<p>Hey, guys. I'm new at CC, so I'm not exactly sure what are conventions around here for asking questions like this, but I guess I'll find out once I tossed one out in the open.</p>
<p>I'm a South Korean national who studied in SUNY Binghamton until summer of 2011, stopping at the end of my sophomore year for mandatory military service back in Korea which I'm doing now. My goals are set on transferring to (most ideally) UPenn, Dartmouth, Wesleyan, William & Mary, another bunch of Ivies in the Fall of 2013. </p>
<p>I went to a public high school in suburban Philadelphia. I never had to take ESL classes or anything because I was already fluent with English when I came to the States, but my GPA wasn't so hot. I'm not exactly sure about statistics, but out of 4.4 scale, it couldn't have been higher than 3.5. I'm not sure on this one because I never check them out once I was done with high school, but regrettably, my last semester of senior year had some pretty horrendous grades because, well, it was last semester of my senior year. Not to say I spent those months idly, but I chucked all my time and energy into doing independent projects such as participating for National History Day events, etc. My SAT score, while not remembering them precisely, couldn't have been stellar as well (my rough memory is 2030ish?)</p>
<p>In Binghamton, on the other hand, I did much better primarily because I focus my studies in subjects I was good at and genuinely cared about. I have 3.6 out of 4.0 GPA, I've been on Dean's List for all four semesters, and I'm an Honors student in history department, which also makes me a standing member of Phi Alpha Theta. I know while 3.6 GPA is pretty good but not Ivy-level, I got those grades while taking upperclassman classes and graduate seminars. Hence, if rigorousness of courses taken account for anything, I'd like to believe that gives me some grounds to feel hopeful about.</p>
<p>Now, I've been a pretty dedicated student in history for a long time, since when I was 16, at the latest. This has been both bane and boon of my educational career; I used to get stellar grades in classes such as AP Euro when I took it in my sophomore year, but the last science class I took was honors chemistry that I ended up with D+, and only because the teacher was a generous and extremely helpful person who appreciated my efforts, at least. This humanistic intellectual pursuit did made me participate in various activities such as Model UN, college activism, running the high school history club, etc. I wrote my Honors Thesis in the last semester when I was in college, something that seniors normally do over a full month rather than a semester. I have good relationship with my professors who confirmed me their willingness to write in some good recommendations for me. I really hate sound being conceited and commending my own (nonexistent) achievements, but in terms of knowledge of his subject matter, I think I could excuse myself stating that I'm on graduate-student level in regards to knowing the recent developments in the field, who are the big names in what areas, etc. </p>
<p>I know statistically speaking, I hardly stand a chance in the face of such stiff competition. To be honest to myself, I was barely top 25% student throughout my whole life and nowhere near top 10%. My terrible organizational abilities and polarized academic performance always dragged me down. However, undergoing a major break from the real life of education I always took for granted through my army experience, I've come to realize I want to break out of that limitation. UPenn, Dartmouth, Wesleyan, and William & Mary all have quite strong faculty in the field I'm pursuing (early modern European history), so I decided to throw in my lot with those schools. I'm particularly more focused on UPenn because three years of high school around Philly left me a perpetual sense of affection for that city, a sense of identification from a adopted member not too unlike that of Napoleon for France or Stalin for Russia. </p>
<p>Hence, I ask for your honest opinions, do I really stand any good chance? Is there anything I could do at this point to improve my possibilities for attending Ivies or such prestigious school at this point in time? I've been thinking about trying to make some connections through the professors in those schools because some of my professors shared an adviser with them or have similar distant connections (nothing particular here; humanities academia is a very small world). I'd like to say I'm not a sort of person who regrets about his past, but frankly, yea, I'm overwhelmed. When kids that had 4.0 GPAs all throughout their high school and college years with 2300 SATs fail to make it, I know I have very good reasons why. Anyhow, your honest inputs will be strongly appreciated. Wish you guys the best in your own endeavors as well.</p>