Quell my anxiety please....HARVARD! and some others

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>hi, id apreciate some feedback...</p>

<p>California native, go to competitive private school
Applied to many colleges, but im only interested in my chances for Harvard, Stanford and Yale</p>

<p>Rank - 7/200</p>

<p>Cumulative Weighted GPA (9-12) : 4.6
Cumulative Unweighted GPA (9-12) : 3.6</p>

<p>Cumulative Weighted GPA (10-12) : 4.9
Cumulative Unweighted GPA (10-12) : 3.9</p>

<p>SAT I : 2400 =D (virtually studied for days at a time, only taking break for food!)
SAT II : Chemistry - 800 , Math IIC - 790 , US History - 700 Bio - 700</p>

<p>AP's:</p>

<p>AP European History: 5
AP Chemistry: 5
AP Calculus: 4
AP US History: 4
AP Phsycology: 5
AP Lit: 5
AP Macroeconomics: 4</p>

<p>Essays - Jaw dropping status -__-
Recs - May not be that good, my teachers and counselors are not too fond of me...haha</p>

<p>National Merit Scholar
Honor Roll....
Honor Society
AP Scholar
United States Achievement Academy, National Awards
Nomiated to attend Leadership Conference on Medicine (supposedly very prestigous, only 200 in America or something were nominated)
Won award for communitry service, over 500hrs
Published 3 articles but in a relatively unknown magazine =///
Published poet as well</p>

<p>Academic Decathlon - A part of for 3 years:
Math - 1 gold medal, 1 silver medal
Social Science - 3 gold
Science - 2 gold, 1 silver
Speech - 1 bronze..
Economics - 1 bronze
Essay - 2 gold
Art - 3 gold
Interview - 1 silver</p>

<p>Clubs:
Young Democrats - Founder/ President ,2 yrs
Debate Team - Vice President, 3 yrs
Unicef - Treasurer, 2 yrs
Red Cross - Member
Science Club - Vice President, 1 yr</p>

<p>Note: In my essays i focused on my freshmen year in high school. It was a pretty tough year for me. I experimented with drugs, etc... and got into some trouble in my school. My grades were pretty weak compared to my sophmore, junior, and senior grades. Many people thought i should not mention this in my essays, but i thought i would take a unique turn and hopefully it will actually benefit me. Im sure Harvard does not get alot of essays by "ex drug junkies"...In my essays i talked about my experiences and how i reformed and worked my ass off the last three years in an attempt to salvage any hope to get into an ivy..</p>

<p>What do you guys think...? Im quite nervous.</p>

<p>As i said before, im only interested in hearing my chances for Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton.</p>

2

<p>Seriously? 2400 on the SATs. Woof! Well, I'm impressed. Anyway, with your stats and ECs, I'd say you have a very, very strong chance - I would guess about 50% (as opposed to the usual 10 to 15%). But remember, H, Y and S reject kids with scores like yours all the time. Hardly anybody is a shoe in at any of those schools. My guess is you'll get into at least one, but make sure you've chosen your backups well. You may end up at one.</p>

3

<p>Good job on turning your life around! Elite schools are very hard to predict - and having a rough freshman year makes it more so. I think you are a valid candidate - but I haven't a clue what your results will be. Applying to multiple schools is a good thing - do you also have less insanely competitive institutions?</p>

4

<p>Yeah ive got many safeties - UCB, UCLA, UCI, UCR etc..</p>

<p>i should without a doubt get into all of these schools, considering i live in california and all.</p>

5

<p>I think you will get waitlisted at H/P, slightly better shot at Stanford. Your ECs are pretty weak so its a toss-up, I'd say a 30-40% chance at getting into one of them.</p>

<p>I hope you applied to the next rung down (duke, penn, columbia, dartmouth, amherst, etc). You will get into 70% of these schools.</p>

6

<p>nice scores, weak ec's. coupled with bad recs (according to u) can really keep you out of HYPS status schools</p>

7

<p>Don't worry about it . . . though don't bet on Harvard too much.</p>

8

<p>any tips to improve my ec?</p>

9

<p>SWEET and ex-druggie with a 2400...there is hope for me yet :)
You have very good chances I'd say...I know one kid at my skool with similar academic stats (good GPA, 2400, SAT2/AP scores, etc) who got deferred from Harvard. But he wasn't president of Young Democrats and VP of the Debate team. That's good. If I were you I'd worry about explaining druggie-ness to PTon but otherwise your chances are pretty sweet.</p>

<p>sidenote...
"Nomiated to attend Leadership Conference on Medicine (supposedly very prestigous, only 200 in America or something were nominated)"
Hehe, sorry to disappoint ya dude...That's not really prestigious. Surprised you're including that, you've got much more spectacular awards than an NYLF invite. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

10

<p>Nice AP and SAT scores...I'd have to say the only downside of your application is not being valedictorian (which you explain in your essays). I think if your essays speak to the adcoms you will get into all three.</p>

<p>plus the fact that you use a word like "quell" in your post title is impressive. Just remember: Even with that 2400, HYPS are reaches. May the force be with you.</p>

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<p>i think that u definately have a good chance of getting in... but one little thing, at the top u said that u were only interested of getting into Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, but at the end u were only interestied of getting into Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton.... anyways, you are a strong canidate, I like the twist of ur essay. I think that you will definately stand out and should get in!</p>

12

<p>The drug use hurts you. Colleges know that many applicants have used drugs, but they don't want someone with a "drug problem"... they sometimes don't like anorexic candidates because they might have personal problems and drop out...</p>

13

<p>Yeah, that's kinda risky. They might be okay with it and see that you've changed your ways and whatnot, but they might also think it's bad that you've ever done drugs. </p>

<p>I've known people with much better stats rejected from HYPS, but I've also known people with worse stats accepted, so it's pretty toss-upish. This isn't intended to be floccinaucinihilipilification of your chances, etc.</p>

<p>Bah, I'm obsessed with that word.</p>

14

<p>well, stanford, in my opinion compared to all those schools, weighs essays the heaviest. your 2400 wont put you over the top at stanford, because that doesn't mean anything special to them. people with 2100's and three SAT subjects that are sub-700 have gotten in, just because they had an amazing essay, and their EC's were sub-par as well. if you applied to stanford, which long essay did you do, the picture one or the one about what someone said to you? haha, now it'd be a MAJOR twist to do the picture one, using a bag of dope as your picture. that would merit a definite rejection. haha</p>

<p>actually, i'm kinda interested in reading your essay. if you dont mind, just pm me, that'd be kinda cool.</p>

<p>i'm from CA applying to schools that are similar, what part are you from?</p>

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<p>It's a good thing you remembered to eat. =D Nice stats.</p>

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<p>Your stats are great. You have the same chance of acceptance as the others applying to Harvard, Princeton and Stanford...10-15% chance of acceptance. 85-90% chance of rejection. Those schools have many many well qualified candidates like you that get denied acceptance every year. BUT good luck...you could be in the 10-15% group!!!</p>

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<p>I think that the drug use essay and bad recommendations will hurt you for HPS. Character is very important to places like HPS, which get many applications from students who qualify for admission and also get many applications from students with sky high test scores. They may not wish to take a risk on an applicant who has had major problems with drugs and who may have difficulties getting along with teachers.</p>

<p>Your emphasis in how your turned your life around to "get to an Ivy," also will may hurt you, I fear, because places like HYS are not interested in students who do things to go to HPS, but out of genuine interest and passion.</p>

<p>If you started the Democrat club out of interest, that would have been a better focus for your essay particularly if the club does real activities, and isn't just resume dressing.</p>