clean and apply as a full-on homeschooler through all high school (which is indeed true since I'm taking an extra year). Score-choice-out the old SAT I and II scores and take them all fresh this year. Get a 2400 on the SAT and an 800 on three subject tests (or somewhere in that range), and justify my lack of grades and APs because I am truly a homeschooler and I don't have the opportunity to take such rigorous classes. Perhaps supplement it with a few challenging college classes and my tremendous business prowess and I think I'm good. I tell colleges "I'm not exceptional, but I'm very bright, I have no significant character defects regarding laziness, and I'm 'just good enough' for admission."</p>

<p>Just to clarify if I wasn't clear about my intentions: I'm not advocating or suggesting that I or anyone else lies on their college application (or anything else for that matter) - in fact I'm an extremely ethical person. Any information I discuss withholding (like previous schools or SAT scores) is allowed and even expected by colleges to be withheld, as any job or college application is a marketing document more than anything else, designed to gloss over the bad and highlight the good. Harvard accepts Score Choice for the SAT (and before high school I could have actually -deleted-, not just hidden, any scores from my record anyway), and, as I'm taking an extra year, my four high-school years were indeed spent as a homeschooler. I'm just trying to figure out how to put the best spin on the situation and separate who I was then - a very immature, shortsighted kid - from who I am now. I think that's a fair hope.</p>

<p>Thanks so much for the help and let me know if you have any questions or advice! Have a great day!</p>

2

<p>Forgot to mention:</p>

<p>Top choice school by far is Harvard, and compared to similar Ivies/Stanford I think, paradoxically that’s the school I have the best chance of getting into. After all, they’re all about the same difficulty to get in, yet I’ll have legacy status at Harvard plus early decision.</p>

<p>Please let me know my chances for Harvard, but also other Ivies and Stanford. Not MIT or Caltech just because I’m not a math/science guy. Any other schools you suggest I’ll consider but I’m probably sticking with the Ivies+Stanford at most, Harvard at least.</p>

3

<p>Going to college = Going to school. You need to show you succeed at SCHOOL … not just running a business. 8th grade scores are inconsequential if you can’t match them now. They will judge you on how you succeed NOW. you need a current academic tracy record. I think you are shooting awfully high and should have a range of schools not just lottery schools. Do your homework … Harvard does not have ED, it has SCEA</p>

4

<p>You should pursue both strategies. You are obviously going to be applying as a homeschooler, since you are one, but don’t leave anything off your application.</p>

<p>I’m also a homeschooler and a similar thing happened to me. I was a straight-A student when I was younger, then I lost my way in middle school and I was a C student. Luckily I started homeschooling before I started high school so I had time to get my head together.</p>

<p>Here’s what you need to do:
-If you don’t have any “legitimate” high school grades, have your parents give you some good ones. They may be worthless to admissions officers, but they’ll want to see a GPA anyway.
-Take the most rigorous schedule possible for the next two years. Take as many dual enrollment courses as the college will let you, and if the college offers an honors program, take courses in that. Be a model student, get all As and amazing recommendations from your professors, and at the end of your junior year you’ll hopefully be on the Dean’s List, inducted into the campus honor society with maybe even an additional award or two. In addition, fill up the rest of your schedule with AP courses (homeschoolers CAN take APs!). Even most top high school students only start taking all APs in junior year, so you’ll still be competitive. Your goal is to have a perfect junior and senior year to show colleges you are continuing to reach your full potential.
-Retake all the exams you did well in years ago, and do just as well or better. Take the ACT with writing too, for good measure, and as many SAT IIs as you can manage, especially in math and science.
-Continue to build your business and keep entering start up contests. Consider building a relationship with a very successful businessperson who can mentor you and later write a recommendation attesting to your maturity and intelligence
-Spend your next summer doing something amazing and business-related, like an internship with a major corporation or a really selective summer program (I heard Facebook now offers high school internships).
-When you apply to college, tell your story in your main essay. Stress how you have learned and grown from your failures in the past and how you have been successful since then.
You might also want to check out the homeschooling forums on this site, since the people here clearly know nothing whatsoever about homeschooling.</p>

5

<p>Let me offer a contrarian assessment.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Your 8th grade SAT scores are irrelevant.</p></li>
<li><p>For 9th - 11th grades you attended three different, per your description, well regarded private and public schools and performed poorly due to your own disinterest and lack of discipline. </p></li>
<li><p>You have no GPA because, while “home schooled”, you have apparently not participated in any of the self-guided home schooled programs that many students in your situation choose to follow. Beyond that you have a handful of college courses which may or may not meet even the most rudimentary of college requirements.</p></li>
<li><p>You have exceptional standardized test scores that first surfaced in 8th grade but given your lack of discipline/boredom you have been unable to consistently replicate this ability with in-class performance that would support the idea that you are anything more than a test-taking savant.</p></li>
<li><p>All applications will require you to list schools attended, so barring lying through omission, you will be left trying to explain the failings of schools that you yourself describe as exceptional.</p></li>
<li><p>Nowhere in your over-long self-serving posts do you ever state why you want or need to attend college. In fact you tell us more about your business success than you do about any real interest in a traditional education. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Why do you want to go to college? I’m hard pressed to see any true commitment to learning. Why not keep doing what you’re doing? If you’re truly as exceptional as you believe yourself to be why waste the time and money that is involved with attending college? Jobs and Gates succeeded without degrees.</p>

6

<p>I agree with vinceh.</p>

<p>You seem to be spectacular in entrepreneurship, but hate school. I am the same way!
You do have a very unique situation on your hands. A possible path could be to go into JC full time, then attempt to transfer to Ivies. Transfer situations to Ivies take miracles, but you will be on better footing than you are now to be admitted.</p>

<p>I myself am into entrepreneurship. Do you have a website about your business? You seem incredible for a young man.</p>