Hello everyone,
I am applying to the following universities and was wondering what my chances at getting in were.
Brandeis
Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Duke
Harvard
NYU
Northwestern
Stanford
UoC (applying early action)
UPenn
Yale
SAT : 2050 (600 CR, 800 M, 650 W)
ACT : haven’t taken it
SAT II : Math 2 (800) , World History (730)
GPA (unweighted) : 4.0
Class rank : we don’t have such a thing, but otherwise would be top 5-10%
Activities :
Science/Math - participation in the school math club; solving non-standard problems (9,10,11 grade)
Soccer - playing soccer in free time; developed communication skills + teamwork (9,10,11 grade)
note : I’m not too sure this counts
Family Responsibilities - babysitting my baby brother every day in the evening (11th grade)
Math Olympiad - Annual participation in the National Math Olympiad. I have always reached the 2nd stage out of 3 possible. (9,10,11 grade)
Participation in the national Summer Maths Competition
Honors :
2nd place at the national Christmas Maths Competition (9, 11 grade)
3rd place at the regional Sofia Maths Tournament (9th grade)
Certificate of High Achievemnt received at the national “Chernorizec Hrabur” tournament (9th grade)
Summer activities :
participated in the Summer Session in UChicago. Received 2 A’s (A in Calculus 3, A in Intro to Macro)
Recommendations : 3 all good ones (1 of which comes from a teacher in economics from UoC)
Income bracket : really really low
Financial Aid : will apply for
Ethnicity : European
I’m coming from what is considered the best high school in my country (Sofia High School of Mathematics). I intend to major in maths/economics. Please if you can tell me what my chances are as well as my pros and cons I would be grateful!
@MAFSAS Your GPA is excellent, and your SAT is good (although the Ivies want to see 2200+), and your math scores really stand out which is excellent.
Unfortunately, your ECs are weak, which is a major factor for these colleges. Your math tournaments are nice, but playing soccer with friends and babysitting your siblings don’t really count that much. Still, if you could write some killer essays (i.e. family responsibilities, etc.) you could be a solid candidate.
Brandeis - high match
Brown - reach
Columbia - reach
Cornell - low reach
Duke - low reach
Harvard - reach
NYU - match – keep in mind they aren’t so generous with financial aid
Northwestern - low reach
UPenn - reach
Yale - reach
Try to find some safety schools to put in the mix.
I would say that babysitting your siblings absolutely counts as an extracurricular activity as it seems that you spent a lot of time taking care of him. Whether or not it is a strong Extracurricular depends on how much you had to do for him.
The passion in math is great, but the main weakness is your SAT score. It seems that your Reading score is rather low for the schools on your list, so maybe try the ACT instead? That test might be better suited for you.
Most of the schools you listed want 700+ in all 3 sections of the SAT and at least a 2250+ for international students (preferably 2300+).
Don’t apply to NYU, they have horrible financial aid and they rarely meet demonstrated need.
Also just know that competition for internationals is super tough as most schools have a quota on how many internationals they can accept. You’re competing with highly qualified candidates from China, India, Korea, England, Australia etc. for generally 10% of the spots at these schools.
Thank you for the responses! Do you think I have a chance with UChicago? (especially since I’ve already taken 2 undergraduate courses there and will be getting a recommendation from there)
The recommendation will help some, but summer courses’ impact is minimal. A lot of colleges have these programs.
For a student who wants to get into a school like Chicago on the basis of one single academic field (few ECs and average performance in other areas), the standard to meet is “best in nation/best in region” or a similar level of achievement. If you’ve never reached the final stage of your national math olympiad, that isn’t promising.
Your chances are always better if you apply than if you don’t, but I wouldn’t be optimistic about most of these schools. I think @EIC2400 got it right-most of these schools are mid to high reaches.