Princeton, Stanford, UCh, NU, etc chances, plus give advice!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Chances for:</p>

<p>Princeton, Stanford, U Chicago, Northwestern, MIT, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Cornell, JHU, USC, UVa, UC Berkeley for engineering, CS, math, or physics.</p>

<p>1) What are chances?</p>

<p>2) For the reach schools: what are your opinions on the following activities
(to add to music - sports - scouts EC's)
for improving chances? So many worthwhile activities, so little time!
a) finishing Eagle Scout,
b) retaking SAT I and going for 800's in math and writing,
c) doing research,
d) doing research and submitting an Intel/Westinghouse paper
e) finding more leadership activities,
f) getting school to offer Science Olympiad tests
g) enjoying playing trumpet, chilling with friends, and leave it to chance,
h) going to HS a fourth year and beefing up resume (least favorite).</p>

<p>(for each reach school, what activities a-h would most help?)</p>

<p>Stats:
Jan 2007 SAT I 2330 (by section): CR 800, M 780, W 750
May 2006 SAT I 2250 (by section): CR 800, M 760, W 690
SAT IIs: Physics 800, Math 2 800
APs: AB Calc (5) (self-study) Taking this May: US Government,
Physics B, Physics C Mech, Physics C E&M (self-studying on physics)
GPA, W/UW 3.91/3.94 (includes 2 B+'s from grade 8)
Class Rank, school doesn't rank, hopefully top 10%</p>

<p>Courses:
Math - 7th Algebra, A; 8th Geometry, B+; Alg II, tested out;
9th PreCalc(IBMathI), A;CalcAB(self-study) 5 on exam;
10th State U Calc2, A; 10th State U Multivar Calc, A
Science - 7th EPGY C Programming, A+; 9th Biology, A; 10th IBChemistry, A;
AP Physics B (self-study), AP Physics C Mech and E&M (self-study)
English - 9th Eng 9,A: Eng 10, A;10th IB English, B; State U Philosophy and Lit A
Social Sciences - 9th World History 2, A; 10th AP US Government, A
Latin - 8th Latin 1, B+; 9th Latin 2, A; 10th Latin 3 A
......and P.E. and Band</p>

<p>Proposed senior schedule:</p>

<p>Summer school online - World History 1 (required for graduation)</p>

<p>IB Theory of Knowledge
AP English
IB History of the Americas
State U Differential Equations, Linear Alg and maybe another course in spring
State U University Physics III, and another course in spring</p>

<p>EC's:
Music - trumpet: band, marching band, jazz band, pit orchestra, trumpet quartet; the usual awards at music competitions, no state-level individual awards
Boy Scouts - Life Scout, lots of volunteer hours, patrol leader, other leadership, BSA National Leadership Camp, almost to Eagle
Sports - Track team, recreational sports
NHS, occasional Classics Club attendance
Job/Work Experience: volunteer camp counselor</p>

<p>Awards:
National Merit Finalist, probably (PSAT 238)
1st Place regional science fair in Engineering, nothing at state, though
2006 AMC 101.5, AIME 1
2007 AMC 97.5, AIME 3
2006 National Latin Exam gold award
School awards: school science fair x2, academic letter, band letter</p>

<p>Location/Person:
State or Country: Virginia
School Type, Public, relatively competitive; Large, about 700/grade
Ethnicity: White
Income Bracket: won't get aid
Gender: Male
Hooks: USC legacy, MIT legacy, 5 university classes by application time
Graduating in 3 years. Is this a strength or a weakness?</p>

2

<p>I have to tell you, you have strong GRADES and SAT's but your EC's are kind of weak. Try to work on the EC's.</p>

<p>2) For the reach schools: what are your opinions on the following activities
(to add to music - sports - scouts EC's) DO IT
for improving chances? So many worthwhile activities, so little time!
a) finishing Eagle Scout,DO IT
b) retaking SAT I and going for 800's in math and writing,DON't DO IT
c) doing research,DO IT
d) doing research and submitting an Intel/Westinghouse paper*DO IT*
e) finding more leadership activities,DO IT
f) getting school to offer Science Olympiad tests*DON'T DO IT*
g) enjoying playing trumpet, chilling with friends, and leave it to chance,DO IT
h) going to HS a fourth year and beefing up resume (least favorite).DON'T DO IT</p>

<p>Princeton: SLIGHT REACH
Stanford: SLIGHT REACH
U Chicago: MATCH
Northwestern: MATCH
MIT: SLIGHT REACH
Caltech: SLIGHT REACH
Harvey Mudd: MATCH
Cornell: MATCH
USC: SAFETY
UVa: SAFETY
UC Berkeley: MATCH</p>

3

<p>i agree, except i would put princeton and stanford as reaches, considering your lack of any true e.c. i'll even go as far and say Cal-tech is a match.</p>

