Second round of chances...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I find my app confusing.... let me know...</p>

<p>I posted a Chances thread about six months ago, but much has changed since then, so, here goes.</p>

<p>Harvard's among my top choices:</p>

<p>Numbers: </p>

<p>Freshman: 3.77, 3.80
Sophomore: 4.23, 4.16
Junior: 4.13, 4.54
Cumulative: 4.11</p>

<p>Biology (2006): “4”
Calculus AB (2007): “4”
Comparative Government (2007): “5” - self-study
English Language & Composition (2007): “5”
European History (2006): “4”
Human Geography (2006): “5”
Physics B (2007): “4”
United States History (2007): “5”
To be taken in 2008: Calculus BC, Chemistry, English Language & Literature, French Language</p>

<p>CR: 760, M: 710, W: 750. Going to retake. My SAT IIs so far are Physics 700 and US History 790. Going to take a few more of them.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
- Harvard Summer School: 2006 and 2007
- Mock Trial
- Model UN (elected to committee chairmanship this year)
- Choral group, madrigal group
- Spring musical, fall drama (major roles), student assistant to the director
- National Honor Society
- Academic Challenge (similar to Academic Decathalon)
- Yearbook Editor-in-Chief
- Employed by the school for two years in computer department
- Vice President of Chorus
- Student Council Secretary</p>

<p>Awards:
- National Merit Commended Student
- AP National Scholar
- Subject awards in Geography and French
- National French Contest regional/national winner for two years
- Asked to serve as delegate to Conference on National Affairs</p>

<p>Essays: I like the ones I've written; deal with personal development. My supplemental which I'll be sending to most schools details how I've written my own language based on most of the European ones.</p>

<p>Recommendations: Should be excellent. I also have one from a Harvard professor that's going to all my schools.</p>

<p>I go to a private school just outside Philadelphia.</p>

<p>Applying to: Harvard, MIT (EA), Tufts, Brandeis, Northeastern (EA), Clark, Emerson (EA)</p>

2

<p>your grades, score and ranks are strong, but there really is nothing that distinguishes you based on your ecs (which are fairly weak) and awards</p>

<p>id say harvard is a high reach, MIT reach, tufts high match, brandeis, northeastern, clark and emerson matches/safeties maybe?</p>

<p>make sure yur recs and essay are killer</p>

3

<p>I think the above poster got it right except I'd say Tufts is a low reach. </p>

<p>Have you never done any community service?</p>

4

<p>Why do people like you have to apply to Emerson EA? Bahhh. It's my first choice and if you're my competition there's no way I'll get in.</p>

5

<p>I don't think you have a realistic chance at MIT without any major awards in science/math and because your scores in those fields are rather weak in comparison to what many other applicants have (mostly 800's and 5's). You could try applying to some other Ivy league schools as your grades are fairly strong. good luck!</p>

6

<p>I do have some community service... I was a member of my school's community service group as well as SADD chapter until the end of 10th grade.</p>

<p>To tell you the truth, I'm a) more or less insistent on Boston and b) applying to MIT mainly because I think I fit their manner of thinking... I wrote my own language, and I did do that in a fairly analytical manner. Granted, I'm not sure the nice folks in Cambridge will see it my way when they read my app... but I'm going to do my best. I'm applying also because I LOVE their Urban Studies program.</p>

7

<p>You'd need more community service to be a really interesting applicant to Tufts. And I agree that more math/sci accomplishments would be necessary to make MIT more likely for you.</p>

<p>That being said, you should def apply anyway... You never know!</p>

8

<p>Admissions is like a roll of the die these days. Knock 'em off with an essay, and you never know...</p>

9

<p>Is that unweighted or weighted?
Also, is your GPA out of 4, where a 4 is an A?</p>

<p>Do you go to an elite private school?
Class size and rank?</p>

10

<p>Geffe: That's weighted, however, we don't weight a lot at all... I don't know what my unweighted is... the school doesn't calculate it. 4 is an A or an A+</p>

<p>There are 49 in my class, but my school shares no type of rank whatsoever (no deciles, quintiles, etc.) I would hazard a guess that I'm in the top 10%. </p>

<p>I'm not sure if my school's elite. We send one a year to the Ivies on average, although that number is going up. Often, one individual will be accepted to three or four highly selective schools. However, we are a prep school (at least in name), and our curriculum is unquestionably rigorous. We see a lot of burnout, I'd say, but our college guidance program is picking up. (Class sizes since the class of '05: 54, 45, 39, 49)</p>

11

<p>mayiplzgovertigo has it just about right...Harvard and MIT are not totally out of your ballpark but would be a stretch--you'd need a lucky break of some kind. All the others are reasonable selections with very good chances.</p>

12

<p>PS. The way in which grades are weighted is in the following manner: rather than counting an A as a 5, B as a 4, etc., is to simply multiply the grade by 0.04 and add that to the unweighted GPA. Ie, if an unweighted GPA was 3.90, and a student got an A or A+ in an AP class, that sudent's GPA would be increased by 0.16 (4*.04) to 4.06, and so on for every other AP.</p>