<p>I'm planning on trying to break into banking, and Stern is probably my best bet. I realize every forum gets bombarded with these, but a brief response would be awesome.</p>
<p>Asian Male
10-12 GPA Weighted: 4.54, Unweighted: 3.63
SAT: 2290 (800 Math; 780 Reading; 710 Writing)
SAT II: Math II: 800, Chemistry: 780, US History: 760
AP tests: Comp Sci A, European History, Calculus AB, US History, Chemistry, English Language and Composition- all 5s</p>
<p>Current Courses
AP Latin 4 Vergil
IB History of Americas
AP Macro
AP Calculus BC
AP Biology
AP English Literature</p>
<p>EC - Speech and Debate Board Member
National Merit Semifinalist
Don't even know whether or not this counts, but I also taught myself German. Might take the SAT II in November to have something to show for it.</p>
<p>Great weighted GPA but a slightly low unweighted GPA. And your lack of ECs will definitely hurt you. I know someone with similar stats but a much higher GPA but he didn’t get in and I think that it was due to a lack of ECs. I think your chances and OK.</p>
<p><strong><em>are OK</em></strong></p>
<p>Wow, that’s actually kind of depressing. After seeing some of the other chances, I thought I’d at least have a decent shot. But I really appreciate your frankness and the example you gave.</p>
<p>I have a few more ECs lined up for my senior year. Would those be useful, or would it look like I’m just trying to stuff them in before college apps?</p>
<p>You don’t need stellar ECs and even great essays with those stats. IMO you should quit worrying about Stern and try to get into Ivies as that will be a lot more helpful to “breaking into banking.”</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies in both threads!</p>
<p>And to be honest I’ve totally given up on Ivies. Only about 2-5 people are accepted to each one at my school and even fewer go because the people who are accepted tend to be the same ones for all the Ivies. That and my stats are straight mediocre at my school, I would never make it.</p>
<p>I honestly wouldn’t go off what lullina is saying… Ivies are schools that not only want stellar scores, but stellar ECs as well. You have a chance at Stern and adding ECs senior year definitely won’t hurt but all I’m saying is that there are people with more ECs than you who get rejected. To be blunt, there aren’t any real leadership ECs, no real indication as to why business, and nothing to show that you’re truly well rounded. I’m sorry if this is harsh but it’s mainly directed at lullina because he/she is not being realistic here.</p>
<p>I’m just saying I got in with similar stats with not very great ECs/essays. I think I did have more leadership ECs than OP but I started some of them my senior year and OP can probably dig out more than one EC if he tries hard. Seriously I don’t think very many star students are that uninvolved in school.</p>
<p>To be honest, when I was typing out my OP I left out a lot of ECs because I was about to go to sleep and I don’t really have them off the top of my head like I do my test scores and my classes. If you add this to what I already put, here’s the full list.</p>
<ul>
<li>Principal’s Advisory Board (Basically a group that meets with the principal every other week to help plan events and bring up school issues. I also headed a committee to prepare our school’s talent show for the board.) (Junior and Senior Year)</li>
<li>Beginner’s German Tutor (Sophomore Year)</li>
<li>Muscular Dystrophy Association Board Member (Senior year)</li>
<li>Best Buddies Member (Junior and Senior Year)</li>
<li>200 hours of volunteer work at GCCI (church)</li>
<li>Summer Internship at USC (Junior-Senior summer, also just about everyone at has to do a summer internship, so this doesn’t help me stand out among my peers) </li>
</ul>
<p>As for the why business, I started managing my mom’s portfolio about a year and a half ago thinking that it was easy money. Even though I made some pretty decent net gains, it didn’t take me long to realize I was totally in over my head. So I started self-studying a lot of things about finance to give me a better understand of what I was doing. I read a few textbooks, popular books about finance, and did a few free online courses like Yale’s open courses. I obviously don’t know much in the whole scheme of things, but I’m a lot more knowledgeable than the average parent buying and selling a few stocks randomly. Also, I took ECON201 (Intro to Micro) at Cal State Fullerton this past summer, which should hopefully show some of my interest and initiative in Econ/Business. My problem with this is that it’s technically illegal for minors to trade securities, so I don’t even know if I could put this anecdote on my app.</p>
<p>Will these really change my chances significantly, or are these fairly minor boosts to my app?</p>
<p>Ivy seems attainable with those stats. Sadly, stats aren’t the only thing, and your ECs are lacking a bit. Don’t give up on Ivies, just don’t put your money on it. I don’t know how much harder it is to get into Stern than CAS, but you shouldn’t be worried.</p>