Male, Asian
Average NY Public School (But our class is very competitive grade-wise)
GPA: 92 UW/95 W (School does not calculate the score out of 4.0)
Class Rank: 40/281
Our advanced/accelerated/AP teachers are relentless in grading; they are specifically told not to boost anyone’s grades for any assessment or our final averages. The school also calculates our class ranks from unweighted GPA’s, which, in my opinion, is a huge blunder, as the non-advanced courses are not only easier, but have VERY lenient teachers as well.
SAT: 2140
SATII: Math I 790; Math 2 790 (Retaking for that elusive 800!)
Classes:
School does not offer IB program. Very few AP’s offered as well.
All advanced/accelerated courses taken throughout HS career (except regents-level English Junior year)
AP’s Taken/Taking:
Sophomore: Bio (4)
Junior: Chem (3 – teacher got dismissed after this year; she apparently didn’t teach anything applicable to the AP and we all pretty much bombed); US History (4)
Senior: AB Calc; Statistics; English Comp; Music Theory; Physics; Macroeconomics
I’m actually taking/have taken every single AP offered in this school except for one English AP that did not fit into my schedule. It may seem like a fairly easy course load, but I’ve actually taken the most amount of classes offered, and the hardest classes offered, in our school each year. I’m a bit worried that NYU Stern won’t realize this.
EC’s:
Another problem with our school is that there are very few clubs offered outside of sports, and those that are offered often overlap in meeting dates, so it is nearly impossible to do more than one or two clubs at a time unless you simply sign up and do not attend.
Varsity Swim Team (9-12)
Math Team (9-12) (Co-Captain 11-12)
Chinese school (9+ years) (Created and participated in several clubs here as my school doesn’t offer much – do those count in any way?)
Piano (12+ years, received several distinctions)
Guitar (3 years)
Bookkeeper at local consulting firm (3 years) (Volunteered for one year, paid for 2)
Interned in a Biomedical lab at Stevens Institute of Technology (Summers 9, 10, 11 – was there 8 hours/day, 5 days/week and balanced this with my bookkeeping job)
Volunteered at local Chinese association – wrote several articles for them that were published in local newspapers (1 got published in a statewide paper); maintained the Facebook page and was the head of fundraising (Personally did about $15-20K in 3 years alone)
Thanks in advance! If you need anything clarified, please let me know!
And also please be as honest as possible; I’m used to taking bad news!
If anyone needs more context about my school just let me know and I’ll provide it!
And PLEASE don’t hold anything back!
Oh and my letter of rec’s and essays are superb.
Also am in NHS, Honor Roll and received letter of commendation from NMSQT.
It’s tough to say. It used to be the case many years ago that Stern admissions was predictable. Generally people that had 1500+ (M+V) SAT and 3.8+ GPA usually got in. But things are different now
I’ve seen people w/ 2300+ and 3.8+ get rejected and <2150 and 3.5 GPA get accepted so it can really go either way - hard to really chance. It would say its a reach for anyone that applies so couldn’t hurt to apply ED if sure you like NYU
Not more than 6/7 years ago the acceptance rate used to be high teens / low 20s. Now it hovers around 12 - 13%
@qwertyzxc I realize that which is why I tried giving as much context of my school as possible.
based on my experience at stern i’d say its a reach for you tbh - you have mediocre grades and mediocre scores especially considering you are an asian male. The asians at Stern (both international and domestic) always tend to have close to perfect scores and grades for some reason. ED may help however.
Also it would be a huge waste of time to take Math II again if you think an 800 means more than 790
Would retake the regular SAT and try to get a 2250+ instead
Stern looks at CR+M so if you can get a 1500 (or around that) your chances are good. GPA should be around a 3.8-3.9, so you are slightly lower. Good luck.
In all honesty they are now hollistic so just like someone stated above, it is unpredicatble. I was just at a Stern open house and they really stressed how GPA and SAT is not everything they look at.
Could anyone please chance me here:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1813208-chance-me-for-nyu-stern-ed.html#latest
I realize I have a weak application but I come from a disadvantaged backgroud (low income, only one parent went to college) and I am trying to decide if I should even apply at all.
@SternBusiness would it be more worth it to retake the regular SAT and get a 2250+/1500+ in November and apply regular/early decision II over early decision I with my current SAT scores? I know they stressed that it’s not easier to get accepted in early decision over regular action, but it seems that people who do not get accepted to ED in Wharton/Sloan tend to flood the Stern regular action pool, which would force them to deny some applications that they would, under normal circumstances, deem generally competitive, but have to outright deny because of space issues. And since no one applies to Wharton/Sloan with ED1 at Stern (who actually have a chance for Wharton/Sloan), it would seem better to apply even with a worse SAT because they would not have as large of concern for space, and are exposed to a generally weaker applicant pool. Am I wrong?
Yeah although the acceptance rates are the same, the RD pool has higher qualified applicants. The RD pool will have kids from all over with better stats.
Acceptance rate for ED & RD at Stern are not the same - they fill a good number of the class from the ED pool so ED acceptance is reasonably higher. I would assume ED acceptance is probably around 18-19%
RD acceptance rate is in the single digits - I would assume 8-9%
@SternBusiness @qwertyzxc So would it be better for me to just apply ED1 with my current stats or aim for a 1500 and apply ED2? I realize it’s probably a reach either way, but whichever is better is worth a shot.
w/ current stats and profile - ED1
ED2 and RD will presumably be higher quality applicant pool and so it will be tougher to stand out in those pools
unfortunately, I’d say it’s a long shot especially due to your ethnicity
Forgot to come back and update this but I got accepted with a $20K scholarship. 
I think what helped me the most were my essays and recommendations.
Good luck to anyone else applying!
@adreamer22 Dude, seriously, nice job. Everyone here was like “it’s a long shot” and you proved everyone wrong.
@alpha525 Thanks! Your stats are sweet, and I’m sure you’ll get in with a generous scholarship. Hope to see you in the fall if you choose to attend!
man, looking at your stats makes me realize I should’ve applied ED1. Hope ED2 is similar acceptance because we have VERY similar applications. Ugh. Congrats though.
@dehca2016 looking back at my original post it seems as though I underreported my GPA slightly while asking for a chance, but good luck! Their application process is truly holistic. Hope to see you in the fall!
@adreamer22
I applied to CAS too, so yeah, hope I’ll see you in fall. I need at least $20k in scholarships though