I honestly hate to ask this, but what do you think?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Like I said in the title, I hate to post a chance thread, but what do you think my chances for Princeton, MIT, Harvard, and Columbia?</p>

<p>Gpa: UW-3.75 (freshman year screwed me, struggled with depression. Luckily that'll make a good essay). W-4.5ish. Top 5% of my class.<br>
SAT M/CR/W - 800/720/700
SAT II - Math II - 800
Physics - 800
US history - 800</p>

<p>ECs/leadership -
Marching bad (2 years) - section leader in 11th grade, officer in 12th grade.<br>
Boy scouts (4 years) - Senior patrol leader and a bunch of other positions I probably won't even mention.<br>
Venture crew (4 years) - President and charter member
Jazz band (3 years) - no position available
National Honor Society - I may be in the running for some sort of officer position, though likely not president. </p>

<p>Awards -
National Ap scholar
Eagle scout
Gold presidential service award (275+ hours of community service in a year)
Excellent band member
Most improved in jazz band
Highest scorer on the AMC 10 in my school
Who's who? in math</p>

<p>Letters of recomendation -
The councelor one will be great, and the other two will be quite good. </p>

<p>Essays -
They'll be good, maybe even considered great. </p>

<p>Work experience -
I worked at a summer camp and taught basic skills to kids for one summer</p>

<p>Ap classes - (most rigorous schedule available).<br>
Enligh language - 5
English lit. - 5
Calc BC - 5
Physics C (M and EM) - 5
US hist. - 5
Euro hist. - 5
Psych - 5
US gov - 5
I may be taking the following:
Chem.
Stats. </p>

<p>Potential hook -
For my graduation project (required to graduate) I showed initiative and wrote an 8 page research paper and gave a presentation on string theory. </p>

<p>I apologize in advance for my atrocious spelling. Not taking that into consideration, how do you think I'll fare in the admission process of those schools?</p>

2

<p>Bump, anything? Anything at all?</p>

3

<p>You’re a strong applicant. I really can’t chance you since those schools are insanely hard to get into, not to mention unpredictable. You’ll probably get into at least one though :)</p>

4

<p>Okay your stats really are fantastic, I can’t believe your performance on the AP’s especially. Your EC’s aren’t on the same level, in my opinion, but you will still be a very strong candidate. However, as garygl said, chancing at HYPSM-type schools is almost impossibe. I agree though that you should probably get into one of them. What other schoolsdid you apply to?</p>

5

<p>true, I only listed my top 5 ecs because I didn’t want to regurgitate a laundry list of ecs. I also applied to rutgers, Va Tech, NC State, Renselear (I probably spelled that wrong), and william and Mary. Also, do you think that my research paper and presentation could be a hook? Or is it not quite impressive enough? I know these schools are absurd, and thank you for responding.</p>

6

<p>I would recommend you NOT write about depression in your essay. You can search the CC boards for threads/posts about way this is.</p>

7

<p>Ok, thanks for the heads up.</p>

8

<p>Why do people stress and worry and give up so much life just to get into these schools? Do you really think it will change your life all that much going there instead of one of the many “really good” cheap public schools? What kind of difference in salary, success, education, HAPPINESS are people thinking this will get them?</p>

<p>Just wondering…</p>

9

<p>Well, I can’t speak for everybody, but I want to go because these are the best schools for my intended field of study in the east (I can’t go west until grad school), and the price is actually about the same as a public school with financial aid (which they all offer).</p>

10

<p>I think your SATIIs are amazing, your SATI is really good, and your ECs are okay but can be better. Good luck!! :)</p>

<p>@AntiAger: top schools give out fabulous financial aid packages. For me, it’s a lot cheaper to go to a good private school than it is to go to my state school… if somehow I manage get into one of those schools that have amazing FA :stuck_out_tongue: Besides, no one’s giving up “life” :rolleyes: You apply to a top school when you want the challenge of a rigorous program and when you find people there who are passionate about the same things as you. People who ended up going to one of those super selective schools often have accomplished so many things in their life, it’s so mind buggling for me to contemplate how they had the time to fit all of it into life =D Those people do what they do because they love it and want to continue pursuing it, not for sole purpose of college admission.</p>

11

<p>Thanks very much.</p>