NEW TO THREAD. please evaluate

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>hi this is my first post. i found out about this forum when my friend told me about all these crazy ppl with no lives and unbelievable stats. i'm aiming for HYP and i wanted to know if i was on the right track.</p>

<p>demographics:
asian, male, middle class, green card (so im not international student), new jersey, junior in public hs</p>

<p>sat i (took it this jan):
v760
m800
w800</p>

<p>sat ii:
bio790- frosh year
chem770- soph year
*will take math2c and us hist this year. i'm expecting 800 in math and high 700's in history</p>

<p>gpa: 3.85uw
rank: 5/300</p>

<p>APs: our school's schedule system doesn't really allow for freshmen and sophomores to take AP's but i'm taking bio and us hist AP's this year. i will probably get 5's. next year i will have chem ap, physics ap, world hist ap, calculus bc ap, literature ap, and band.</p>

<p>ECs:
- sports (if i include my predictions for my sr year):
football 4 years- varsity 11, 12 grades
track 4 years- varsity 11, 12 grades
tennis 4 years- varsity 10, 11, 12 grades, captain 11, 12 grades</p>

<ul>
<li><p>music:
juilliard pre-college 10, 11, 12 grades (french horn)
all-county, all-region, all-state bands
local community band since 9th grade
2 performances at carnegie hall with symphonic orchestra (Shosti 5 & others)
(hopefully i'll make it this year) NJ governor's school of music
hired to play at professional gigues at churches for christmas & easter
recitals at nursing homes and cancer centers since 8th grade
give lessons to kids (paid)
hired to play at a school musical pit orchestra
performance in a broadway show orchestra @ symphony space, ny
finalist at concerto competitions
AND various school ensembles and awards</p></li>
<li><p>other ECs:
math team captain
science teams
individualized research internship/project with phD during summer</p></li>
</ul>

<p>academic achievements:
probably national merits finalist (239 on psat)
accepted to columbia honors science program
nhs
various awards here and there but they're just filllers</p>

<p>essays:
they'll probably be good. most likely about music</p>

<p>recs:
teachers love me. they'll be good</p>

<p>sooooooooooooo. i know being an asian from nj who does music is a setback in a way, but i think my musical activities are above average. i am open to any types of criticism/advice, so please feel free to comment. how can i improve my chances at the elite school? THANKS GUYS</p>

2

<p>Welcome to CC! Your chances, as you probably know, are at least as good as anyone else's. Being an Asian in NJ isn't exactly helpful, like you mentioned, but it won't hurt your app. Your interest in music seems to be very impressive, although I unfortunately know someone with similar talent who got rejected from Yale. There's really no way to tell because HYP are so incredibly unpredictable. You're in their range, but so are the rejects. If you apply EA to Harvard or Yale, you'd stand a great chance, though. Your essay will most likely be the key to a successful app. </p>

<p>Do you have other schools you're looking into? HYP are great schools, but there's plenty others out there.</p>

3

<p>wow thanks for the quick reply. of course i'll be looking into other schools but harvard EA would be a dream come true. my next choice would be the brown 8 (7?) year medical program. </p>

<p>and btw, what are the chances of getting into harvard EA compared to RD? and if you are deferred, what are the chances of making it RD? i noticed that eveyrone on this board says something like "hyp is so unpredictable", but there has to be an estimated figure. thanks again eveyrone. please continue to leave feedback</p>

4

<p>You sound like one of those "crazy ppl with no lives and unbelievable stats" ;). Your GPA is a little low, but the rest is excellent. Good luck!</p>

5

<p>Harvard, like other schools, claims to have a stronger EA applicant pool than RD pool, thus the high EA admit rate. However, numbers imply otherwise. Last year, the EA admit rate was 21.2% compared to the incredibly low RD rate of 6.5%. If you're deferred, don't get your hopes up. Harvard and many other schools tend to issue "polite deferrals." In other words, they accept a few, reject a few, and defer most. Most of the deferred applicants don't get in, but it depends a great deal on how proactive you are. </p>

<p>If you're interested in Brown's PLME, you might want to check out Northwestern. Its BS/MD program is highly regarded, and their music program is superb if you want to continue with music.</p>

6

<p>If you're interested in pre-med, take a look at Washington University in St. Louis. Pre-med program was rated 3rd in the US in (I think) 2004. Over all, it's an excellent school (US News rated it 11th among universities) and it's a little easier to get into than HYPS and with your stats you'd have a pretty good chance.</p>

