<p>Hello, I am a QB finalist, first-gen, and very low income (~15K). Both of my parents died in the summer after my sophomore year and I spent a year out of school to cope, which basically destined me to be a junior when I should've been a senior, which I am now. I wrote about this in my personal statements and feel confident that I discussed it well. These are my other statistics:</p>
<p>SAT: 1900
GPA: (W) 4.01 (UW) 3.66
Rank: 24/544 (top 5%)
SAT II: Wasn't able to take (couldn't get fee waiver in time and can't use money for additional stuff ----> 15K)
APs: WHAP (4), EngLang (5), APUSH (5), and I am taking 6 AP classes this year (intent on taking 4 tests)
Teacher Recs: Don't know, but both teachers know me very well and one of them is absolutely great at recommendations
Interviews: Yale (Above Average), Princeton (Excellent)
EC's: 4 years of Volunteer tutoring, AP Club President this year as well as Academic Decathlon Club President, and I founded a Student Union
Personal Statements: Written well and I explain all of my grade dips, primarily a result of taking care of ailing parents and not having good financial opportunities.</p>
<p>Given this information, do I have a chance at Princeton and Stanford? I know that my stats are well below the average, but I think I told my story well and I had teachers who recommended me well</p>
<p>I forwarded my application to those colleges as well as ~7 others</p>
<p>Hey, are you waiting to hear back from Princeton and Stanford (along with your other schools) through RD? If so, I’d suggest setting up this sort of ‘chance me’ thread under those specific schools for a more well-informed response (or as well-informed as those ‘chance me’ threads can get, keeping that in mind). </p>
<p>Regardless, it’s really a shot in the dark with the Ivies. I don’t need to give you the whole spiel about how a person with great stats can get rejected to such-and-such school and how a person with subpar stats can get accepted–admissions to Ivies or any low-acceptance schools are subjective, with every pool of applicants and what sort of class the officers are looking to craft constantly changing each year. </p>
<p>You sound like you have an incredible life story and you have an advantage of being well-spoken, meaning as long you’re genuine in your admissions essays I’d reckon you’d have a shot of getting into any good school. </p>
<p>The only “weak” spot I see about your application is that your ECs sound very, very typical of a student who is attempting to be the “well-rounded” person. What are your interests? Future plans or goals? How did those ECs fit in to those interests and plans or goals? Most schools don’t want well-rounded students, they want well-rounded classrooms, meaning students who each participated in different areas of life but really “took it and ran” with their passions. </p>
<p>However, I don’t know a thing about you or how you presented your ECs in your essays–as long as you remained sincere and passionate in your application, then this is really just an arbitrary remark I’m making.</p>
<p>And, remember, it’s not always about the Ivies.</p>
<p>Well, I attend a high school living in a very poor area with around 2800 students and no one in any senior class has gone to an Ivy League school. Some kinds in other more wealthy schools probably typically have kids that get in, but in my school, the top-notch students only ever get to the big UCs and Stanford once in a blue moon. My primary interest is tutoring (I want to be a professor), but the AP department at my school is very poor despite having it chaired by the best teacher I ever had, the one who does great recommendations. I wanted to turn that around with the AP Club. </p>
<p>I have a strong dislike for people who just stack on ECs just so they. I am just involved in multiple areas because I was never able to before, given my parents’ sickness throughout my high school career. Even after coming back for my junior year, I hadn’t gotten over it until I spent time with my English, who has helped me with so much, including setting me up with QuestBridge.</p>
<p>Honestly, the reason why I set my heart on Princeton and Stanford is simply because I want to believe that despite my problems and disadvantages, good things can happen and I want to make my parents proud. I’ll be the first person in my entire family to go to college and busting the door wide open with a Stanford or Princeton acceptance is something that matters to me. I’ve shed tears over it. I want to get my family out of this constant state of impoverished life full of worry. I am not going to say that I deserve anything because no one deserves anything. What you get is what you get. All I want is for my hope to be validated. I appreciate your kind words. This has just been wracking my brain lol</p>