Final Chances RD (Williams, Hamilton, Ivies, and NYU Stern) Will Chance Back :)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Dearest CC community, before you read, I want to first thank you all very much for your time and your thoughtful evaluations!!

Objectives:
GPA UW: 3.7 Weighted: School does not weight

Breakdown: Freshman (all honors) 3.1
Sophomore (All honors) 3.8
Junior (All IB SL) 4.0
Senior (All IB SL w/ 3 HL): 4.0
As you see, I have gotten 4.0s on the hardest years (junior + senior) while I got a 3.1 on the easiest year (freshman). I hope that the trend and the rigor will help my GPA more.

SAT Reasoning: 2350 single sitting third try (800 CR, 770 M, 780 W) (Submitted all 3 SAT Is: 1930 first time, 2030 second time, and 2350 third time).

SAT II (Submitted all 4)
Math IIC: 800
Chemistry: 790
Physics: 770
US History: 750 (670, 670, 750* Sent all three scores – Will this hurt me too much?)

Multiple school honor rolls for outstanding GPA starting from sophomore year

Distinguished school rewards for having highest grade in IB SL Latin, SL History, SL English

A Gold Medal on National Latin Exam

Not a lot of ECs…

Editor of School Literary Magazine (2hr/wk, 6 months?)
Ultimate Frisbee Club (6hr/wk, 36wk/yr, 2 years)
Student Government (2hr/wk, 36wk/yr, 2 years)
Green Teen volunteer (35hr/wk, 3 weeks)

Counselor Recs:
10/10 Amazing: She knows me very well, we often share poetry with each other, and she pays special attention to my leadership and community involvement in the school (mostly in 12th grade). I have also told her – as she asked of me – how I set up the school community literary sharing/coffee house/open mic.

Teacher Recs:
Physics Teacher (10/10). He saw me going from a C in the beginning of IB Physics SL Year 1 to an A at the end of the year. In senior year, I have the highest grade in the entire class. We often talk about economics and politics in our spare time. Personal friends, he would often curse at me when we’re alone for the fun of it

My History Teacher Rec is equal if not better than my physic teacher’s. She knows me as a big econ geek and I have done extremely well in her class. She even requested that I type up my hand-written paper exams in her class for future classes to use as an anchor. She also included how I am developing on a novel and other lengthy creative writing projects in my spare time.

Personal Essay (10/10). I talked about how volunteering has shaped my view of modern wealth and income inequality and how I intended to major in economics to be the “person of the people”.

I have worked excruciatingly on all of the supplements to make sure that they will only help to my application.

Others: First Generation College Student/Chinese American/ Income is less than 30k.

Chance me for: Williams, Hamilton, Cornell (CAS Econ), Columbia (CAS Econ), Upenn (CAS Econ), Brown, and NYU Stern
EDIT: Also, Chances for Carnegie Mellon and Wesleyan? Forgot to include these two.

2

Your ECs are pretty ok, however, you improvement in your GPA, SAT score, and teacher recs sound really amazing.

Cornell/ UPenn/ Brown: High Match/ Low Reach
Columbia: Reach (ECs aren’t that strong)
Carnegie: High Match
NYU: Low Match/ Match

Didn’t include the colleges I dont know that well abt. Good luck!

3

Cornell/UPenn: Reach

Brown/Columbia: Reach/High Reach

Carnegie: Match

NYU: Low Match

Williams: High Match

Not sure how anyone could call any Ivy a “low reach” like the poster above did, unless perhaps you have some outstanding EC or something. With a 3.7, even if mostly because of freshman year, and Ivy will be a long shot.

Also, Carnegie has stated at info sessions that they don’t really care about freshman year grades. I expect that you’ll get in at least there, and probably also to Williams, Hamilton, and Wesleyan.

4

This is my chance back for you. First of all I would like to say your SAT scores are remarkably similar to mine as I had 3 sittings as well and I got 1930 first time, 2080 second time, and 2200 third time. Unfortunately the third time I didn’t do nearly as well as you did. Anyways, I digress.

Your stats are incredibly high but like me your GPA is about average. Since you’re applying to top-notch colleges, you probably realize they will definitely notice your GPA isn’t exactly outstanding. Your EC’s are decent and all of your recommendations seem very thought out.

