chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>I am very interested in applying to Princeton, so i wanted to know if i had a good shot.
Academics:
First off, I go to a very small school that only offers 5 to 6 AP's - I've had to look for alternatives.
Freshman: Honors World History, Precalculus, Honors English 11, Chemistry, Latin III, studyhall and electives
Sophomore: Honors American History, Calculus (a joke course; I taught myself and took the AP Calculus BC Exam), Honors English 12, Latin IV, Physics, studyhall, Speech/Health.
I've just finished my sophomore year, the projected Junior year is as follows:
AP English, AP US, AP Chemistry, AP Latin: Vergil, and Multivariable Calculus (Postsecondary). I also plan on self studying for both AP Physics C exams this summer and over the school year.</p>

<p>Tests:
SAT I: 2210: 740 Reading, 700 Writing, 770 Math
ACT: 35 Composite; math 36, english 36, reading 36, science 33.
I take SAT II's next week, and havent gotten my AP Calc BC score back yet.</p>

<p>ECs:
Latin Club - Ive won various accolades at several Ohio Junior Classical League competitions
Cross Country - Junior Varsity for freshman and sophomore years, should be varsity for the next two years. We've won the state championship for 5 years in a row, and dont plan on stopping
Volunteering - Ive volunteered like 20hours the past year, Im not that involved in it at all.</p>

<p>My goal is to get involved with a math graduate-level research project next year, but that hasnt materialized yet.</p>

<p>Also, one final thing thats pretty important: I'm only 14. I skipped two grades, and so will graduate two years early at 16. Not sure what that does to my chances, so if anyone has experience with that please help me out.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any responses.</p>

2

<p>Also, I forgot to say I have a 4.0 (unweighted), and i will definitely be Valedictorian (along with several other kids - my school does an odd, in my opinion stupid, thing where each senior with a 4.0 or more gets valedictorian status - we had six this year).</p>

3

<p>You are on the right track, just do more varied ECs that you love.</p>

4

<p>Your ECs are ok and your chances are decent, but it’s still a high reach because, well… it’s Princeton.</p>

5

<p>I forgot to mention I also run Track; and i just got my SAT II Scores back: Physics 750, Math II 800. I’ve also been looking into the AMC 12, AIME, and eventually the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO). If anyone has any experience with that, or just has advice in general, it would be appreciated.</p>

6

<p>I was involved in math contests up through USAMO during high school, and I currently work as a teaching assistant at a summer camp for students who want to improve in contest math. If reaching USAMO is your goal, here is my advice. You’re already very far behind if you’re starting major contest math this late, especially if you want to qualify for USAMO before college applications are sent in (if your goal is just to make USAMO before graduating high school, that’s a different story). Only about 100 juniors qualify for USAMO every year, so you need to get started now if this is something you really want to do. The best way to improve is to just do problems. A lot of them. I would highly recommend Rusczyk and Lehoczky’s Art of Problem Solving volumes 1 and 2 as a starting point. Work on AMC12 problems, especially under time pressure. Work AIME problems as often as possible. Join the artofproblemsolving website - it’s a wonderful resource for aspiring contest mathematicians. In general, don’t give up on problems you can’t solve; even if it takes you a couple of hours to crank out a solution, you’ll progress more in this way than by looking at a lot of solutions. It really takes a lot of determination and practice to get to high AIME level, so if you feel it’s worthwhile, don’t hold back. Feel free to PM me if you have other questions.</p>