How bad is my situation? What are my chances at Princeton EA Class of 2016?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>It's nearing the end of my junior year and recently I have done extensive research on which universities I should pursue my undergraduate education at. Stanford and Princeton are my top choices, so I will have to decide which to apply EA soon. Below is basically everything I have done so far throughout my high school career.</p>

<p>I would like you all to do me a kind favor and evaluate my chances at Princeton EA, so I can see where I'm standing at. Thank you!</p>

<p>[ ] SAT I: 2360 2nd time (800W 800M 760CR), 1st time was 2050 (LOL)
[ *] SAT II: Biology M 780, Math II 800
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.89 UW, 4.20 W
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 2.5% (possibly higher, I'm not sure at the moment)
[ *] AP (place score in parenthesis): Biology (5), Projected 5s for Chemistry, Calculus BC, Physics B
[ *] Senior Year Course Load: AP Statistics, AP Government/Economics, AP English (self study), AP Computer Science (self study); Will be taking additional college science courses at a local community college (Microbiology, Organic Chemistry)
[ *] Major Awards: Siemens semifinalist, USNCO Qualifier (x2), National Merit Commended, probably will be AP Scholar
**High School Transcript:*</p>

<pre><code>* Freshie

Biology 1/2 A/A
Chinese 3/4 A/A-
Advanced English 1/2 A/A
Advanced Contemporary World Studies/Health B/A
Geometry A-/A
PE 1/2 A-/A+

Summer Courses at CC (community college):
Applied Chemistry - A
Piano I - A

Sophomore

Algebra 3/4 B+/A
Art/Law B/A
AP Biology A-/A
Advanced English 3/4 B+/A
World History A/A
PE 3/4 A-/A-

If you're wondering why I had such terrible grades first semester, it's because I had a family death at the time and suffered from major depression. But whatever, excuses are excuses.

Summer Courses at CC:
Trigonometry - A
Precalculus - A

Junior (second semester is what I currently have right now)

Biotech A/A+
AP Calculus BC A/A+
AP Chemistry A/A+
Honors English A-/A
AP Physics B A-/A+
US History A/A
</code></pre>

<p>By the way, my HS doesn't differentiate between plus and minuses (B/B+=3, A-/A/A+=4), which is a downfall as I have A-'s loitering my transcript. On the slightly bright side, I have a spectacular upward trend following the beginning of sophomore year. </p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<pre><code>* [ ] Extracurriculars:
* American Cancer Society (founder and president): 2 years
-Raised $10,000 through extensive fundraisers, donated to various research organizations
-Promoted the awareness of cancer and age-related disease by organizing assemblies and lectures for the schools and masses
-Contacted professors at Stanford to come to our high school and lecture about cancer
**Chemistry Club (president): 2 years
-Prepared and entered USNCO
-Provided free AP chemistry tutoring for the masses
-Raised money so members could conduct chemistry experiments for fun (experimenting with catalysts, observing chemical reactions, titrations, etc.)
** Math Club (vice-president):** 4 years
-California Mathematics League
-Provided free Calculus tutoring for the masses
-Writing out all the digits of pi; seriously, we had nothing better to do
Chess Club: 4 years
-Winner of Fall/Spring 2009/2010 tournaments
-Chess, what else?
-Chess Rating: 1740
Biological Sciences Organization (founder and president): 2 years
-Raised money so members to experiment with different enzymes, organisms, etc. at instructor's lab
-Mentored junior members for their local science fair projects, i.e. how to conduct research and write about it, gave them ideas for researching at lab in school
-Gave lectures about fun AP Biology topics (immunology, gene expression, biotechnology, molecular biology and cells, etc.); In fact, the audience preferred my lectures over my school's current AP Biology teacher's lectures... Therefore I was given permission to teach one of my AP Biology teacher's classes for a brief amount of time (a week), giving informative lectures regarding cell structure and function. It went very well.
-Organized career exploration field trips in which members could see what it would be like to be a virologist, biomedical research scientist, radiologist, etc.

** [ ] Job/Volunteer/Community service:*
UCSF Fellowship/Cancer Research: **Summer 2009
-Experience with laboratory equipment and development of research skills
-Was allowed to independently research tumorgenesis in rats after a certain period of time
-Created own research project, identified method of delaying tumor formation
**Stanford University Cancer Research: Spring 2010 - Present
-Semens!
-Created own research project after a quick training and introduction to the new laboratory, cancer research, etc.
Stanford Hospital: 4 years
-170+ hours
-assisting the elderly with their daily activities, made sure that Alzheimer and dementia patients had enough exercise everyday
-general paperwork
</code></pre>

<p>Other:[list]
[ *] Interview: How important is this?
[ *] Intended Major: Human Biology
[ *] State: California
[ *] School Type: Competitive public
[ *] Ethnicity: Caucasian/Asian (Father is white, mother is Chinese)
[ *] Gender: XY
[ *] Income Bracket: Less than $60,000</p>

2

<p>By the way, how does Princeton recalculate GPA (if at all)? Do they differentiate between minuses and pluses?</p>

<p>Also, how much of a boost in chances for Princeton admission can be expected if I apply EA (versus RD)?</p>

