This Girl Dreams of Harvard...Does she have a shot?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Ok, so, please read all of this otherwise you will just be confused. I am the good friend (incoming college freshman) of a rising high school senior. We both attended a small, parochial school that sends a few grads to Ivies each year, but most are recruited athletes (about 5/7 or so per year). So this girl's stats are VERY good, but I promise this isn't a trolling thing. She wants to know if her ECs are terrible or what.</p>

<p>Personal</p>

<p>Race: Indian
Gender: Female
Interesting Fact: She skipped eighth grade.
School: Parochial, with about 250 per grade.
State: MA</p>

<p>Academics</p>

<p>Rank: 1/250 (however colleges will only see top 10%)
GPA UW: 4.0
GPA W: N/A
Courseload: The absolute hardest possible, including extra classes in music. She will have taken 6 APs by graduation, which defies my school's "AP Limit" or 2 APs junior year and 3 senior year (she was given an exception for senior year to take 4). </p>

<p>Test Scores</p>

<p>SAT: (taken in March): 2400
SAT IIs:
Math II: 800
Biology: 800
Literature: 780
French: Taking in October</p>

<p>Extracurriculars</p>

<p>-Member of all the school's honor societies, and president of the school's Science Honor Society.
-Captain of Academic Decathlon Team (9-12)
-Captain of Math Team (9-12)
-Won School science fair in both Freshman and Sophomore year; she eventually went to some National event in California.
-Member of Band (9-12)
-Member of School's Cross Country and Winter Track Teams (9-10, 12)
-She is spending this summer doing research in a pretty well-known lab. </p>

<p>Awards</p>

<p>I am not too sure of all of her awards, but she has won basically everything academic in our school.</p>

<p>She got a 230 on the PSATs so she will be a National Merit Semifinalist. </p>

<p>She has won quite a few essay writing competitions. </p>

<p>College List</p>

<p>Harvard
MIT
Boston College
WashU in St. Louis
Johns Hopkins
University of Central Florida
(some more that I am unsure of)</p>

<p>Interesting Note: This girl is not your typical 2400-Asian applicant. She is not looking for Harvard because of its prestige. She HATED Harvard because of its prestige and preppiness and she decided she wanted to go to the University of Central Florida. However, her parents had her visit Harvard, and, upon seeing the library, she fell in love. She thought about "how much learning she could do there". This girl is quirky to say the least, but she isn't aiming for Harvard or MIT because of how prestigious they are. Just thought I'd add that.</p>

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<p>ECs are, as you imagined, not too good; they tarnish an otherwise perfect application. You’re in to all of the schools you listed aside from MIT and Harvard. Nonetheless, nothing is out of the realm of possibilities. I’d say that you have a good shot at both Harvard and MIT.</p>

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<p>“Won School science fair in both Freshman and Sophomore year; she eventually went to some National event in California.”
ISEF was in California this year; are you talking about that?</p>

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<p>ummmm i really have no idea what it was she went to in California…I just know it was a pretty big deal (nothing huge though).</p>

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<p>Harvard looks for people that are going to make a large impact on this world in some way shape or form…whether that be in business, the classroom, politics, or in the medical field…in her essay she has to prove she has good leadership and communication skills and that she is more than just a study freak, but actually an extremely bright kid that hasn’t been hiding in a cave for four years, but rather has already begun to make the difference that they expect their grads to make</p>

<p>if she does that she has an AWESOME shot, if not i still wouldn’t rule her out</p>

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<p>I’m pretty sure her stats make the cut, so at this point she just needs to have the recommendations, essays, etc. (which cannot be discounted one bit)</p>

<p>And by the way, Harvard specifically asks for rank on their application, so they won’t only see top 10%. I’m curious too … there are a lot of amazing libraries at a lot of amazing colleges, Harvard isn’t the only one :P</p>

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<p>Columbia is one heck of a library!! I had access to it for 3 weeks last summer and it was unbelievable…</p>

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<p>This post is the equivalent of “So I have this friend that wants to know…”</p>

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<p>Haha no this really is a friend. If you look at my past posts I am an already graduated senior going to Boston College in the fall (woot!). </p>

<p>In response to what some people have said, I really think her essays will be the determining factor. She studies a lot, but it isn’t a matter of getting good grades…she described it as whenever she studies a subject she has to completely throw herself into it until she understands it completely. It kind of becomes her world and she thinks of everything in terms of that realm of thinking. I can’t claim to fully understand what she meant, but I get the gist. For example, she reads biochem books during the summer because she just loves science so much. </p>

<p>Also, her lack of leadership positions is not due to lack of effort. She is very involved, however my school can be really competitive at the top. All the top students are the most involved students as well (which I’m sure is true of most colleges), but when elections come around for leadership positions most kids don’t vote for students like this girl because they fear they’ll make these all star students look even better…thus diminishing their own chances. It’s a pretty competitive atmosphere and, although this girl has plenty of friends, her grades and scores are public knowledge (because of teachers, not her).</p>

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<p>and @YeloPen, Harvard might ask for specific rank but my school does not disclose specific rank. They have a ranking system only to be able to determine the top 10%, top 20%, etc. They have a decile system, so they just tell colleges which decile a student is in. So this girl is, obviously, in the first decile. HOWEVER, they tell colleges the average GPA (weighted and unweighted) of students in the school, and they will be able to see how much higher she is. </p>

<p>Just a bit more information, she has a 4.0 GPA but my school technically does a gpa out of 100. Her unweighted GPA out of 100 is a 98.2. The next highest in the class is a 94.</p>

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<p>I could take one guess about who this girl is, and what school she goes to and I’d be absolutely correct…</p>