I've been having really bad anxiety lately. Help ground me by chancing: Ivies, UCs, etc.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Applying to (safeties not included):
SCEA Princeton <<— Dream School :o
Harvard
Yale
Brown
Cornell
UCs (Berkley, LA, SD)
Rice

Hooks: Princeton Grad School Legacy?

Objective
SAT I (breakdown): 2330 >> 800 Math; 730 Critical Reading; 800 Writing with 11 essay
ACT (breakdown): (will take in September)
SAT II: Math II 800 (will take Chemistry, Physics, and APUSH in October)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9 or 4.0? not really sure how to calculate this…
Weighted GPA: 4.4
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 5%
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Statistics (5); AP Government (5); AP Calculus AB (5); AP Calculus BC (5); AP Language and Composition (5); AP Physics B (4); AP Chemistry (4); AP Computer Science (3); AP Spanish (3); APUSH (3)
IB (place score in parenthesis): NA
Senior Year Course Load: Hopefully this schedule will work itself out
- AP Micro/Macro
- AP Psychology
- AP Biology
- AP Physics C
- AP Human Geography
- AP Lit and Comp
- Calculus III (college)
- Intro to Polisci (college)
- Intro to Philosophy (college)
- Linear Algebra and Multivariable (college)
- Health

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

  • will be national merit semifinalist because I got above the cutoff
  • AP Scholar with Distinction 2015
  • AIME 2015
  • National Forensics League National LD Debate 2015
  • AP Scholar 2014
  • National Ayn Rand Essay Contest Finalist 2014
  • National Science Bowl 2014
    Division Team Challenge 1st Place
     Top 20 Teams

NonMajor Awards:

  • Purple Comet Math State 1st Place
  • Rotary Student of the Month
  • State Math Contest 2nd Place

Subjective

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

  • National Forensics League Speech and Debate (4 Years)
    Superior Distinction (865 points)
     President (15-16)
    National Forensic League Nationals - Lincoln Douglas Debate (15)
     National Qualifier NFL Lincoln Douglas Debate (15)
    National Qualifier NFL Congressional Debate (15) --> preffed LD
     Double Octos Finalist Lincoln Douglas Debate Arizona Southwest Classic (15)
    National Forensics League Rostrum Feature, Article Published (14)
     Lincoln Douglas Debate Captain (14-15)
    Alternative National Qualifier NFL Congressional Debate (14)
     State Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate - 1st Place (14)


    ` Congressional Debate Captain (13-14)
  • Science Bowl (6 Years) President (15-16) Alternative National Qualifier (15)

    Secretary (14-15) National Science Bowl - Top 20 (14) ` National Science Bowl - Division Team Challenge 1st Place (14)
  • Publications/Print
    [QUOTE=""]

    Local Newspaper (3 Years)
    Student Run Portion, Co-Editor in Chief (15-16)
     Staff Writer (13-16)
    Fashion Column (14-16)
    Polyphony H.S. International Magazine
     Editor (15-16)
    High School Literary Magazine
    Editor (13-14)
    > Published 2 short stories in statewide newspaper
     teen prose 2nd place (14)
    ` children’s stories 3rd place (13)

    [/QUOTE]

  • Piano (12 Years)
    [QUOTE=""]

    Concerto Competition - Nomination and Application Acceptance (15)
    State Regional Honors Competition - 2nd Place (15)
    Music Teachers National Association State Level Piano Competition - 3rd Place (13)
    Summer Master Classes with John Weems Music Teacher’s Association of Houston TX, Auditioned and Accepted (12)

    American College of Musicians Guild Evaluation and Audition (6 Years)
    5 years of superior distinction, 1 year excellence
    Performance Evaluation Program (PEP) (6 Years)
     straight Cs all 6 years (As bad, Cs good)

    [/QUOTE]

  • National Honor Society (3 Years) President (15-16) Wrote about induction ceremony in local paper (14) ` Weekend Peer Tutoring (14-16)
  • High School Girl’s Tennis (5 Years)
 Varsity (14-16) Junior Varsity (12-14)
  • Cafe Scientifique Board of Café Leaders - 1 of 5 students (14-15) Youth Leader - Applied and Accepted (3 Years)
  • Science Olympiad

