Do I stand a chance at top schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Hey guys I'm new to this so go easy because I am not totally sure about the format. I looked at some posts and I think I got it down.</p>

<p>Chance me for: Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Penn Wharton, Georgetown, USC, U of Texas Biz Honors, Rice</p>

<p>Plan on majoring business or economics.</p>

<p>Stats:
SAT (1st and only take) 2300:
math: 720
crit: 780
writ:800</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests:
Math 2: 780
US history: 760
World history: 760</p>

<p>Rank: 1/91
UW GPA: 4.0
W GPA: 4.45</p>

<p>Course load:
Probably either toughest possible or generally highly advanced, despite only having taken only 7 AP's over all of high school. </p>

<p>EC's:
---Business development assistant at law firm (30 weeks/year, 16 hour week, 2 years)
---Marketing intern at startup (12 weeks/year, 6 hour week, 1 year)
---Intern at political center (26 weeks/year, 16 hour week, 1 year)
---Volunteer on video and managing recordings at 35,000 member church (25 weeks/year, 14 hour week, 2 years)
---Led the collection of over 5700 books for 3 libraries in Sierre Leone and Nigeria. (8 weeks/year, 3 hour week, 2 years )
---Led students to volunteer tutor at-risk kids at youth development center (25 weeks/year, 5 hour week, 2 years)
---Founded my FBLA club & taught financial literacy class and pitched school officials for small business idea (20 weeks, 3 hour week, 3 years)
---Academic competition, it's a small thing but I have some regional/state awards (25 weeks/year, 3 hour week, 4 years)
---VEX robotics assistant coach and scout (12 weeks/year , 4 hour week, 2 years)
---SEO intern with a finance website (12 weeks/year, 6 hour week, 1 year)</p>

<p>Those are the 10 things going on my common app. I will also put some extra stuff in the additional comments thing like the summer volleyball league I'm starting for homeless people</p>

<p>Awards:
---national merit semifinalist
---national honor society
---mu alpha theta
---various class awards
---academic letter</p>

<p>So guys, what do you think my chances are for the aforementioned schools and their elite programs???</p>

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<p>Can someone please chance me lol</p>

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<p>You have a chance at all of those schools. Like everyone else applying to Harvard, Yale, Penn, Georgetown your numbers are there…just a crap shoot now. The other schools mentioned have somewhat higher acceptance rates so naturally a better chance. Your numbers are there for any of these schools. No matter where you get acceptance letters to, please remember…“you did what needed to be done to make the grade.” No doubt some of these schools will say “no,” please never for a moment think you did something inferior or wrong. It’s just the nature of the beast. My d has a very. very similar resume and is applying to a couple of those schools also with the knowledge that whichever school admits her will not only be nice for her, but a great addition to the school. </p>

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<p>With no hook, its a crapshoot. That is, you have a similar chance to the acceptance rate. What’s your ethnicity/race?</p>

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<p>I’m a white male. Bland I know lol. I feel pretty cookie cutter but I guess I hope my essays make me stand out. Do you guys think I should waste my $90 on Stanford? I honestly don’t think I should but I might. Any ideas what I should do to further strengthen myself?</p>

<p>Also, I know it’s not a hook but I am going to apply Harvard EA. I think it must positivist effect acceptances because it’s restrictive. Why would they have a restrictive EA unless it helped them make decisions and therefore benefitted you? </p>

<p>Also, on my app, should I be specific for the organizations I worked for or just say “marketing internship with startup.” </p>

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<p>You don’t stand a chance. You need 2400 on the SAT, perfect subject tests, and legacy. Sorry, you aren’t getting into Harvard or Stanford.</p>

<p>Just a little side tip: You generally don’t want to fill out all the slots of ECs unless they really mean that much to you. Just put the things you are most committed to.</p>

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<p>Why would I not fill out the slots if I have something to put there? As long as nothing is super forced I don’t know why it would be bad. Do you also suggest against adding the extra EC’a in the additional info section? If so why</p>

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<p>The more ECs you have, the less committed you seem</p>

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<p>You have a chance at these schools* but you should consider some safeties as well. Focus your apps for some schools like Harvard REA and Wharton, maybe cut out Yale or Dartmouth and add Michigan.</p>

<p>*What I mean by that is you are a standard applicant with great EC’s, </p>

<p>I think though its great to apply to many Ivy’s it can detract from the application, from personal experience my brother who now attends wharton tried the same thing you are doing but he dropped yale, cornell, dartmouth from his list after his essays started losing their potency.</p>

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<p>You certainly have a chance, and don’t sweat the extracurricular issue at all. You’re a terrific candidate, but most of the schools on your list reject literally thousands of terrific candidates every year. I just wonder why you put Dartmouth on the list, when your other selections are in urban areas. </p>

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<p>Dartmouth is on the list because is is a top school with excellent campus life and I don’t care if it is a college town or big city environment. I have these schools because these are the ones I am would truly consider attending if accepted. I honestly don’t know what schools I would apply to as more matches but I am auto-accept to UT and Texas A&M which has the same application will likely give me a full ride because they give valedictorians full rides and national merits full rides. So I am pretty safe, now I can just focus on top schools for possible acceptances. </p>

<p>Does anyone agree with @AnnieBeats that I should not fill out all 10? If so, which EC’s should I cut from this list</p>

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<p>@Newkid1997 - Yeah, I have no idea why AnnieBeats said that about not having any chance. That’s just absurd and you seem to have wisely ignored that. But I do agree that your EC’s seem a mile wide and an inch deep in a way. Perhaps it would be a better presentation to group the ones that are related. something like:</p>

<p>1) Held various jobs outside of school: Then you could list those three or four</p>

