Half a URM's chances for HYP, Duke, etc.

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>I know my SAT score is absolutely horrid, I don't know what happened. but I'm taking it again next year so I'm hoping for at least 700's on the math and verbal. :]</p>

<p>currently a junior</p>

<p>Stats:
* SAT I: 2100 (610 Math, 690 Verbal, 800 Writing 12 essay)
* SAT IIs: going to take US History, MathII, and Chemistry
* GPA: don't know this year's W, 3.9 UW
* Rank: 2/342
* Other: AP exams this year: Chem, Lang, US, expecting 5's, taking the most rigorous classes available</p>

<p>EC'S
- Student Council - Sophomore Class Secretary (10) Student Body Secretary (11), probably will be Student Body Vice President (12) - I love this organization with every fiber of my being. We do so much for the school and community that's it's simply impossible to list all the events we plan and coordinate, not to mention the many fundraisers we do throughout the year! I'm so glad I took a chance and became elected
- Journalism Club - Founder/President (11)
- Asia Club - Vice President (10), Co-President (11)
- National Honor Society - member (10) Junior Rep. (11) hopefully President next year
- Fayetteville-Cumberland Youth Council - member (11), Vice-Chair-elect for next year (12)
- UNC-Chapel Hill's NC Youth Advisory Committee - member (11, 12 automatically on for next year) - we meet every month to improve the Civic Education Consortium's plans to engage young people in everyday civic duties but especially voting, which leads me to my next big EC
- Kids Voting NC - Precinct Captain, School Ambassador
- Teen Republicans - Member (10,11) - I've campaigned for local politicians and also spent a great deal of time getting petitions signed for a very important referendum involving City Council, it's all over our local news lately
- Science Olympiad - Member (9,10), Varsity Captain (11)
- Tri-Chi - Member (10,11) we did trick-or-treat for UNICEF and raised money for breast cancer awareness month :]
- Spanish Club - member(10,11) - I do Habitat for Humanity through this club, we also collect presents during Christmas time for poor elementary kids (it's so much fun), and we also collect nonperishable goods for soldiers in Iraq (I come from a military town)
- Spanish Honor Society (11)</p>

<p>COMMUNITY SERVICE
- Dogwood Festival volunteer - one of our town's biggest events!
- Reading Rocks Walk-a-thon participant - raises money for literacy
- Mentor/tutor at local elementary school with a mostly poor population (every Thursday for 1 hour)
- International Folk Day coordinator for school (one of our school's largest events...so much fun)
- Local Library volunteer (summer 04)
- Adopt-A-Street participant - roadside cleanups
- Nursing Home (summer 05)
- Medical Access Program (pharmacy for low income) volunteer (summer 06)</p>

<p>MISC EC's
- In the process of founding "TeenTV" - a Broadcast Journalism organization open to the community, gives teens who do not have journalism programs in their schools a chance to experience broadcast journalism, right now I'm trying to gather sponsors to buy equipment, etc. probably will fully initiate next year...really excited!!
- Founder of first Teen Blog for local paper (online edition)
- Broadcast Journalism Anchor (10th grade) really sparked my love for Journalism
- Church Youth Group - 9,Pianist (10),11,12
- Church - 9,10,11,12 (Korean to English translator all four years)
- Church conferences in Chicago, D.C., and Boston (don't know if this even counts!)
- Korean Fan Dance - member (9,10) and teacher (11,12) featured in local paper, we perform at multicultural events etc.
- Missions Trips - domestically in Maryland (hehe) and the Dominican Republic
- Teaching myself Russian (I fell in love with it after watching a movie)
- Fluent in Korean, speak it at home with my mom
- Attending Harvard SSP this summer</p>

<p>AWARDS
- Science Olympiad medals - regionals (too many to mention, lots of 1st places)
- Fayetteville Korean Association scholarship winner
- Academic Letter & Pins (9,10,11,12) this thing my school does
- 1 of 2 perfect scores in my school on the NC Writing Test (don't know if this counts as an honor or not?)
- My school never really gives out academic awards besides the pin..</p>

<p>WORK EXPERIENCE
- Private Tutor for Chemistry ($10/hr, on and off on weekends)
- Harris Teeter (grocery store) bagger ($8/hr, thank you minimum wage!)</p>

