Harvard or Bust! Chances for a Chinaman!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Ok, not really Harvard or bust, but I really would like to go there, I just visited and it was awesome! </p>

<p>Asian American Male
SAT: 800/800/780 (11 Essay) (M/CR/W) 1 Sitting
SAT II: 800/800/800 (Math IIC/Physics/US History)
AP: 5/5/5/5/4 (Calculus BC/World History/English Language/Physics B/US History)
GPA: 3.86 UW (School does not weight)
Rank: 53/524</p>

<p>ECs:
3 Years Varsity Tennis (4th Place Team in State)
4 Years Piano
4 Years Violin
4 Years Math Team (Captain)
4 Years Quiz Bowl (Captain)
4 Years Knowledge Master
2 Years Fed Challenge (Captain)</p>

<p>Community Service: Food Bank for 2 Years (I bring a group there once a week)
State Historical Society (about 60 hours a summer since summer before freshman year)</p>

<p>Awards:
USAMO Qualifier 2006 (Score 11)
AIME Qualifier 3 times (Scores 4/9/6)
AMC 12 School High Scorer Twice (Scores 106.5/125.5/121)
ARML Individual High Scorer 2006
1st Place Missouri State Math Contest (GPML/MCTM) 2005-2007
National Merit Semifinalist
AP Scholar with Distinction
Various Individual Quiz Bowl Awards
5 Years top talent recognition Piano
3rd Place team districts Fed Challenge
4th Place Team State tennis
3rd Place Doubles Districts tennis
2nd Place Federal Reserve Essay Competition 2006</p>

<p>Recommendations: One was very good, pretty specific, said I was a leader in class etc. all Top 5% and 3 Best of Careers. The other I think is probably even better, because when I asked her (a professor of mine I take math class at the local university) she had already written me one, and she said she was hoping i would ask her. I know my counselor pretty well, I would imagine that it's decent at least.</p>

<p>Interview: Haven't had it yet.</p>

<p>Essay: I think that they're decent.</p>

<p>So what do you guys think? Do I have a chance?</p>

2

<p>****, how do you get those scores and have such a crappy rank---> slacker:/</p>

3

<p>Lol well, most of the really high ranks belong to people who don't take any AP classes...so yeah that kind of screws me over. And I had a 3.7 as a freshman, so that was pretty bad too. Does that like kill my chances?</p>

4

<p>Very strong scores and good competition results, but your ECs (not including the awards) are on the weak side for a school like Harvard. Just apply and hope for the best.</p>

5

<p>How would my ECs have been stronger? Just out of curiosity, I feel like I've been pretty involved...</p>

6

<p>Maybe with some more community service - I mean, I dunno about your school, but groups like quiz bowl at my school are a joke.</p>

7

<p>Well Tennis alone takes up maybe 20 hours a week during the season and 5 hours a week in the offseason, and our math team meets at least twice a week for an hour and a half, and our quiz bowl team meets once a week for two hours, so there's some time commitments. I put those on the common app and I think i totalled out to something like...25-30 hours in a week...</p>

8

<p>Btw did anybody notice that there's a spellchecker on this thing? That's freaking awesome :-).</p>

9

<p>Ouch @ your rank, you really got unlucky...you missed the top 10% by 1 person, which will hurt you beyond measure at college admissions. </p>

<p>Your application for Harvard is excellent, and you have a strong chance of admission, and if your recommendations are really that good then that increases your chances exponentially, but i can only guess what chaos will break loose when the adcoms see your rank, even though obviously you are a very well-qualified student and no doubt in a school filled with lazy bums who take easy classes and get 100s (im in the same position :'( ) , and adcoms will realize that too, except then they will begin to worry about their USNEWS report of statistics...</p>

<p>...I guess just hope your lucky and the adcom says that admitting you is more important than USNEWs numbers for % of the freshman class in the top 10% of their hs class.</p>

<p>If they decide in the end that your rank is irrelevant, as it actually is, then you have an extremely good chance of admission.</p>

10

<p>Lol thanks, yeah I'm going to move into the top 10% for sure after this semester, do you think that'll help? I'm trying to turn in stuff as late as possible (on 1/1) even though I have it ready in hopes that they'll read it LATER after the middle of year report. Also, if it helps a guy got in last year and he had a lower rank than I did according to my counselor...</p>

11

<p>Anyone else have an opinion?</p>

12

<p>yuck, unweighted GPA's can really screw up ranks.<br>
actually, weighted GPA's can screw up rank too (which happened to me in high school...)
i think you have a fair shot. whether or not you get into harvard, though--you'll be going somewhere quite good.</p>

13

<p>Nice SATs!</p>

<p>Other than rank, the only problem I see is the peak sophomore year and then a slight slump the next year (based on your math results)</p>

14

<p>Yeah, you're right about that I just didn't do as good in the AMCs last year for some reason :-(. Lol maybe more geometry? ;-). Do u think that it'll make a big difference if i jump like 2 or 3 spots into the top 10%?</p>

15

<p>how come no ECs before high school? Did you do anything when you were younger?</p>

16

<p>Yeah, but it asks for 9th grade and on doesn't it?</p>

17

<p>hehe sorry, don't know much about how ranking works. my school doesn't even rank :(</p>

18

<p>Amazing test scores, USAMO, good EC involvement.</p>

<p>I'd say you're in pretty easy tbh.</p>

19

<p>Lol thanks man, I hope you and the admissions committee see eye to eye. What's tbh mean?</p>

20

<p>Alltheman, you are in.</p>