Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone. One year ago I promised myself that I would never, ever post a chance thread. given my unusual circumstances however (my low UW GPA) I would like to see what everyone thinks. Could you chance me please for:</p>

<p>U. Chicago
MIT
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Northwestern
Brown</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>] SAT I : 2400
[</em>] SAT II: 790 USH, 800 Math 2, 770 Bio (m)
[<em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.75
[</em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): currently 6/350
[li] AP (place score in parenthesis): [/li] US history - 5
Euro history - 5 (self study)
World History -5 (self study)
US Gov - 5 (self study)
Psychology - 5
Lang comp - 5
Biology - 5
Macroecon - 4 (self study)
Microecon - 5 (self study)
calc AB - 5
comp sci A - 5 (self study)
physics c (m) - 5 (self study)
physics c (e) - 5 (self study)
Art history - 5 (self study)
statistics - 5 (self study)
chemistry - senior year class
literature - senior year class
enviro sci - senior year self study
comp gov - senior year self study
human geo - senior year self study</p>

<p>note that about 1/2 of the above are projected as AP scores have not come out yet at the time of this post. That said, I am quite confident they are correct (perhaps one or two fours at absolute minimum).</p>

<p>[li] Senior Year Course Load:[/li]AP chem
AP literature
AP gov (even though I got a 5 on the AP test I'm required to take the class for credit), multivariate calculus (at local college)
linear algebra (at local college)
intermediate macro/microeconomic theory (at local college)</p>

<p>[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):</p>[/li]
<p>Placed @ ISEF as well as a few other science competitions
State finalist for debate x 2 (unofficially I was 6th or so, but they didn't rank beyond 3)
Mock trial, lead atty. 2nd in state sophomore year, 3rd junior year.
state MVP witness in mock trial sophomore & junior year</p>

<p>+minor stuff like AP national scholar and national merit.
[/ul]
Subjective:[ul]
[li] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):</p>[/li]
<pre><code> Big one - From 8th grade through the first half of junior year, built a large online community focused around a game with ~200k members and ~1m users.
Science Research (with 0 connections and little guidance)
mock trial (head attorney sophomore and junior year)
debate
glassblowing
plus a litany of clubs eg. ping pong club, math club, french club, and similar.
</code></pre>

<p>[li] Job/Work Experience: Work for my parents small business building statistical models for pricing warranties in the summer. (Intended major is probably statistics or engineering)</p>[/li]
<p>create and sell blown glass bowls, sculptures, and similar such items for money.</p>

<p>[li] Summer Activities: Glassblowing every summer[/li]after sophomore I did Harvard summer school (how I met my ISEF mentor)
after junior (where I am now) I will be working as a lab intern at a local university and working for my parents business on some statistical modeling, plus taking AP calc online.</p>

<p>[li] Teacher Recommendation: 1st should be good, 2nd is excellent - I asked for it for a scholarship competition so I have already read it. Went something like "15 years teaching, had ~50 kids go to ivies over that time, best ever."</p>[/li]
<p>[li] Counselor Rec: We get along well. Should be fine.</p>[/li]
<p>[<em>] Additional Rec: Harvard prof who advised on my ISEF research, it should be excellent.
[/ul]
[ul]Other
[li] School Type: Competitive public, 5 to ivy league schools per year[/li][</em>] Ethnicity: Whiter than a sheet
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Income Bracket: as flo rida would put it, "low low low low low low low" :p [/ul]</p>

<p>Overall I think I have a decent application, but for one thing - my unweighted GPA. I don't know how everyone on here has a perfect 4.0 as in 30 years that's only ever happened once at my school, and our probable val only has around a 3.9. Will this kill me?</p>

2

<p>You’re one of the more interesting people to grace this forum, but not necessarily for the right reasons.
You ever hear about the kid who is in 20 clubs, has perfect scores, good GPA, and did debate and Olympiads and MUN…? That kid nearly ALWAYS gets rejected. and I think that could be you</p>

<p>Your numbers are perfect. Getting 5s on APs are equivalent to an A in a college class so the amount you’ve taken could offset that. Scores are perfect to suit a statistics or engineering major. You took all the right tests and did perfect. </p>

<p>And you do a lot of different things too. Mock trial, research, stats, debate, clubs… And that is what will be your downfall. The myriad of activities will show, no matter how hard you try, a lack of passion or interest in a field. Ivys like to see devotion to a field. On harvests website they want you tonynferstand they want a well rounded student BODY. Typically its the students themselves who are well lopsided in a specific area of interest. You instead are well rounded. See what I mean?</p>

<p>On paper youre a perfect student. But let me ask you this and I could be wrong. Are you passionate about the ping pong club? Are you passionate about French club? I don’t believe you are, at least I dont get the sense you are. </p>

