HYPSM + Others

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>What are my chances to these schools? (reach/match/safety, etc)</p>

<p>MIT
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
Columbia (College)
Dartmouth
Penn (Wharton)
Brown</p>

<p>Georgetown (SFS)
USC (Marshall)
Emory</p>

<p>UC Berkeley
UCLA
UCSD<br>
UCSB</p>

<p>BACKGROUND</p>

<p>-Male caucasian, senior in the fall.</p>

<p>9th/10th grades: competitive Public HS in SoCal.
11th grade: decent public HS in Utah.</p>

<p>-I have Corsican + Persian + American ethnicity. I speak fluent French.
-First generation college student. My father attended Stanford but died as a senior.
-Family income ~ $14,000 / year. No assets over $1,000. I spent a few months during my sophomore year sleeping in family friends' houses since we were homeless.
-I had mostly straight A's except Sophomore year. Junior year: only A's</p>

<p>ACADEMIC</p>

<p>GPA: 3.6 unweighted, 4.1 weighted.
Rank: (I don't know where I'll be next year)</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests:
800 French
750 Math I (95th percentile)
730 US History</p>

<p>Will take Math II and hoping/expecting 800 in the fall.</p>

<p>SAT: 2200 projected (will know this week!)</p>

<p>AP courses: 9 including senior year:</p>

<p>AP European History (10th) C/B
AP US History (11th) A/A
AP French Language (11th) A/A
AP Psychology (11th) A/A
AP English Literature
AP Environmental Science
AP BC Calculus
AP Art History
AP US Gov/ Comp Politics</p>

<p>AWARDS</p>

<p>-Questbridge CollegePrep Recipient
-Cross Country MVP, Most Improved awards.
-Honor roll many/most semesters
-High School Academic Letter I
-Nominated by teachers for "Keys to Success"</p>

<p>EXTRA CURRICULAR</p>

<p>-Cross Country (3 years) varsity. "MVP"</p>

<p>-Track (4 years) 1600m, 800m, long jump. "Most Improved"</p>

<p>-French club (2 years) (president) Organized events for the French Club. In charge of coordinating dates, finances, trips, and school policy to create a welcoming environment for everyone to experience the French culture in my high school!</p>

<p>-FBLA club (1 year) went to state</p>

<p>-Debate Team, oratory speeches (1 year) Mock Trial: I was the head defense attorney in our district's mock trial case. We won the case!</p>

<p>Service Club (1 year) Raised awareness for drunk driving, raised funds for leukemia, held raffles, assemblies, invited guest speakers. acted as the "Respect Campaign Organizer"
Raised over $ 15,000 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. With my service learning club, we organized boxes to be put in every classroom at school, and continually promoted the fundraiser. Big success.</p>

<p>-Jr. Scholar's Academy (3 months) Was selected among 50 students in the district for a course on the founding fathers.</p>

<p>-Interned at Zion's Bank. shadowed one of the big dogs. (1 month) Shadowed Craig Carpenter, one of the top credit administrators in the bank's headquarters. He was in charge of approving the larger million-dollar loans for companies and organizations. I learned how the bank was organized, the hierarchy, and the logistics of keeping everything running during our recession.</p>

<p>WORK</p>

<p>-Designed, created, and maintained the e-commerce website located at this</a> website.</p>

<p>-Drew vector computer graphics for the website of a small Los Angeles real-estate company.</p>

<p>-Digitized thousands of old picture slides for people in my neighborhood.</p>

<p>-Educated an autistic boy for a family (1 year) I educated a 9 year old autistic child, Spencer during all of 10th grade on my own time twice a week. I taught him how to speak correctly, write, think and express himself. Over the year, his family saw improvement, and I am very proud of this. In my essay I want to compare his obsessions with an elaborate train-set he built, to my obsessions of constantly thinking of how I could better teach him during my daily life, and help him "build" himself. I will emphasize my essays on problem solving and it's constant presence in my life.</p>

<p>I am considering business, some cultural studies, liberal arts, economics, or international relations, etc... I eventually want to go to a top business school, though probably not for IBanking.</p>

2

<p>If you do, in fact, get a 2200+ SAT I would say you would have a great chance at all of the top schools. Your story is heartwarming to say the least, and if you got into HYPMS, I would not be surprised at all since any school rejecting you would be considered an injustice. Any CCer who has objections to you getting accepted to top ivies or LAC’s is certainly a ■■■■■.</p>

3

<p>Thanks NuclearPakistan1, greatly appreciated. but if anyone has objections, I would certainly not consider him/her a ■■■■■! I am seeking brutal honesty, because it seems lots of people have stories, and a 3.6 might not cut it. Thanks again though.</p>

<p>Also, if anyone has read one of my previous chance threads… I have updated info, and updated colleges to list, which is why I am posting this new thread.</p>

<p>I also want to mention that I commuted to a more competitive high school in a nice area of Los Angeles, based on a permit. And, when I say “homeless”, it doesn’t mean under a freeway overpass, but instead in various houses over several months. I don’t want to mislead anyone!</p>

