Princeton, Penn, and Dartmouth? Do I have a chance?

Applying to College
1

<p>I visited Princeton today and totally fell in love with the atmosphere. I met some of the students and felt like I could be friends with them completely, very deep and intellectual people. Do I have a chance at getting in? I'm also looking at UPenn, Dartmouth, and Cornell. </p>

<p>--Academics--
GPA unweighted: 3.96
In the top 10% of my class
All honors and APs.
Total 5 AP Classes for the next two years
Taking 2 APs independently
SAT's (as of now) CR: 750 W:710 M:770
Just took PSATs, I think I did really well, hoping to be a National Merit Scholar or something close to that</p>

<p>--Extra Curriculars--
Varsity tennis team freshman year
Record: 51 wins to 5 losses
Second singles freshman and sophomore
Player of the year Sophomore year
1st singles Junior year
Captain junior year</p>

<p>Fencing, but just for fun. I don't compete or do anything super seriously.</p>

<p>Show Jumper (equestrian)-Professional license at 17
Train horses
Qualified for Marshall and Sterling Finals
Unfortunately before going to finals, I had to get rid of my horse so that my family could afford to send my 10 year old brother to a special school for dyslexic children. I gave my 50,000 dollars in prize money from riding to him so he could go</p>

<p>My biggest thing at the moment is changing my state law for dyslexia and making it recognized as a learning difference. I have been working on this for two years with a learning specialist and a lawyer (graduates of Penn). My mom is friends with a journalist at Fox News and I have a space reserved to go on air with Mr. O'Reilly. </p>

<p>President and founder of the Operation Smile Club and County chapter
Math League- competitively.
National Honor Society Member
Tutor kids at the local elementary school in math, reading and spanish.</p>

<p>I'll be going on a three week medical mission to India and Pakistan for Operation Smile in february, then thailand and china for the summer for conferences and missions. </p>

<p>---Hooks? (if they even count as hooks, i'm not exactly sure what hooks even are..)---
-Grandfather went to MIT, did not graduate because of the war
-Great-Grandfather went to Amherst
-No one has ever gone to college in my family (aside from the two mentioned above)
-Buddhist
-Manager of my mother's family-owned department store (40,000 sq ft) hire, fire, schedule, open, close, customer service, shipping, buying, and problems. 7 days a week in the summer. open seasonally.
-Skip school to attend fashion shows, understood business at a young age, do my moms taxes :P
-Great Grandfather was the fencing coach at Cornell and the Olympic fencing coach
-Dad is bestfriends with an admissions guy at Princeton
-Going to Thailand with the Princeton admissions guy's daughter (one of my good friends). She also graduated from Princeton.
-India and Pakistan Medical mission with very close friend of mine, Georgetown graduate.
^^ Good letters of recommendation?
Do I have a chance? What will make my chances higher?</p>

2

<p>Holy ****, I think you got a very good chance.</p>

3

<p>If you write a strong essay, you should have a shot. Don’t count on the “friend” thing, though.</p>

4

<p>USTA provides rankings for all junior players and that is a way that colleges assess kids for whether they can play tennis at the next level.</p>

<p>Agree that the friend thing might not help you much as the potential conflict of interest would have to be disclosed.</p>

5

<p>The friend thing won’t hurt you at all. If the admissions officer feels the need to recuse himself when your application comes up due to personal involvement, he will. That’s what professional integrity is.</p>

<p>“…would have to be disclosed.” Wow. And what qualifies you to say that? It’s amazing what some people say on these forums…</p>

6

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<p>Ha, ha I agree that it is amazing what some people will say. It so happens that a family friend is a Princeton graduate and does student interviews for them. She tells me that she could not interview my daughter because of the conflict of interest. </p>

<p>And as you want to set yourself as the QA of this board, please read before posting. No one said the friend thing would “hurt you”. I and another poster questioned whether how much it would “help you”.</p>

7

<p>I’m assuming you will write amazing essays with all of that material. You have an excellent shot. Probably 50/50 at Princeton 55/45 at UPenn and 65/35 at Cornell and Dartmouth.</p>

8

<p>I questioned the part about it “… hav[ing] to be disclosed.” Like I said, and as you just demonstrated with your example, people simply recuse themselves if they have any shred of professional integrity. If the one admissions officer who knows him happens to come across his application, it simply goes in someone else’s pile. This is incredibly common. There is no disclosure process on either end, and nothing prevents the one admissions officer from saying, “He’s a great kid! I won’t make the call on this, but take a careful look at his application.” And if his application is summarily discarded (which it wouldn’t be–he has excellent chances regardless), the admissions officer also has discretion to say, “Well, I think you should take another look.” Admissions officers do that all the time even for people they do not know–just kids they’re pushing for for some reason or other if they like the application. After that, it’s out of his hands. So, yes, it can definitely help.</p>

9

<p>thanks everyone for the help and advice!! for the friend thing, i was just thinking maybe he could just give me pointers about what they look for to get into princeton? it didn’t really cross my mind that he would “get me in” when the time came for the admissions office to select their students… i was just going to ask him for advice about what they look for and maybe help get my foot in the door</p>

<p>my tennis ranking is awful at the moment, due to injury i couldn’t play most of this season and have taken a good couple months off… i still have next year to bring my ranking up… i’m a junior</p>

10

<p>The things that you listed as hooks make you seem like a really braggy, nonsensical person. Don’t bother applying if you can’t work out what really matters.</p>

11

<p>It seems like you have a lot of depth in a lot of areas. Definetly apply because you have a very good chance.</p>

12

<p>50/50 at Princeton without a hook is pretty darn optimistic as are the odds for others given by nthpower. I’m thinking you should not take that seriously. Very hard to say without rank, but with a strong junior year you’ll be in the running.</p>

13

<p>^2college2college, what would you say is a state, sectional, and national rank that is considered good?</p>

14

<p>When you say “Princeton Admissions guy” do you mean he is an alumni interviewer, or he is an actual employee of the University whose fulltime job is in the Admissions department?</p>

<p>Regardless, your stats are good–have you taken your two SAT II Subject Tests yet? And as recommended above, I’d forget about the things you’ve listed in ‘hooks’. </p>

<p>The only true hooks are: recruited athlete, URM, legacy (parent only), development case (family can or has donated a res.college or building).</p>