PRINCETON Chances..please help.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

I’m a white male (which can work against me, I know haha) but I have quadruple legacy at Princeton. I’m really hoping that will help, but college admissions are so competitive so I really don’t know.

The problem is that I have a legal record that may play against me during the college admissions process. I won’t give too many details because this information is so public, but it was just a stupid thing during freshman year that I did. I explained it in my common app but I’m just so worried. I know I’m super vague but idk how it will play against me.

My major is kinda undecided at this point, but I’m thinking about government or economics.

ACT: 34 composite (in one sitting)
SAT II: 790 Math 2, 770 US History, 760French
GPA: 3.89/4.0 (UW)
Rank: school does not rank, extremely competitive private prep boarding school in Texas.
AP: 3 APs junior year, 3 APs senior year. My school only allows three AP classes per year. I’ve taken the hardest course load at my school.
I’ve taken AP USH (5), AP Lang (5), AP Calc AB (5).

Senior Year Course Load: AP French, AP Euro, AP Calc BC

Awards: School leadership award, many MUN awards, policy debate finalists at Harvard debate tournament, class president, FBLA multiple awards, varsity lacrosse captain MVP.

Extracurriculars: MUN (4 years, president) FBLA (president), varsity tennis (captain) varsity lacrosse (captain), debate team (VP).

Job/Work Experience:
Created a start-up with a couple friends to help disadvantaged children in my area. It ended up being pretty successful, and 40% of profits went to disadvantaged children in Ghana.

I traveled to Haiti for a service trip and later raised money through my school for the Haitians that we helped.

Volunteer/Community service: Over 200 hours at a local hospital (pretty typical, I know).

Essays: When my mother became sick when I was a sophomore, she used to tell me stories about her childhood. I talked about how these stories shaped my interested in the social sciences. My parents divorced a couple months later and he moved to Dubai (long story lol). My guidance counselor thought it was a great essay.

Recommendations: AP USH teacher—she loved me and knew a lot about my personal life. I think the letter was very good because she talked a lot about my personality.
AP AB teacher—I always did well in math, and he descibed my as “bright and brilliant” (not my words lol)
Supplemental: Neighbor who was retired Prof. from Harvard. We talked about politics and life all the time. Really likes me.

Thank y’all in advance! Will chance back.
;:wink:

2

You have pretty impressive states and a lot of impressive EC’s. I don’t know how much that legal incident will affect you, but a quad legacy I’m sure will help. In your app, you could explain that the legal thing your freshman year was a stupid mistake and that you 100% regret it. This will show that you are honest and trustworthy. But, if you don’t want to include that, it’s totally fine. Again, I’m very impressed with your EC’s and stats. Good luck.

3

You seem like a very competitive candidate! My one suggestion to you would be to NOT get super confident due to your quad legacy status… let me explain why.

Yesterday, Penn’s decisions came out. One of my friends, who has extensive ECs but a somewhat low (3.85) unweighted GPA, along with 11 living family members who have gone to Penn, was deferred. He and I also attend a highly-ranked prep school outside of Philly (10+ kids got in ED). He opened his decision in front of everyone, super confident he would get in due to his legacy status, and was shaking in embarrassment and anger after he opened it and was deferred.

Now, your ECs seem superior to his (startup sounds really cool!), but college admissions is rough and unpredictable man… prepare for a deferral, no matter what. That’s what I’m doing. :slight_smile: