Give it to me straight, doc... will i make it?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I know I know, the truth hurts... So hurt me!!! Hahaha..
I know I have no safeties in my list, but could u chance me for these top universities? thank you!!!</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Asian
SAT 1: 2330 (RC:800, Math:750, WC: 780)
SAT 2: Math IIC: 800, planning on taking physics and bio (hopefully high 700s)
AP Calculus AB: 5
Class rank: within top 5 out of 100 (but school doesn’t actually rank)
GPA: approx 3.7 weighted (grades are deflated)
Very competitive private school in Sao Paulo, Brazil (IB school)
Doing full IB diploma, wrote Extended Essay on a comparison of Approximation methods (Euler’s, Improved Euler’s, and Taylor’s methods)</p>

<p>11th grade
IB HL Physics
IB HL English A1
Taking IB HL Korean A1 outside school
AP calculus AB
IB SL Bio
IB SL History
Theory of Knowledge
Portuguese 2</p>

<p>12th grade
IB HL Physics
IB HL English A1
Taking IB HL Korean A1 outside school
AP Calculus BC
IB SL Bio
Theory of Knowledge
Portuguese 3</p>

<p>Teacher recommendation
English: pretty confident that it will be awesome
Math: probably… decent</p>

<p>ECs (?)=years
Habitat for Humanity (2)
Model United Nations (3)
Free English tutoring to poor Brazilians (3)
Volunteer work at daycare center (2)
Managerial Editor of school newspaper (3)
(Possible, haven’t done yet) Hapkido club at school (1)
(Possible, haven’t done yet) Manager of a section at small SAT tutoring company (1)</p>

<p>Hapkido, 3rd degree black belt (7 years)
Internship at Merck Sharpe and Dohme (pharmaceutical company)
Internship at Ford (product development division)</p>

<p>Bronze in National English competition in Korea, 9th grade
Gold in Brazil Hapkido tournament, 11th grade</p>

<p>Chances at: (Interested in Aerospace Engineering/ Engineering in general, but also a little in business)</p>

<p>Brown
Caltech
U.C Berkeley
Columbia (FU)
Cornell
MIT
Princeton
Yale
Upenn
Stanford= EARLY
Cambridge
Oxford
NYU (Stern)*</p>

2

<p>You're an international student, right? The dims all your chances.</p>

<p>You have good scores. They're not AMAZING, especially not for an east asian applicant, but they're good.</p>

<p>Stanford will probably say no early. Ditto with Stern. Apply to two or three of those schools. Otherwise you need to revamp your list. </p>

<p>You won't be competitive enough in the international pool to reasonably get more than one or two of these, if that.</p>

3

<p>I just need to get into ONE of those colleges, as those are the colleges I'm interested in. Doesn't really matter which, cuz they're the final choices of a much longer list. Not really looking for a long list of acceptances to show off... </p>

<p>can more people evaluate my chances and tell me my weak points as well? thank you in advance~~!!! (oh, and yes, I'm an international student)</p>

<p>good luck to you all!</p>

4

<p>Do you need any financial aid? Do you have a backup school at home if not accepted here?</p>

5

<p>No to the financial aid, and... the backup school situation is... somewhat complicated, but more or less a yes.</p>

6

<p>if you don't ask for finaid then your chances improve dramatically. even so, you have mediocre ECs and your numbers are certainly good but could be better</p>

<p>reject by HYPSMCCCBPenn, and no chance at oxford & cambridge</p>

<p>in at berkeley (if you don't ask for aid) and stern</p>

<p>in general, you are aiming WAAAAAAAAAY to high and you have no match and safety schools</p>

7

<p>hmm, is there a way to salvage this mess I'm apparently in???</p>

<p>and yea... ^^ i know I'm aiming high. But hey, never hurt to dream, right? hahaha Its only after the rejections come in that the crippling pain sets in (according to my friends)</p>

<p>and, thx to all those who replied ^^</p>

8

<p>I think that you'll get into at least half of these...</p>

9

<p>I'd say you get into one or two of HYPSMCCCBPenn</p>

10

<p>"HYPSMCCCBPenn" That's a really long abbreviation.</p>

<p>Anyway, even though you're an international, I think you're in at NYU Stern and UC Berkeley--although the UCs will be really tough to get into since you don't live in California.</p>

11

<p>bump*
so... what would u say are my major weaknesses?</p>

12

<p>Your ECs. Nothing stands out really. For an international applicant, you should have some kind of big award or something on the international level. I don't think national awards from a country other than the US matter much to American schools. But personally, I believe that your worst aspect by far is your intended majors. You have almost nothing related to business or engineering in your ECs. Part of their purpose is to show colleges that you've already taken an interest in what you plan to do later on in life. For instance, if you are into humanitarian activities (which you are) and you decide on business as your major, that looks suspicious (seeing as business has almost no humanitarian component to it). If you want to go eng and you excel in English (which you do) and you don't have much math or science in your background (which you don't), then that also looks bad with the admission reps. Your scores are fine (something most people could envy), so you're ok there. I would advise you either change your major (and then maybe try to switch into your desired major later on) or target lesser schools which will accept you into their eng/bus programs. Good luck, whatever you decide to do.</p>

13

<p>whqjatkd apply to every single one of the schools on your list as long as the app fees wont be an issue. youve got nothing to lose and most of the kids replying, even if they are trying to help, are in the same place you are and have no idea where you would and would not be accepted. in my personal opinion, you have excellent ECs and a shot at every school. all i can say is, you dont know until you try.</p>