<p>Okay, I needed to ask, because I was worried, can anyone give me a realistic chance for Princeton?</p>
<p>I am Asian (Indian) and first gen.</p>
<p>GPA: 94 W (my school doesn't give us UW)</p>
<p>APs: 6 up until junior year (1 freshman year, 1 sophomore year, 4 junior year), 6 more this year. I have 2 fours (for the ones I took freshman and sophomore year) and 4 fives (for my junior year APs. Almost all of my other classes are honors classes as my school doesn't offer many non-honors courses. They were: APUSH 4, APPHYSB 4, APBIO 5, APCHEM 5, APPSYCH 5, APLang&Comp 5.</p>
<p>Essays: Magnificent (commonapp) and great (supplement) (my teachers loved the commonapp one so much that they asked for copies to show their classes how to write with sophistication)</p>
<p>Teacher Recs: One teacher has known me for three years. She once wrote me a rec that got the people at Harvard Model Congress to accept my scholarship application 4 days late. My essays were impressive enough after that to get the people at HMC to ask me to give a speech there.</p>
<p>Activities: Teaching216 hours at a local public school. Teaching240 hours volunteering in India to help teach kids in slums (summer). Tutor20 Hours at school. Debate/SpeechFounder and president of Model Congress club at my school. Math club for three years (member and tutor). Teen Reviewers and Critics programI have been learning about film and film criticism in this program in NYC. I'm in the Film Club at my school and working on a film for it (auteur film).</p>
<p>Achievements and Honors: AP Scholar with Distinction; Letter of Commendation for Outstanding Performance on the PSAT/NMSQT in 2012 (top 3% in the USA).</p>
<p>The 5%–10% range for acceptance at Princeton is based on all applicants, correct? So wouldn’t the chances for a qualified applicant, as you characterize the OP, be higher?</p>
Stanfordwannabe: please explain. Princeton consistently states that an applicant’s stated major is not a factor save for some unique scenarios.</p>
<p>From the PTon website:</p>
<p>"Will my choice of a main field of study affect my chance for admission?</p>
<p>On the application we ask you to indicate the degree program (A.B., B.S.E. or undecided) and the departments that most interest you. These choices don’t affect your chances for admission, nor do they commit you to a particular course of study. We look closely at the math and science background of students interested in the B.S.E. program, and we consider every applicant’s abilities across the academic subjects. Princeton engineering students choose a field of concentration (major) after one year and liberal-arts students after two years. More than 70 percent of our undergraduates are majoring in fields different from those they indicated when they applied."</p>
Last year the overall acceptance rate was about 7.5%, and the acceptance rate for the unhooked was around 5%. I expect that most Princeton applicants are qualified, so individual odds of 5-10% for any unhooked qualified applicant seems about right.</p>
<p>OK. I understand where you are coming from.</p>
<p>My approach is different, though. I have anecdotal reason to believe that in the first reading by Admissions, about 50% of applicants are eliminated…at all the Ivies, Stanford, MIT, others of this ilk. (Welcome other opinions about the veracity of this). Then there is more careful vetting of the remaining 50% or so. I would call the eliminated candidates in the initial round “unqualified”…even though they are surely very talented persons.</p>
<p>So, if an Ivy’s overall admissions rate is X, and someone is considered qualified for that Ivy, I would automatically double the theoretical admissions rate to 2X. </p>
<p>In the case of the OP, if that person is qualified, and the operative overall rate we are working with is 5-10%, I would say the chances are 10-20%</p>
<p>I’m not saying that your commonapp essay’s bad, but that’s not really important to your acceptance/deferral/rejection as is your Princeton supplement essay. The commonapp essay was really easy to write and required minimal reflection, while the one from Princeton required much contemplation, etc.</p>
<p>My supplement was great, too. My AP Lit teacher read it because it was about the teacher who was writing my recs. She loved it and she said that the material I was talking about and the way I was approaching it was perfect. She liked it so much that she actually asked me to leave her a copy because she wanted to keep a copy with her. Just, my Common App essay was better.</p>
<p>Why worry about something you can’t control? Will chatting with others who can only offer guesses really help you or enable your worrying? </p>
<p>I think the latter. Log off of CC until you get your SCEA decision – instead, do something you enjoy. That’s the best thing for you. This can’t be enjoyable.</p>