Tell me what you think!!! Thanks!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I was just looking for your thoughts on my chances at these universities:
Dreams: UPenn (Wharton), MIT, HYP for Economics, Villanova, Vanderbilt, UChicago, UMich (Ann Harbor), Cornell (Dyson), University of Virginia (McIntire), University of Indiana (Kelley School of Business), Carnegie Mellon University
(I’m not applying to all of them, although just wanted to see where you think I would get in + I have safeties in mind)

Objective:
SAT I: 1550
ACT: 35
SAT II: Math 2 800, Literature 740, Physics 800
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8, Top 5% <-- (12/270), Not really a competitive school except Top 30
Freshman Year: 3.7, Sophomore Year: 3.71, Junior Year: 4.0 (I really wasn’t thinking about colleges Freshman/Sophomore years)
AP Classes+Test: AP Calculus BC (5), AP Macroeconomics (5), AP Microeconomics (5), APUSH (5)
Two other self-studied tests (5/4, Psych/APWH)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Stat, AP Computer Science, AP Government and Politics, AP Physics, AP English Literature, AP Italian (All A’s first marking period)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): FBLA 3x Top 10 Nationals (Speaking/ Service Events) , DECA 3x Top 10 Internationals (Finance Events), National Merit Semi-Finalist

ECs:
-Varsity Cross Country Captain (trained full year+ ran 2 marathons), Blogger, CEO- Started a business with friends ($30k revenue), Started a nonprofit (teaches finance to kids/young adults, sponsored by 2 big companies), online instructor (5k+ students), Sales Associate for past 3 summers (last summer was 40 hours per 10 weeks)
-President of Red Cross+FBLA
-Co-President of this other club (over 1.5k hours collectively)
-Vice-President of DECA

Essays (rating 1-10, details): Idk, I wouldn’t call myself an amazing writer, but just good enough to get by
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher 1: Known her for 4 years (9to10)
Teacher 2: Had her for 2 years + Club Advisor (8to9)
Counselor Rec: He knows who I am!, although he uses a template for recs (7to8)

Other:
Had to take 3 non-conventional classes (2 Honors, 1 Regular half year) to fulfill certain school requirements, and this other regular class because my schedule was messed up; other than that, all possible APs/Honors were taken

Major: Finance/ Economics
Demographics: Asian Male
Possible Hooks: Immigrated to the U.S. from India when I was 6
(I’m super lucky to have come here/ Apparently was living in poverty in India although I wasn’t old enough to remember)
Income Bracket: <100,000 (only this high because my parents work 24/7)
(Typically, I see my mom only on Sundays and my dad for an hour everyday if I’m not staying after-school (ever since 1st grade), my grandparents live with us)

Career goals: Just looking to enjoy whatever I do or be financially stable, I was looking towards being an Investment Banker and/or a Business Owner

2

Edit:
When I said: 1.5k hours collectively, I meant club members’ hours not mine personally xD

3

Wow, there were a ton of chance me threads this weekend. Bump!

4

Hey helpabro,

I attend Indiana University and I’m in the Business Honors Program. I have a good amount of knowledge of the investment banking industry. If that’s your goal, definitely apply to UPenn, UChicago, UMich, Cornell, U of Virginia, and Kelley. All have great programs and place a lot of alums in New York.

Kelley has a program for investment banking where they place about 80-120 students a year in ib – and has ~95% junior year internship placement rate for ib. (Side note: bankers work 90-110 hours a week even with Saturday’s off, are you sure you want to do that?)

As for your scores and whatnot, I’ll be honest its kind of a crap shoot – be unique in your essays, have a good backup school. You have good test scores, but for the elite schools it requires some luck.

Good luck with your search!

5

Hey @darknight19 , thanks for the reply!

As for investment banking, I’ve heard it’s a lot of work time and unpredictable in terms of keeping the job. But to be honest, every other career option seems really dreadful to me.

  • with the hours, I’ve worked over 70 hours (breaking child labor laws xD) during some weeks in the summer. I might be able to handle 90-110 hours (who knows?). Are you aiming for investment banking?

Yea, you’re right about it being a crap-shot; some of really accomplished kids on College Confidential seem to be rejected by their dream schools.

Do you think I could ask you direct questions over Google Hangouts?

6

Michigan is Ann Arbor not Ann Harbor