General chances at top tier universities? Feeling discouraged

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys, I'm entering into my senior year this fall.
I've been reading through the CC forums for a little while now, especially results threads, and the things I've been seeing have me feeling discouraged and confused about how top tier schools (HYPSM) select admits, it all just seems so random.</p>

<p>I have a 2350 SAT, and I'm getting my SAT II results from the june test (USH, lit, math IIc) in a couple of days (expecting high 700s and 800s on those).
I'm just going to be pretty vague here because I want to give a general idea, I did varsity XC frosh-soph years and varsity track freshman year but stopped sports after that, I have a lot of music shtuff (have been in several honors orchestras, played my instrument for 6-7 years), I have a few county and state awards in mock trial, but no particularly special extracurriculars
I have pretty decent leadership: section leader in orchestra, senior trainer for my volunteering place, VP of math club, mock trial captain this coming year. but again, nothing that special.
I got a 232 PSAT so I'm expecting NMF</p>

<p>My point is, I have no standout parts of my application, I'm asian, and have no hooks.</p>

<p>I've read through the results forums here and there are people with my same stats if not better and they've all been rejected. And then I read of people with lower stats with no hooks and they're in.</p>

<p>I have a list of about 12 colleges that I'm trying to narrow down in applying to, but is it really worth it for me to apply to Yale, Princeton, or Stanford, or should I be more focused and applying to schools like Georgetown, CMC, or the like?</p>

<p>Basically, I feel like I have too many high reaches on my list; is it worth the time putting in the app and the application fee to have so many of these?</p>

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<p>it’s always worth a shot. You never know whats gonna happen with the Ivies, so send in your application, and hope for the best.</p>

3

<p>Unless money is really tight, I would say just add more colleges like CMC to your list, its worth it if you get in. Personally, my biggest regret about my college applications this year is that I was more realistic and didn’t apply to too many high reaches, because I got into all but one. You have good enough stats that you have a shot at schools like Yale, so definitely go for it. You should apply to CMC though, cause that’s where </p>