please chance me for ivys/UK schools (updated)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>please please please take some time to read this (about 5-10 minutes). I have been reading others' and leaving posts so hopefully it will turn out to be good karma :D</p>

<p>I am Indian (this plays a part later on) and I attend a public school in California (a renowned school near Monta Vista/ Palo Alto area). My father went to MIT so I have some pressure to go there but I would rather stay here in California. I am very strong in Math and Sciences but I have a lot of interest in International Relations and Economics; my dream as of now is to be a part of the United Nations! </p>

<p>I am basically looking at the following schools in order of preference (not necessarily difficulty/selectivity):</p>

<p>Stanford
Harvard
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton
Yale
Columbia
Oxford/Cambridge
London School of Economics
London Business School
University of Chicago
(UC Berkeley)
(UC LA)</p>

<p>now for the "stats":</p>

<p>PSAT: 205
I got owned but somehow I still got National Merit Commend, cutoff was 200 so not too proud about it.</p>

<p>SAT (12/06): 2160 / 1440 W: 720 CR: 640 M: 800
SAT (03/08): 2300 / 1510 W: 790 CR: 710 M: 800
SAT (10/08): I might retake since I don't like my CR score..</p>

<p>SAT II:
Chemistry (6/07): 770
Math II C (6/07): 800
Chinese w/ listening (11/07): 690 -> 10th percentile :]
Biology E (5/08): 800</p>

<p>US History (6/08): TBA
Physics (6/08): TBA [got 800 on my diag :) ]
Chinese w/ Listening (11/08): TBA [aiming for 750+]</p>

<p>AP:
Biology: TBA
Physics B: TBA
US History: TBA (might be a 4!)</p>

<p>Transcript:</p>

<p>GPA (including freshman year): 4.48
GPA (without freshman year): 4.73
GPA (unweighted): 3.95</p>

<p>Honors classes I have taken:
Algebra 2 Honors
Chemistry Honors
Trigonometry/ Precalculus Honors (rather than alg 2/ trig)</p>

<p>Current Schedule:
Biology AP
Trigonometry/ PreCalculus Honors
US History AP
Physics B AP
Chinese 4 Honors
Tutor for ELD (english language development) class
English 11 Honors</p>

<p>Senior Year:
Microeconomics & U.S. Government (taking it over summer at West Valley College)
Concurrent Enrollment at West Valley College
-Physics C: Mechanics or Multivariable Calculus (1rst Semester)
-Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism (2nd Semester)
Chemistry AP
European History AP
Statistics AP
Chinese 6 AP (Lang)
English Language AP</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
1. President of Interact -> District Officer
----raised 8K from our school to build a school in ghana this year
----hopefully going to go to Ghana to help build the school this summer!!!
2. President of Model United Nations
----hosted a conference at my school in addition to attending Stanford & Berkeley MUN
3. President of Mandarin Club
----organizing a trip to go the China next year with some other schools
4. Junior Varsity Tennis :/
----Team Captain
5. WASC Student Representative
----the most useless organization I have ever been in
6. ASB School Site Council
7. Tutor Outside of school for free and pay
8. Link Crew Commissioner
----organized the entire freshman initiation/orientation
9. Head Safety and Improvemnt Commissioner
----used 200K to rebuild/improve beauty of our campus
10. Head Traffic Commissioner
----regulated the traffic every day, pretty fun actually
11. I am learning Arabic, Farsi, and Swahili on my own; I know Hindi from birth.
----I can write/read Simplified and Traditional Chinese (traditional looks better though :P)
12. Last summer I spent a few weeks in Chile and lived with a host family while helping them renovate their home. I also attended Stanford's Youth Leadership Conference on Asian and Pacific Islander Health where I led my team to win second place in a competition to create an event to raise awareness of Hepatitis B.
13. I have also begun to self-study Calculus and I will skip to multivariable/physics c next year (If I succeed). This summer I hope to go to Ghana, and am going to China and India.</p>

<p>Hobbies:
I love playing piano but I haven't won any awards or anything like that but I have played in a concert for an Indian band. (yeee!)
I love drawing, which had an influence on my decision to learn Chinese and Arabic.
I have more interest in the politics of other nations than in that of the U.S. (which leads into my whole UN thing)</p>

<p>In my opinion my main weaknesses are that I have no awards and maybe I have more weaknesses. </p>

<p>please tell me whatever you like!</p>

2

<p>Dont really worry about the awards. I have a friend who got into Yale this year with maybe one essay contest. </p>

<p>Your whole thing is really strong; I think, thugh, with those top schools it really comes down to your essay</p>

