I think new doors may have opened

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>White male, junior; decent catholic preparatory school in Queens, NY</p>

<p>GPA- 97
Top 10%.. definitely higher (class of 650)</p>

<p>Schedule's strength has been ehh.:
- 9th- english and global honors (as well as regular algebra 2)
- 10th- bio and math analysis honors
- 11th- calculus, chem, spanish 3 honors
- 12th- Will take- Physics honors and AP Calc, AP Psych, AP Chem</p>

<p>SAT I scores, let us put it in the trash <em>WILL NOT BE SENDING</em>
(in case you were wondering- R600,M760,W690)
ACT- 35
E35, M35, R33, S36</p>

<p>SAT II- I really hate these scores -_-
- Bio- 680
- Math 1- 670
- Math 2- 700, then 720
- Chem- 680</p>

<ul>
<li>NHS 11-12, Math 10-12 will run for leadership, Science 11-12, Spanish 12</li>
<li>Math team 9-11</li>
<li>Greek Club 9-12. President senior year</li>
<li>Franciscan Youth Movement- random volunteering things. 11-12</li>
<li><p>Intramural Softball- 11-12</p></li>
<li><p>100+ hours of 'school service' service.. things like
(open house/tours, parent/teacher nights, incoming freshman,etc)</p></li>
<li><p>Tutoring every year, a lot of hours</p></li>
<li><p>Laboratory aide/assistant. Help teachers when they have lab</p></li>
<li><p>"PS 4 Big brother" Senior year I'll be going with other seniors to the elementary school (which is for special education kids) behind my HS and help out. Once a week</p></li>
<li><p>Will be a peer counselor starting end of summer and into senior year. Help the freshman through their school year. Volunteering here. Will hopefully help with my school's 'summer academy', summer camp thing for middle schoolers</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Out of School EC's:
- Baseball- 9,10
- Tutoring- every year, MANY hours. this year i do atleast 2 hours every week with a 5th grader with ADD
- Boy Scouts- every year, but starting 10th (and for 11 an 12) I became a Junior Assistant Scout Master where i volunteer with the younger kids (cub scouts.) A LOT of hours.
- Greek Orthodox Youth Association- social kinda group, meet every week for 2 hours, do some service events. 9-12</p>

<p>Letters of Recommendation: (should be good)
- Guidance counselor, Math teacher (from 10&11- head of department), Chem teacher</p>

<p>Essays: Not sure about these, should be OK</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon
U Chicago
U Michigan
Columbia
NYU
Cornell
Johns Hopkins
Cooper Union
Macaulay Honors College
Boston College
(I dont think I will be applying to all of these schools, but would like to see my chances</p>

<p>Probably a dumb question but could I be reaching higher? This ACT score has gotten me in such high spirits haha</p>

2

<p>Great ACT score.</p>

<p>But what i think the question the Adcoms are going to be asking is, get ready- its a classic, whether your school is too Grade Inflated. You have received honors in Bio, Chem, and Math yet you score only AVERAGE or BELOW AVERAGE on those SAT 2 tests. I mean, seriously, what does that say about your school? What does your grade really mean when a “97 GPA” translates into average or below average testing scores on specific subject tests? You can’t argue you are a poor tester because your ACT scores can and will be used to contradict the claim.</p>

<p>Other stats are average. 1 leadership position of an ethnic club. Mehh. Boy Scouts really no good until you hit Eagle. Tutoring might be important though but its only 2 hours a week. Atheletes put in 10-15 hours a week (especially when you take into account games) even if they are only recreational ones. I really dont see any time commitment on your part. Maybe 7-10 hrs a week in EC? And your community service hours is probably mandated by your school. All in all, here my are chances:</p>

<p>CM: Match
Uchicago: low reach (admission rates plunged this year)
UM: in
Columbia: Reach
NYU: match
Cornell: High match (RD) in (ed)
JHU: in
Boston: In</p>

<p>IMHO, I think you should indeed send apps to Caltech and MIT EA. If you really want to, send in an ED at Penn. Assuming average chances, you will have a 50%+ shot at getting into one of those 3 schools.</p>

3

<p>I would probably say it was my lack of preparation for the subject tests -.-</p>

<p>Also, I was checking on collegeboard and saw that at 1 of my safeties, 97% of the students submit SAT scores… and theres no data on ACT. There should be no problem if I am only sending ACT scores right? I’m expecting a lot of scholarship money from this school</p>

4

<p>Certain schools want ACT and Subject tests so that might be icky.</p>

<p>Ivies only give need based AId, no scholarships. So perhaps Chicago, Stanford, Caltch, MIT, and Duke may be better choices than HYP Penn and Columbia.</p>

5

<p>Congrats on your ACT score!</p>

<p>I agree with the previous poster. But in addition, Macaulay and Cooper would probably matches. And about your safety school… all colleges look at the SAT and ACT equally (i would love for someone to verify this though!) so you should still get scholarship money</p>

6

<p>Are there any top universities that use ACT scores as a HUGE factor for admissions?</p>

7

<p>I believe, i might be wrong, that Chicago might prefer ACT over SAT. They would never advertise this kind of stuff but it does make more sense. ACT is mandated so that all Illinois kids must take it.</p>

<p>This makes the ACT more familiar to the Adcoms since most applications to colleges were local or instate back in the days.</p>

8

<p>That would be good. But what I actually meant was if there are any top schools who use the ACT as a huge part of the admissions process, since my ECs and stuff aren’t too good</p>

9

<p>Anyone else? I guess add Caltech and MIT to my list. I never thought I would be able to say that…</p>

10

<p>I’d like to know too if any schools use ACT as a really large factor for admissions</p>

11

<p>Bump</p>

<p>10 char</p>

12

<p>Lookin’ for more opinions</p>