<p>After deciding that I wanted to go to a LAC for undergrad, I visited many of them over the summer and decided that Williams was my favorite college.</p>
<p>Asian Male from NJ.
SAT: 2230 (M: 750, CR: 780, W: 700)
ACT: 34(M:36, R:35, E: 36, S: 29)
GPA: 96/100, top 10 percent of my class.</p>
<p>ECs: Volunteered at hospital clinic (4 years, ~500 hours)
Part time job (4 years)
Model Government (4 years)
Student Government (4 years)
FBLA (4 years)
Numerous Orchestras (4 years, have won some minor awards for the violin)
Debate Club (4 years)
Tennis (4 years)</p>
<p>Essay is decent, albeit generic. Recommendations are excellent. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>The excellent scores on the other three sections should render any harm nearly negligible. A strong science Subject Test score could also help. On that topic, have you taken the two required Subject Tests?</p>
<p>Yes I have. I have an 800 on the Math II test and a 740 in World History, all taken in June. I have registered for and am taking the Literature, French, and USH test in October. Unfortunately, ACT science is not my strong point.</p>
<p>Edit: Should I send in an extra letter of recommendation written by my eleventh grade science teacher? I did very well in his class.</p>
<p>Your credentials are certainly good enough to put you in the running, especially applying E.D., which can only help. On the downside, Asian from NJ isn’t exactly the easiest demographic pool, in terms of applying to ANY top school. Williams is less overrepresented by Asian students than many of its peers (around 12 percent as opposed to many approaching 20 or more), so you probably have as good a chance there as at any top-tier school. But realistically, you are probably looking at a 50-50 shot, at best. </p>
<p>One thing you really need is to articulate in some way what unique attribute you’ll bring to campus. Williams is known for its outstanding math department / math teaching (read up on Burger, Morgan, Adams, etc.), so that could be a niche – are you good enough to REALLY stand out mathematically and be a top notch student in the department? Your EC’s are solid but a bit all-over-the-place. Good to be well rounded, but are there one or two you really shined in, that you plan to continue in college? Maybe you can focus on your government / leadership accomplishments, or maybe it’s something else. But I just think given your outstanding but, frankly, fairly ubiquitous set of credentials, you need to find a way through your two essays, recommendations, and so on to make yourself stand out from the innumerable asian northeast applicants who are strong in math, play tennis and the violin, and engage community service and other sorts of leadership. It’s not really fair, but that is the reality of elite college admissions nowadays.</p>