HPY, ect. Will chance back.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm still a junior. I'm female and (sadly) Asian, and will apply to major in economics/math.</p>

<p>I'm planning on applying to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia (legacy), Stanford (legacy), Duke, MIT, and Rice, and then obviously some safeties x_x</p>

<p>Ranked 1st for now of 635 (public school)
GPA: 99.7 unweighted, 105.6 weighted</p>

<p>SAT I: 2270 (retaking it in fall, hopefully improving the crappy writing score)
math: 760
reading: 800
writing: 710</p>

<p>SATII
Bio: 790
MathII: 800</p>

<p>AP World History: 5
AP Statistics: 5</p>

<p>this year, expect 5's on
AP English Lang
AP US History
AP Physics B</p>

<p>I've been taking math classes at the local university since the summer after 9th grade
Calculus I: A
Calculus II: A
Introduction to Linear Algebra: A
Calculus IV (in progress)
Intro to Economics (plan next yr)
Macro or Micro Economics (plan to next yr)</p>

<p>ACADEMIC Xtras
- Currently doing research in Mathematics with professor at the university, plan to submit to Intel and hope for semifinalist.
- regional gold key winner for Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
- (a BIG maybe) in the interview stage for TASP summer program
- maybe National Merit Award
- who knows for NCTE Writing Award</p>

<p>ECs
- Varsity soccer captain next year, member of team since 9th grade, 2-time all-league player, member of premier out of school team that travels across the east coast every weekend to play x_x, in contact with the MIT coach for possible recruitment
- Section Editor of school newspaper, hopefully Managing Editor next year
- Science Olympiad member, national medals (1st and 4th), will be captain next year
- Spanish Honor Society
- member of school Chamber Orchestra</p>

<p>Community Service
- some violin performances at hospitals and nursing homes
- 40 or so hours at local library
- in the process of organizing a local 3v3 soccer tournament with the benefits for charity
hmm...definitely lacking here. I want to spend a week in Nicaragua or Costa Rica this summer doing community service, but parents are as excited about the price tag.</p>

<p>so what do you think?</p>

2

<p>I would say you’re on the right track/a good possibility to enter that big Ivy League toss up next year, especially Columbia since you’re a legacy.</p>

3

<p>While you are a reasonable candidate at all, nothing screams HYP. In your shoes I’d strongly consider applying ED to Columbia. Stanford doesn’t give as big of a boost to legacies.</p>

<p>The one thing that would change that is if you’re from an under represented state.</p>

4

<p>I wouldn’t do ED.</p>

<p>He still has plenty chance at HYP. There entire incoming class isn’t published authors and nuclear physicists…</p>

5

<p>Not enough of a chance IMO to lose the boost a legacy applying ED gets.</p>

6

<p>Well I guess it depends on how much she wants to go to Columbia vs. HYP.</p>

<p>Unless she really would prefer HYP drastically, then you’re probably right and she’s better off ED to Columbia.</p>

7

<p>Well, at this point I don’t want to limit myself to Columbia, especially since some of my other choices are considered “better” in economics.</p>

8

<p>I agree that if Columbia is not near the top of the list the strategy is not good.</p>

<p>But we have here at best an average candidate for HYP. No great out of the ordinary EC’s and just average SATs for the school’s non hooked candidates. The val status is also normal for these schools. With them taking well under 10%, chances of getting into one are not great.</p>

<p>Then we have Columbia also becoming crazy to enter. Without a parent having gone there, that one is a crap shoot too. And the big legacy boost is only if you apply ED.</p>

<p>So the pricey college counselors would tell this kid to ED Columbia for his greatest chance at landing at one of these schools. A friend’s child, also a legacy, just went through this with higher stats and was wait listed at Columbia! So they are clearly getting great legacy applicants.</p>

<p>The bottom line is when you’re a legacy at one of the top schools that offers ED, you have little choice but to use it if you want in at a very top school. Use it or lose it as they say. </p>

<p>When the adcom at the others see your parents went to Columbia and Stanford they know they’re less likely to yield you whether that’s true or not. Statistically, it’s true.</p>

<p>All this from the mouth of a former ivy adcom and top private counselor.</p>

9

<p>hmom5, the counselors in my neck of the woods sing a completely different tune. They uniformly say “NEVER apply ED unless you are ABSOLUTELY certain that the school is your first choice.” At my house, we played the hypothetical game: “Son, assume you’re holding in your hands acceptance letters from both Columbia and Stanford; which do you pick?” “How about Columbia and Harvard?” “Columbia and Yale?” Etc. Only after seeing Columbia turn up on top every time did we allow him to apply ED to Columbia. If there had been any ambivalence, or if he had decided to apply ED as a strategic move to “game” the admissions process, his ED acceptance would not have been the joy for him that it has been. Instead, he would likely be second-guessing his decision on a constant basis. After all, if one can gain ED admission to a school like Columbia, one has a decent shot at many other elite schools. OP, I think you have a decent chance at all your choices, and I would apply RD.</p>

10

<p>Thanks pbr and hmom5 for your advice. my top choice is probably Harvard, followed by Princeton and Columbia tied. Then the rest follow in the order Yale, MIT, Stanford, Rice, and Duke. I’m still ambivalent about ED to Columbia, because I realize I don’t have a good chance at Harvard but I’m not sure if Princeton will be better for me than Columbia in the great study abroad program they have for econ majors.</p>

11

<p>you should apply to berkeley so that way I can meet you :stuck_out_tongue:
You’ll get into a few of those. Now you need some luck too!</p>

12

<p>ummm…you’ll get into at least one of the HYPS…just improve ur SAT score</p>

13

<p>Why did you say that you’re “sadly” Asian? What wrong with being Asian?</p>

14

<p>I think he means that Asians have a disadvantage in the admissions process.</p>

