<p>Given your expertise with Harvard, I was inquiring whether you could evaluate my feasibility of acceptance as a candidate.</p>
<p>I am open and appreciative to all advice.</p>
<p>Academics:
Race: White Male (Russian Jewish Ethnicity)
Region: Midwest
Unweighted GPA: 3.98, ~Top 5%
SAT: ~2200, 800 Math, 700 Writing, 700 Reading
SAT IIs: TBD ~750
Course Load: All IB Courses Taken (Math, Physics, Biology, History, Literature, Government, TOK)
School: Recently ranked #1 Public High School in America</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
~Clubs:
- President Young Democrats
- President Future Business Leaders of America
- NHS, Spanish Honor Society</p>
<p>~Summer Internship Moscow State University (MSU)
- MSU considered a best university in Russia
- Assisted professors in laser and fiber optics studies.
- Conducted MAJOR research project
- Published in two distinguished scientific journals
- Two patents pending based on findings
- Went on to present results at U.S. Science Fairs</p>
<p>~Science Fair Endeavors:
+ Regionals Competion
- First Place Physics Division
- Grand Award Overall
- Won all expense paid trip to International Science Fair
+ State Competion:
- First Place Overall
+ Other Awards:
- Herbert Hoover Young Engineer Award
- 1st Place - International Society for Optical Engineering
- 2nd Place - General Motors Research Chapter of Sigma XI
- 1st Place Yale University Science and Engineering Society
- 1st Place - Mini/Micro Computer Applications
+ Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
- Awards: To Be Announced (Held in May)</p>
<ul>
<li>Owner of Succesful Online Retail Business</li>
<li>Started an online retail business</li>
<li>Developed first in industry concept</li>
<li>Cash Flow ~$120,000, 20% increase per year</li>
<li><p>I am Featured in Young Biz 100</p></li>
<li><p>Other Stuff:</p></li>
<li><p>2 Time Roller Hockey Champion (Bantam House)</p></li>
<li><p>Piano for 8 years (Non-competitive, I do it for myself)</p></li>
<li><p>Will play Soccer Varsity for School (Senior Year)</p></li>
<li><p>Future Plans:</p></li>
<li><p>Another Research Internship at US University (TBD)</p></li>
<li><p>Summer economics courses at UPenn</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I will appreciate any comments you may have and your opinion on my resume so far. I understand my test scores aren't great, but I am curious whether my extracurriculars make up for it.</p>
<p>There was a study conducted by Newsweek Magazine. In essence, the criteria was to determine the average difficulty of courses taken by students as well as the students' success at the courses they took. The school is called International Academy.</p>
<p>Of course you have a chance. Beyond that, no one's going to be able to predict what's going to happen without reading your essays, knowing more about your teacher recs, etc. etc.</p>
<p>AZC123, your stats are phenominal. You have a very good chance, from my judgement, but remember I am no admissions committee person, plus Harvard has rejected some people I know who had good stats, so make sure you have a very good interview, essay, and recommendation. But great job on your achievements!</p>
<p>My analysis suggests that Harvard has now moved into its own universe in terms of acceptance of applicants. The pool of applicants to Harvard, now moving beyond the 20,000 point, has -- needless to say -- extraordinary credentials. Most kids across the country who are number 1 in their class and begin to rack up 750s to 800s on SAT Is and SAT IIs either decide on their own that they want to apply to Harvard or are told that they should apply to Harvard. So they do, meaning that the vast piles of applications that show up at Harvard's doorstep basically include a huge percentage of the nation's top students. Period. So the admissions committee sees thousands of applicants with extremely high AIs (Academic Indices). And that is a starting point for the Harvard admissions committee. There is certainly a clear bias towards high "standard" statistics among the committee -- as evidenced by the published data on 25-75 percentile SAT scores at Harvard. Keeping in mind that it is a safe assumption that recruited athletes and underrepresented minorities have scores below Harvard's median on average, that means that typical white/Asian applicants who are admitted have on average truly exceptional scores. But since there are so many applicants who meet even these criteria, it comes down to a more random factor of what bizarre or highly exceptional or unusual factors attract the admissions committe's fancy for a given applicant. Your statistics as quoted are excellent, but basically not exceptional for the Harvard applicant pool. Even if they were, that wouldn't guarantee anything (as they would at most other competitive schools). So the question becomes: What else are you offering the admissions committee that would excite their interest? You are not an underrepresented minority. You do not appear to be a recruited athlete. You do not appear to be a high school celebrity (as was, for example, Natalie Portman, who was admitted to Harvard after having starred on Broadway while in high school or Yo Yo Ma who had given his first public cello recital at age 5 and who was admitted to Harvard ). You do not appear to have an extremely famous father or mother that would attract attention. Is there something that you have listed that would come across to the admissions committee as truly exceptional -- say the business you write about? Was the business an outstanding success that had unusual features about it that would come across as something an admissions reader would flag and call to the attention of the others on the committee. These are the quesitions to face when pondering Harvard.</p>