4

<p>Your pile of rejection letters should have a height of zero millimeters. :)</p>

5

<p>Good chances! Though I haven’t even read your essay, it truly sounds thoughtful. I love the parallel between the boy’s train and the boy himself. Kudos.</p>

6

<p>I believe you’ll be one of those few people that can crack an HYP with a 3.6. I’m guessing you’ll get at least two, maybe three of the HYPSM…Dartmouth and Brown seem pretty matched up for you. I’d say you’re in for Wharton because of that banking internship.</p>

7

<p>Chances: very good most places, especially if you manage to shine in your essays. Make sure colleges understand how hard you’ve worked.</p>

<p>Again though, college admissions are weird. Make sure ot use any admissions fee waivers you can, but don’t just practice the “shot-gun” method. Everyplace you apply should be someplace you’re truly interested in, because they have something some other school doesn’t.</p>

<p>If you do the “shotgun” method, you could end up screwing yourself over by not appearing really interested in some of the colleges you apply to. And back to the college admissions are weird: I’m not an admissions officer. I can’t sya where you fit in the puzzle that is my school. Maybe Princeton will have a place for you, but Chicago won’t. Or maybe for some weird reason next year thousands of students write about their movement around the country, having to suffer multiple homes and hard economic conditions. When people are accepted to Brown but rejected to U Chicago, accepted to Stanford but rejected to Brown, when Brown only accepts 24% of the valedictorians who apply: you have to fit something that the school needs in order ot get in. It sounds like you could fit various positions quite nicely for many schools. But probably not every school you apply to.</p>

8

<p>Are you a recruited athlete in XC? Seems like you are good.</p>

9

<p>You seem to be in good shape. Considering the hard work you have put in despite your situation, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got into all of HYPSM. Just write amazing essays</p>

10

<p>pick 4 schools from the bottom two sections and two or three from the first section and i honestly believe if you write about your money issues and how you still succeeded in high school you could get in to most of those, but all of the top 8 are reaches for anyone but the bottom ones you should get into no problem</p>

11

<p>chsowlflax17: Thanks for the advice. I will definitely avoid the shotgun method. I really love, on different levels, all of the schools I listed. I also have some ideas as to how I can demonstrate myself a fit for each school, in slightly different ways, and I’ll just try my best.</p>

<p>1232cricket: While I have become a fairly good runner (MVP as a Sophomore), I don’t think I’m anywhere near the level of recruitment. This Junior year, I focused very strongly on my academics, and while I did well in XC, I didn’t spend all of my time training so as to be recruited. I will also mention that my dad attended Stanford because of similar recruitment, so sometimes I wish that I had worked even harder in that area of my life. Hopefully everything else will make up for it.</p>

<p>But thank you all so much! I’m actually surprised (but delighted) at all of the positive comments. :smiley: It definitely helps to hear from others that these efforts aren’t in vain.</p>

12

<p>Normally I would say no, but given your special circumstance of having a $14,000 a year income, and being ‘homeless’… Yes to almost all.</p>

13

<p>You guys have all been very nice; thank you so much.</p>

<p>I was confidently expecting a 2200+ on the SAT, but here are the results from my first sitting:
Math: 740
CR: 670
W: 670 (essay=10, MC 63)
=2080
percentiles: M:97%, CR:92%, W:93%</p>

<p>On my 11th grade PSAT I scored 64M, 64CR, 60W = 188.
On most Blue Book practice tests I scored at least 760 Math, 720 CR, 720 W; = 2200.</p>

<p>I know this now puts me at a serious disadvantage. I didn’t want to depend on a retake so that I could focus on Math II in the fall. And if I want to try MIT, I also need to take a Biology Subject Test.</p>

<p>What should I do now??? :frowning: Am I still in this game?</p>

14

<p>At worst I am still in a rather good position for USC, Emory, and the UCs, right?</p>

15

<p>Well, with a 2080 and a 3.6 it would be extremely hard for a normal applicant, but I would say you have some pretty compelling special circumstances, so it’s hard to say. Your test scores are a bit low in general, but your achievements in the face of obstacles are incredible. :slight_smile: I would say your chances are greater than many. It’ll depend on how you present yourself.</p>

16

<p>Thanks Wigwam. Any others want to comment, now that I have those official SAT scores in?</p>

17

<p>VERY good shot. SAT’s and grades are obviously weak but if you write a great essay, get great recs you’ve got a great shot</p>

18

<p>MIT-will be really hard with a 2080
Yale-ditto
Princeton-ditto
Stanford-ditto
Columbia (College)-ditto
Dartmouth-ditto
Penn (Wharton)-ditto
Brown-ditto</p>

<p>Georgetown (SFS)-low reach
USC (Marshall)-dunno
Emory-match</p>

<p>UC Berkeley-reach
UCLA-match
UCSD-duno
UCSB-dunno</p>

<p>chance me plz?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/735682-chance.html#post1062798208[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/735682-chance.html#post1062798208&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;