My almost final college list - Please Chance

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I want to major in Finance or economics, preferably the former. Either ways, I want to pick up some programming, mathematics, and statistics classes. </p>

<p>Age: 15 (skipped Freshmen year so I can go to a residential, public high school which was better than my home high school trainwreck).
Gender: M
Location: Illinois
College Class Year: 2019
High School: Public, Residential
High School Type: sends some grads to top schools (#s have decreased over the past few years at IMSA)
Citizenship: China (so I'm applying international for all of these schools)</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA - Unweighted: 3.96
No Weighted GPA
Class Size: ~200</p>

<p>Scores: (Will Retake all 4 types of tests sometime this year)</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 800
SAT I Critical Reading: 710
SAT I Writing: 650
ACT: 34
SAT II Math Level 2 (IIC): 800
SAT II Biology - M: 690
SAT II Chemistry: 730
AP Chemistry: 4
AP Macroeconomics: 3 (Fell asleep halfway through the exam and I self-studied: will not show them and definitely will retake)
Our current high school does not offer AP courses BTW. </p>

<p>Will also take SAT II French, World History, AP BC Calc, French, Biology, Microeconomics, US gov, stats, and maybe a couple of others.</p>

<p>Significant Extracurriculars: </p>

<p>Conducted and presented Student Inquiry and Research Project on economics of green roofs
Future Business Leaders of America
Student Council
Entrepreneur and helped start an innovation hub and internship center; currently in the process of starting my own company by pitching to investors.
Possible research project this year at UChicago in Post-colonial African Economic development or with history professor at my high school. </p>

<p>Leadership positions: </p>

<p>Key Club - President
Residential Student Leader - Community Developer
TALENT - Student Board Member
Chamber Choir - Tenor Section Leader
Student Ambassador - Coordinator
Peer Tutor Coordinator
Hopeful for Cross Country Team Captain</p>

<p>Athletic Status:</p>

<p>Cross Country - Varsity
Track & Field - Varsity</p>

<p>Volunteer/Service Work: </p>

<p>~600 hours through the following organizations
Student Ambassador
Key Club
American Cancer Society
Peer Tutor
Libraries</p>

<p>Honors and Awards:</p>

<p>5th Place in FBLA Personal Finance
6th Place in Hospitality Management
3rd Place State Math Team
Bronze Medal Level 2 National French Contest
7th Place Level 1 National French Contest
NUMATS First Place SAT Math in Eighth grade
Runner up in regional financial literacy essay contest</p>

<p>College Summer programs: </p>

<p>Brown University - 3 weeks International Financial Markets and Investments</p>

<p>Recommendations: </p>

<p>Excellent/glowing recommendations: 1 math teacher, 1 counselor, 1 biology teacher, 2 French teachers
Good/Great recommendations: 2 english teachers, 1 history teachers</p>

<p>Other things notable: </p>

<p>I am currently taking Community college Calc I class to catch up on the year that I skipped. Doing very well in the class. </p>

<p>Colleges I am applying to:</p>

<p>ED: NYU Stern
EA: UMich Ross Direct Admit
EA: Fordham Gabelli
Priority: UIUC - Business & Math/CS/Stats
Priority: IU Bloomington Kelley Direct Admit
Scholarship: Creighton Heider
RD: CMU Tepper
RD: Northwestern MMSS or regular Econ and math/stats</p>

<p>Not sure if I should apply for these schools
UPenn CAS (probably RD for Econ) or Wharton (might consider ED I for Business; bump stern down to ED II)
USC Marshall (probably Merit deadline)</p>

<p>Desired College Characteristics:</p>

<p>Location type: Urban, Small City
Size: Medium (5,000 - 10,000), Large (10,000 - 18,000), Very Large (Over 18,000)</p>

<p>Area: East Coast, Midwest
Importance of cost: Secondary</p>

<p>Please give me some advice as to what my chances are for each of the colleges I'm applying for and whether or not I should add some other schools. I appreciate your time! </p>

2

<p>Hey. You look like you’re in pretty good shape. You do have a couple of weaknesses that include your SAT Chem and Bio scores which are about the 65th and 50th percentile respectively. You might also consider retaking your SATs to bring your writing score up. But you’re already doing that so no need to worry about these weaknesses. I’m going to chance you based on what you have now.</p>

