Ignorance is bliss... but please chance me anyway :p

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey CC,</p>

<p>I'm a rising Senior at a private boarding school in New England. I just started looking into liberal arts colleges after a week-long tour with my parents. Now that I'm intrigued, I'm very curious and nervous about my chances at LACs, specifically BROWN, WILLIAMS, AMHERST, and WESLEYAN.</p>

<p>This is pretty comprehensive, but here goes...</p>

<p>-Profile-</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Asian American
School: Private boarding school
Financial Aid: Yes (all schools are need-blind and -based)</p>

<p>-Academics-</p>

<p>GPA: 9.7/11.0 (roughly equivalent to a 3.53/4.00 for your reference... but you can't really compare the two like that)
Curriculum: I've been taking some of the hardest classes available at my school, which doesn't offer the breadth of AP courses that most public schools do; college admissions officers take this into consideration.
Class Rank: Unknown (school doesn't give them out)
Class Size: 250</p>

<p>-Scores-</p>

<p>SAT: 2250 (taking it again in October for 2300+)
SAT IIs: Math 2 - 790, Physics - 800
APs: Chemistry - Will find out in July (predicting a 5), Calc AB - Will find out in July (predicting a 5)</p>

<p>-Extracurriculars worth mentioning-</p>

<p>Debate: All 4 years, not captain unfortunately :(. I have several awards from New England tournaments with other boarding schools, however. They are all awards in the top 3. I also won the school's debate award that goes to its top 3 distinguished debaters.</p>

<p>Breakdancing: All 4 years, now captain of our school's breakdancing team and club. We occasionally go to competitions with other boarding schools and colleges.</p>

<p>Middle School Mentoring: All 4 years, now co-head of the club. Weekly trips to the local middle school to 'mentor' the kids for 2 hours. Pretty basic.</p>

<p>Rock Club: All 4 years, now Stage Director on the Board for the club. I've been playing electric and acoustic guitar for 4 years and am part of a school band that performs every term.</p>

<p>Inside North Korea: 3 years, now a Board Member. We publish monthly newsletters updating the status in North Korea and raising awareness for the rest of the student body. We also hold fundraisers and donate money to organizations.</p>

<p>-Application-</p>

<p>Teacher Recs: Should be good, not amazing or exceptional.
Guidance Counselor Rec: Will be awesome.
Essay: Should come out great. Will be very poignant and reveal something about my character.</p>

<p>-Summer Activities-</p>

<p>I'm going to the Wharton Leadership in the Business World program this summer. Not too prestigious, but should be a great experience nonetheless (will this help for Wharton/UPenn?).
I've also been a volunteer camp counselor at a thing called Camp Harmony for the past two years. Week-long camp for impoverished/homeless kids in the LA County.
I'll also be helping out at my mother's academy.</p>

<p>-Hook-</p>

<p>JUST ANOTHER ASIAN GUY LOL</p>

<p>So there you have it... I'm planning on applying early to Wharton or Brown, haven't decided yet (thoughts on that?).
I know this is really long, but I appreciate any responses, positive or negative, constructive or heart-breaking. I'm a pretty mediocre candidate for these schools I think... but I want CC to confirm that for me :p
Anything else you guys need to know, just ask here.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>First, these scools know Exeter very well and they will now exactly where you rank which will be important. Second, from such high schools, many and probably most seats at ivies are taken by legacies, recruited athletes, the very connected and URMs. So it will come down to the competition from Exeter, where you rank and how good you recs and ECs look. An Exeter makes ivies harder, but schools just below there easier.</p>

3

<p>I agree with you Redroses. There are soo many legacies + athletes so it’ll be tough. I’ll have to make myself stand out amongst the non-hooks…</p>

4

<p>I like your modesty; frankly, I’ve never seen class rank make a huge difference when it comes to Exeter, or Andover and the Little Three; the fact is, despite years of lip-service to diversity they luvs their preppies – so long as they fall within the upper end of their middle 75% on the SATs. Wesleyan, especially, likes smart, outgoing, quirky kids who can fit into different social groups. As a male, break-dancing, Asian econ/math/genomics major, you sort of fit their bill. I think you’re in everywhere except Brown and even there, I’d simply call it a reach, not an impossibility. Hope this helps.</p>

5

<p>Breakdancing?
i presume you are korean and you know ppl like physicx, hong10?
u have quite similar ECs as me. really lol</p>

6

<p>Thanks for your helpful post johnwesley. It’s nice to know that class rank doesn’t hold as much of an importance in boarding schools as it does in public schools.
And yeah, colleges take a lot of preppies in… our 2010 seniors this year had amazing matriculations.</p>

<p>TAHUNGANH, of course I know those dudes! They’re like, what I dream to be like in my dreams. Haha it’s cool that someone else has similar ECs.</p>

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<p>sometimes i wonder my dream is to be like physicx why should i bother to apply to colleges. Oh well. :D</p>

8

<p>Shameless self-bump :p</p>

9

<p>Brown isn’t an LAC.
ECs aren’t exactly spectacular, but unique. Any awards?</p>

