Middlebury, BC, MIT, Harvard

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi. I go to a somewhat elite private high school in Boston. I am considering applying to Middlebury, BC, MIT, and Harvard. Here are my stats:</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
English I: A-
Geometry Honors: A-
Modern World History: A-
Spanish II: A-
Biology I: A-
Intro to Art: A-
Intro to Music: A
Christian Thought: A-</p>

<p>Summer Class in Chemistry: A</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
English II Honors: B
Algebra II Honors: B
US History Honors: B-
Spanish III Honors: A-
Physics Honors: B+
Scripture: A-</p>

<p>Junior Year:
English III Honors: B-
Calculus AB AP: B
Spanish AP: B+
Biology AP: B+
Physics B AP: B+
Ethics/Social Justice: A-</p>

<p>QPA: 3.787
SAT Math: 750
SAT CR: 600
SAT Writing: 570
SAT Total: 1920</p>

<p>SAT II Math Level 1: 690
SAT II Spanish: 710
SAT II Physics: 620</p>

<p>AP Scores
Calculus AB AP: 3
Biology AP: 4
Physics B AP: 3
Spanish AP: 4</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule:
English IV
Calculus BC AP
Spanish Literature AP
Chemistry AP
Economics AP
French I Advanced
Models of Leadership</p>

<p>EC's:
Asian Culture Club (Vice President)
Habitat for Humanity (President)
Attention for Diversity in Action (Leader)
Academic Decathlon (Captain)
National Honor Society
Senior Mentor (Leadership program)</p>

<p>Sport:
Indoor Track, 3 years.
Award sophomore year for 800m relay.
Varsity team junior year</p>

<p>Outside of school:
Dulcimer (10 years)
Boston Dulcimer Ensemble (4 years)
(performances around boston)
Dulcimer Teacher (4 years)
(private lessons and class lessons, all free)
My dulcimer teacher will write me a recommendation too. He is famous in the chinese music community and has had thousands of students. I am in his top 1%. He has taught many famous chinese musicians.</p>

<p>Volunteer Work:
Asian Student Center (over last summer, 200 hours)
New England Aquarium (Volunteer Guide)
Habitat for Humanity (Building houses, public speaking training)
Quincy After School Child Care (over the summer. 200 hours)
Dulcimer teaching (Countless hours over 4 years)
Senior Mentor (Work for the school, many hours)</p>

<p>Awards:
Honor roll every quarter
School Book Award
Intro to Music award
Spanish AP Award
ACC Leadership Award
ADA Leadership Award
Academic Decathlon award (3 years)
Academic Decathlon Varsity Letter
AP Scholar with Honor (Before senior year starts)</p>

<p>Other things:
I work with my school to raise awareness on issues in society. These issues include race, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, disability, age, and others. I give speeches and work closely with the Director of Diversity in the school and we hope to reduce and to even end prejudice and hate in our school.</p>

<p>How do these stats look? I might have forgotten something.. so if there are any questions, feel free to ask.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>Even though you go to an "elite private school," your SAT scores are not up to par. Raise it, oh...400+ (I've never had to say that to anyone) and you'll have a good chance. Same goes for you SAT II scores. Raise 'em.</p>

3

<p>You'll need to get your SAT writing scores up past 700 to be competitive at Middlebury, MIT, and Harvard.</p>

4

<p>You have so many Bs
i know you know need a perfect transcript to get in to top schools, but your transcript is very ugly at those schools</p>

5

<p>Middlebury - Big Reach
MIT - Enormous Reach
Harvard - Enormous Reach
BC - Match</p>

<p>Realistically, you do not have the stats for any of the Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Duke, etc. On the other hand, there are lots of schools where you'd be a competitive applicant. Some of them are listed below, high matches on the top, low matches on the bottom.</p>

<p>Colby
Colgate
Brandeis
University of Michigan
Oberlin
Bates
Tulane
Hamilton
Grinnell
Bard
Wake Forest
Kenyon
Connecticut College
University of Richmond
Univ. of Rochester
NYU
Lehigh
Case Western
Trinity
Bucknell
Dickinson College
Gettysburg College
Lafeyette
Franklin and Marshall</p>