7

<p>His GPA isn't low if he's 5/300. All GPAs are not created equal!</p>

<p>Your chances at HYP are probably below 20%. Half the class is filled with recruited athletes, urms, legacies and development candidates. For a place in the other half, you'll be competing with brilliant Asians from all over the Country and from Asia. No matter what the schools say, there is a quota for everything: white, black, asian, american indian......Your stats will put you in the pile to be considered, but you will be in very good company.</p>

8

<p>After much searching, I managed to dig up the old results threads. They should give you some idea of where you stand. </p>

<p>Yale</a> EA 2004</p>

<p>Yale</a> RD 2005</p>

<p>Yale</a> EA 2005</p>

<p>Harvard</a> EA 2004</p>

<p>Harvard</a> RD 2005</p>

<p>Harvard</a> EA 2005</p>

<p>Princeton</a> ED 2004</p>

<p>Princeton</a> RD 2005</p>

<p>Princeton</a> ED 2005</p>

9

<p>THAT'S CRAZY. WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE GETTING DEFERRED. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE ADMISSIONS PEOPLE?? ive been at this forum for less than 5 hours now and i'm already depressed about my chances. i think CC is great and resourceful and everyone here seems to be very supportive, but i think it depresses more ppl than it helps them.</p>

<p>BUT from reading some ofthe decisions and the ppl's stats, it seems to me that essays and recs count a lot because amazing test scores for applicants to any of those three schools seem to be a given. </p>

<p>i also want to have better EC's. should i do more with music or start a new club or something and go for something for innovative?</p>

<p>and thanks warblersrule86 for the replies</p>

10

<p>You have a strong chance at HY. Apply EA, me bet is you get in.</p>

11

<p>Nobody is trying to discourage you, but you do need to know what you're up against. Even kids with stats like yours have, at best, a 30% chance to get into HYPS etc. In short, if you apply to HYPS etc, all you can do is hope you get in, but expect to be rejected. With that in mind, you also need to apply to other schools that are more likely to accept you. That's why I mentioned WashU above. But you can also consider schools like Northwestern, Wesleyan (in CT), Middlebury, Emory.</p>

<p>Take a look at the list below. All of them are top schools, and my guess is that you'd have a better than even shot to get into almost any one of them.</p>

<p>Northwestern
Wesleyan
Johns Hopkins
Cornell
Carleton
Vassar
Carnegie Mellon
Tufts
Washington and Lee
Emory
Vanderbilt
Notre Dame
Georgetown
Bowdoin
Haverford
Macalester
Davidson
Colby
Univer. Of Southern CA
Colgate
Brandeis
William and Mary</p>

12

<p>WUStL is a bad idea for premed. Over 75% of the biology majors are premed, meaning quite a bit of competition. Like Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Duke, etc. you'll have more weeding out than you would at places like Davidson, Haverford (98% med school admit rate), and Kalamazoo.</p>

13

<p>dude, are you kidding? youre test scores are absolutely crazy, i have a feeling youll get in anywhere you jolly well please</p>

14

<p>Are you aware that Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford reject over 60% of the 1600-scoring valedictorians who apply? Yes, a 40% admit rate is relatively high, but that's still not very encouraging. Even less competitive schools like Duke reject about 40% of these applicants.</p>

15

<p>warblersrule86 -</p>

<p>You're right about the competition at WashU premed. Very tough. On the other hand, the pre-med program is, as I said before, one of the best. Ditto the med school there. And WashU overall is also one of the best universities in the country. I see it as a trade off. Do pre-med at WashU and you'll get one of the best educations in the US, if not the world. But, you'll also work really, really, really hard. Whether that's your cup of tea depends on what you're looking for.</p>

16

<p>thanks everyone for the feedback but at this stage i'm not so sure if i can handle another several years of competitive school environment. even though i usually present myself as a person who thrives under pressure and competition, i think after this kind of high school life i might feel a little 'burnt out'.</p>

<p>i want to study where the general atmosphere is a little bit easygoing and supportive. ive heard that harvard gives everyone at least a B unless you're a complete idiot. so this is just a guess but i think they might have a more 'chill' attitude to all of this. and also, since the brown plme program sort of guarantees its participants a degree i think students might be more relaxed about grades.</p>

<p>i read warbler's post about washU, and i think that's good advice. i don't want to be a premed where almost everyone else is a premed. i would prefer a school where the students' majors are more evenly distributed.</p>

<p>i know i sound really picky but if you guys have any schools others than harvard or brown plme that fit my description, feel free to share. and also if my current opinions about those two schools' atmospheres are incorrect, also feel free to correct me.</p>

<p>thanks all</p>