4

<p>Why is music not an e.c.? Marching band, jazz band, and pit orchestra
are all after school (and are time consuming, more so than running track).
The trumpet quartet has done a bunch of competitions
and performed at church, too. Oh, also I forgot the music tour to Europe this
summer. It's just not at all-state level, y'know?</p>

<p>Plus the research for the science fair was at an outside lab.</p>

<p>Maybe you mean no real leadership. That's a definite weakness.
Was hoping the scouts leadership might serve there. It's actually
a really active troop with >100 members, that goes on lots of
trips - Grand Canyon, sailing in the Bahamas, camping in Hawaii,
California, etc. So it's not just dorky Boy Scouts - it's a lot cooler than that.</p>

5

<p>I don't think graduating early is a strength, but more likely to be a weakness.</p>

<p>Doing research and submitting papers are very worth your time.</p>

6

<p>music is an extracurricular, but to make it a noteworthy extracurricular, you need to do well in or at least show passion, and even if you are passionate about it, the sad truth is colleges won't be able to see that unless you win or hold significant leadership spots. Research will definitely help you, but it will probably have the most impact for Cal Tech and MIT. I'm not saying you're a weak candidate; I just think that you're in a better position for the "hardcore academic" schools, such as MIT and Cal Tech.</p>

7

<p>d) doing research and submitting an Intel/Westinghouse paper - by far!</p>

<p>Retaking 2330 SAT is just rediculous.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=328979&page=3%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=328979&page=3&lt;/a>
(read posts 35-37)</p>

<p>Princeton: REACH
Stanford:REACH
U Chicago: MATCH
Northwestern: MATCH
MIT: REACH
Caltech: REACH
Harvey Mudd: MATCH
Cornell: MATCH
USC: SAFETY
UVa: SAFETY
UC Berkeley: MATCH</p>

8

<p>you are a very competitive applicant man</p>

9

<p>Graduating early would not help at all. Obviously, you're a strong applicant (or your son is).</p>

<p>Is school really that bad? Doesn't he have a lot of friends there? Furthermore, is it really not so challenging that he'd skip all the classes offered?</p>

<p>I can't imagine a school that would let a kid take freshman and sophomore level English in the same year, like you've done.</p>

<p>Has he fulfilled the general/recommended requirements? i.e., four years of everything? I don't know if only two years of latin (in high school, I don't believe 8th grade counts, even as a high school level course) would work. Particularly for Princeton, I talked to an admissions officer who emphasized that four years of language was worth a lot.</p>

<p>Either way, strong applicant though. But if you're speaking for him as a person, and deciding what he wants to do, does he want to do all of that? Is he alright as a person, or are you pushing him to skip as much as possible? He won't be missing out on anything if he goes one more year. Enjoy life?</p>

10

<p>I've tried to tell him that he'll have a better chance for the reach schools by waiting another year. He says his goal is to learn what he wants to learn, and there's a much bigger difference between his high school and say, Berkeley, than there is between Berkeley and MIT.</p>

<p>Yes he has lots of high school friends, and the only thing he doesn't like about life right now is the high school classes. He thinks he'll enjoy life even more at college where his peers and teachers will be more uniformly talented and stimulating.</p>

<p>For example, how important is another year of language right now, when at college he can learn it at twice the pace? Right now he is dual enrolled, and the difference in pace between the high school and university classes makes him want to go to a good university all the more.</p>

<p>And yes he will have fulfilled all the requirements.</p>

11

<p>"Right now he is dual enrolled, and the difference in pace between the high school and university classes makes him want to go to a good university all the more."</p>

<p>This is the case with my daughter as well. Makes it hard to argue...</p>

12

<p>I honestly did not have that many interesting extracurriculars while applying to college (I was prepping for the science olympiad team, and I also was very involved in environmental projects but other than that, nada) and I still managed to get into a top-tier school... I'd just tell your son to have fun and to do whatever makes him happy... I've noticed that people in the US put so much emphasis on trying to be the perfect college applicant, and there really is not such person. Where I come from, most outstanding students work hard at school and have extracurriculars they consider fun and that they actually like doing, but they have a very active social life... SO my best advice would be to take the most interesting classes he can take and to enjoy his senior year.
By the way, his SAT scores are super good (I WISH mines were like that a couple of months ago!) so he shouldn't waste his time and money to retake it. Anything above 2000 is amazing.
Oh, and having a legacy at MIT won't do much for him, they don't even ask about legacies on their app.</p>

13

<p>He can learn what he wants to learn in a library, and meanwhile mature more for fitting in at a top Ivy League college. </p>

<p>See </p>

<p><a href="http://learninfreedom.org/Nobel_hates_school.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://learninfreedom.org/Nobel_hates_school.html&lt;/a> </p>

<p>for some examples.</p>