6

<p>Maybe Mid if your school is really elite, one that sends 20% plus to ivies. I can't see th others.</p>

7

<p>well my school traditionally sends about 50-60 students to BC every year (accepted that is, not attending), about 2-3 to harvard(most attend), and im not sure about the rest. i know my grades/scores suck, but how do my ec's look? i can explain the dip in grades with family issues.. and i can retake SATs.</p>

<p>oh, and as far as classes go.. basically ive had the hardest classes/biggest courseload in my class since sophomore year. sadly, in my school, no one thinks outside of the box. i can get great recs from teachers too.</p>

8

<p>I missed BC, you have shot there and you should just compare your stats to those from your school if it's a feeder. No one explains a bunch of Bs to Harvard and MIT unless their last name is Trump however.</p>

9

<p>well the thing is.. from my school, the past students that have been accepted to harvard had crazy correlation.. some had like.. 3.0 gpa and a 1400 sat and got in, while some had a 4.4 gpa and a 1500+ sat got rejected. it's kind of a crazy mix in my school. </p>

<p>i was thinking about my "hook" and it would be.. the intensive dulcimer i do. i perform once a month, at the very least. i do cultural shows around the city and for high schools/colleges too. we've preformed at a celtics game, on the charles river, and a bunch of other big name places. ive been teaching it for free as a service to the community. my classes could run as high as $50/hour at my level, but i charge nothing. i am also an advocate for equality. the director of diversity would write me an extraordinary rec based on the work i've done with her.</p>

<p>hook #2 (for middlebury only); since middlebury has such a strong language program, i opted to take french 1 advanced since spanish literature is only offered as an independent study class. i spoke with some administrators to get in (overloaded my schedule, according to my school's traditional 6 classes). i love languages too. </p>

<p>does this help at all?</p>

10

<p>The dulcimer thing is super interesting, make sure to send in a recording. I think you definitely have a shot at Middlebury, Harvard, and BC (to varying degrees). You can pretty much expect a rejection from MIT when you can't crack 700 on MATH LEVEL I (!) and don't really look anything like the average admitted MIT student (of course, there's a chance you could get in, but i mean...). Also, your SAT scores are pretty dismal... try to <em>at least</em> crack a 1350 old composite, preferably 1400. Even now you are in the 25th percentile at BC SAT-wise (although I think you'll get in easily).</p>

<p>Who got into harvard with a 3.0 and isn't a recruited athlete/genius/celebrity? I'd like to know that one...</p>

11

<p>If you go to an elite school in Boston, you have lots of legacies and faculty kids.</p>

12

<p>Might want to add Holy Cross and Colgate.</p>

13

<p>Well, my top choice is harvard, bc, then middlebury. i was considering georgetown, too. If i got into harvard, i'd go in a heartbeat, regardless of financial cost. i wanted to get away from boston.. unless i got into harvard.</p>

<p>would my hook make that big of a difference with my crappy stats?</p>

14

<p>And if he consider to study in California, I don't think he can get into either UCLA or USC. Berkeley even more.</p>

15

<p>And if he consider to study in California, I don't think he can get into either UCLA or USC. Berkeley even more.</p>

16

<p>Enjoy UMass</p>

17

<p>are you kidding me? USC is a high match for this candidate. UCLA and Cal OOS definitely not, but USC yes.</p>

18

<p>Vision - </p>

<p>It's highly unlikely that the hook that you have will compensate for your less than stellar stats. Your M+CR score is well below the 25th percentile for Harvard and MIT and below the median for Middlebury. Face it, you're probably not going to be accepted by any of those schools. Still, if you feel the need to apply to any of them or all of them, make sure you also apply to other schools that are more appropriate to your stats so you'll have somewhere to go next year.</p>

19

<p>you don't have a hook.</p>

20

<p>You might want to consider the University of Chicago. Especially if you would like to escape Massachusetts for a while. It’s on the top ten list of schools in the world. </p>

<p>Remember, there is extreme grade inflation at Harvard. It’s not as good of a school as they would like you to think it is.</p>