<p>So, I applied to Yale early, got rejected, got Intel Semifinalist, and am wondering if I have a shot in the dark at Harvard.</p>
<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2320 (800 CR, 780 Math, 740 Writing)
SAT II: Math 2 (740), USH (770), Bio M (800)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.75 (Had a horrible Freshman year, if you ignore it, it goes up to a 3.85)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Doesn't Rank, Top quarter maybe? Again, its the horrible freshman year.
AP (place score in parenthesis): USH (5), Biology (5) AB Calc (4)
Senior Year Course Load: Spanish, AP English Lit, Concert Band, Jazz Band, AP Statistics, Econ/AP Econ Macro, TA for bio teacher, Work experience
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): INTEL SEMIFINALIST
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varsity Golf four years, Trumpet (Lead trumpet player, County Honor Band), Biomedical research, Professional Actor (small budget movies, commercials that aired everywhere except America).
Job/Work Experience: Mainly a summer program at Stanford for medical research
Volunteer/Community service: 100+ hours at a local children's theater, 20+ hours at a senior community place talking with patients with dementia.
Summer Activities: Summer research/ playing golf tournaments.
Essays: Hired a tutor who said they were some of the best.
Teacher Recommendation: Both teachers loved me.
Counselor Rec: Also loves me because I was a junior in calc and aced the final.
Additional Rec: famous professor with whom I researched.
Interview: B+ to A-. Somewhere in there.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Neurobiology
State: CA
School Type: Very competitive public, will send between 3-6 to Harvard every year, probably 20 to Ivies.
Ethnicity: Indian, prolly doesn't help.
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Around $250,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): INTEL Semifinialist? I hope?</p>
<p>With so many applicants this year (and so few spots), chancing is, for the most part, a futile exercise. It’s become virtually impossible to determine who gets in and who doesn’t (with the exception of athletes, urms, etc…but even then it’s a crapshoot). All you can really do is apply and hope for the best.</p>
<p>I agree with you’llsee… but I also think that you have a good shot at Harvard. I don’t think that Harvard will ignore your freshman year, though. Perhaps you’ll have a better chance at Princeton or Stanford which literally doesn’t consider freshman year grades.</p>
<p>advice to all ‘chances’ people: a good portion of the kids at Harvard thought it was somewhat possible to get accepted but not that likely, and a good portion didn’t expect it at all and still can’t believe they didn’t get in because of a mistake, so stop asking for chances…</p>
<p>I would say it’s kinda like Shroedinger’s cat (except I reach a different conclusion than his postulate) which is that whether or not you see the cat (as in get more information) has no effect on the actual reality (as in your actual decision)</p>
<p>Absolutely realistic applicant. But the problem is that once you make it, you will notice that many apparently stronger candidates (SAT, GPA, AWARDS, ECS) didnt make it. Similarly if you dont make it, you will notice many weaker candidates who got admitted. But yes, you are definitely in the top 3 to 5 thousand applicants (and I am guessing the total here) who are equally qualified for Harvard.</p>