Realistic for me to look at top schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys. The end of Junior year is coming, I've visited a bunch of schools, fallen in love with a few, but now I'm wondering if I really have a chance at them. I'd love to go to HYP, or something like Brown, WashU, JHU, etc, so that's the level I'm wondering about. </p>

<p>A couple things right off the bat that might put me into some more perspective:
- I'm 15 (will be 16 when applying) because I skipped 7th grade; as a result I feel like I had some trouble fitting in from 8-10th grade or so (might write an essay about that)
- I was born in a small, relatively unknown (to the average person) European country, but moved here with my parents as a young child
- I'm probably a shyer person than most, leading to less involvement in clubs, etc in my first few years of HS, though I feel like some of that may be attributed to me lately living life among kids who are often 2+ years old than I am
- I was raised with a halfway (the family half) different culture, a different language, and parents that were often too busy to provide guidance about life in the US since they were obviously trying to figure it out themselves</p>

<p>I'll use the format of the college acceptance/waitlist/reject threads to list my stats:</p>

<p>Objective:</p>

<p>• SAT I (breakdown): 680CR 800M 800W; 1480/2280 (Just took it again in May, hoping for 700 CR)
• PSAT: 218 (Semi-Finalist likely, I think)
• ACT: Not taking
• SAT II: 760 Math II, 680 Chem (taking Bio, USH, and maybe Math again)
• Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
• School: Small, prestigious private prep
• Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 10%
• AP (place score in parenthesis): None (AP/IB not offered; got rid of it a few years ago in favor of equally challenging and less restrictive "Honors" level ones)
• IB (place score in parenthesis): None
• Senior Year Course Load: Most demanding offered (as has been all 4 years)
• Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None</p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>• Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): [Including Sr. Year, more or less in order of importance to me] School Newspaper (3 yrs + 1 yr Co-Editor in Chief), Robotics (3 yrs + 1 yr Co-Captain), Mock Trial (2 yrs, maybe 1 yr Co-Captain), Tour Guide (2 yrs), DECA (1 yr), Sports (never found a passion there, like 5 different ones over 4 years), Diplomacy Society (3 yrs, 2 yr Co-President; Diplomacy is basically an extravagant form of chess) --- Overall, everything I take part in, I take part in fully and put as much time into as the day allows. I don't join unless I feel like I could make an impact.
• Job/Work Experience: None
• Volunteer/Community service: Hospital Volunteering (~150 hours)
• Summer Activities: Science Research at a university this summer, Tennis (last couple years), travel (to native country & this summer w/ Spanish class to Costa Rica), online courses with JHU's CTY program
• Essays: Should be awesome. I feel like I have a lot to talk about and most people say I'm a great writer
• Teacher Recommendation: Should be very good. All my teachers love me, the only negative coming from my lack of speaking up/participation at times
• Counselor Rec: Should be awesome (he only has about 30 kids, and we have numerous one on one sessions where we talk about everything so he'll know me well enough)
• Additional Rec: Don't know where I'll be getting this from, maybe the summer research lab
• Interview: Probably average, not a strong point</p>

<p>Other</p>

<p>• State (if domestic applicant): PA
• Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Gender: Male
• Income Bracket: Upper (parents came to the US with practically nothing but now, by the time high school rolled around, they'd changed that)
• Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None unless you consider some of the things I mentioned before the stats "hooks"
• Intended Major: Something in the sciences, perhaps CompSci with Pre-Med</p>

<p>Again, my question is, should I feel like I have a chance (i.e. should I bother applying) at the top tier of schools, like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Brown, JHU, UChicago, WashU, etc? If not, what's more realistic?</p>

2

<p>You certainly have a chance at those schools.</p>

<p>But as you mentioned the word “realistic” in the end, it’s important to take that into account as well. If you apply to all of the schools you mentioned, add in some targets and safeties, because realistically those are some pretty tough schools.</p>

3

<p>Your immigrant background will probably make you seem more interesting (without the dreaded “International” applicant status, which puts you at a huge disadvantage), so that helps you a bit.</p>

<p>Your scores are pretty good. A 2300 will definitely help you out. Try getting at least two more high 700s SAT IIs. It would have been nice if you took the AP tests although you didn’t take any official AP classes, but SAT IIs will help you out. </p>

<p>Colleges love the kids who will speak up and participate a lot in class, but I doubt your teachers will talk about your negative points. ECs are pretty good, lots of leadership! Summer activities look good too. Good essays will help you out tons. (I feel like I’ve said “good” about 897403 times…)</p>

<p>HYP is a stretch for everyone, but I think you should try it out. You’ll definitely get into at least a couple of the top schools you apply to. So, to answer your question, yes, it is very realistic for you to be considering the top schools. Best of luck!</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the replies!</p>

<p>Yes, I will certainly be looking into plenty of matches and safeties. For SAT II’s, I’m hoping for about 750 for both Bio and USH if I manage to put in enough time studying. I decided not to take AP’s since AP covers a larger range of material than we do (our school goes for depth rather than range), and I would have had to study a ton just to have a chance at putting a few 5’s on my app; didn’t think it would be worth it especially after I heard that AP scores aren’t really a significant part of the app.</p>

5

<p>Well, you have a chance, but your EC’s aren’t very strong.</p>

<p>If you have never taken AP classes, how can your schedule be “most rigorous”?</p>

6

<p>You have some pretty good chances. Your ECs aren’t amazing though. Keep it up!</p>

7

<p>As I said, my school got rid of the AP program several years ago because, according to them, it was too restrictive, broad, and too much was based on memorization rather than critical thinking, etc (something like that, I forget the specifics). The example my USH teacher likes to give is that we can spend two weeks going over the intricacies of the Civil War rather than a curt 3 day run through of major events. I don’t think this has hurt applicants from our school, plenty get into top schools every year, and very few take AP exams. </p>

<p>But yeah, the main reason I don’t feel that confident despite the results of past years is my relatively weak EC’s. A couple years ago they were downright pathetic (note the 2-3 years on all of them, none for 4…). Were you guys saying that they weren’t strong because of quality or because of quantity?</p>