HYPSMC + Ivies. Bring it on! (Will Chance back)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I am an Asian International (chances to listed schools just dropped, I know), a senior next year. I am asking CC to see if I am applying to schools completely out of my league or not. I currently attend a rather reputable International School in Europe, which sends around 5-10 students to top UK/US schools yearly despite a small class size of around 60.

STATS

UW GPA: 3.97/4.0, Rank 1/~60
W GPA: 4.25ish out of 4.33
SAT: Superscore 2310 (Maths 800, Writing 780, Reading 730), took it twice. Best score single-sitting is a 2280
ACT: 35 took it once (Maths 35, English 35, Reading 33, Science 35)
SAT II: 800s on Math II, Physics, Chem
Question: Should I submit my SAT?
School is IB, so I do the full Diploma. I am predicted 44/45 (-1 because of English Literature). The most rigorous combination I could have elected.
AP: 5 on Stats and Calc BC, as mentioned, school is IB, so not much on AP side of things

HONORS/AWARDS

Multiple Top 10s in a continental Math Competition for International Schools
2*AIME Qualifier, latter score very close to USAMO qualification (can’t attend USAMO anyways)
2nd place and 4th place in Knowledge Bowl (Eastern-European), for those of who you don’t know, Knowledge Bowl is like a team quiz competition
Intramural awards for best student in maths, sciences, and best junior.

ECs/Job Experience (I think they are decently unique, any comments?)
Translating: Worked on and off as a translator for firms since 9th grade (semi-official, used because not many people speak fluent Korean-English), firms include a multinational corporation (KIA)
Math Helper (Math helping organization in our school): leader since 10th grade (first leader, basically revived a defunct organization)
Maths Team (achievements listed above): since 10th grade, prob Captain next year
Knowledge Bowl (also listed above): since 10th grade, prob Captain next year
Amnesty International (Human rights organization): since 10th grade, executive board since 11th grade
Varsity Track (11th/12th Grade)
Varsity Cross Country (11th.12th grade, Most improved player)
Varsity Baseball (10th grade)

  • few more minor ones to fill up spaces, should I include them on CommonAPP or are the spaces better left empty?

Essays:
I am trying to make my common app essay the highlight of my application, on attending a school I don’t speak the language of during my freshman year, overcoming hardships and change in perception. (not an exchange student, my parents moved countries just to place me at an private school in the country I live currently live in r. I speak 3 languages fluently as a result)
My Supplements hopefully will be good, most of them will be on my passion for GO, a board game I played since grade 1. I don’t play competitively because the scene just does not exist here, but my rank is probably top 3 in any US school. (checked go club in MIT for confirmation) For those of you who don’t know, GO is (I think) the only board game where human skill far outreaches skill that of a computer, and played competitively between US colleges as well.

Recs:

  1. Math Teacher: 10/10, she really loves me, taught me, is math team coach, and math helper supervisor
  2. Econ Teacher: 9/10, I am probably the best Econ student in the grade, he has mentioned multiple times that I have natural talent, but he does not know me that much as a person I feel.

Major: Mathematics (possibly with CS or Econ), I have (or will have) a pretty good experience of college maths already.

Additional Info: Some of you will be confused. I am an asian student, but lived in Europe since young, attending various international schools, until my parents randomly moved countries to drop me in a school to teach me the language. I spent most of my high school summers attending intensive courses in this language to achieve fluency

Here are some specific questions:

  1. I got a B+ on the 2nd semester of my junior year because of a terrible performance on the English Literature Final Exam. (A- average otherwise) English Literature is the most rigorous English course in my school, which then has nothing to do with my major. Will this affect me badly/ruin my chances?