    Co President (14-15)
 Founding Member (13-14)
  • Linguistics Club North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad Participant (15) Founding Member (14-15)

Job/Work Experience: Certified Nurse Assistant (14-15)

Volunteer/Community service: (haven’t calculated hours yet)
13-16: Youth Group Worship team, pianist and Worship Leader
13-16: Sunday services piano accompaniment
13-16: Weekend Peer Tutoring (w/NHS)
14-16: Senior Center - Alzheimers Program
14-15: Moderator for state branch League of Women Voters

13-15: Spanish Tutor

Summer Activities:
2015 - Laboratory Summer Intern (computer science, self taught C++ and Python); Senior Center Volunteer; Summer Children’s Missionary
2014 - Senior Center Volunteer; Summer Children’s Missionary
2013 - Vacation Bible School Volunteer

Other

Asian Female.

Intended Major: Sociology (for Princeton, Woodrow Wilson)
I would really like to get involved in foreign/international relations in the future and am hoping to take a path directed
towards law (other major suggestions would be AWESOME.)

Intended Minor: Mathematics (for Princeton, certificates in Applied and Computational Mathematics, and East Asian
Studies)

State (if domestic applicant): Out west (not california or texas)

School Type: Public

My primary concern is that I don’t have anything that could be considered exceptional and I’m too all over the place in terms of what I have been doing in high school. Feedback?
Also, in terms of app stacking what should I not include on my app?
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I would chance back, but I don’t think my input would be very useful to a lot of you. If you really want a chance back though feel free to comment below with the link.

PS sorry for the weird spacing… white space doesn’t show up on CC apparently

2

bump

any suggestions at all?

3

Condense that summary a bit?

Sorry, but in its current form that post makes me want to never read a book without pictures again. Getting through it required a real. On the Common App, you’ll have 150 characters to describe each EC activity. Try operating under that constraint.

One of the best ways to make a decision, psychological research has shown, is to reduce it to 5 nonspecific factors-beyond a certain point, more information is just meaningless noise. I’ve been tinkering with a scale that would do just this, as detailed below (albeit with a lot of the details left out).

School (grades+course difficulty)
Test scores (SAT/ACT)
ECs (length of commitment, level, etc)
Awards (level, achievement)
Other (URM, family income, legacy, etc).

I’d rate your profile as follows, by Ivy standards

S: 7/10
T: 8/10
E: 9/10
A: 4/5
O: 2/5

That would give you a score of just about 0.75 on my index-you’ll be fine.

4

I have absolutely no background here, but I’ll add my 2 cents anyway.

You say you been having really bad anxiety lately.

Are you sure you want to compound that by focusing on the Ivies? Wouldn’t a less competitive atmosphere be better for your mental health, both during the upcoming year and in the 4 years to follow?

If your post title wasn’t hyperbole, then I think it’s something you should strongly consider discussing with your parents and your guidance counselor.

5

I’m not going to chance you because it doesn’t seem like it will help you with what I say. I’m going to make something very clear: THIS IS NOT THE SITE TO GO TO HELP CURE ANXIETY. There is always people who will make you feel like you don’t have a shot because their apps are better (even though many of them lie/exaggerate for some reason I don’t really know). My friend (whose dream is to attend Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern U (and he has a competitive shot (but no better than anyone else) of getting in in reality (from an impartial perspective))), read someone else’s post who was planning to apply to Medill and claimed to be far more qualified than my friend. And now my friend not only never wants to visit the site again. He’s worrying about all of the other applicants he will have to beat out (only about 200 people are accepted there every year). Do not come to this site hoping to cure anxiety. It will only send you back to the psychiatrist’s office with comments that are overrated and fake. Come to this site if you want honest advice, not peace of mind.

6

@jarrett211 I couldn’t agree with you more. OP, you need to condense your list wayyy down… Once I read the first block of listed ECs I was already becoming discombobulated. I think you are a great student with a lot of ECs… Now what you have to do is identify what your most important accomplishments and experiences are. The common app only gives you up to 10 activities (including sports and volunteering experiences) to list and a 150 character box for additional comments as @NotVerySmart said. It’s not that you shouldn’t write a book of your activities, it’s that you can’t. If you condense your résumé down to the best of what you have, I think you’ll look a lot more competitive and a lot less unnecessarily detailed to the people reading about you. You have what it takes, now it’s just a matter of organization and trimming.

