<p>Got likely letters from Columbia SEAS, Dartmouth and UVA ( and echols scholar consideration...)</p>
<p>1st in class at public high school ranked #22 in nation two years ago (98.3 UW)
14 APS: so far I took 7 including physics C and ab/bc, lowest score was a 4 on them (ap scholar with distnction)
2360 1st try (national merit thing on the psat...)
800 math ii 790 us history 780 physics
NO FINANCIAL AID (which is a huge plus even in a need-blind admissions process, now-a-days)</p>
<p>1st and 2nd quarter senior year: 20 A's in a row with three independent studies (1 independent study had no grades tho)</p>
<p>other stuff
science research: world record lowest fiber diameter achieved at stony brook university
music camps during summer and teen tour
(school awards like dartmouth award, citizenship/quality of life, women's rights :P...)
associate principal cellist of orchestra conducted by head of juilliard precollege and of the all-county orhcestra
all-state cellist
all-county trombonist
2nd in county national spanish exam
jv volleyball two years
president of tri-m, founded find the cure for cancer club, vice president ping pong club :p
content editor of newspaper
peer mentor
mathletes
quizbowl
school orchestra, jazzband, compose music</p>
<p>Honestly you are just another typical applicant to HP , you have nothing you really make you stand out, they are both Reaches... chances close to 10% like everyone else.</p>
<p>sblogblah, aren't the chances for the applicant pool as a whole around 10%? but that includes tons of clearly unqualified people. so if this person is qualified, wouldn't their chances be a lot higher than 10%?</p>
<p>ty for the input guys:
Can you also address these points?
1) do you think financial aid will play a role in my decision?
2) do the likely letters divulge anything about my chances in the upper-tier ivies?
willing to chance back...</p>
<p>
[quote]
NO FINANCIAL AID (which is a huge plus even in a need-blind admissions process, now-a-days)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You clearly don't know the definition of need-blind admissions. If a school is need-blind, your ability to pay fully will NOT BE A FACTOR. PERIOD.</p>
<p>I'd say you have a decent shot, around 20%. Your academics are stellar, but so are most applicants. Nothing else really differentiates you.</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses.
lol you clearly haven't been living in this world for too long. When they say need-blind admissions, i'm sure they take a peak.
they don't have enough money anymore to accept every student who is financially underprivileged. it's not a mistake that the population at princeton and harvard is either wealthy or poor but with very few in-between. you can ask the admissions officers yourself, the have this bi-modal distribution of people with gaps in the middle-class.</p>
<p>Maybe you haven't been listening. The top endowments are still immense.</p>
<p>Top colleges are NOT dependent upon tuition for the majority of their revenue. Even in a down economy, their endownments are still huge.</p>
<p>When a college says they are need-blind, they mean it. However, that excludes cases of legacies or development candidates (very rich). Meanwhile, they do like to see low-income students triumphing over adversity.</p>
<p>Of course, this isn't the case at other colleges where tuition is a factor. But both Harvard and Princeton couldn't give a damn whether you're able to pay or not.</p>
<p>You mentioned the middle-class gap: this definitely exists. But it's not because of admissions policies. The middle-class gap comes from their FA policies. All of these schools are very expensive, but provide stellar aid for lower-income students. Meanwhile, upper-income students can easily pay the tuition. This leaves a gap of middle-income students who don't receive adequate aid and also don't have enough to pay full tuition.</p>
<p>yeah, makes sense. it's just that harvard lost so much money that they definitely must be worried, even if they have billions more. so maybe this might equate to them accepting even more students who can pay for college than in years past.</p>
<p>You'll probably get into one but probably not both due to the arbitrary nature of the whole process. Your school is really competitive so your GPA actually means something, there are so many high schools that people who barely have a pulse can get a 4.0. Your research also looks good.</p>
<p>thanks for your responses! does anyone know if the likely letters from Columbia/Dartmouth/UVA signify that I might have a competitive edge at these schools?</p>
<p>There's nothing that stands out about your application. You don't seem to be passionate about anything.. It's just looks like you joined a whole bunch of stuff and made good grades. You, literally, just look like a set of numbers and meaningless words. When they look at your application, they're not going to have anything to remember you from. Over 20,000 students apply to Harvard and Princeton every year, and I'll say about 85% of them probably look just like you. </p>
<p>I honestly don't think you'll get accepted into either of them, so don't count on it.</p>
<p>ugh haters! somegirl i know it might seem that way when you just glance at just the stuff i did as it would for anyone's resume, but i included a lot of things in my app (essays, awards) that showed that i was passionate about music and science research, so dont judge so rashly and foolishly. at least they can see that from my summer camp experience and the music competitions i've won. i really do enjoy everything i've signed up for in high school and each was meaningful to me. for example, i started the find the cure club for cancer after a family member got cancer, so i explained that in an essay.
hopefully, they do get a sense of me and the intangibles from those essays that couldn't otherwise possibly appear in the list of numbers and activities i've done. so s.tfu b4 you tell me i have no chance. you didnt even address and interpret how the likely letter might chance things like i asked...</p>
<p>I agree with cd. Harvard and Princeton want people with character. </p>
<p>SomeGirl - Half the stuff on people's applications is bs anyways. Take publications. No high school student has ever been instrumental in research that has lead to a publication in a peer-reviewed scientifc journal of any significance. Take GPA, I went to a really competitive high school. If you got a 3.7 you were ivy-bound if you had a hard course load. Other people at other schools got 4.0s because they maintained a pulse during those 4 years. My point being that this entire process is arbitrary. The adcoms aren't going to know about your high school unless it is well known, and they aren't going to know how hard you worked volunteering. They areally know almost nothing about you.</p>
<p>With schools like Princeton and Harvard, they are going to look at your app for 15-20 mins if that long, and go on a gut feel. Who cares if cd isn't a national champion in something. If anything, starting that finding the cure to cancer club will probably be the thing that gets him in. Those schools aren't trying to find sevants, they are trying to bulid a community. Give the guy a break, he has a shot and you know it.</p>
<p>most of you guys give stupid "advice". having actually gone through the process, this guys is clearly getting at least one of the schools, probably both.</p>