Please chance (HYPS)and tell me if I need to add more safeties

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I posted a chance thread about half a year ago, and got just about 0 replies. Some things have changed, so here goes.</p>

<p>Stats:
4.00/4.00 gpa
1/549 class rank (tied w/ 7 other people)
2340 SAT's- 800M, 800CR, 740W
5's- chem, bc calc, english language, us history, us gov and pol, microecon
4's- bio, macroecon
800 SAT2 chinese
800 SAT2 Math 2
790 SAT2 chem
770 SAT2 US History</p>

<p>this year's scheduele: physics m/e&m, stat, lit, spanish (not sure which one), world history (all ap)</p>

<p>Activities:
served on FBLA's national treasurer's board as national philantrophy councilperson
served as regional FBLA president
served as school's FBLA president
president scholar's bowl
captain mathletes
treasurer Math Honor Society
officer Spanish Honor Society
vp science honor society
co-captain jv tennis team
editor culture shock (school newspaper)</p>

<p>national merit semifinalist (229 psat)
ap national scholar
attended governor's school (technically pennsylvania school for global entrepreneurship)
volunteered 2 years at a summer camp
volunteer weekends at local hospital
used to coach my middle school's mathcounts team</p>

<p>I am Chinese, so I'm not sure whether that throws a monkey wrench into things. My essays will most likely be average, as I'm not the strongest essay writer. My interview should be good, as I enjoy the process and I'm jive relatively well with interviewers for some reason.</p>

<p>I'm applying to:
Yale (EA)
Harvard
Princeton
Stanford (jeez, these 4 schools seem to be common)
Duke
U Chicago
Cornell
University of Pennsylvania
Columbia
MIT
Georgetown
Penn State (safety)
Drexel (safety)
U Pitt (safety)</p>

<p>I'm not quite willing to extend the list much further than this. I am, however, open to suggestions to schools that I should get into relatively comfortably. </p>

<p>Thanks for your help!!!</p>

2

<p>It’s a good balanced list, but there’s a big difference between Georgetown and Penn St. Maybe find something in between? </p>

<p>I think you have as a chance as any high level unhooked applicant at those top schools.</p>

3

<p>I would highly recommend getting the help you need to ensure your essays are not average. The stats are in place and many with your stats get in but more don’t. Your job now is to use the essays and get the recs to be one of the under 5% of unhooked students who make it in the gates.</p>

<p>No EC jumps off the page as HYPS level, you have to make a passion and accomplishment clear with those tools. Other than if you get a Yale on campus interview, interviews for these schools are courtesy alumni ones which don’t matter for much.</p>

4

<p>Thanks guys. To hmom5… What I meant by average is that most likely, nothing’s going to jump off the page. Most of the people applying to these schools are probably going to be great essay writers, and have really interesting essays. I’ll have an interesting essay, and it’ll be reviewed by some of my friends at Harvard and Yale, as well as my previous English teachers, but I don’t see how it’s going to be absolutely above and beyond what everybody else can submit. When I read Harvard’s 50 essays book, all of them seemed… really similar. When there’s 20,000 people applying to a school, how exactly can my essays stand out?</p>

5

<p>Don’t know if this matters, but over the summer, I worked with a team at gov school to design a new website for Rodale Incorporated. They should be uploading that to the web within 6 months.</p>

<p>One of my recommendations will be exceptionally strong (well, at least as strong as they can get). The guy was my 9th grade Geometry teacher, and he absolutely loves he. I’ve been talking to him ever since, and I drop by every other day. He’s a great friend, and he knows just about everything that happens to me. The other recommendation will also be strong, but nothing insane. She’s my last year’s english teacher, and she liked me. She does write very good recs though.</p>