Harvard

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Can I please get a couple chances for Harvard and the other schools on my list? I prefer "accepted/rejected" than "match/reach" but either way is ok. I will attempt to make this as quick a read as possible. Thanks! :)</p>

<p>School: Homeschooled. I take full loads at the local community college, and have exhausted the math, physics, and chemistry course offerings available. I also take honors courses there, which usually involve an extensive research project. </p>

<p>GPA: 3.86 (College GPA) - Solid A's and one C (in Calculus, was a bad professor and will be explaining in application). </p>

<p>Courseload: Most difficult possible, far more advanced than the work at the local high schools I could attend if I was not homeschooled. Classes include Calculus II (taken as a sophomore), calculus-based Physics (also as a sophomore), 200-level Shakespeare analysis class, Honors Spanish and Organic Chemistry.</p>

<p>SAT Reasoning: 1570/1600 and 2250/2400
(retaking in December to improve my 680 W score, I should be at 2300+)</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests:</p>

<p>800 Literature
800 Physics
800 Chemistry
780 Math II </p>

<p>Extra-Curriculars:</p>

<p>-Website + Online Journalism
*I have been an administrator for the world's largest fan website for Real-Time Strategy games for more than 3 years. This is a major EC of mine, and takes a LOT of time to keep running!
*Experience in online journalism, website creation and management, international volunteer staff management, international tournament running
*Invited, and paid by Electronic Arts to fly to their studio to preview one of their games and write a set of articles for my website</p>

<p>-Game Design
*Extensive experience in game balance and design; I have coded a major game modification
*Helped design balance patches for EA's games with an international team of very skilled players and freelance game designers
*Beta tested several of EA's upcoming RTS games</p>

<p>-Assistant Community Manager for Electronic Arts, Los Angeles (EALA)
*Run several tournaments, a few with prizes upwards of $5000
*Written a weekly e-sports column for their website</p>

<p>-Violin
*12 Years of playing
*Member of State's top youth orchestras for 7 years, 2 years as Concertmaster</p>

<p>-Boy Scout Venture Crew
*7 years of Boy Scouts/Venture Crew Combined.
*Nearly Eagle Scout </p>

<p>-Swim Team (I train and compete with the local high school)
*4x Region Finalist, 2x State Competitor, 2x Varsity Letter
*Senior: Team Co-Captain</p>

<p>Awards: National Merit Semi-Finalist, Honors student at community college (not many awards for homeschooled kids :P)</p>

<p>Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Columbia
UPenn
WashU
Georgetown
Pomona</p>

<p>SCEA: Stanford (if you feel like predicting what I've already applied for haha)</p>

<p>Thanks again! :)</p>

2

<p>You’re a really solid applicant: </p>

<p>Harvard - you “deserve” to be in, but idk what Harvard/Yale/Princeton think
Princeton - ditto
Yale - ditto
Columbia - in
UPenn -in
WashU - in
Georgetown -in
Pomona - in</p>

3

<p>Gee, thanks for making the rest of us feel like crap.
Why did you even make this thread? You know you’re in everywhere.</p>

4

<p>^ I have better things to do that waste my time making a pointless thread.</p>

<p>bump? :)</p>

5

<p>one last bump :P</p>

6

<p>lmao what i don’t understand is
…800 in literature and 780 in math 2? xD
anyways i think you are basically one of the top applicants for any of those schools</p>

<p>best of luck to you :)</p>

7

<p>If you send a letter to the college explaining that the teacher sucked and that’s why you got a C, then you are setting yourself up for a rejection. You EARN the grade, the teacher doesn’t GIVE you a grade. Do you think all the ivy league professors will be perfect too?</p>

8

<p>well, you could be right…I don’t know really. He is the only professor who teaches Calc II at the community college (I couldn’t take a different professor) and basically set up the class so that the highest grades were Bs. </p>

<p>I wasn’t planning on explaining it in a letter really…more like just putting in a one liner that says “C in Calc II due in part to Professor’s extreme grading system - a B was the highest grade” or something to that effect. </p>

<p>But if you think it’s a bad idea I won’t. The fact it was spring semester and I was still a semi-lazy sophomore did have an effect on my grade too, I won’t deny it :P</p>

9

<p>The ivys are always a crap shoot but you SHOULD be in at all. Expect a lot of acceptances! :]</p>

10

<p>any thoughts on the calc class? thanks to everyone who’s replied so far :)</p>

11

<p>How could a B be the highest grade? Without a further explanation you still sound pretty whiny. If that’s all you have, don’t put it. If you can explain how a B was the highest grade (succinctly), then you should include it.</p>

12

<p>What more do you say than the teacher hates giving out A’s? :P</p>

<p>I don’t think I’ll mention it. I didn’t for my stanford app</p>

13

<p>If B was the highest grade, don’t you think Harvard or Columbia wouldn’t wonder why it wasn’t you (this was at a community college?). I’d leave it alone. Any mention of it makes you sound whiny, I agree with previous posters. You have plenty of other grades and scores that show you’re a strong math student.</p>

14

<p>Congratulations! You have been diligent in high school and it shows! =D
I too am a home schooled, joint enrollment applicant to many of the same colleges.
Hope to see you there next fall.</p>

15

<p>this is an older topic, my more recent one is here: </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/621787-stanford-reject-needs-school-list-help.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/621787-stanford-reject-needs-school-list-help.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;