  2. Are my ECs actually unique enough? I do know that there are more unique ECs (performance in Carnegie Hall, being Emma Watson, e.t.c) but I do hope that they will separate me from other, more generic, math-major Asians (oh btw, I am male-chances drop further down)

  3. General Opinion on Chances to Schools Below!

Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
MIT
Caltech
Chicago
Penn
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
UC Berkeley
UCLA

Btw, I do have safety schools, just not in the US. I am aware that it is near impossible for Asian Internationals to get into the listed schools because of competition, and I am really hoping that what I consider unique (translating, experience mentioned in essay, skill in rather unplayed board game), alongside generically good Stats can carry me in, at least to one of the listed schools below.
Thank you so much for reading! I will chance back anyone who asks :smiley:

2

HYPSM are reaches for about everyone even with extraordinary stats(like yours). UCB and UCLA are safeties with your ACT score and strong IB curriculum. I could see you being a match for Caltech, Chicago, Penn, Dartmouth, Columbia and Cornell. Good luck!

Chance me back!
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/duke-university/1787851-please-chance-me-on-duke-ed.html#latest
^btw my ACT score update is 35.25!

3

Your profile is unique, and definitely I see the adcoms noticing your situation since you have traveled a lot. But note that since you are an international applicant, there are only so many international students these schools can accept. That’s all that I’m aware of, but since you’re academically qualified don’t be too distraught if you don’t get it. It won’t be because of your academic merit, it will be because there are too many other qualified applicants from AROUND THE WORLD that you are up against. But go for it, and do tell me how it goes. Best of luck!

Since you said you would chance back, here is my thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1779000-princeton-class-of-2020-ea-chances.html#latest

4

Honestly, I’d be surprised if you don’t get admitted to a single HYPSM school. You should send in your SAT score, it’ll only complement the high ACT score. I think your ECs are excellent enough that your B+ won’t be too significant at all. Yes asian + male + international does hurt your chances but not enough that someone with your stats wouldn’t get admitted.

Harvard - reach
Yale - reach
Princeton - reach
Stanford - reach
MIT - reach
Caltech - low reach
Chicago - low reach
Penn - low reach
Columbia - reach
Cornell - match
Dartmouth - match
UC Berkeley - match
UCLA - low match

Chance back?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1791299-columbia-chances-and-others.html#latest

5

It’s so easy to tell when someone doesn’t know what they are talking about. UCLA and UCB are not safeties. As will every highly competitive school for international students, it will be a reach. If admitted, would you be able to afford them full pay?

Well there ya go. It’s also much harder for an Asian in STEM.

You are competitive of course, but these schools are a crapshoot. I’m not saying to add safeties in the US, but if studying here is your goal, you should make sure to include schools outside of the top 25.

This list also seems to be very unrefined. You have large state schools and tiny schools and you have schools in the middle of no where and you have schools inside of big cities. what do you actually want your experience to be? You will be living here for 4 years.

6

Hi @caliCash, I will be paying for all 4 years (hence no mention to financial issues on my thread), and my list is based more off than academic reputation/quality more than anything (not really interested in school type, having different experiences would be cool). I am not particularly interested in living in the US, and if I were to make my choice just based on where I wanted to live, I would be going back to my home country. The real question for me was “For what schools would I be willing to sacrifice my life at my home country?”, and then I got the schools on my list. What I actually want my experience to be? Trust me, I have moved around often enough to fit into wherever I go to. So please don’t judge somebody else’s list without knowing the full story, as I spent large amounts of time researching and discussing them with my family, friends and counselors. Also, I am not sure if you are aiming at me with your UCB/UCLA comment (which I don’t see why, I don’t list them as safeties), but I would like to point out that 2 of my cousins, who were raised in a similar environment to mine, but with much weaker stats/ECs, were accepted to UCB recently.

7

@nevergiveupp, @Princetonian2020 @greenscreenbean, thank you so much for chancing me! I will go chance you back. As I said, I was aware that HYPSM were reaches (as for everyone else, I feel like admissions is way too random to predict), and I was just hoping for an answer to confirm that I would not be wasting my money by applying. Thank you!

8

You wouldn’t be wasting your money, because you always have the chance of making it in and that’s what counts. Especially with your credentials :)>-

9

Your awards were really impressive, but that’s common among applicants. What really made me take notice was the mention of that GO game. I think that’s really unusual, and even has a pretty interesting name. If I was a tired admissions officer reading hundreds of apps, depending on how good your essay is, I think I’d want to learn more about it.

Overall I think you should get into at least one school.