<p>Misc: I haven't done anything <em>spectacular</em> or on a national level unless you count my Previous National Spelling Bee contestant status (2003 and 2004) lol. I'm a good writer, I guess. My dad served 26 years in the Army which made us move around a little. My mom never got past elementary school. Two of my greatest loves are politics and writing. My faith is extremely important to me and I depend on God for everything. I love learning, especially languages and about other cultures. I wish I could travel more! My school hasn't sent anyone to an Ivy in...a LONG time. Everyone always has such low standards and it kills me.. What else? I dislike math and science, but especially math.</p>

<p>Location/Person:
* State or Country: North Carolina
* School Type: Suburban Public / My school is 60% white and 40% black/other. The kids at my school are also either super rich or super poor....not really competitive, "highest" SAT scores in the county (which isn't really saying much, avg is around 1600?)
* Ethnicity: Asian/Hispanic (Korean/Dominican)
* Gender: Female
* Also I'm low-income, 1st generation college student, hopefully a QuestBridge finalist</p>

<p>What are my chances for:
Yale
Princeton
Harvard
UPenn
Emory
UNC Chapel Hill
Duke
Columbia
Georgetown</p>

<p>Honest opinions please! Thanks</p>

2

<p>Hey, you're trying out for QuestBridge, too? So am I! :) There's a 50% chance that you will be selected. I think your URM status and first generation status will get you picked.</p>

<p>I'm Southeast Asian and not first-generation (my mom only completed highschool, my father got a college degree, even though it was useless in the U.S.). </p>

<p>Are you going to be ranking Yale and Princeton for College Match? Sounds like you have a really good shot if you do.. my personal choices (1. Princeton, 2. Stanford, 3. Yale) are probably going to be ranked that way if I get chosen.</p>

<p>You and I have very similar stats (3.9UW, 2090 SAT, lowest section was Math). Eeek, I'm afraid of the Math IIC exam. I might also be doing Harvard SSP this summer if I win the College Prep Scholarship. Wow, that's creepy.</p>

<p>I'd say you have a good shot if you do College Match. But I've heard that the SAT scores for students selected for Princeton has been in the low 2200s to high 2300s. Tough, I know. However, they are very holistic and since you say you are a good writer (so am I!) you stand a shot of being noticed. </p>

<p>"Two of my greatest loves are politics and writing." = We must be twins. Or something.</p>

<p>Anyways, I think you have a good shot at all of those schools, but I think your highest chances are with Yale and Princeton since those are QB partner schools. And even if you don't get matched, you have a second shot in the RD round (unlike those who are deferred, you are given consideration as if your application had not looked at previously, so basically two shots at Princeton and Yale).</p>

<p>Now all we need is Kyle on here (he's doing QuestBridge, too). xD</p>

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<p>Hey murkywater -
I ranked my colleges for the College Match program as follows:
1. Yale
2. Princeton
Haha! I'm kind of paranoid about their binding policy so I didn't really want to go any further... I hope I become at least a finalist because I gotta admit, my essay was pretty bad and I know I could've done better. Good luck to you!!</p>

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<p>Spiffy,</p>

<p>I picked Stanford because I think it's a little better than Yale [oh, how we disagree on this, seeing as how you listed it as first!] PAH, putting my dream school second! ;-)</p>

<p>Also, did you apply for the College Prep Scholarship? I'm fairly certain that the College Match scholarship application isn't available until August. Unless you got a secret application and already listed your colleges -- you must've applied for the College Prep scholarship.</p>

<p>Oh, good luck to you, too. I spent a week on my essays and they were great. However, I think me not being URM or first-generation is going to kill my chances at becoming a finalist. Ouch!</p>

5

<p>Yeah I applied for the College Prep Scholarship... I applied mainly for the all expenses paid Harvard summer school thing. Although I've already been accepted to Harvard SSP my family really needs the full financial aid,
and as for the College Match, yeah I'm just going to automatically transfer my info for the August application.</p>

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<p>yay! i found more QB'ers! At my school, it's like no one knows about it. I've asked around and I seemed to be the only one that applied for the CollegePrep scholarship. I too spent about a week on my essays, haha. i also got the one week extension for Rec letters. thank heaven!</p>

