Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, Duke, Cornell CONCERN OVER SAT and VOLUNTEERING

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>I tried to make this as concise as possible (excluded some clubs/subsection scores)... I appreciate honesty and suggestions, particularly about my volunteer work and my SAT score!</p>

<p>REACH SCHOOLS: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, Duke, Cornell
I am a white female who is 16 years old –i'm a senior but skipped a grade.</p>

<p>School Type: Public, 1200 students, OK students, extremely rare (2 per year max) to get into schools mentioned above
Major: Chemistry
SAT: 2170...CR: 650, M: 800, Writing: 720, Essay: 10 (will take it in 2 weeks - I really think I've improved my CR and essay.
SAT IIs: Math II: 800, Chemistry: 760, Bio M: 740
ACT: C: 35 Essay: 10
GPA: 98.148/3.91 unweighted
Rank: 5/297, unweighted (top decile)</p>

<p>AP COURSES
5s on: World, Chemistry, Lang and Comp, BC Calc, Computer Science A
4s on: Biology, US history
Stats, Physics C (Mechanics and E&M), French, Econ (micro+macro), Literature</p>

<p>IB COURSES
Mathematics SL (6/7), English 12 HL, French SL, Music HL</p>

<p>OTHER COURSES
Music Theory, Music History Analysis, Symphony Orchestra (10 years, first chair for 2nd violins for 4 years),
***MIT Multivariable Calculus </p>

<p>Letters of Rec: 1 from AP Chem/AP Stats teacher, 1 from IB English teacher, supplemental one from internship (see ECs)</p>

<p>MAIN ECs
Competitive Swimming (outside club, not varsity): 10 yrs
Piano: 13 yrs (Various awards from competitions)
Violin: 12 yrs
Catholic youth group: 10 yrs
Math Team: 3 yrs
NHS: 2 years, President for 1 year <em>I am actually co-President of NHS. Should I mention the "co-" in my resume, or can I just put "President"???
Student council delegate: 2 years
Global Competency Club (explores various world cultures): 3 Years.
*</em>*Traveled all over the world, did cultural things, not so-much just laying around on the beach
Primary role in a short film in 5th grade that was shown in minor music festivals in England and LA</p>

<p>VOLUNTEERING: worried about this area
*** College-level Internship at local university in a biochemistry lab for 1 month. Internship never offered to high schoolers in the last 16 years. Was invited back to work next summer (100 hrs)
Volunteer at a local college for music related events (105 hrs)
Youth group volunteering: 48 hrs
Student Council volunteering: 80 hrs</p>

<p>OTHER:
I have/will visit the campuses of all the colleges above except Stanford and Duke. I plan on interviewing with the colleges above if they offer it.</p>

<p>THANK YOU ALL</p>

2

<p>Bump ( people help her out!)
You seem like a solid, well rounded applicant however Stanford and Harvard are very high reaches for you. Others you look good in.
Some advice:
Submit the ACT forget SAT
Try to get 800 in chemistry 2 if that’s your major
Club swimming doesn’t count don’t waste your space on that (it has to be school! Unless if you have USA times)
Essay should be about internship in my opinion express the interest</p>

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<p>I think you’ll get in at Cornell and Duke. The others are reaches. </p>

4

<p>You look like a strong candidate. I think you should be good for Cornell, Columbia, and Duke. The other 4 universities are reaches for everyone, but you certainly have a good shot. </p>

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<p>@tryhardalay‌ Of course Club swimming counts…</p>

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<p>Club swimming where I’m from is just as rigorous as Varsity swimming although attendance is a little more lenient. I guess I could only inform admissions officers of this through interviews, unless you have any other suggestions. On common app I put this:</p>

<p>Activity type: Athletics: Club (there’s an option for “varsity” but I can’t choose that)
Activity name: Swim
Organization name: _______ Swim Team</p>

<p>***additional info: I am not good enough to get recruited for swimming, and I don’t come from some rich family that can donate a lot of money to whichever school I go to- I know that admissions offices like to accept athletes and benefactors.</p>

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<p>Cornell and Duke definitely. Don’t send SAT, your ACT is awesome and more people took ACT than SAT last year.</p>

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<p>QUESTIONS:
*I am co-President of the National Honor Society. Should I mention the “co-” in my resume, or can I just put “President”???
*Common App only allows room for 10 APs. Of everything I’ve taken/will take, what can be left out? (I can’t combine Macro and Microeconomics or Physics C Mechanics and Physics C E&M.)</p>

