Harvard vs. Princeton SCEA

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi,

I’m currently having a bit of a dilemma with early action deadlines looming up ahead concerning which college to apply REA to. Harvard has always been my goal school- not just for its academics, but for its atmosphere, proximity/ location, campus, student life, ect. I also visited Princeton this summer, and absolutely loved it, but although it is a close call, I would have to say I prefer Harvard over Princeton.

I was originally planning to apply REA to Harvard, but I realized that there will probably be 15+ people from my school
(class size 410) applying to Harvard including some of the people in the top 1-2% grade wise while there will probably be significantly fewer people applying early to Princeton. I don’t know if this is the appropriate way to approach this, but I felt that if I applied early to Princeton and then RD to Harvard, I wouldn’t have to compete with those in my school applying to Harvard EA.

Curious if anyone has advice on which path to take and also on my chances at these two schools- I know its a toss up for everyone and the acceptance is so low that even highly qualified people get rejected. I wanted to post just to see other people’s opinions and thoughts. Thanks~

Here are my stats for reference:

GPA: 4.2 (W), top 5%- our school uses a histogram with GPA ranges for bins, there are 33/410 in the 4.1+ (highest) bin
ACT: 35 C, 34 E 36 S 35 W 36 M 10 Writing
SAT Subject Tests: 800 Chem, 800 Math II, 760 Literature
APs: Stats- 5, Chem- 5, APUSH- 5, Music Theory- 5
Senior year Courses: AP Bio, AP AB Calc, AP Euro, AP Lit, AP Psych (haven’t taken the hardest possible classes for all four years, but very close)

Chinese Female on the east coast, public high school that usually sends a couple kids to Ivies (most Cornell, a couple Harvard/ MIT/ Princeton here and there)

ECs:

  1. Competitive Dance- 10 years -Selected Dancer for the US Dancesport Team -1st place female soloist at the 2015 World Show Dance Cup in Olbia, Italy -US Team Captain at 2015 World Show Dance Cup - a bunch of Top 3 Placements at National + Regional Dance Competitions in the US
  2. 2016 Distinguished Young Women of (State)
    • Scholarship organization for high school students
    • invited to speak at TedX(town)
  3. Miss (State) Teen America 2015 and Miss (State) Junior National Teenager 2014
  4. Piano- 10 years
    • Performed at Carnegie Hall 3 times as 1st place winner of International Crescendo Music Competition
      • Gold Award in the International Music and Arts Society 2015 Talented Young Musicians Competition
      • Silver Award at another national piano competition that I currently can't remember the name of- lol
      • Selected to attend the Portland Conservatory of Music 11th International Piano Festival
      • Paid pianist at events- weddings, showers, accompaniment, other events...
  5. HOSA- Treasurer for 12th grade, 10th, 11th, 12th
    • 2nd in the (State) Leadership Conference (actually a competition)
    • Qualified for the National Leadership Conference
  6. Future Educators of America Club- President, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th
    • relatively unknown club but had to put in a lot of work this year because our teacher adviser got a new job at a different school and the principal who coordinates the volunteer work for the club members left and theres a new principal who doesn't know the first thing to do
  7. Writing
    • Teen blogger for HuffPost
    • MissHeard Magazine Teen Adviser
    • Honorable Mention in 2015 (State) Scholastic Writing Awards
    • Selected for a Journalism Camp hosted by a fairly reputable newspaper (quite an extensive selection process)
  8. Art/ Drawing- 10 years
    • Gold Key in the 2013 (State) Scholastic Art Awards
    • 3rd runner up (State) Congressional Art Competition
    • 2 time best of show winner in local art competition
  9. Intern at the Office of Congresswoman (of my district)- 4 years
    • youngest and longest intern at the office, great relationship with all of the other employees, some of whom I have been at the office longer than they have
  10. Volunteering
    • Teacher's Assistant at local elementary school- 4 years
    • organized piano performances at local nursing homes regularly throughout the winter/ springtime
    • miscellaneous stuff
    • About 350+ hours total
  11. Organized English Studies Program for students in China, actually planned the whole thing out by myself with some limited help from parents, went to China for 2 summers during high school and taught a whole bunch of Chinese students English

Recs
Teacher 1 & Teacher 2: have a decent personal relationship with them, participate a lot in their classes, both well known around my school for writing excellent recommendation letters, one of the teachers in particular knows my personality quite well
Counselor Rec: don’t know her personally that well, but the college app process at our school requires us to share our resume and highlight the things we want her to talk about specifically

Essays
Common App Essay: Writing about my dance competition experience in Italy and how strangers from different countries across Europe all stood up and cheered for me during my dance and came up to me afterwards congratulating me in all sorts of broken English and different languages- very touching moment that made me appreciate the “universal language” of dance

No hooks, legacies, anything of that sorts
Will be applying for FA

Also if anyone wants to give me chances for…
-Yale
-Columbia
-NYU
-UPenn
-Tufts
-Dartmouth

2

If you’re telling the truth, apply to Harvard EA, you’ll get in. It doesn’t matter who else is in your school, unless it’s Malia Obama.

3

Haha thank you @jarrett211- and yes I am telling the truth :slight_smile: but honestly I’m sure there are many others in my school who are much more impressive than myself

4

If you prefer Harvard, apply to Harvard EA.

5

Thank you @pupscotch

6

At first, I thought we were similar because of your academic stats, but once I read your EC’s, i thought you were on another level. If I was a reader, I think of you as a genuine passionate applicant through your ec’s. You have a one hell of a good chance for Harvard.

Chance back?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1818642-stanford-rea-rd-cornell-brown-dartmouth-ucb-ucla-etc-p1.html

7

Thank you @ayyyyyyy :). Best of luck to you in your applications!

8

Do Harvard. Having been on this website for about six months, I can honestly say you’re one of the most qualified applicants I’ve ever seen. You stand a really REALLY good chance of admission.

9

Thank you @BabylonBabylon - I appreciate your feedback.

10

They’ll roll out the red carpet for you at the Ivies. Would be interesting to see what would happen if you applied to MIT or CalTech.

11

@WesternDigital haha thank you! My mom wanted me to apply to MIT, but after visiting I felt that the sense of academic emphasis and rigor wasn’t for me. Who knows maybe I’ll apply just to see what happens :). Good luck to you if you a prospective applicant this year!

12

@jarrett211 true lol… Except she’s at Brown now. I suggest you go for Harvard, if you have more dedication to it than Princeton. Your extra-curriculars will not only set you apart from your peers but also others in the applicant pool.

13

Very strong applicant. One thing to take into account: Who else at your school will be applying Harvard/Princeton and how will you fare if you are compared to them?
Also, have you thought about sending supplements? (Videos, portfolios) I think they would not only give full proof of your achievements in art and music, but also strengthen your application even further.
As always, if your essays are solid and recs are good, I think you should have a very strong chance.

14

Why don’t you leverage your music and dance skills and apply to excellent schools where you can also continue to perform?

  • Northwestern
  • USC
  • Vanderbilt
  • Rice
  • Michigan
  • Carnegie Mellon
  • University of Rochester (Eastman)

And these schools will probably award you merit aid. Buy a Harvard shirt, but pick a school that fits you…