15

<p>With a good essay and recs i believe you could get in anywhere. Your course rigor is amazing and so are you EC’s (leadership very good). Also the idea for Nicaragua is good but many colleges just see that as a way rich kids do community service. I would focus on helping your immediate community. The 3v3 soccer idea is really good.</p>

<p>Good luck</p>

<p>Please Chance Back</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/660934-chances-brown.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/660934-chances-brown.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>crazyshub123, by the way, my Columbia-bound son has uncannily similar credentials. Valedictorian, 2270 SAT, varsity captain, violin, etc., but more APs, no college classes, and less emphasis on math. Final bit of advice: don’t let the legacy thing sway you too much. My son ignored his Harvard legacy because he liked Columbia better. You’re making a choice about where you live for four years, where your academic and career paths will be created, where you find lifetime friends and connections, etc. Let your heart guide you, rather than where your folks went to school.</p>

17

<p>Pbr, I am aware of what most counselors will say. However, all I can say is that I did some very through research on the subject after realizing with my oldest how much of a game this all is and how many factors are in play that don’t immediately meet the eye. We hired a top private counselor, former ivy adcom and came to understand the conclusion I wrote about earlier.</p>

<p>The fact is, getting into HYP without a hook is very unlikely for most kids with under a 2350 and no major national awards. That’s just fact. 40% of the class is taken with the hooked. If the 2270 is from Alaska or New Mexico he still has a shot. If he’s from NY, Boston, NJ or LA, not so much.</p>

<p>When you understand how they build a class you begin to see just how brutal the odds are at HYPS for most of the kids who’ve always been outstanding in their environments. And you understand how truly small chances are at these schools for most kids told by their counselors, family, friends and kids on CC that they can’t miss.</p>

<p>Then add in the legacy element which is huge and does not impact many but does the OP. A legacy has a MUCH bigger boost showing the school the love ED. He’s a reasonable candidate for Columbia but not a shoo in. The ED legacy boost would likely get him in. And colleges will pass on kids who are legacies at peer schools believing they won’t yield them.</p>

<p>We faced the same decision with DS2 last year. He was val at a top private prep school (sends 30% to ivies plus) with a 2360. Princeton was his first choice. But he was an affluent WASP from NYC with qualified Princeton legacies in his class. He is a legacy at Penn, and Wharton was pretty far down on his list but would have been fine. Had Wharton been a second or third choice, no question he would have applied ED to Penn, that education would have gotten him where he wants to go–our family’s bottom line. That there is only one school that is right and everyone should go to his dream school is considered bunk in our house. We’ve seen too many kids fail to develop a workable strategy and end up at their 7th choice, including our oldest.</p>

<p>With the help of the excellent counselor, he decided to forget Princeton, it was unlikely, and ED his second choice, Dartmouth, where his stats were strong but would have been more of a reach RD because of the pool he was in.</p>

<p>So there’s so much to consider, but the bottom line is many kids who come to understand their first choice is a pretty big reach will be much better off applying ED to a second choice IMO, if landing at one of their top choices is important to them. It’s unfortunate it’s such a game, but that’s just reality.</p>

<p>And I post this because this is not something your average counselor would have a clue about and if they do, it’s not PC to tell the kids. What my kids’ councelors who were very knowledgable didn’t tell us could fill a book. You just don’t disclose three others applying ED are legacies and the scattergrams don’t denote URM’s, recruited athletes or legacies.</p>

18

<p>I understand and appreciate your thoughtful response, hmom5. (Too bad there aren’t more like you!) At a macro level, I guess I just think going to your seventh choice, having been rejected by your top six, is a better result than going to your fourth choice, always and forever wondering “what if I had applied to my top three?”.</p>

<p>At a micro level, my older son went to a high-falutin’ private counselor, mostly because his parents suspected he would listen to an “expert” more than his parents… Maybe it’s because we’re in a relatively backwoods community on the West Coast, but he would agree with everything I’ve said. Out here, I believe, most (even the professionals) believe that attending the elite university or LAC is not as important as finding the “right fit.” Interestingly, my older son is attending my alma mater elite LAC, but he applied RD. Why? Because his counselor convinced him that he should only apply early to a clear first choice, which my son didn’t have and, if he did, it was not my alma mater. I suspect he would resent me and his counselor if he’d applied early and gotten in…</p>

<p>Out here (and I assume there, as well), the kids also develop a healthy cynicism about admissions as they analyze the data points. (My son’s top classmates who applied EA to Stanford were all rejected or deferred; the three who were admitted were a URM and two wealthy development admits.) This leads one to infer that rejection should not affect one’s self-confidence or sense of self-worth.</p>

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<p>You keep quoting that statistic. Do you have a source?</p>

<p>Also, is Vermont under-represented? I’m not hooked in any way, but I think I have decent stats (SAT >2350).</p>

20

<p>Pbr, I myself am a native Californian who was the only one in my high school class to go to an E. Coast school. Fit is such a hard thing to pin down. Sure, a kid could prefer Cambridge to NYC or vice versa. Is happiness at any school with amazing resources and a wonderful peer group going to make a big difference? </p>

<p>Bottom line IMO is that the 1 day look most kids get is hardly enough to determine much of anything. It’s long been my theory that tour guides have the most to do with love of a college for many. This goes back to when my oldest chose a high school, and when we later asked how he knew it was the one he told us it was because the tour guide was gorgeous and they had the best lunch.</p>

<p>A great program, I went for Wharton, is wonderful, but when I later figured out I could have gotten where I thought I wanted to go (of course that changed in college) from any top school, I realized I would have loved the broader education an LAC would have provided.</p>

<p>Kameron, do the math. Look at median stats and back put the 40% who are hooked.</p>