Hi! I’m a current junior and I was hoping to get an honest opinion on my chances of getting into the schools I’m applying to? Thank you so much! Honest feedback and advice are much appreciated.
Chance me for:
- Columbia (ED)
- UPenn
- Pomona
- UC Berkeley
- Stanford
- other Ivies/top schools
- (will also be applying to safeties/targets)
GPA: Weighted = 4.5 (projected to be 4.7 by senior year)
SAT: 1570/1600 (8/8/8 essay)
ACT: 35C (36E, 36R, 32M, 35S, 10 on essay)
SAT II: Plan to take Literature, US History, Math II
APs: My school has a very light emphasis on APs so I plan to take US History this year, but that will be my only one
Senior Year Courseload: AP Calc BC, AP Spanish, AP Comp Gov/Mock Trial, Honors Lang, Chinese IV Honors, AP Econ
ECs:
- 3 years VP of Speech and Debate (President next year) → have won several awards, qualified for State Tournament
- 3 years VP of Model UN (President next year) → have won several awards
- 3 years Head Editor of School Magazine about Global Affairs (Editor-in-chief next year)
- 3 years Admissions Ambassador (helps Admissions office)
- 2 years Community Service Club (President next year)
- 1 year: created my own club dedicated to empowering women, promoting gender equality, raising awareness about global issues (mainly universal access to education) → partnered with international organization Girls Learn International
- Volunteering (300+ hours) → spent summer volunteering at NGOs in Delhi, India for underprivileged kids + other work
- Piano (Level 9 CM player)
- Tae Kwon Do (fourth-degree black belt)
- School surf team (2 years)
- Will be attending ■■■■■■■ (40/1200 admitted) and NSLI-Y China (16.5% accepted) this summer
- Also admitted into Endevvr, Yale Young Global Scholars, Columbia High School Summer Program, UPenn LEAD but not attending
AWARDS/HONORS:
- Honor Bar (straight A’s) 9-11th grade
- Presidential Award for Community Service (300+ hours total, 9-11th grade)
Intended major(s): International Relations, Economics, Business (centered my clubs + activities on these majors)
School: Private (in California)
Demographic: Indian-American female, $222k+ income household
Hooks: n/a (?)
Other info: I have been taking both Chinese and Spanish for four years (helpful for Int. Relations)
@bigcitydreaming
You have truly wonderful credentials, but unfortunately so do many other applicants to the Ivies and top SLAC’s. If you are interested in Pomona (my child attends that school), then please consider applying to the four other members of the Claremont Colleges consortium (Pitzer, Harvey Mudd, Scripps, Claremont McKenna). Each of them is wonderful in its own way and admission to any of the five schools entitles you to take classes at the others (even major there in some cases) and enjoy the many shared resources such as library, eateries, the Hive, etc. Plus Pomona likely has the lowest admission rate (6.9%) of the five members this year. Also, I attended an Ivy myself and served as alum interviewer for years. I believe you are a viable candidate at each of the schools you indicated. PM me if you want more details.
You are a competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are great. Write good essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools
You’re a well qualified applicant but as @PeaceoffMind says, these schools are very competitive and there will be lots of other applicants with comparable stats and profile. In particular you are in one of the most competitive demographics for Pomona, which is being an unhooked female from California. The RD admit rate for that group is going to be even lower than 6.9%, which is a blended rate that includes all the ED’s, recruited athletes, Questbridge, Posse, etc. If you like LAC’s there lots of other excellent ones to consider adding to your list. (Like PeaceofMind, I’m a parent of a current Pomona student.) Swarthmore/Bryn Mawr/Haverford come to mind since you listed UPenn and are open to the Philadelphia area.
Thank you so much! Do you have any advice for how I could differentiate myself in that competitive demographic?
@doorrealthe Thank you so much!
@PeaceOfMind Thank you!! Do you have any suggestions though for the application process, any extra activities/things I should do, or ways I can tailor my application to the schools?
@bigcitydreaming At this late stage in your Junior year, you should focus on telling your story as opposed to attempting to fit more EC activities into your already impressive portfolio. While your stats and EC’s might be similar to those of many other stellar applicants as @Corinthian indicated, one way to distinguish yourself is to frame your experiences in a coherent, authentic, atypical and deeply reflective manner. Most of your peer applicants will demonstrate superb command of the English language. So you’ll need to go beyond the mechanics of the language. PM me if you’d like to discuss.
@bigcitydreaming In addition to the excellent choices suggested by @Corinthian , I suggest you look at Colby, Bowdoin and Bates - all superb SLACs in Maine. My spouse, son and I visited all of these schools in person during a January and came away favorably impressed by all of them. Colby stood out a bit because their new president, David Greene, had recently arrived from U of Chicago filled with creative and bold ideas for connecting Colby students with the rejuvenation of downtown Waterville, Maine. He even corresponded with my son, who had shared some ideas for this kind of college-community partnership when we visited Colby’s admissions office. That he took the time to write a lengthy and substantive email to a pre-freshman applicant stood out in our minds.
You have great ECs, but unfortunately, they are not unique. LOTS of people applying to the same schools as you will have the same cookie-cutter level of ECs, making you unable to stand out amidst the sea of similar Asian and White applicants. Thus, I really don’t think you have a shot for Columbia, UPenn, Stanford, the other Ivies, and maaaybe Berkeley (depends on your major). You gotta explore your passions and do something unique and spectacular that will make you stand out as an applicant.
There are tens of thousands of other applicants that they will have to see, so you need to ask yourself - how will you be different than the 90% of applicants who will be rejected?