3

<p>I would apply to Stanford EA. They’ll find your academic rigor and strength to be exceptionally appealing and your unique activities to also be well qualified.</p>

4

<p>Anyone else want to give their opinion on this dire matter of importance? Preferably someone who’s not applying to the class of 2016 as well? :P</p>

<p>By the way, I also have a few more questions I need to ask. Is Princeton slightly hostile to Asians? Because I searched up “collegeconfidential princeton asians” and some pretty unpleasant things came up. Also, I noticed that Princeton is only ~15% Asian (lower than Harvard) while Stanford is 25%. Is this completely due to the fact that Stanford is situated in the West (and thus more Asian applicants to Stanford instead of Princeton), or does Princeton set a specific amount of Asian applicants it accepts? </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

5

<p>Your numbers are certainly competitive. Keep in mind that Princeton puts much less emphasis on freshman grades. (The admissions officer who visited my school said they look at them, but they matter much less.) You’ll be competitive for sure. Beyond that, we cannot say much.</p>

<p>As far as the Asian population, I’m guessing there are a variety of factors. Stanford especially may have a greater amount of students interested in the math and sciences, a field typically popular with Asian students. Perhaps this contributes to some of the disparity in percentages.</p>

6

<p>legit but you were not the ‘founder’ of
American Cancer Society </p>

<p>maybe the awareness group at your school, though but sounds a bit misleading and don’t write ‘founder’ on your apps… haha</p>

7

<p>I was an undergraduate at Princeton and am an MBA student at Stanford. I loved them both (although obviously the MBA experience is different from the undergraduate experience, so I don’t have as complete knowledge of Stanford).</p>

<p>At first when I saw your post, I actually thought you were joking. I mean seriously, brush your shoulder off because apparently you are awesome. OF COURSE you have a good chance of getting into Princeton EA, or Stanford EA, or any other school in any other round, for that matter. Although I have no statistics to back this up, if I had to guess I would say that you have higher than a 50% chance of getting into Princeton or Stanford (and probably higher than an 80% chance of getting into at least one school out of Princeton, Stanford, Yale, and Harvard).</p>

<p>As for which school you would have a better shot at getting into, I honestly wouldn’t waste your time trying to figure that out. An older dean of admission at Princeton once said that there were so many people applying that he could admit an entire second class of students and not lose any quality. What that means is that the admissions offices at the most selective schools have to make tough decisions to not let in people who they would actually love to have. It also means that who gets in and who doesn’t get in (especially for students at your level) has a lot to do with the mix of other students applying in any given year, since they want a well-rounded class.</p>

<p>Instead I would visit the schools, talk to current students and professors, and think about where you can best picture yourself spending the next four years of your life. The passion you have for applying early to whatever school you truly would most like to attend will show through in your essays, etc., and will by far outweigh any benefit trying to figure out where you might have a better chance at getting in would give you (which, as I mentioned, would be virtually impossible to predict anyway).</p>

<p>As to your other question:</p>

<p>Princeton is DEFINITELY not hostile to Asians. My guess is that the lower percentage of Asians at Princeton (which I would guess would be similar to Harvard or Yale, but I don’t actually know) does have to do with there being a larger percentage of Asians in Stanford’s applicant pool. One of the most beloved Student Body Presidents (and later Young Alumni Trustee) at Princeton was Asian - P.J. Kim .</p>

<p>A couple final pieces of advice:</p>

<p>When presenting your extracurricular activities, try to the degree possible to show “demonstrated achievement.” In other words, think about what impact you had on an organization, etc. You did already do this, but in general the more you can show impact the better (that’s how they know someone didn’t just attend a lot of meetings).</p>

<p>When writing your essays, try to think about the way in which different events in your life have contributed to your evolution as a person. The admissions officials will already see your activities, etc., so your essays should show them something more, and preferably help you stand out as a full human being rather than a list of accomplishments. I know that thinking that introspectively may not come naturally when you’re still in high school, but it will definitely be useful later on as well (when you apply to graduate school, jobs, and just generally figure out who you are and what you want to do with your life). It doesn’t really matter in my opinion whether the events you discuss might otherwise appear important to others (i.e. it doesn’t have to be about winning a medal or something similar - although of course it can be). What matters is that they’re important to you and your development as a person.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

8

<p>I must veto WhiteboyNJ’s suggestion to apply to Stanford early.</p>

<p>As a 4x USAMO/ 1x MOSP participant with similar academics (2360, 36, 3.9 UW/4.6W) and two years of research with the Stanford Physics Department, I was deferred and then rejected after applying to Stanford SCEA. I know of many other freshmen here at Princeton with similar or better applications who were rejected from Stanford.</p>

<p>Given that it will be Princeton’s first year with SCEA again, your strong academics and extracurriculars (nice work with the Siemens) are much more likely to be noticed by Pton than Stanford.</p>

9

<p>As a current Princeton undergrad who also went through a period of depression during my freshman year of high school, I think I’m qualified to tell you not to worry too much about how your illness affected your transcript. While I was depressed, I actually dropped out of school for a spell, and my grades were hit pretty hard (my transcript consisted of MedEx and incompletion gaps), but I know that my college counsellor explained that I was ill in her letter. You’re a human being and so are admissions officers :slight_smile: Schools will understand.</p>