10

Btw (this probably does not matter) I also have work experience as a lab assistant in a University in which I used to live in, which I casually forgot to mention. Do you guys have any idea on how schools such as HYPSM view not-major (without publication) lab work/research in a university?

11

They view it like every other common EC. It’s similar to hospital volunteering, varsity basketball etc. Nice to have but not a major player.

I am familiar with GO but I am not sure how you assess your competitiveness versus MIT team. Is there scoring on somewhere credible? If so, that’s as good as any competition. If you decide on focusing on GO, I would definitely consider tying GO to your love of math and the mathematical foundation of GO which stretches past computer comprehension… a grandiose goal and ties never hurts

I think you have a shot and should probably get in 1 or more if you aren’t unlucky. Then again, chances are basically reflective of your luck, as denial is possible with a 99% chance.

12

Just because you know someone with lower stats who got in doesn’t make it a safety. There are people who get rejected by Harvard with 2400s. So does that mean it was a safety for everyone below that who applied and got in? That “not a safety” was directed at the people giving you misinformation.

How could you say to not judge your list? You’re putting it out there for scrutiny lol.
My point is, sure you can fit in anywhere and get by anywhere, but that doesn’t you would be happiest there. And it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t decide what you want your experience to be and then find a school to fit that. Remember that you are writing supplments as if your reason for going is academic reputation, you won’t get in anywhere on this list because that’s already a given and it requires no thought to say “I want a prestigious school.” Your supplements need to be tailored to the specific experience the school will provide and it doesn’t seem like you have any specific reason aside from prestige.

It’s also that there are very few people out there who would be equally as happy (not content, but genuinely happy) in the big city at Columbia and in the middle of no where up in Ithaca at Cornell. I’m just trying to help. You should find an environment where you will wake up and look forward to each day. And seeing that you are looking towards traveling thousands of miles to leave your home, it’s worth it to find the right choices for you :).

13

Damn, very impressive stats, congratulations. If you are not too unlucky, I’d say you’ll make it into at least one from HYPSM, as you do mention that top students from your schools traditionally make it in those schools (all reaches of course) I’d classify HYPSM as reaches, rest as low reaches, Ucb and ucla as matches on your list.

14

Awsome stats. I personally think u can get into harvard considering that only the top 0.05 percent get higher than a 44 in the Ib. At least 2 from ivy league schools

15

You definitely have great chances at a lot of these schools! When you write your supplementals, make sure you have some specific qualities of each school that you can mention (lots of them like Penn and Chicago require you to write a “why do you want to go here” essay) and usually academic prestige is not a good enough reason because it’s so generic. As a general rule, you shouldn’t be able to substitute another college’s name in when you’re writing about why you want to go somewhere. If you can nail those essays, I see you getting into some of your choices. Best of luck :slight_smile:

16

Lots of uninformed advice out there. Your chances are right about 4% on any of these schools +/- a couple of %.

Everyone…Everyone who seriously applies to these schools have great stats and some type of compelling story.

All anyone can tell you is that you have acceptable credentials and you have a shot. This is not a game of Go, where you can directly influence your success. It is more like a game of chance for which you need an admission fee (your stats in this case) and then you roll the proverbial dice as to the rest.

17

Thank you everyone for the advice and critics! @KristiK97 yes I am aware of qualities that I need to put in for the supplements, and there are definitely some qualities of some schools that attract me more than others. It’s just that without the minimum prestige in the school, there would be no point in me applying to the US at all. @Torveaux I do agree with you the Ivy league admissions is a game of chance, which you might have realized if you read my post more carefully. :slight_smile: And @CaliCash I think you just found somebody who would be equally happy at a large city and a small country side town (coming from experience), thank you for your advice though. :D.

18

Yeah, one B+ shouldn’t hurt you at all. I’m pretty sure that if you submit two test scores (ACT/SAT) they just take the higher equivalent one. ECs pretty cool as well. As an international applicant, however, your chances might be slightly lower.

19

I believe @Torveaux is perhaps being a bit too cynical, but he is not too off the mark.
However, I believe your story is compelling enough for (hopefully) 1 HYPSM, as I said before, but don’t rely too much on it happening.

20

Thank you all!