Rate my chances and I also need some real opinions from undergrads and grads

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone! My top two choices for colleges are Harvard and Yale, but I've also researched schools such as Dartmouth, UPenn, and Columbia (a little bit of Brown, but I'm not too sure about applying). Here are some of my statistics: </p>

<p>SAT I's : 2080, 1350 (excluding the writing section) (took it once and planning on taking it a second time)</p>

<p>SAT II's : English Lit: 670, Biology M: 740, Math IC: 670 (planning to take a couple more)</p>

<p>AP Exams: English Language: 5, and the other three I took in my junior year were fours. AP European (tenth grade) was a 3. (making a total of five and planning to take more my senior year)</p>

<p>GPA: a 4.0</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>President of Italian Club (three year member, president for one, treasurer for one)
Officer of Chapter Activities for DECA (four year member, officer for one)
Science Club P.R. officer (two year member, officer for two)
S.A.D.D. Vice President (two year member, VP for one)
Mock Trial Team Vice President/Attorney (three year member, VP for one)
Editor in Chief of school newspaper (three year member)
National Honors Society (two year member)
Golf Varsity Team (three year member)
Drama production (one year member)
Science and Tech. Enrichment Program (STEP) (two year participant)</p>

<p>Awards/Recognitions:</p>

<p>National Honor Roll
Who's Who Among HS Students
Award of Academic Excellence in Italian Language</p>

<p>Summer Activities/Employment:</p>

<p>DNA Research/Lab program at the Dolan Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor
Golfworks Program (employed at a country club)
Harvard Secondary Program/Summer School (took college course for credit)
(also planning to have an internship for my senior year as well as another job)</p>

<p>---Ok I hope I got ya this far. I don't know what my chances are for those reach schools that I listed in the beginning. I just want to know my chances and what I'm working with here. Also...which undergraduate program is better: Harvard or Yale? I'm torn between the two and I'm planning on applying early action to one or the other. What should I know about them to better put things into perspective? BU and NYU are safeties (I understand that the college admissions process is unpredictable and arbitrary but I'm hoping some opinions can help put things in perspective) PLEASE HELP ME!!!</p>

2

<p>idk about your chances at Harvard and Yale, i had very similar stats with higher sats and didnt even consider either school. I would deff get an internship if i were you, i would deff retake the SATs and I would write realllllly killer essays. other than that i think u just need a lil luck because like you said the process is arbitrary. I think Yale and Harvard and Columbia are, however, a little out of reach at this point. Dartmouth Brown and Cornell might be more in reach, but honestly i think you should look moreso at schools like BC, UVA, Georgetown UNC and NYU.</p>

3

<p>Listen, I'd say you are considering applying early to two very different schools. How did you arrive at this decision. Asking which undergraduate program is better couldn't be a more ambiguous question. If you want to know about what the "undergraduate experience" is like, that is a different story. But you sound like an intelligent person and I'm sure you know that schools have strengths and weaknesses concerning individual areas of study. I also encourage you to look beyond the Ivy League. You seem to be clustering your list: You have to many reaches, I don't think you can honestly say that you are interested in all of those schools other than their prestige because they are so vastly different. Ex: Dartmouth is in the woods, Penn is in URBAN west Philly. BU and NYU are not safeties. You have a shot at both, but a safety is a school that you KNOW you're in. I think it is a little presumtuous to assume acceptance at both these schools seeing as they are both outstanding. A safety school is more like a state public. Anyway, your scores really don't match that of Ivy Applicant, but they aren't bad. Also, I don't see passion in your EC's. You do a lot of great things, but it becomes a laundry list of stuff with no unifying direction. The leadership is good however. Sorry to be so back-and-forth, but I encourage you to explore all options of higher education before you decide that Ivy is the only way.</p>

4

<p>You need to boost the SAT in order to have a serious shot at the Ivies. As is, I'd dump Harvard/ Yale and focus on schools like Northwestern as reaches and move down from there with places like Emory, Georgetown, Middlebury, Tufts, UVA, etc as more realistic reaches.</p>

5

<p>Given your current stats, realistically, you have very little chance of being accepted at Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, UPenn, Columbia, or Brown. Bluntly, you need to lower your sights. Below is a list of very good, but less selective schools at which you'd have a much better chance of winning admission. The ones toward the top of the list are High Match/Reaches. The ones towards the bottom, Low Match/Safeties. It's a long list. I'm sure you'll find more than a few to your liking.</p>

<p>Cornell
Carleton
Vassar
Carnegie Mellon
Tufts
University of Virginia
William and Mary
Washington and Lee
Emory
Vanderbilt
Notre Dame
Georgetown
Bowdoin
Haverford
Macalester
Davidson
Colby
U of C Berkley
Univer. Of Southern CA
U of NC, Chapel Hill
Colgate
Brandeis
Oberlin
Bates
Tulane
Hamilton
Grinnell
Bard
Wake Forest
Kenyon
Connecticut College
Boston College
University of Richmond
Univ. of Rochester
NYU
Lehigh
Case Western
University of Michigan
Trinity
Bucknell
UCLA
Dickinson College
Gettysburg College
Lafeyette
Franklin and Marshall
College of NJ
Sarah Lawrence
Union
Skidmore
U of C San Diego
Syracuse
Penn State</p>

6

<p>joeyj07k:</p>

<p>UCB/UCLA: Slight Reach (out of state)</p>