10

<p>^^yeah, it’s a “university-college” (whatever that means) :\ [About</a> Brown University](<a href=“http://www.brown.edu/web/about/]About”>http://www.brown.edu/web/about/)</p>

11

<p>It’s funny. Ivy League schools are like LACs in that they all teach in liberal arts education style yet they are considered with the “national university” group because they have grad schools with the college to form the university.</p>

12

<p>Ooo, right. My mistake. At the info session, all the officer talked about was Brown’s amazing liberal arts education so I was like, “Cool! A Liberal Arts Ivy!”
It has like 2000 grads versus 5000 undergrads so I guess it makes sense it’s a “university-college”.</p>

<p>geekorathletic, yeah my ECs aren’t exactly amazing/awe-inspiring haha. I think I have a good range though!
No prestigious, crazy national awards unfortunately :frowning:
I have a lot of regional awards for debate from competitions with a crapload of other New England boarding schools. I also have quite a few that my school gives out. For breakdancing, we placed at a tournament last year where colleges came to compete also.</p>

13

<p>Sorry for the bump, but as for awards, I qualified for AIME. That’s something… right? Lol.
Can I get some more chances for Brown or UPenn (Wharton) please? Thanks in advance!</p>

14

<p>You seem like a pretty solid candidate, with very good test scores and a good GPA, although I go to a public school which is probably considerably less demanding than whatever private school you go to, so it’s hard for me to judge exactly how competitive your GPA is relative to the rest of your class. I think your EC’s are awesome but maybe that’s a personal bias. Really though, they’re quite unique, and it seems as if you have excellent leadership credentials in them. I think it would serve you well to try to emphasize the diversity of your interests, which I especially like. Plus a great essay always helps to stand out. </p>

<p>Of course I don’t know how much of what I’m saying is total BS because I have no idea how to chance. You seem like a solid candidate for Brown and Wesleyan, I think they’ll like your quirky ECs. I don’t really know much about William and Amherst, I imagine you’d be a solid candidate there too. Sorry if what I’ve said is totally unhelpful, but I would really work on making the essays amazing, if you could stand out in that way especially than I think you’d have a very good chance of getting in at a lot of these places.</p>

15

<p>2250 SAT, a decent GPA, your EC’s are pretty interesting.
Wow, you go to Exeter… Ahh, always dreamed of going there, or Andover. Haha. I think that Wesleyan and Williams are both good fits, Amherst is probably a low reach, Brown is a low-to-mid reach. You really do have good shots at all these schools.</p>

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<p>AxelNofz, that was very helpful. Yeah, it’s hard to gauge how my GPA is relative to public schools’, even with other students in my grade since our school doesn’t give out ranks. Your chancing was great, and I agree, I will have to make my essay outstanding. </p>

<p>Quick question though (to everyone), how can I emphasize the range/diversity that my ECs cover in my application?</p>

<p>Haha decrescendo don’t worry, it is a great place, but sometime I wish I could’ve stayed at public school :stuck_out_tongue: Thanks for the response!</p>

<p>What are my chances at Wharton? It’s probably a reach for most applicants, but do I have a realistic shot? I don’t have much experience with business/finance except for the one camp I’ll be attending this summer.</p>

<p>Sorry for all these questions, but what would be some safeties for me? My hometown is in California, and I will be applying to UCs and probably also various schools in the Eastern half of the US.</p>

<p>And I just realized that if anyone from my school goes on these forums… he’ll be able to instantly identify who I am… lol oops.</p>

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<p>Wharton, as you know, is a separate undergraduate program within the University of Pennsylvania; it’s roughly the size Williams and receives ~5500 applicants a year. As one of a handful of top finance programs in the country, however, it loses relatively few cross-admits to other undergraduate colleges, which helps explain its single digit acceptance rate (7%) Yes, it’s a reach; the very things that make you an attractive liberal arts candidate won’t necessarily give you much traction at Wharton. You’ll have to emphasize your quantitative skills; the summer camp experience will have to be front and center. You may even have to re-think the focus of your essay. I think in many ways it becomes a straight numbers game and sadly, I’m not even sure being Asian helps much. :(</p>

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<p>I’ll definitely have to use the camp experience to my advantage. I’m also hoping to get a supplementary rec from one of the professors there. And this isn’t much of a statistic, but I know several students who didn’t get into the camp but got into Wharton.
That kinda gives me hope, but in terms of numbers, yeah, there are so many applicants who have superior grades/scores over me. You’re completely right; being Asian doesn’t help at all haha!
Hm, maybe my first choice (early app) should be Brown instead.</p>

19

<p>Well, Brown and Penn are very different places. You should first decide what you are looking for and then do everything you can to “make it happen”. If Penn is your ideal college, you may want to think about applying to their CAS division. If finance is really your first love, think about Cornell, think about Claremont McKenna, or Notre Dame (you can see why Wharton doesn’t lose too many cross-admits) in addition to Wharton. Also, UC’s Haas School is right in your own backyard.</p>

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<p>hi andrewww! we love you <3</p>

<p>p.s. nice job on the SAT :)</p>