Ivies, etc (we all know how this goes)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>White male
Ethnically Ukrainian
Rising senior
Have Canadian and Ukrainian citizenship (+US Green Card)
Very low financial need (parents are willing to pay almost full cost if I get into an ivy; provided I pay them back of course)
Intended major is anything business related (Economics, management, etc... still slightly undecided, will probably be based on my acceptance)</p>

<p>Hopeful Universities:
Harvard (trying for early action), stanford, oxford, columbia, caltech, U chicago, cornell, MIT, U of NC chapel hill, princeton, vanderbilt, yale, waterloo</p>

<p>Since I go to a Canadian school I have no clue what my GPA is (along with not knowing my class rank, my school likes keeping it 'fair' by not doing that).
Additional things to keep in mind: My school has strict requirement on what you must and must not take, for instance I was only allowed 2 electives in freshman year along with all the provincially mandated courses, same thing in sophomore year, along with none of us being allowed to take AP's or other advanced courses until junior year (no matter how much I begged to take calc and differential calc....).</p>

<p>Freshman:
90% avg, (76 in advanced french 9) </p>

<p>Sophomore:
92% avg (although 95%+ in most classes, 83 in french 10)</p>

<p>Junior:
currently holding 90% avg (exams in 3 weeks) with 5 'advanced' (honours I guess) courses, +AP Comparative Government
PSAT: 204 (68 math, 67 writing, 69 CR)
SAT: 2230 (770M, 720W, 8 Essay, 740CR) (retaking in october)</p>

<p>Subject tests:
730 english lit (retaking to get 750+)
760M 1<br>
770M 2 (retaking to get 800)</p>

<p>Senior:
taking AP Calc BC, AP Bio, AP chem, AP physics C, AP Lang and comp, french 12, writing 12 (required fine art)</p>

<p>EC's:
Mathletes
Varsity Rowing 3 years (no we don't have a team captain)
Public Discourse/Debate 2 years
MUN 3 years
Honour roll 4 years (counting senior year)
+various 'distinction' and 'outstanding contribution' awards in classes (no clue what that might translate to)
Work experience in my parents' IT business (mainly work as an intern such as checking things over, writing financial reports)</p>

<p>Harvard extension school:
took principles of economics and scored best in class last summer (8 credit course)
taking Essay writing and Financial Accounting this year (financial accounting is a graduate level economics course)</p>

<p>I realize that my ECs may seem 'weak' to most people, however my school does not really offer many activities and I would say that rowing takes up 99.99% of my life outside of my school (not to mention a significant part of my life in school), to the point that I honestly do not have time for any real extracurriculars (as much as I would love to get involved); don't get me wrong, Rowing is the passion that my life revolves around, however at times it gets extremely frustrating having practice from right after school until 8pm with 4:45am morning practice the next day along with 5+ tests and homework due.</p>

<p>Sorry about the longish rant at the end!</p>

2

<p>Um… Provided you pay them back? You do know tht means that you are signing off on owing your parents around $225,000 when you graduate right? That’s easier said then done.</p>

3

<p>Also, the point of doing ECs is to do things outside of the curriculum and many times, outside of the school building. Meaning getting jobs, or programs, or volunteering. I’m gonna go ahead an say they are a high reach for you right now. You have a high SAT score, but your GPA is kinda low for ivy leagues.</p>

4

<p>I did hear that Canadian schools had 5-10% added to the average; meaning that I’d technically have a 4.0 (in addition to the fact that an A counts 4.0, and an A is 86-100%). As to the EC problem, I don’t have much if any time- and all the time I do have I spend learning mathematics with my grandfather (he used to be a university professor in calculus and we often spend time just talking about calc). What can I really do outside of school? School+rowing take up pretty much all the time that I have in life, and when you add in my intern job you have almost 100% of my time taken up- in addition to getting max 6 hours of sleep per night.</p>

5

<p>Also I am aware of the debt, however my grandparents are willing to pay a significant portion of it for me (something like 70-80%, which would leave me with max $75,000 debt at no interest, something completely manageable assuming I am able to get into the corporate grind immediately after college in addition to a leap year in between my bachelors and masters to garner work experience+education funding)</p>

