<p>hi there,
it would be really nice if you could help me:
i've been contacted by a harvard coach, and so i seriously thought of applying to harvard. i hope you can give me my chances based on my stats. (which is the first problem:i'm german, so i have only a little knowledge of education in the us so i'm not sure if the stuff below is enough.please ask if you need to know anything else)</p>
<p>age: 16
gender: male
ethnicity: german</p>
<p>school: private,very good reputation, known for sending students to top schools
grades: unfortunately i cant give you something like a gpa.my average grade is b (german scale: a(best),b,c,d,e,f(worst))
sat I: just taken, expecting 650-700 (maths) and 600-700 (verbal)
sat II: expecting:800(world history),800(chemistry) and 700-800(elpt)</p>
<p>extracurriculars:
sports:
rowing (club):4 years, 3 years as a national competitor. participating in any championships, for example the national championships where i finished 8th last year.
rowing (school):varsity team for 4 years, finished 5th at the german national highschool championships.
also played hockey and tennis for 3 years in national leagues.
work:
i founded my own company for webdesign and hardware support(both for single customers and companys).i have one employee by now.
6 weeks SAP internship as intranet administrator.</p>
<p>how important do you think are my extracurriculars?
i know several harvard alumni, a professor and an honorary professor. does that make any difference?
my chances for harvard should be the same as for stanford, yale and princeton, right?</p>
<p>thanks for your opinions!!
jaegermeister</p>
<p>ps: please don't use any "expert's jargon"!! ;))</p>
<p>you think so? cool!
but i think the ivy league colleges aren't allowed to give athletic scholarships?! or is it because of rowing as a general extracuricular?</p>
<p>@Schwabi: yes i'll do that!
i've offered her a software (for analyzing training and generating spreadsheets) i'm just writing on and she said that something like that would really help her.so i hope this will be also some kind of advantage.
thank you very much for your advice!!</p>
<p>Quick thought with the grades...
A,B,C,D,E,F... don't you mean 1,2,3,4,5,6? That's how the school where I went in Germany graded (exchange student to German you see). Those grades don't have a good transfer to the American system, since generally you're graded on a subjective basis (unless you're school is designed in a different way then I'm used to. My partner in Germany always says that a 2 is closer to an A than a B, though when he was in the US he didn't take any of the hardest classes. Anywho, point was that any attempt at GPA approximation isn't quite going to work, from my experience.</p>
<p>That being said, if you've already been contacted by a Harvard coach, and have the extracurriculars (rowing and such) that you say you do, I'd think that you'd make it into Harvard.</p>
<p>yes, sure, the german grades are 1-6. i just didn't want to make too difficult for those of you who don't know the german system.
everyone i know who went to an american high school told me that school is much easier in the us. it is almost impossible to reach an average of 1.0 (A) in germany. there are 1-5% (depending on your school) of the pupils who make that, but also only in their last year when its getting a little bit easier.
where have you been in germany?</p>
<p>If money is an issue, you should look at other top schools like Stanford which do give athletic scholarships. As you noted, the ivies don't give any athletic scholarships, just need based aid and some don't do much of that for internationals. Good luck!</p>
<p>I went to school in Pinneberg, up near Hamburg. I've been down to Berlin and Munich too (hehe, those were a lot bigger than Pinneberg :)). Yah, I know that straight 1s is near impossible, I think one guy in my partner's class got 1s regularly, but I don't think he got all 1s, plus he was only in 9th grade. Good luck with Harvard, I'm applying there too, though I don't have the extracurriculars that you do.</p>
<p>@backtoreality: up there in hamburg it is easier to get 1s regularly, at least in the lower years. in my state (baden-wuertemberg) thats quite hard (even in the lower years).
good luck for you too!! maybe we'll meet there;)!</p>
<p>@kirmum: what does "need" mean (for harvard)?just estimated</p>
<p>thanks for your answers! good luck for you all!</p>
<p>To figure out your need, you go use the calculator on the Princeton web site, it gives a pretty good guess. Generally, if your parents make more than $150,000US and own a home, you will not qualify for much assistance ynless your family has others in college or unusual expenses. Even at $80,000US, they, and you from summer and school year work, will be expected to contribute much of the $40,000 each year. At school's with athletic scholarships, you will pay little to nothing. It's a huge difference.</p>