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<p>Don’t put Co, you cant get in trouble for saying President and less is more.
Leave out something from the 4’s that don’t relate to major:
French maybe?</p>

<p>Chance me if you can:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1689954-chance-me-will-chance-back.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1689954-chance-me-will-chance-back.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I can’t believe some of the ignorance I’m seeing on this thread. You aren’t “definitely in” at any of these schools. In fact, you can very well get rejected by every single one of them. The internship does not fall under volunteering btw.</p>

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<p>I agree that someone can’t ever be “in” to any of those elite schools. Just trying to be encouraging because I feel that the OP has a good chance.</p>

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<p>@AnnieBeats‌ </p>

<p>Ignorance? Our chances don’t mean anything true, but they give support and encouragement to the OP. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, just don’t look at the post or is that too difficult?</p>

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<p>@RaviOnIce @human997 CC isn’t the place to go to if you are looking for a shrink. The OP isn’t asking for words of encouragement. I’m sure s/he is looking for honesty. Lying and giving a false sense of security is worse that giving the brutal truth.</p>

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<p>@AnnieBeats‌
Whatever you say, I can do whatever I want and I choose to give the ratings I do because I do believe he has good stats, if you don’t that’s fine, I don’t care about your opinion.</p>

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<p>@polar926‌ - I agree with AnnieBeats that you are not definitely in at any of these schools, especially if your essays and recommendations are ordinary. However I don’t agree with her tone. You are a very qualified candidate and I think your odds of acceptance to these schools are far greater than the average applicant. If you submit strong applications, I would feel confident saying you will likely get into at least one of them, and possibly more than one.</p>

<p>Two recommendations: you should select one of these schools to apply EA/ED. You should also plan on applying to some match schools as well as at least one backup. Start the applications long before the early round decisions are released. Do not end up in a rush to finish the remaining applications if you are rejected or deferred from your first choice school.</p>

<p>One question- do you have any idea why so few students from your school are accepted to the schools on your list?</p>

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<p>You have a decent chance at all the schools. Your ECs are a little general, other than the impressive internship. Your SAT scores need to be at 2250 to give you a significant boost. Overall, you are perhaps a little under average of the best applicant, who still needs to worry about the crapshoot of admissions (if you know what I mean). </p>

<p>Chance me? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1690007-claremont-mckenna-duke-bucknell-grinnell-uofr-chances.html?new=1”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1690007-claremont-mckenna-duke-bucknell-grinnell-uofr-chances.html?new=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>@BldrDad‌ Thank you for answering honestly
I will definitely do EA to one of these schools: Princeton or Columbia. And I am aware that these are very tough schools to get into so I have 2 safeties and 2 match schools.</p>

<p>Stats for my school…
0/28 get into Harvard in the past 8 years
1/18 for Yale in the past 6 years (person accepted was pretty smart. Her father founded a huge company)
2/13 for Princeton in the past 4 years (I know one of the two was a very good swimmer)
37/125 for Cornell in the past 7 years</p>

<p>Reasons as to why people are rejected???
The average SAT score for my school is 1760
average ACT is 26. Only about 9 people per grade get a 34+ on the ACT
Students generally take at most 9 APs; Average of 4.2 APs taken per student, and there is a 58% participation rate in AP courses with a 73% passing rate.</p>

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<p>If you improve your SAT, you have an average (6-7%) chance. </p>

<p>Your ECs are a bit weak, but if you can work up the swim team (did they go to states or nationals? what was the experience like for you?) maybe that would help.</p>

<p>If you are a 16 year old senior, and your parents have some money, would you consider doing some kind of “service year” or a post-grad year at a private school?</p>

<p>Even now, you could start volunteering and add some hours.</p>

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<p>@BldrDad‌ Obviously the OP is academically qualified. But it is beyond ignorant to say anyone is a shoe in at any of these schools. It’s all teenagers who make those grossly misinformed remarks as well. It’s sad that most of the people who reply to Chance Me’s are students who can’t even evaluate their own chances at the same schools. </p>

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<p>Would anyone like to comment on which of the 10 APs to put on Common App? I want to keep biology, even though I got a 4. I’m not sure if I can knock out one of the econ courses, if listing the other one might imply that I took both exams.</p>