6

<p>Rowing isn’t year long. Try volunteering somewhere or join a summer program</p>

7

<p>Last year I did the Secondary School Program at Harvard (which I am doing again this year), as for freshman and sophomore year I did summer rowing. Unfortunately rowing is in fact year long, although they sometimes make exceptions for students who are not available over the summer season.</p>

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<p>Also I’ve heard of no such grade inflation just because you live out if the US. If anything, I’ve been told, and seen, countless times that it’s noticeably more difficult for an international student to get accepted.
I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but you don’t seem to have a significant chance at any ivies… They are reaches for everybody, but nothing about you seems outstanding. If you really want to go the US to study, look at some safety/within reach schools. All of the ones you have listed seem like high reaches.</p>

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<p>@StanfordWOW‌; I am not an international student, I am a permanent resident (I’ve been told that that amounts to practically the same thing as a US citizen in the eyes of University admissions…?)</p>

10

<p>HYP: high reach
Columbia mid reach
cornell, brown, dartmouth, penn; low reach</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1654374-chance-me.html?new=1”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1654374-chance-me.html?new=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>

</p>

<p>How good are you?
With the exception of Oxford and CalTech, if you can get recruited by the rowing coach, you have a very good chance at all the others.</p>

<p>WITHOUT that, Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, MIT, Princeton and Yale are out of reach for you.
Cornell, UNC and Vandy you have a shot at.
Don’t know about Waterloo.</p>

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<p>I cant tell you your chances, but do NOT retake your SAT subject tests. That will look bad to colleges, just leave them. They are really good scores and retaking to try to get a perfect score won’t help your app. I also wouldn’t advise retaking the SAT, but if you really think you can get 2300+ it might be helpful. How many times have you taken it? If this was already your second time, don’t retake it, but if that was your first score you may very we improve! Also, I think the fact that you are very active in rowing is fine. Being super active in one activity is still really good ECs.</p>

13

<p>Agree with soze. </p>

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<p>ok, EVERYONE, lets get one thing straight, 4.0GPA=A, an A in Canada is 85+, I have heard at CMU that 4.0 is 80+, and my guidance counsellor said she talked to an admission rep, at some uni(known for athletics, not ivy) that a 4.0 is an 80+, personally, i have about an 85% avg in grade 11, i kno im in top 10%, thats all u need to be, they will realize the difficulty of the school based on rank. Dont retake SAT 1 or 2. UR ECS ARE LACKING. I cant tell wat ur intended major is through ur ECs, u dnt exude passion. Waterloo, ur in, ur going into business…but most others, prob not, wat r ur essay topics and reason for attending, if those are good maybe, but to have a unique essay topic, u most likely need to have a very good EC, or a rough life, which i dnt think u have… so ya</p>

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<p>@manas1997‌ there’s this thing called grammar and spelling, learn it. This forum is not a text message. Sorry, not trying to be rude, but your post gave me a headache trying to decipher it.</p>

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<p>@guineagirl96 I typed this on a tablet, too much work to use proper spelling and grammar, why don’t you go on every post and tell people to say Harvard-Yale-Princeton, rather than HYP, there is no need to insult me, if my post gave u a headache, why did u feel the need to comment about, u should take some pills or go take a nap, but hey, what would I know…</p>

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<p>@manas1997‌ Sorry, i didn’t mean to insult you. Just was trying to tell you that you shouldn’t use text language on here. Tablet is a little bit different but you don’t have autocorrect (if i had known this, i wouldn’t have said anything)? Also, there is nothing wrong with acronyms, they are part of normal speech too. It’s just spelling and grammar like that is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Guess I just took my frustration out on you. Sorry.</p>

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<p>Height and erg times? If the first is high enough and the second low enough you might want to start contacting coaches.</p>

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<p>@Sue22‌ Neither are amazing, I’m currently 6’0" and all of my coaches expect a minimum of 3" growth in the next 2 years, have only had one real growth spurt and that was a while ago- overall my family is pretty tall and my dad is still a bit taller than I am. As for erg scores, I’d say I’m about average but not good enough to actually be sought out- currently a heavyweight with a sub 6:30 or 6:35 erg score (depending on if you look at solo or competition erg times)</p>