<p>I'm an international student from Canada, looking to apply to major U.S. Ivies. </p>
<p>Personal: Male, Asian</p>
<p>School:
92 average across grades 7-11
96 average for 5/6 grade 12 courses
Fast-tracked through high school; grade 9 courses in grade 7. Meaning that, though I have 7 courses planned for Grade 12, I only need to take two</p>
<p>Extracurricular:
Member of several school teams
School science/math/reach for the top team captains
Soon-to-be black belt in Taekwondo
Level 10 in RCM piano with requisite theory exams too</p>
<p>Volunteer:
9-now church pianist
10-now taekwondo teacher
11-now hospital ER volunteer
one summer - church summer camp leader</p>
<p>Tests:
5 in AP Chem and English Lit
2340 in SAT, though highest scores are 800 crit. reading, 800 math, and 770 writing
800 in SAT II Math II, 790 in SAT II M Biology and Chemistry</p>
<p>What are my chances to major American universities?
Specifically: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, UPenn, MIT, CIT and UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>You are a strong candidate. However, do not lessen the vigor of your curriculum. </p>
<p>HPYS are reaches (as they are for almost anyone) if you are unable to write cogent essays. If your name is not obviously asian, do not include your race on the application.</p>
<p>UPenn, MIT, and Caltech are low reaches as the tech schools are more grade-oriented. Berkeley is a match. </p>
<p>Essays/interviews are what would make or break you.</p>
<p>You should be fairly safe for Berkeley. However, nothing stands out in your EC to make you very competitive for the other schools on your list.
Also, Do NOT listen to BuBBLES. You HAVE to identify your race on the common app. In addition, interviews rarely have an impact on your admission unless they are really terrible, so don’t freak out too much about them. You should focus on writing good essays and trying to get fantastic letter of recs.
I would suggest you apply to schools like Rice or CMU-they are much more realistic than HYPS for you.</p>
<p>Well, I did win some regional awards. I placed 1st out of school and in top 10% for all the UW math competitions. Our group won 1st-3rd at a few local university science competitions too.</p>
<p>Good luck by the way. I’m Canadian as well, and like you I had a 96% average in Grade 12. Unfortunately, I have to try to transfer to Harvard from a Canadian university which is 10x as hard as applying as a freshman.</p>
<p>oh hum. yeah i just checked CA and the race part is optional lol. Never knew that before.
Well for math competitions to matter- you either need to do well in the AMC series or in the COMC (the Canadian series) or some other famous contests, otherwise colleges really don’t know how to judge how big the competition is and they can only be like, “okay this guy’s pretty decent at math.” Unfortunately, top colleges usually don’t care that much about school/regional-level awards.</p>
<p>You are good with UCB if you can pay.
All other are reach schools.</p>
<p>I (and few friends) am an Asian male and I (we) had better numbers than yours and “better” ECs. I (we were) was rejected or waitlisted from HYPSM.</p>
<p>Don’t listen to Bubbles for Sale.
Race matter!!!</p>
<p>Good luck to you!
BTW, you need more schools on your list.</p>