My chances at Ivies + Other top schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>So let's get down to business. I'm a rising senior and the following is a list of schools I am considering applying to, of which I will probably choose about 10 of them. I would like to get a good idea of what my chances are before I decide exactly where to apply:</p>

<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
UPenn
Cornell
Brown
Dartmouth</p>

<p>Stanford
Georgetown
Northwestern
Duke
Vanderbilt
UCB/UCLA</p>

<p>That said, here's the breakdown:</p>

<p>Intended career path: Politics (most likely want to major in Political Science, plausibly double major Political Science/Econ. Keeping my options open)</p>

<p>Basic Info:
-Race: South Asian
-Region: Northern California
-No legacy, sports, etc.</p>

<p>Academics:
-GPA: 3.95 unweighted, 4.37 weighted
-Rank: Top 5% of 471 students (school doesn't do ranks)
-IB diploma candidate
-Taken 6 AP tests, three of which were self-studied (US History, World History, Chem, Music Theory, Macro, US Govt) World History was sophomore year, got a 5, waiting on the rest of them as they were all taken this year.
-Took Sociology class at local community college summer 2013, received A+</p>

<p>Standardized Test Scores:
-SAT 2270 (730 CR, 800 M, 740 W)
-ACT Plus Writing 35 (35's across the board)
-SAT II US History 770, World History 760</p>

<p>Extra-Curriculars:
-Mock Trial (3 years including senior). Most likely going to be co-captain once the year starts
-Academic Decathlon (2 years incl. senior), Team Captain for the next year
-250+ hours of hospital volunteering
-High-school journalism (3.5 years including senior year).
-Junior year I spearheaded the establishment of an independent quarterly student newspaper (along with ~10 other students) after our school cut the print paper and put the journalism class solely online. This is probably my biggest accomplishment/most distinguishing feature to date. Received recognition in local newspapers for this, and currently in the process of establishing a website and getting set up as a nonprofit foundation. </p>

<p>Miscellaneous:
-TASP finalist 2013
-Senate Page Program finalist 2013
-JSA Summer School 2012</p>

2

<p>Your stats are pretty good :smiley: what’s your weighted system for GPA like?</p>

<p>TASP finalist is very impressive. If you explain your extracurriculars well on your essays you have very good chances at all those schools (as in more than the average applicant) btw what do you wanna major in</p>

<p>Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Columbia/Stanford/Duke - low reach
Cornell/Vanderbilt/Brown/Dartmouth/Penn/Georgetown - low reach to high match
UCB/UCLA - match</p>

<p>still you probably want to have some safety or lower tier college. 10 colleges, all the top tier, is a LOT and those colleges reject a lot of people with astounding credentials</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1515027-chance-me-ill-chance-you-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1515027-chance-me-ill-chance-you-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Our weighting is pretty conventional, AP and IB classes generally count as 5.0 I believe. :)</p>

<p>My junior year courseload was as follows:</p>

<p>IB English HL1
APUSH
AP Chem
AP Calc
IB Theater Arts HL1
French 3
IB Theory of Knowledge, second semester. (Our school started doing a funky thing now, by straddling ToK over spring of junior year and fall of senior year.)</p>

<p>(Also, I indicated my intended major right underneath the list of schools.)</p>

4

<p>Anybody else?</p>

5

<p>You just seem so… Asian. You did the journalism thing which is impressive but you do have to share credit with 10 other students. I know people who started online charities. They didn’t do very well. How is yours different? I would recommend finding an innovative way to raise money. You should be accepted to some of the mid and lower ivies but I’m not so sure about the top ones. Maybe I’m just being harsh.</p>

<p>Harvard: Higher Reach</p>

<p>Yale: Reach</p>

<p>Princeton: Reach</p>

<p>Columbia: Reach</p>

<p>UPenn: Reach/Low Reach</p>

<p>Cornell: Low Reach</p>

<p>Brown: Reach/Low Reach</p>

<p>Dartmouth: Reach/Lowish Reach</p>

<p>Stanford: Highest Reach</p>

<p>Georgetown: Low reach/High Match</p>

<p>Northwestern: Match</p>

<p>Duke: High Match</p>

<p>Vanderbilt: Low match/Match</p>

<p>UCLA: Safety/Very low match</p>

6

<p>More than anything I would recomend for you now as a rising senior not to focus on your EC’s in the summer and concentrate on learning how to write essays, write an essay everyday, many very talented students have not been accepted to schools they deserved because of their low writing skills, vice versa many not as great candidates have been accepted in Ivy League school because of their craftship in writing essays.</p>

7

<p>Harvard: Reach
Yale: Reach
Princeton: Reach
Columbia: Reach
UPenn: Reach
Cornell: Low Reach
Brown: Reach
Dartmouth: Reach</p>

<p>Stanford: Reach
Georgetown: Low reach/high match. If you’re really passionate about politics and can convey that in your essays that should help.
Northwestern: Low reach/high match
Duke: Reach
Vanderbilt: High match
UCB/UCLA: Safety</p>

<p>I feel like you need some safeties simply because those are all such highly selective schools. Your credentials are impressive, though, and I think you have a good shot at some of those.</p>

<p>Chance a fellow Georgetown hopeful back? :)</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1524667-chance-me-georgetown-sfs-stanford-other-schools-please.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1524667-chance-me-georgetown-sfs-stanford-other-schools-please.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Your GPA/ class rank is good, as well as your SAT/ACT scores. However, your EC’s are rather weak. If you have more notable activities, please divulge them.</p>

<p>Mainly because of your EC’s, I think that all the colleges you named are mid-high reaches.</p>

<p>Take what I say with a grain of salt though, I am only 16 and a rising senior.</p>

<p>By the way, could you chance me back? I would really appreciate it! ^_^</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1523385-chances-hypsm-ivies-will-chance-back-d.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1523385-chances-hypsm-ivies-will-chance-back-d.html&lt;/a&gt;
Take what I say with a grain of salt though, I am only 16 and a rising senior.</p>