hopefully, hopefully, hopefully

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Ok kids, it's another one of these! i know they're a nuisance but i'd really like to know where i stand.</p>

<p>ACADEMICS:
- very competitive highschool (900 kids in my class)
-3.6666 Unweighted (i know, not awesome, but i've taken ALL pre-ap/AP and i'll admit i kinda slacked off sophomore year)
- 4.78 weighted
- Top 5% to 7%, i believe, haven't seen exactly
- 2300 SAT
- SAT II scores: History 750, Literature 740
- As of now, National Merit Semi-Finalist (i got a 220 but i havent gotten word back whether i'm a finalist)
- AP Scholar with Honors (hoping to be National if i do well in AP's senior year-i'll have taken 9 classes by then)
- Venture Scholar Member</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICS:
- 4 years varsity volleyball
- 2x district champions
- Club team is among Top 10 in state
- Senior captain</p>

<ul>
<li>Spanish club vice-president</li>
<li>4 time letterman</li>
<li><p>3 time state Spanish Competition (3x finalist within different categories)</p></li>
<li><p>World Affairs Council Board Member</p></li>
<li><p>3 time letterman</p></li>
<li><p>state world affairs symposium participant (we debated about a bunch of stuff)</p></li>
<li><p>I'm also in National Honor Society and English Honor Society</p></li>
<li><p>I took a six-week course at U Chicago during the summer with college students on biology and anthropology</p></li>
<li><p>I've been working at the Y for about a year and 1/2 as Teen Volunteering Administrator</p></li>
<li><p>I've volunteered there at different posts, such as Day Camp Counselor, Swimming instructor, front-desk assistant, Teen Summer Counselor</p></li>
<li><p>I've got about 120+ hours of community service there in total</p></li>
<li><p>Volunteered for 150+ hours at my local hospital (i was commended for volunteer of the month three times). Also had two internships there.</p></li>
<li><p>I'm a United Way Teen Advisor and we've done a lot of things like helping build parks for local communities, fundraisers for school materials for underpriviliged students, tutored in English, and set up recreational activities in sports and such.</p></li>
<li><p>Two time participant of National Leadership Conference, i'll be a counselor there this summer.</p></li>
<li><p>I'm hoping to be a doctor so I applied a project at the Young Epidemiology Scholarship where I was a regional finalist ($2,000 scholarship)</p></li>
<li><p>I've also won two local scholarship worth about $2,000</p></li>
</ul>

<p>COLLEGES</p>

<p>I've narrowed down my choices to Vanderbilt, U Chicago, Columbia, Notre Dame, U Rochester, U California, Emory, and Yale</p>

<p>Would I have a good shot at any of these? I'm really trying not to pay 50 bucks for an application when i know i wouldn't be able to get in.</p>

<p>Any suggestions for improvement?</p>

<p>Thanks a lot and i'll love you to death on any advice. :D</p>

2

<p>Yale is a reach, you have a better shot than a lot of kids, but top 5-7% isn't THAT high when you consider a school where 99% of their kids come from the top 10%.
Which UC's? (j/k, you're in at each UC)
Vanderbilt-FAR reach (just kidding.. why'd you ask about vanderbilt? it's a safety!)
Columbia is a match, everywhere else is a safety.
Good luck to you!</p>

3

<p>U California? Which one?</p>

<p>Oh. never mind</p>

4

<p>I would have to say that UCLA and UCB are matches, but I think UC-santa barbara is a pretttttty far reach. J/K.</p>

5

<p>oh rite. yea my bad, i mean ucal berkeley. is there anything i could do to increase my chances at yale? i LOOOOVVEE that school and i'd do anything to get in :D. </p>

<p>well, since everybody's been saying all my choices are safety's are there any other schools which i could consider? i'm thinking of either going into medicine or archaeology, yea i know, pretty vague huh?</p>

<p>thanks for all the advice so far!!!</p>

6

<p>Columbia is not a match for this kid. </p>

<p>a gpa of 3.67 is way below the average. keep in mind that columbia's rd acceptance rate is around 8%, around that of princeton's so its not like columbia is a walk in the park.</p>

7

<p>according to columbia's CDS for 2005, the average HS GPA was 3.73. i don't consider a .06 deviation from the mean to be significant.
what is your source for the admit rate of 8%?? Columbia is WAY easier than Princeton. Columbia's middle 50% for SAT is 2000-2250. That puts this girl above the 75th percentile by 50 points. AND she has 9 AP's...and mostly A's. How is that way below average? the MOST competitive kids at HPY have 9, maybe 10. the average is 6-8.
BTW, pton's middle 50% for SAT is 2080-2360.
Princeton and columbia BOTH admit 12% of applicants.
at columbia, 86% of admits are in the top 10%of HS class. at Pton, 94% are in top 10%. There are obviously huge differences.
Even harvard accepts more kids than 8%.</p>

8

<p>Vanderbilt - Low match
U Chicago - High match/Low reach
Columbia - Reach
Notre Dame - Low match
U Rochester - Safety
UC Berkely - Low Match/safety
Emory - Low match
Yale - Reach</p>

<p>If you're looking for a top flight pre-med program, take a look at Washington University in St. Louis. Great school overall (US News #11), the kids who go there love it, and it has one of the top pre-meds in the country. It would be a high match/low reach for you most likely.</p>

9

<p>Semi-match at UChicago
Semi-reach at Columbia
Match (?) at UCB
Major reach at Yale
rightwing: bobbobbob is referring to regular decision admit rate. Harvard's is around 5%.</p>

10

<p>i agree w/ amptron about WashU. I live in Stl and do research there.. its a gorgeous campus. and yes, high match/low reach.</p>

11

<p>would applying ED to yale help at all?</p>

<p>before i stated that i was in the top 7% because we haven't gotten our updated ranks yet, but i'm almost 80% sure i'm in the top 5, i just wanted to be a bit more lenient in case something crazy happens and i wouldnt feel under pressure to be even better.</p>

<p>anything else i can do to increase chances at yale? oh man, i hope i really get in...lol</p>

12

<p>dittogal88:</p>

<p>Assuming you are a California resident,
UCB: Safe Match</p>

13

<p>nope, im in texas. would being hispanic help? im sorry if i sound really desperate haha...</p>

<p>oh btw, i've found some new schools:</p>

<p>amherst
colgate
william/mary
duke
georgetown
middlebury
northwestern
swarthmore</p>

<p>any thought on these? thanks, you guys are the best (better than my counselor....:/)</p>

14

<p>dittogal88- Yes, applying SCEA to Yale helps your chances a lot. For archaeology and pre-med, Johns Hopkins is worth consideration, as are Cornell, Boston U, Michigan, U Penn, Tufts, GWU, and NYU. You also might consider adding some LACs- particularly Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Haverford, Washington and Lee, Beloit, and the College of Wooster.</p>

<p>To evaluate your chances, check out the Common Data Sets. Links to many of them can be found on this thread:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=76444%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=76444&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

15

<p>wow, thanks warblers! great link, you made my night. thanks to everyone else for helping me also!</p>