Chances to Columbia (ED), Yale, uPenn?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey guys I was wondering what the chances are of my getting into colleges such as Columbia (1st choice will probably apply early decision), Yale, Penn, Harvard and some liberal arts colleges (Amherst, Swarthmore, etc.) Hoping to study economics or finance. I’m graduating in 2018

Gender - Male
Ethnicity - Asian (Hui ethnic minority of China, don’t know if this will help at all?)
School - Private - Sydney Australia
Ranking - Don’t have this at current school
GPA - (biggest concern) - Australia doesn’t have this, but normally I get majority A’s with 2 or 3 B’s out of 8 classes - I feel like A’s are harder to achieve in Australia but not too sure, again I’m a bit worried about my GPA. Achieved Academic Excellence award in year 10
Current Courses - IB, hoping to get 42 or 43
ACT score - 34
SAT Subjects - Haven’t done them yet, hoping to get 800 on Maths and Chemistry
Leadership - School Prefect

EC’s:

Hedge Fund Manager/ Creator:
Gathered around $15K in funds to trade on the stock market for me and my friends during year 11. Planning to write my essay about this and how I held onto a losing stock and ending up making around $2K off it.

Violin (I know a bit cliche):
Licentiate Diploma; Associate Diploma; Principle Violin in Australia Combined Schools Orchestra and school orchestra; Member of Australian Youth Orchestra.

Sport: Swimming
Chosen to compete for Australia at Pacific School Games (International Meet), National Youth Excellence Swimming squad, State Title

Economics Research Essay:
Collaborating with professors at University of New South Wales to write an essay examining the effects of Amazon introduction to traditional Australian Retailers. Hoping to get essay published in 2018.

United Nations National Youth Delegate:
Chosen as UN National Delegate; national finalist at UN Voice competition; state finalist at UN Evatt

Club: Politics, Philosophy & Economics:
Founded a PPE club for my school, which I’m the president of. Expanding this society to schools across Sydney to develop students’ interests in this area.

Community service - Technology assistance program:
Organised initiative which helped clients at a special needs foundation to learn about technology; developed individual profiles for clients to assist with specific skills.

Australian National University Bachelor of Studies:
Undertook courses extension courses at ANU - “ANU Extension provides an enhanced learning program for senior students” Participated in Chinese and Music courses

Nominated by school to take part in Global Young Leaders conference in New York and Washington DC.

Thanks for your help

2

You sure you are graduating in 2018? If so, Columbia ED already passed, and you have 4 days left for all other applications. Forget chances and start cranking the essays!

3

Yes aha, I’m one term into my senior year

4

Homie, as a fellow senior, I gotta tell you to get on it. I had to drop 3 apps because I didn’t have the time to finish them.

5

Are you planning on applying for the class of 2023 or 2022? There’s a girl in my Penn group chat from Sydney who graduated in September (don’t know how Australian schools work) and is effectively taking a gap year this year.

6

I’m graduating in November 2018, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be applying for the class of 2023.

7

Hey Guys, can some people give me their opinions on my actual chances?

8

Your ECs are competitive, but average for a matriculant to Wharton (should you apply for finance), especially for an international. 34 is good but for Wharton, a 35 or 36 (correlating to 75th percentile) would be optimal, as would an 800 in Math II. Is your back-up plan just to stay in Australia? If not, I would probably suggest applying to a few less competitive schools for business (like WashU or UVA). Also, in terms of being an ethnic minority, I believe that most colleges only count South Asians? There’s no way to distinguish your ethnicity on CommonApp, only your country of background.