I have been advised by many people to not worry too much about college but I would like to just have a few kind people examine my current “qualifications” if possible just in case. Thank you all for reading.
Planning on applying to (In order of descending interest):
UChicago (ED)
Princeton
MIT
UPenn
Stanford
Cornell
Brown
Georgetown
GPA (Unweighted, weighted): 3.95?, >4.5 (by end of this year most likely)
ACT: 35 composite, 10/12 essay
SAT: 1550: 760 english, 790 math
SAT IIs: 800 bio, 800 math 2, 800 physics
APs: AP Bio (4), AP Calc AB (5, self studied), 5 more APs by the end of junior year, self studying for one of them, plus 5 more APs for senior year
Future Major: Probably double major in econ and math.
Extracurricular:
Quiz Bowl Team (3 years): one of the most prominent teams in the area, with numerous top 3 finishes at regional competitions, and countless individual awards.
One research project that I did with a university professor, unrelated field but has some medical applications.
Math league (2): didn’t win many major awards
total of 50 hours of volunteer work (hope to get more over summer)
Recommendations:
2 from teachers who can probably write 7-8/10 recs for me.
Country: US
Income bracket: Less than 50k
First generation college student
Asian Male
my freshman year classes and grades are not that good since I came from a bad area middle school with little prep for what's to come, but I have steadily improved myself for 2 years
You have great stats and a good list of reaches. I think that the odds might be better than 50% that you will get in somewhere. I doubt whether Georgetown with an admissions rate under 20% counts as a match, and you certainly don’t have a safety. To me your ECs look so so for most of this list of schools.
You need to add two safeties to the list. No school is a safety unless you are willing to go there, and you have run the NPC and can afford to attend.
Note that for a very high stats student reaches are sometimes easier to pick than safeties. This is particularly true when you are going to need substantial financial aid. The top schools claim to meet full need, and are generally very well known. Picking a safety with a good program in your preferred major that meets full need might be easy in some cases but can be hard in other cases.
My son was accepted UChicago ED this year and is planning to study Math/Econ, so hopefully he’ll see you there. Your grades and test scores are fine. Spend the next year developing your outside interests and activities, not necessarily just math or competitions. Your ECs and essays will be what differentiates you from the rest of the high scorers and UChicago in particular likes people who write interesting essays. Good luck.
You need leadership extra-circulars that tie into your intended major. Without a remarkable extra-circular, getting into these schools would be unlikely. Luckily, you already have the objective statistics to get your foot in the door.
I know that more extracurriculars certainly would help me a lot, but I am having a hard time finding ECs that relate to my major, especially considering I am not too stellar at competition math and econ ECs are really rare. Also, I do have one safety school prepared and I’m probably going to get a decent size scholarship with it, maybe even a full ride if I write a good enough essay.
It’s not really that you need “more” generic ECs or “leadership” ECs, you need more ECs that are in-depth, that show you dug deeply into interests. If your ECs are mostly things you sign up for in school or look like those of all the other applicants, it’s very hard to stand out as someone who has gone the extra mile to explore his interests. Adding a math contest or Economics club isn’t necessarily going to be the ticket, so be creative. UChicago likes people who are interested in learning and pursue their interests in unique ways. It’s fine if you can’t find ECs that relate to your major, think about how you can create your own activity, project or learning.
You are a competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are great. With amazing essays you could get accepted by UChicago ED or by any other school on your list