7

So many words… Lol.

jarrett211’s right in that coming here will make you feel like you don’t have any chance at all, or it will reassure you for a short amount of time. But we all know that anxiety doesn’t listen to reason, and it doesn’t go away. Soon, you’re going to start worrying that maybe everyone’s opinions were wrong, and that you have nothing special to offer schools. Instead of entertaining the worries by seeking reassurance, just accept that they’ll be there no matter what you do, and go on with your life.

You have strong academics and a solid assortment of ECs and awards, so you aren’t applying out of your league. As far as filling out the application goes, stick to the things that you’ve been doing the longest and / or are the most meaningful to you. If you have any spaces left, you can choose what you want to add.

Don’t worry about having done anything “that would be considered exceptional.” Passion and authenticity are what will make people excited from just reading your application. They make even the most mundane and generic ECs stand out; your ECs are exceptional because of their connection to and impact on your life and character. If you can convey that in your application, you’re fine.

8

The only good reason to post a chances thread is to decide if it’s worth applying or not.

So the answer is this: yes – assuming you can afford the application fees and have the time to write excellent supplements, you’re credentials are good enough to make you competitive.

9

Your post made my head hurt.

10

Harvard
Yale
Brown
Cornell
UCs (Berkley, LA, SD)

Rice

Reach: Harvard, Yale, Princeton
Low Reach: Brown, Cornell
Low Reach/High Match: Rice
Match: The UCs, OOS (Berkeley might be a high match)

If you are OK with having only the UCs as your true matches, then you are fine. Otherwise, I’d expand your “match/high match” apps. You will likely get into at least one of those Ivies or Rice, but nothing is guaranteed.

Having plenty of solid match schools should help to reduce the anxiety. You don’t have to go to a HYP to get a great education or to become successful.

11

If you have “really bad anxiety”, then resolve those issues before trying to get into an Ivy, where every stress will be compounded.

If you are just speaking in hyperbole, say what you mean.

You seem like an excellent contender, but chances are slim for everyone. If you don’t get into your chosen school, you will still do well wherever you go and have a great life. It’s up to you.

12

Why Ivy? It sounds like your anxiety could be worse if you end up going there.

13

Agree with others, you should chill a bit. You ARE going to go to a good (probably very good) 4 year university. You life’s trajectory will not be significantly altered if it is not an Ivy. I would put most of what you have in your app, but be sure your essays match what you are most interested in.

14

Any college with acceptance rate below 20% s avreach for everyone. You’re a xontender. There’s nothing else you can do.
So, look for good fits among colleges you can reasonably expect to attend. Could be Connecticut college, illinois Wesleyan, Whitman, st Olaf, Trinity, Pitt honors, UA honors. Start getting invested in these colleges and apply ea or rolling admission wherever you can. It’ll ease the anxiety :slight_smile:

15

“Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9 or 4.0? not really sure how to calculate this…”

It is VERY troubling to me how many people on these boards claim very high math grades and test scores and yet don’t know how to calculate their unweighted GPA. It isn’t rocket science.

And I have to agree with @jarrett211 This is NOT the place to go if you already feel anxious. In fact, these boards are far more likely to produce anxiety (and often unwarranted anxiety) than to reduce it.

16

@Troyus That is an excellent point about the GPA.

17

The high school transcript usually provides the unweighted GPA, there is no need to calculate it. But it makes no difference if it’s 3.95 or 3.98.

18

Thanks everyone. Looking at all these comments I do think the anxiety issue is something I will be considering alot as I continue the app process… I’ve started taking a chill pill recently by just relaxing and not worrying so much about the labelling of schools such as “ivy” and more about the types of education all the universities offer.

Also, I really really really really appreciate you guys for tackling that monstrosity of a list. Condensing it has been an issue for me and I’m going to start revamping that ASAP.

As far as GPA goes, I’ll go take a look on my transcript again. All I’ve seen so far is the unweighted.

Again, thank you all so much.

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UPDATE:: Accepted SCEA