<p>work your a** off on those suckers.</p>

3

<p>haha thank you</p>

4

<p>bump for chances. any takers? (i know i'm applying to a lot of schools)</p>

5

<p>You need to group your activities list. Too many is very confusing. Last year, one guy has gazillion ECs and he was rejected on most schools. He finally got accepted off the rejected list(yes, not waitlist) of Penn State Honors. His stats were good.</p>

<p>I'll pm you his chances thread.</p>

6

<p>You seem like a math person academically and a humanities person when it comes down to your EC's... Get a good essay so the colleges can see who you are.... and you should have decent chances.</p>

7

<p>okay thanks :)</p>

8

<p>well if i'm going into econ i guess i should have interest in humanities and math, right?</p>

9

<p>Good chances at all the schools, I'd say. Great stats, and your ECs are awesome! The Interact thing is especially cool... you raised money to build a school AND are going to go help build it? Now that is pretty sweet.</p>

10

<p>well our school (Saratoga High) has raised 8000 dollars alone and our entire district's schools are going to be pooling the money to build a school in Ghana this summer.. I just became president this year so I don't really know if we will go but it would definitely be the highlight of my junior year if I do go this summer... I am desperately trying!</p>

11

<p>bump........</p>

12

<p>oh i didn't see this when i replied to your other thread about your 4. well, interestingly, i just finished my senior year with very very similar standardized test results, and GPA (and applying to basically the same list, with the exception that Oxbridge was my first choice, Harvard second) so I may be able to give you some advice/ ideas on what you should do. Okay. For stanford, I think your best bet would be to stand out as much as possible, because in my classmates' experience, some of the admitted students were not in the top 20th percentile, but very interesting people, etc., and got in whereas others did not. I got into Harvard, and I am guessing a lot of it came from my essay, which was weird and different, and presumably decent. Also, it would not be a bad idea to send supplementary stuff to all of these schools (I assume your college counselor is going to tell you the same thing, but send a small but significant supplement package-- I don't know what you have, but I sent like newspaper articles that I wrote, poetry, etc.). My friend got in early to Yale, and I'm guessing a lot of that had to do with her amazing list of ECs as well as fantastic standardized test scores (she also sent a supplementary CD of her playing piano, I think)... so anyway. the moral of the story is: there are a lot of over-qualified applicants, but you have to sound like a lot more than your numbers and list of ECs... do so by your essays and your supplemental stuff. Good luck!</p>

13

<p>thanks that helps a lot! I was hoping that if my essays are unique - and I believe I am truly different from my "smarter" friends - it should help my chances. thanks for taking the time to write that and know that I don't value your advice simply because you went to harvard.</p>

14

<p>does anybody have negative feedback for me? please be frank with me, i would really appreciate it if I knew my weaknesses (i.e. don't mention blah and blah on your app, blah blah aren't such a big deal, etc.)</p>

<p>thanks in advance!</p>

15

<p>I saw that you posted on my thread, so i guess the fact that Im posting here is some of that good karma coming back to you.<br>
YOu have some solid EC's, but i dont think that you really need to take the SAT again, considering you have taken it twice already and broken 2300. Also, your list of EC's is pretty long, and towards the end they seem like they are pretty unimportant (i.e. Head Traffic Commissioner). Im not sure if you are actually going to list these, but they sort of detract from your stronger extra-curriculars</p>

16

<p>sweet! that's exactly what i was looking for! thank you!</p>

<p>i will probably just group all of the commissioner positions together and combine ASB SSC with WASC since they were dependent on each other..</p>

17

<p>wow, amazing ECs. nice scores too.. you seem to have a pretty good chance at all :)</p>

18

<p>swoop - unfortunately 2009 will be the toughest year in US history for college admissions. The ivies should be considered a reach for everyone! My son (who is 1/2 Indian) had similar stats to you with maybe slightly less ec. He was rejected at all ivies and will most likely be going to the univ of chicago. have safeties and reach schools. Being Indian will probably not be of any help. Don't obsess about the ivies.</p>

19

<p>yes that is some great advice. thank you!
my dad has been telling me the same thing. I have to be willing to accept rejection at these schools. I guess I might as well try to enjoy my summer before I start crying over the rejections, right? :)</p>

20

<p>The key thing for the top schools is to get some awards and make the essay one that really shows "who you are". While one person may have gotten into Yale with only one award, that's the exception, not the rule.</p>

<p>Other than that, you're looking good.</p>

<p>OH, and just so you're aware--for the UK schools, it's all about the test scores (including AP/IBs) and the GPA--and you need to apply really early (like starting in August).</p>

<p>P.S. My son, who didn't go to Saratoga High, but rather to a school "over the hill" went to the Saratoga High senior prom two years ago with a girl who's now attending Stanford (don't know if you know her or are related). But, obviously, he (and I) are familiar with the large number of smart people from that school.</p>

<p>Best of luck and success to you.</p>