<p>hey, i was wondering about Harvard SSP. If I don't get selected through QB, would it be too late to apply afterwards? also, I've read that almost everyone who applies gets in (probably because its pretty self-selective), can you assert the validity in that? i too, need all the financial aid i can get =D</p>

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<p>Why not Stanford?</p>

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<p>Heh, Questbridge for me too. =)</p>

<p>You have good chances at all of them, given your accomplishments and URM status. However, keep in mind that you won't be able to fit all of that on the app.</p>

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<p>stanford is great and all, but i need to get out of california! =P</p>

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<p>afchang - about SSP, I believe they take applications until June 2nd or something like that. Check their website for more info, but I'm pretty sure that's accurate. I wouldn't wait until then though. You can always apply, be accepted, receive financial aid and then if you win the scholarship via QB, you can always just tell Harvard SSP about your situation. That's what I'm doing. Harvard's pretty generous about fin aid from what I can tell - they gave me $4500 for the 8 week session. I'm still not sure if I'm going to the 8 week or short session though... Anyway I hope this helps!</p>

<p>pdef - Stanford's a little too far away for me...plus I'm an East Coast gal haha.</p>

<p>kyledavid - I'm going to attach some additional pages to my applications with all this info on there</p>

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<p>Spiffy,</p>

<p>You applied to Harvard SSP outside of QuestBridge? I only applied to it through QuestBridge because if I don't get the scholarship, I'm not going to go. I signed up for the 8-week session.</p>

<p>Any idea how much the 8-week session costs without financial aid? I think my parents will go nuts when they hear about this.</p>

<p>And also, do you have any idea whether we will be able to attach additional pages to our College Match application? I have a brag sheet that I've made that I'd like to attach..</p>

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<p>murkywater -
I applied to SSP way before I even heard of QB so yes. The 8 week is about $9000 I think...an insane amount! But they do offer financial aid.</p>

<p>I don't know about the brag sheet for the College Match program... I was just talking about normal college apps.</p>

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<p>Okay, I guess I could attach it to my normal apps, then ^^</p>

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<p>bump! anyone else's opinions? this thread kinda got off topic lol.</p>

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<p>haha i agree. theres a thread for harvard ssp in the summer programs category. i signed up for the 4 week session because I have other things going on. </p>

<p>spiffy - is the application that sheet you mail in from the course guide catalog? and do you know if you can get the application fee waived?</p>

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<p>to spiffystars and murkywater:</p>

<p>"I'm going to attach some additional pages to my applications with all this info on there"</p>

<p>I would highly discourage doing that -- most colleges dislike it, and in many (if not most) cases, the application specifically says multiple times, Do not attach additional pages. The point of the limited space on the application is to get you to choose the truly important ones and focus on them -- it in a way forces you to have focus, which is a major plus in applications.</p>

<p>Also, are you applying through the mail? Most admissions are done online now (they prefer it that way), though you can still do it by mail. It's not possible to attach additional information on Questbridge, because it's done only online. But again, even if applying to colleges by mail, you'd only annoy the adcoms 'cause they don't want to see your endless list of accomplishments. After all, there are at most 5 really significant ones. You might mention the others in passing in the essays, but the essays are meant to be a magnifying glass on the honors/ECs listed on the app.</p>

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<p>Your scores would and should get you rejected unless you improve them.
But URM/1st gen...so:</p>

<p>Unlikely:
Yale
Princeton
Harvard
Columbia</p>

<p>Possible:
UPenn
Duke</p>

<p>Probable:
Georgetown
Emory
UNC Chapel Hill</p>

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<p>Oh, Kyle.. thanks for enlightening us. :p That is sort of annoying. But you do know that separate applications must be sent to the schools that you've ranked, anyways?</p>

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<p>kyle - </p>

<p>I already know that QB only accepts online applications because I've already sent mine in, haha.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I would highly discourage doing that -- most colleges dislike it,

[/quote]

As far as the brag sheet, I was referencing to actual college applications. Most college applications indicate that you are allowed to attach additional pages. Obviously, if it says otherwise I will not attach a brag sheet.
And how do you know that "most colleges dislike it?" You're only a high school junior your self.</p>

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<p>I know that most colleges dislike it because K. Cohen wrote in The Truth About Getting In that adcoms don't always have time to look them over and adding it would be annoying. And Kyle has probably read it countless times on CC as well.</p>