<p>NYU: Low Reach
UMich: Match
Fordham: Never heard of it lol. Sorry.
UIUC: Reach
IU: Reach
CMU Tepper: Match (my friend with a 1420 SAT and 3.0 GPA got into an accelerated program there for economics (I think).)
Northwestern: Reach
UPenn: High Reach
USC Marshall: Low Reach</p>

<p>Don’t be alarmed. If you get your test scores up and get a couple of outstanding awards, you may be good for most of these except Ivies. The only thing is, most of your credentials are local. Try to do something with national recognition (Odyssey of the Mind, Olympiads). Also, there’s a lot of stuff that you intend to do, but haven’t done. So I think you should get on doing those things, because the entrepreneurship and research will be excellent if you get around to doing it. Good luck! PM me with any questions. I have friends that go to NYU, UMich, IU, UPenn, and CMU, (all MBAs!) so I could ask them if you have any questions.</p>

3

<p>Rejected at Ross because of the low acceptance rate and because you are an int’l student. In at Stern if ED and if you do not ask for financial aid. The rest don’t really matter if you get into Stern but Wharton is impossible for you.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for chancing!</p>

5

<p>BTW people, can you please also tell me whether or not the list is balanced. Thanks!</p>

6

<p>Bump bump bump :smiley: </p>

7

<p>Light on awards and need to improve scores. I suggest regular Econ for NU. MMSS might be too much of a reach. Uiuc is not a reach for imsa kids. Wharton looks for leadership and you seem light on that. You also seem to have a hodgepodge of activities - not good. What are your classes? The high GPA will be scrutinized. </p>

8

<p>Maybe you should add NYU, UC Berkeley, or U Mich. You are a definite competitive applicant for all schools, and I think if you improve your SAT scores just a bit that you will have even greater chances at acceptance. Best of luck to you! Chance me back? <a href=“http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1670335-chance-me.html#latest”>http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1670335-chance-me.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

9

<p>^^ Sorry, I totally skipped by your first set of colleges list and only saw UPenn and USC Marshall… Ignore my comment about adding NYU and U Mich! Looks like those were already on your list :)</p>

10

<p>@nickster12‌ could you clarify by hodgepodge of ECs? And I’m taking challenging classes if that’s what you are asking. </p>

11

<p>@batman4321‌ why Berkeley? </p>

12

<p>Berkeley wouldn’t work, he is OOS.</p>

13

<p>You will easily get into all of these (yes even Berkeley), except for Wharton. Wharton admissions is unpredictable - and even more so for internationals. But overall you have a better than average chance.</p>

14

<p>By hodgepodge I mean for admissions counselors it seems like you don’t have any focus. Nothing connects your activities so it makes your leadership positions weak. How do your classes compare to kids in your class. I know you skipped a grade but it doesn’t matter much based on my experience. </p>

15

<p>@nickster12‌ I see what you mean. Perhaps I can use the essays to convey why that may appear so.About classes, I took the most advanced classes available to me. Generally, my classes are not behind others in my class except math. However, to address this issue, I took calc 1 over the summer (right now), so now I will finish the core (3 semesters of calc) with the majority of the students, and I will double up math with stats. (Now, I will be only 1 semester behind most of the advanced kids.) In fact, I’ve doubled up on math or science every single semester - earning As regardless. In fact, I got an 94 in an advanced bio class (which isnt my strength), where ~10 people got A’s out of 80.I do well while taking the best options (which are all better than ones in my home school district) available to me at anytime. I’m not sure what else I can do besides that, you know?</p>

16

<p>As an in stat student, UIUC is definitely a match and perhaps a low match. While for Ross pre-admission at UMich, it is very competitive (~17% admission rate last year and will be lower this year). You should be a high match for LSA though. You may apply for Ross in sophomore if accepted.</p>

17

<p>@billcscho Isn’t it really hard to get in from LSA though? </p>

18

<p>You need around 3.6+ GPA and you are pretty much set</p>

19

<p>I don’t know what these guys are saying, but your test scores are fine. Your ACT score and SAT scores are above the average, especially your ACT score, so don’t worry. </p>

20

<p>I wouldn’t say you would “easily” get into any of the top universities you mentioned. A big part of it is your essay, so devote a lot of time to that. </p>