<p>The statistics business is good, but s student of your caliber should be at an internship at a more prestigious institution. Often Ivys look for national recognition or very high achievement in a field than just high achievement in several. You should also prepare for intel STS. </p>

<p>Normally your chances would be good, and I am very impressed by your ECs and APs. But there are too many, and I think the lack of any realized passion will be acknowledged by te admissions committees. Tread carefully and focus on high achievement in your desired major. </p>

<p>Another thing: if you’re a low income student, how’d you afford Harvard Summer School? It costs nearly $11k for the summer</p>

3

<p>Like the person above me said, on paper youre a perfect student. You have a good shot at getting in from your stats but write an amazinggggg essay and in it be specific and really sincere.</p>

4

<ol>
<li><p>Your academics are fine. Not all the Harvard and MIT students are 4.0 holders.</p></li>
<li><p>Identify your passion and prioritize that in your application showing your commitment for those things. For you science activities statistics internship major awards could make you more compelling then showing you do French to ping pong</p></li>
<li><p>Take time to prepare your essays</p></li>
<li><p>Show your character </p></li>
</ol>

<p>the online community is a very unusual thing in your resume and if you could write interestingly then you could come out as a very strong candidate</p>

5

<p>Butters, a couple questions and explanations.</p>

<p>First, other then preparing for STS what would be considered “highest achievement”? I have already won around 10,000 dollars in unrestricted scholarships and cash from science research (including 8k from ISEF) plus 20k in restricted awards, so what else is out there? I thought the only other higher possibilities were the Gordon Moore and Intel Foundation awards?</p>

<p>Second, when you mean that I should be working at a prestigious institution for statistics, what do you mean? I have looked around quite a bit for internships in the field for this summer, but my local college only has 2 stats professors, and neither do any type of research. Do programs in statistics exist for high school students?</p>

<p>as to clubs, I just mentioned them here as a bit of a joke - I have basically decided that they are not going on my application anyhow as I never spent much time with them. It is worth noting however that I am morally opposed to joining ANYTHING for college application purposes - everything I participate in I do because it interests me. While I wouldn’t call myself “passionate” for ping pong, it is entertaining so I have fun with it. My true passions are science and public speaking (as manifested in my EC awards). My interest in statistics for instance grew out of the heavy use of stats in my science project. </p>

<p>also, I was able to attend Harvard summer school as Harvard gave me just under 9k in financial aid. I raised the remaining cash myself, but I figure it was a good investment as the scholarships I won with my research project covered my costs (and then some).</p>

6

<p>bump. Any more thoughts would be much appreciated.</p>

7

<p>Your scholarships and ISEF is certainly impressive. What I meant for higher achievements would be stuff like this. Sorry, I’m out of it, finals to take. The guy who won STS last year did independent math research on square roots. Kind of cool I guess. </p>

<p>If you can convey your passion for statistics and science in your essay youll be fine</p>

8

<p>bump, any other thoughts?</p>

9

<p>Hi snipersas,</p>

<p>Let me start off by saying that I think you have quite a shot at being admitted to your desired schools. Your GPA is still relatively high, and your test scores are amazing. Most of your APs are 5s and a lot of them were independent study. Colleges will see that as a reflection of your ability to succeed on your own, when needed. </p>

<p>Now, a lot of people are saying that your long list of ECs will be a detriment and that colleges want to see a clear focus. I don’t necessarily agree. I myself have a list of ECs that ostensibly seem unrelated to each other, but in my mind, I can connect the dots. Now the objective is to make adcoms connect the dots as well, through essays and whatnot. In addition, Butters says that Ivies are looking for someone devoted to a certain field. Not necessarily. Ivies want diversity in their school but they also want to see diversity within the individual. Take this for example: my friend told me that at his school, there were two students - rivals, perhaps. One was involved in everything - marching band, volleyball, Best Buddies (organization that helps the mentally disabled), other volunteer activities, science fairs, etc. Pretty much the same list of things you have right here. The other was involved strictly in math and science: math and science competitions, research, robotics, etc. One was admitted to Stanford EA. The other? Deferred. Who was admitted? The one who was engaged in an eclectic mix of activities. Her major? Engineering. Do you see a single engineering-related activity? Other than science fairs, no. Granted, the other individual was admitted to Stanford during the RD round. Of course, this might also be a testament to the unpredictability of top-tier schools, which is why everyone is hesitant to say “match” for HYPSM, etc.</p>

<p>My point is, being engaged in a lot of things isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What you need to show is your motivations behind doing this and how it influenced you to become the person you are today - you’re a multidimensional individual and in a world where everything is becoming increasingly interconnected, I’d say you have a great shot at any school you apply to. Just make sure you write some great essays!</p>

<p>Good luck, I wish you the best.</p>