Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>I am an African-American female at an urban public highschool (in the gifted magnet) in Los Angeles but I am from an upper middle class family. My stats are:</p>

<p>Academics:
-GPA
<em>unweighted 3.95
*weighted 4.2
*UC weighted 4.4
-ranked in top 2% out of 990 (15th)
-mostly A's with the exception of two B's (in SPanish freshman year and an indepedent study life skills class)
-SAT I
*first time: 1340 (680v, 660m)
*second time: 2250 (790m,790v,670w)
-SATII
*Biology: 730
*US History 770
*will take math 2c
-APs
*Spanish 2 (oops)
*US History 5
*Eurpean history 5
*Biology 5
*English Literature 4
*to be taken:
*</em>AP Calculus AB
*<em>AP Economics (will take two AP tests)
*</em>AP Psychology
*<em>AP Government (will take two AP tests)
*</em>AP English Composition
-Honors filled the rest of my schedule with the exception of Spanish (not offered in honors) and my PE classes</p>

<p>ECs
-captain of the soccer team 2 years (only freshman on varsity since freshman year)
-Jack and Jill (cultural/service organization)
*member since age 9
*treasurer 2 years
*parlimentarian 1 year
-Science Bowl
*on team 3 years
*captain 2 years
-member California Honor Society
-member California Scholarship Federation
-Mentor 3 years</p>

<p>Summers:
-before 9th grade Traveled through Europe playing with soccer team
-before 10th grade Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth summer program in Maryland
-before 11th grade UC COSMOS summer program at UC Davis
-Before 12th grade
*job as office clerk 2 days a week
*internship at USC Keck School of Medicine assisting with research 3 days a week</p>

<p>Volunteering- 250 hours
-Test Sucess Tutoring underpriveleged youth
-Cooking for homeless
-Ronald McDonald House
-many small projects with Jack and Jill</p>

<p>Awards Received
-national merit commended student
-national acheivement commended student (as of now)
-Who's Who Among American Highschool Students (know it doens't count for much)
-Second All-League Soccer team (2 years)</p>

<p>What could I do this year to increase my chances of getting in?</p>

2

<p>Wow you have a decent shot! Your second SAT was MUCH higher than the first but work on the writing and ....woah! Also, work on your class rank although it is sufficient. If you were an African American Valedictorian or Salutatorian AND had those scores and ECs you would have a VERY good chance. As a Puerto Rican, I have everything (in my opinion) going for me (recs, essay content, ECs and Leadership, Community service, Valedictorian, 13 APs out of 16 possible in a block schedule which only allows four per year (people RARELY take that many most is two))) HOWEVER my test scores are definitely SUBpar. </p>

<p>With your scores you have a GOOD shot!</p>

3

<p>I am also wondering if I should also put that I got the Who's Who thingie? IS this worth it anyone? Will this actually HURT your application??</p>

4

<p>Don't bother putting who's who on ur application. It will just take up space.</p>

5

<p>Guys, DO NOT put who's who on there, it makes you look less impressive i think, 'cause it shows them you have no relative bearing on the scope of your own achievements.</p>

<p>I left out entire clubs and local awards on my app, kept it short and sweet, with my best things. A couple of national awards will do you more good than 3 pages of junk, really. They don't have time to read it all, and chances are, they won't.</p>

<p>I got in, with 7 awards listed on my app, none of them smaller than regional.... sure i had more, but it just wasn't worth their time.</p>

6

<p>what I want to know is how you did so much better the second time? Any secret studying methods :)? haha</p>

7

<p>I used Kaplan it costed $2,000 but it was totally worth it.</p>

8

<p>I spent less than $20 on a Kaplan prep book and was able to raise my verbal 690 -> 760. Who got the better bargain?</p>

9

<p>I won't rate your chances because it's retarded to expect applicants or even acceptees to rate your chances: "Yeah, I think you have a 1/2 or 1/20 chance."</p>

<p>I like your second question, about what you can do to get in. I think, first of all, you can raise your SAT scores. You can't expect to get into Harvard with a 13 something, or 600s on SAT IIs unless you have great ECs. Your ECs are good for an average applicant, but for a Harvard applicant, they are just average. I would say you might have more lee-way given the racial diversity you bring to the school, but your other circumstances make you typical in terms of the Harvard applicant. </p>

<p>Good luck, bring those scores up.</p>

10

<p>kaplan.. then how come your writing score is so low?</p>

11

<p>I don't know. It was a fluke thing I always got 5s and sixs and on the actual test I scored an 8</p>

12

<p>do the kaplan books just give strategies or do they also have real SATs?</p>

13

<p>i got like ten books, 2 tutors, and took 7 practice tests</p>

14

<p>blythe, the kaplan book I purchased had strategies plus 3 full practise exams for the new SAT. it's a very thick book.</p>

15

<p>Thanks, I'm on my way to the bookstore :)</p>

16

<p>why do these people have like high unweighted GPA, but theirweighted is crap? My unweighted is 3.3 and my weighted is like 4.5.</p>

17

<p>it's because every school has a different way of calculating a weighted GPA. So no, it's not crap, as you say, just a different system. At the high school I used to attend, not even the valedictorian had a 4.5 weighted, and at the school I attend now there is no weight calculation, so a 4.0 is as high as it gets.</p>