<p>Based on your stats, of course you have a shot. However, when it comes to the ivy league institutions + other "most selective" colleges, stats do not gain admission. These colleges take plenty into consideration, including essays, recommendations, awards, teacher evaluations, and tip factors to the point that admissions has somewhat become a game. Thousands of top "academic superstars" get rejected from the ivy league each year, and they all have superior stats. I'm not saying this to prevent you from applying to Harvard because you never know. You may be have exactly what they are looking for. However, you should know that you will face massive competition, and that if you do get rejected or waitlisted, you shouldn't feel bad because Harvard, all the other ivies, and other "most selective" colleges cannot accept every qualified applicant who applies because they don't have enough space for everyone. From my school this year, only a very small number got into the ivy league. The VAST majority were rejected and waitlisted, and they all had fantastic credentials. When you apply to all of your schools, you will need to stand out. I think that your essay may be what definitely distinguishes you compared to the other applicants. Try to make your essay your own and unique.</p>
<p>Harvard's admissions process is so effeminately random. I despise it. You can't guarantee anything. I know 2005 Intel Science Talent Search finalists who were rejected from Harvard....nothing can guarantee admission, not even if you founded a small country in some desolate region. However, if you go to IA, I know that Harvard takes only the top-ranked person from IA each year, as they did this year and the year before that. If you are number one in the class of 06 at IA and if you have the highest scores, you're an auto-admit, unless something goes wrong or you have bad recommendations, etc. Get a really good recommendation from your mentor in Moscow, and make sure you read your recommendations beforehand if you can to try and tweak them and so that you can get an idea of the impression that your application as a whole will make on the admissions officers.</p>
<p>To get admitted to Harvard from Eastern Michigan, you need to have excelled in nearly everything you've done to the nth degree, and you need to have done a LOT. Unless, however, you go to IA and are ranked number one in your class, in which case if you work carefully on your essays, etc., you are indeed an auto-admit, don't doubt me on that. </p>
<p>If anyone chides me for saying that some sort of auto-admit is possible for Harvard, trust me, they want to have the International Academy (U.S. News ranked first) represented somehow. They'll take the top-ranked kid if they show the least amount of initiative.</p>
<p>If you're the first person in your class to go to ISEF--and if again, you are careful to make sure EVERY SINGLE aspect of your application is utterly perfect and they don't see any viable weakness in you, you may have a chance.</p>
<p>Of course, the Newsweek rankings fail to take any actual measure of the quality of the education into account. (Number of ap/ib tests taken)÷(number of seniors) tells you precisely zero about the quality of the school, but hey, it sells magazines!</p>
<p>Yeah... like... at my high school, we take UNT courses to satisfy high school credits, so we get an excellent university education (and sometimes excrutiatingly difficult), but take no APs...</p>
<p>i disagree with some of the above saying you dont stand out. the combination of a $120,000 business and published research is quite a unique combination. thats freakin awesome. of course, ur GPA and SAT scores arent bulletproof by HYPSM standards, but if you can show them a good personality through ur interview and essays, you will be a very competitive candidate. the "impression" they receive through ur application will be the make or break. you have the credentials.</p>
<p>This guy is clearly beyond 99% of the people applying to Harvard...he's in no question</p>
<p>It might shock some of you, but his EC's are truly extraordinary and there aren't going to more than a handfull of applicants that can boast of the same type of accomplishments. I think most of you are truly in the dark about what kind of people apply to Harvard...rest assured that virtually NONE of the people who go there own 6 figure businesses or have had ANYTHING published in scientific journals</p>
<p>
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This guy is clearly beyond 99% of the people applying to Harvard...he's in no question
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<p>AZC123.. I agree that you have great chances at Harvard or any other elite school. I would go so far as to say that I'd be surprised if you were rejected.</p>
<p>However, don't take posters who say that you're "in no question" at face-value. That a poster would say something like that should automatically raise a red flag and cause you to quesiton his credibility. Given all of the intricacies of college admissions, NO ONE is "in no question." Period.</p>