If your essays are really that well written, that will definitely help increase the chances of your acceptance. Essentially all Ivies are reaches just keep that in mind.

Therefore I think:

Cornell: High match/ Low Reach
UPenn: High match/ Med-High Reach (difficult ivy)
Carnegie Highmatch
NYU: High match/Med Reach
Columbia: High reach (they consider everything)
Brown: High match/ Med Reach

Again I’d like to state that ivies truly do use a holistic review in looking at your application. Therefore it may be difficult even with a high SAT score.

5

Your scores look fantastic. I am little confused as to why you sent every single score instead of just the best ones, but that’s already done so its okay. Your GPA is a bit low, but I think your scores should cover that up. Your ECs are quite weak however. If your recs are as good as you say, that should help a lot.

Cornell/ UPenn/ Brown: Low Reach/Reach
Columbia: Reach
Carnegie: High Match/Low Reach
NYU: Match

I think you have a competitive shot at all the schools you have applied to. They are reaches simply because they are tough to get into and your ECs are a bit lacking. Just my opinion. I wish you the best. Good Luck!

6

I think that your stats are great.
Cornell/UPenn: Low reach
Brown/Columbia: Reach
CMU: High Match
NYU: Match
Good luck! Chance back? :slight_smile: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1726672-i-will-chance-you-back-p1.html

7

Cornell/UPenn: Reach
Brown/Columbia: Low Reach
CMU: Reach
NYU: Match
Williams: High Match
Chance Back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1724529-interview-preparation-and-affect-on-chances.html#latest

8

Does your school rank at all? What state are you from? (geographical location does make a difference). That being said, you seem fairly strong and competitive:
Williams: match
Hamilton: should be safe, but it still has a low enough acceptance rate, that I can’t say. So match.
Cornell (CAS Econ): low reach
Columbia (CAS Econ): reach
Upenn (CAS Econ): reach
Brown: I’m tempted to say match, just because your remind me of the kids I know who have gotten in at my HS. It’s still a very crapshoot school though, so low reach?
NYU Stern: stats wise, you should be a match…I’m not sure about “fit” though
Carnegie Mellon: match
Wesleyan: same with Hamilton

You’ve clearly worked very hard to improve yourself through the years and made incredible progress. That’s something you should feel proud about, regardless of where you get in :slight_smile:

9

Thank you to all of the above posters for chances! Also (bad on my part to forget), I am in the top 14% of my class (school only does GPA distribution) and I am from New York.

10

Hopefully sending the multiple scores won’t be a negative. (it shouldn’t but personally I just would’ve sent the highest.)

Hamilton - Low match to match
Williams - Match
NYU Stern - Match
Cornell (CAS Econ), Brown- Low reach
Columbia (CAS Econ), Upenn (CAS Econ)- Reach

Good luck! The strong upwards GPA trend will definitely help you, along with the great SAT. You seem like a very strong applicant.

11

Hey, thanks for replying to my BU question. Anyway, I think your SAT testing is amazingly performed. Also, your EC’s are vert strong as well. Your courses in school are advanced and to conclude, I believe this school is a strong match school.

12

Bump

13

I don’t want to be mean, but I think with that GPA the ivies/sub ivies won’t be matches or low reaches. What caused your freshman year to be so bad?

14

I did not write an excuse for my freshman year GPA on the Common App, but the 3.1 is the lack of effort exerted in freshman year. But I alleviate the situation (or at least I think I can) by telling myself I got the lowest GPA at the easiest year and the highest GPA at the hardest years (11+12th grades). Perhaps I am wrong to think this way?

15

You should only hope for the best. Admissions are quite arbitrary.

16

Williams- Reach, Hamilton- Match, Cornell (CAS Econ)- High Match/Low Reach, Columbia (CAS Econ)- Far Reach, Upenn (CAS Econ)- Far Reach, Brown- Reach, and NYU Stern- High Match, Carnegie Mellon- match/high match and Wesleyan-match/high match? I’m sure you will get into a few of these. Your recs sound great!

17

williams reach
hamilton match
cornell reach
columbia reach
upenn reach
brown reach
cmu low reach
nyu high match

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18030162#Comment_18030162