<p>2) Volunteer positions for charity work: Then list those 3-4 things you did</p>

<p>3) Extra academic pursuits: You could list the competition and the robotics. BTW, just saying academic competition sounds too vague. Does it have a name?</p>

<p>Highlight any leadership positions, like founding the club. Bring that out more.</p>

<p>Schools are looking for passion, not resume padding. Even if that is not what you were doing, you have to be careful about appearances. Don’t make them do the work of finding the common thread between those activities. They don’t necessarily want you to be one dimensional in your EC’s (although if you were a top amateur golfer or something like that it would be an exception. Of course then you would be a recruited athlete, but you get what i mean) but they don’t want you to just “do a lot of stuff”. They need to see some passion and accomplishment and leadership in what you chose to do.</p>

<p>As far as other schools, I think your list is pretty good, but if you want to avoid the huge schools like Texas and still have some schools where your odds go up a fair amount in getting accepted, you could look at Miami (FL), Tulane, Wake Forest, schools like that. Of course with those schools they might assume you are just using them as relative safeties and blow you off anyway. It happens, but they do have full tuition merit scholarships, and even a few full ride. Oh, and another that fits with your first list is Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). Excellent school, very nice campus and amenities, and they also have merit scholarships you can compete for. Just some thoughts.</p>

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<p>@fallenchemist It was sarcasm. The OP obviously has as good of a chance as anyone else out there. He/She is the valedictorian of their class with almost perfect test scores. That’s why I said that. Because the OP has been successful in literally every possible area. </p>

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<p>@AnnieBeats‌ - Ah, OK. You might want to consider using the emoticons or whatever they are called, such as :wink: to indicate sarcasm. Hard to tell without tone of voice or body language sometimes. Or I am just dense. Could be either. But I see so many posts that are truly over the top…</p>

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<p>@fallenchemist I shall consider that in the future. :smiley: </p>

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<p>@anniebeats @fallenchemist - don’t worry I realized that was sarcasm.</p>

<p>@fallenchemist - insightful post, thanks very much. I actually like the idea of applying to UMiami if I can get a good amount of scholarship. And what you’ve said about grouping the activities seems like a really great idea, but I am afraid to try something unorthodox when applying to colleges. I am also afraid that I will only have 4 activities, and even if they expand into more activities, I won’t be able to give a proper explanation of each activity or give the proper time window each activity occurred in. Also, the academic competition I participate in is called Texas Christian Schools Interscholastic Tournament (TCSIT). I didn’t even label it for CC because nobody knows what it is. However, it is labeled on my app and noted (similar to UIL). </p>

<p>I may choose not to group my work experience because hours get funky on the app. I can’t really group TCSIT and VEX because I don’t have enough space to list my TCSIT awards. I mean I guess that should go in the awards category but I feel like it is more of an activity. </p>

<p>Clubs I could easily group and my leadership positions, but I am again afraid of hours and an improper idea of how much time was spent on each club. Same problem with volunteering. I mean I really just don’t have enough space on the common app. All my clubs and activities have solid explanations that really highlight my role and I’m afraid if I lost that, it would make my activities seem even more like a giant laundry list. I will try to group some so that I do not fill out all 10 spaces and seem shallow. </p>

<p>Also if you are going to answer anything answer this: how specific should I be on my labels? Like should I say “law firm assistant” or “assistant at Smith Criminal Law”? Another example “intern at startup” vs. “Intern at CollegeConfidential” - I can easily go more specific but I don’t know if I should avoid that. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

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<p>You don’t need to be that specific unless there is a brand name that you think will wow the admissions officer. For example, Google software engineering intern sounds a lot better than software engineering intern. If it’s something with national recognition, be specific, but if it isn’t, then it doesn’t matter that much.</p>

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<p>As far as the grouping, that is fine. I mean if it doesn’t work on the Common App, then it just doesn’t. But when it comes to EC’s, 4 activities is not an “only”. Personally I would say it is a perfect number, if you are really involved in all 4. I am sure it will work out fine, what is important is that you keep in mind the objective of getting across that you care about these activities and that they do tie together.</p>

<p>I would say it is better to get specific in your labels. I slightly disagree with Annie. Even if the admissions reader has no idea who Smith Criminal Law is as a firm, or what company CC is, it definitely sounds better, more authentic. Can’t explain it exactly, but just saying “interned at a start up” vs. “Interned at CollegeConfidential, a start up company” the former sounds weaker to me, like you didn’t really care who you interned with. Don’t want to get too psychobabble about it, but the latter sounds more real somehow. Of course if the company was famous like Amazon or Google, then there is that immediate recognition factor which is nice. But I would still spell out the name of the company or firm.</p>

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<p>Being specific is just being more honest and upfront, so I think it’s better. You really want to lie and mention a company AdComs could call? It definitely says you have more confidence. </p>

<p>Have you seen the common app recently? It would be really difficult and inaccurate to list as a group but I will try for certain stuff. I know I seem sort of laundry list right now. The reality is that that is who I am but I am going to have to give the best appearance to AdComs. </p>

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<p>You definitely have a chance at Stanford when it comes to scores and GPA. Your SAT is well above their mean for admitted freshmen. (Test scores is why I still hold HYP above Stanford overall – everything else is fairly equal, but the student bodies at HYP are smarter overall than Stanford’s.)</p>

<p>You are actually above the mean SAT for admits at every school in the US. So you are, again, fine there.</p>

<p>Still a crapshoot due to the low admittance rates and lack of hook.</p>

<p>I’d find some matches and a safety or two. </p>

<p>Rice and USC are matches from a numbers perspective, but their admission rates still likely make them low reaches or high matches.</p>