Chances? UPenn/Harvard/Yale/Columbia

<p>Asian American living abroad in Hong Kong (I'm not sure if I count as an international student or not)
Freshman/Soph year British GCSE examinations. Graded from 1 - 7, 7 being the highest: English 7, Math 7, Co-science 7, Music 7, Chinese 7, Economics 5
IB Diploma, predicted 40/42 (before TOK and EE)
No class rank
SAT: 2200 (750M / 730CR / 720W)
SATII: MathII 780, Chinese 790, Literature 730</p>

<p>ECs:
Taekwondo - black belt (since 13), assistant teacher, official examiner for ***HK (Hong Kong offical Taekwondo federation)
Church – youth leader, worship team/leader, bible study leader
Varsity Soccer – 2 years
Varsity Tennis – 2 years
Tutoring at local community center - 2 years
Piano - ABRSM grade 8</p>

<p>Employment:
Summer before senior year: Working at Marriot Hotel (restaurant and housekeeping)
Summer before junior year: Working at Ben & Jerry’s</p>

<p>Others:
(Co)Organized a breast cancer charity concert that raised over $60,000 (and awareness!!)
Spent summer before sophomore year volunteering in Cambodia. I drank some kind of infected water or something and was diagnosed with hepatitis, spent a month in the hospital (I'm fine now). Sap story that I might use for app essay?</p>

<p>Please chance me for:
UPenn CAS or Wharton (legacy - Mom went to Wharton)
MIT Sloan (legacy - Dad went to Engineering school)
Harvard
Yale
Columbia
Cornell Hotel School
Northwestern
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
University of Michigan
University of Illinois
UCLA
USC (could I get a scholarship?)
University of Washington (scholarship?)</p>

<p>any other recommendations? I'm undecided on major but business is a possibility</p>

<p>I'm going to mainly chance you for MIT, Penn, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, as your chances everywhere else are pretty good.</p>

<p>Your grades/IB are great, but your SAT is a bit low as an Asian international hopeful for YHColMPenn. SAT II's are alright, know that they will probably discount your 790 Chinese and look at your 780/730 instead. 750 I/780 II is a little low for math scores, and 730 Lit isn't the vaunted 750+ but is a good score on a very difficult SAT II. So overall, your GCSE/IB scores are fantastic, but no class rank places a little more emphasis on your scores, which won't blow those top schools away.</p>

<p>ECs are alright. Apart from your taekwondo and that cancer fundraiser, nothing seems to be taken to a significant level. You might have to elaborate a bit more before I can really judge. Summer jobs are a plus.</p>

<p>UPenn legacy only applies ED, so if you're looking there pretty seriously, I'd apply there early. A second option would be MIT EA, and while you definitely deserve to be in the mix, MIT will be tough. Y and H RD will be extremely difficult, especially as an international. The Columbia difficulty will mainly depend on whether you apply to CC or SEAS.</p>

<p>I'd appreciate a chance back in my thread.</p>

<p>thanks! Columbia CC is my first choice and I want to apply there ED but my parents are pushing for UPenn so I'm still not sure about that..</p>

<p>bump
what about the scholarships for safety schools? are there any other good safeties that would give me money? (I don't need fin aid, but my parents like the idea of full rides)</p>

<p>ahh any more opinions? I'm trying to figure out my final list soon.. this is what I'm thinking about at the moment -
Reach - Columbia ED, UPenn, Harvard
Match - Cornell Hotel School, Northwestern, Michigan, UCLA
Safety - Illinois
do these categories fit?</p>

<p>I would rearrange it as such:</p>

<p>reach: columbia ED, upenn, H, cornell hotel school
match: NW
safeties: ucla, mich, illinois</p>

<p>With regards to NW being able to be a match, it can be and it is for you, unless you're gunning for some specialist program. cornell hotel is a reach because they're less number based and very unpredictable / subjective in choosing people.</p>

<p>If I had a profile like yours I would drop one of those safeties, and add two matches: thinking of georgetown, u-chicago (high match), jhu (high match), Berkeley, cmu, rice, nyu stern, nyu other(low match)</p>