<p>As one of the most prestigious universities in the world, I understand that an applicant at Harvard needs to have strong, adequate criteria in all categories to be accepted. That being said, I have worked hard to accumulate success throughout my high school career.
Background: hispanic, first generation college student, southern california resident, public high school
Academics: GPA - Non Weighted 3.93 Weighted 4.68, ACT 33
IB Program Diploma Candidate, AP classes: Calculus, World History, US History, Environmental Science, Spanish Language and Culture. In addition, with the IB curriculum: IB Language Arts, IB History of the Americas, IB Mathematics, IB Physics
Extra Circulars: 4 year varsity letterman, 2 time CIF Inland sectional champions, 1 time CIF Southern California regional champions, Runner up in State in 2012, Co-Captain 1 year (all for football), American Boys State Legion Representative in the California Division, Co-Founder/President of Chess Club, Co-Founder/CFO of a student ran organization that creates solar panels, donates, and installs them in cities in southern california that lack adequate energy, 100+ hours volunteering at Kaiser, Intern at an Investment Company and received a Letter of Recommendation from the CEO, who graduated Summa Cum Laude at Harvard, Madrigals Choir, and Worked at VIP dance studio 20 hours a week for 8 weeks over summer and received a letter of recommendation from the owner of the studio
Other: For the essay, I plan on writing about my father who was incarcerated when I was in middle school (still is) for illegal activities. The points that I will discuss is the hardships that my mother, sister and myself were put through, the necessity to pre-maturely grow up and become the alpha male in my family, and how my father's mistakes have inadvertently lead me to grow as a better person and mold my morals.
I will also apply regular decision to UC Berkeley, UCLA, Brown, Columbia, and Stanford - so I would appreciate if you could give me feedback for my chances of acceptance to those universities as well.</p>
<p>You seem like a solid candidate. They are all reaches though. The UCs are a match because you are in state. However, the applicant pool is much more competitive for the early rounds. So be careful.</p>
<p>When it comes to your letters of reccomendation, I think you should reconsider them. You can only submit two, excluding your counselor, and you should definitely have at least one from a teacher.</p>
<p>Thank you for your recommendations. I appreciate it very much</p>
<p>Solid stats. Congrats. UCB and UCLA are matches. The rest are reaches for everybody. As for the recommendations, you will need two teacher recommendations and the GC recommendation. As for supplementary recommendations, I think Yale says it best (emphasis mine):
<a href=“http://admissions.yale.edu/may-i-submit-supplementary-letters-recommendation”>http://admissions.yale.edu/may-i-submit-supplementary-letters-recommendation</a></p>
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