<p>I'm not really stressed out at all about the college application process because I'm sure I'll end up where I'm meant to, but I'm curious what you guys think.</p>
<p>Sex: Male
Race: White
Citizenship: US and German/EU (born here, applied for the dual German citizenship)</p>
<p>GPA (weighted): 94
GPA (unweighted): 87
SAT (only took once): 2170 740 R 660 M 780 W
SAT IIs (predicted with near 100% accuracy):
French: 800
Spanish: 800
Literature: 800
German: 800 (not a native speaker, I taught myself along with the others)</p>
<p>I'm not going to list my courses here. I took relatively challenging courses, but never tried because I was more interested in self studying things out of class, which meant never studying for tests or doing much homework (although I put in tons of work into other things).</p>
<p>ECs:
Founder and President of a reform movement that is spread across 8 states
Appeared on national and local TV about 15 times
Part of a national advisory board for a different (pretty famous)reform movement - not going to name it here so I can remain confidential
Ranked number 9 in the nation for French (this was last year, and now I've reached native fluency so I'm going to try and re-place)
Won DuPont Challenge honorable mention in 8th grade (if that counts for anything)
Frequently write, make films, etc
3 time PTA reflections state winner for Music
Composed the music for my school drama for two years
Tri-M for two years
Lead a serious band that has been together for 4 years</p>
<p>Recommendations:
I know that at least one of them will say I'm one of the best students they've ever had. Don't know if the others will say the same, but they'll definitely write great recommendations.</p>
<p>Essays will be quite good.</p>
<p>Chance me for:
NYU
Harvard
Brown
Yale
McGill
St. Andrews
U Chicago
USC
UCLA
Imperial College of London
L'Universit</p>
<p>Anyone? I’ll try and chance back if you like.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Harvard and Yale are out of the picture due to your relatively low GPA and SAT (a 2170 isn’t very competitive by top Ivy standards). I do like your ECs, though - you remind me a lot of myself, since I’m certifiably fluent in 5 languages (we overlap in 4 of them, unless there’s more you didn’t list here) and am currently studying Italian and Korean (just mastered reading hangul). I also scored an 800, 800, and 790 on Chinese with Listening, French, and Spanish respectively, and am taking German with Listening in November. I’ll just give you a fair warning - the Lit subject test is largely hit-or-miss. I personally thought it was easy too when I took it, but when my score came back it was a 750. It depends on how much your interpretation matches up with the College Board’s interpretation of the passages (which can be seemingly random sometimes).</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, did you ever try taking the AP tests for the languages?</p>
<p>EDIT: One more note - unfortunately awards earned in middle school don’t count for college applications, so your 8th grade award would not be considered.</p>
<p>Haha I don’t think it’s particularly unfortunate. It’s been my dream to go to NYU for film since I was 8, so that’s really the only one I really care about getting into. If I ever got into Harvard or Yale I’d consider going, but they’re not my dream schools by any stretch of the imagination, so I’d most definitely pick NYU over them. I like Brown, McGill, and St. Andrews as much as NYU though. </p>
<p>And yeah I took the French and German APs and I will take the Spanish AP at the end of this year. I got a 5 on the French AP, but only a 3 on the German AP. But, on my defense, that was only after 2 months of studying German, so if I took it now I’d definitely get a 5.</p>
<p>Two months?! Holy crap. And I thought I was special for getting a 4 on the German AP after 2.5 years of study… 
I think your main focus should be NYU, then, since you have a much better chance at getting in there - the reform movement that you started is impressive and could make for an excellent essay.</p>
<p>Haha well, I think I may have a slight advantage because I used to hear German when I was young. So, even though I never learned a single word, I sort of have a sense for what’s right and what isn’t. I’ve learned most of my German just from listening to music, which I could never have done with French.</p>
<p>I suppose so, except the reform movement is basically against the college admissions process, so I hope the adcoms appreciate that XD. The problem with NYU is also financial. I can’t really afford it unless they give me a big package.</p>
<p>I think the only way to achieve complete fluency is just as you’ve described - that thing about having a sense of what sounds right. Many people try to translate things in their heads way too often when studying foreign languages, and it almost always produces bad results. Grammar is very important, but after a while I think people need to stop using it as a crutch and instead focus on developing an ear for the language.</p>
<p>Hmm, I actually think they’d appreciate seeing something like that! I remember reading this one article by the Harvard admissions dean about today’s hyper-competitive college admissions frenzy and the resulting burnout. I’ll try to find the link…</p>
<p>EDIT: Just saw what you added about NYU. Let me clarify - NYU doesn’t necessarily have to be the only school you focus on; it could be other matches/low reaches like USC and Northwestern. UChicago would probably really like you too; they tend to be pretty quirky in terms of the qualities they look for in applicants.</p>
<p>EDIT (#2): Here’s the link to the Harvard dean’s article I mentioned earlier: [Harvard</a> College Admissions § Applying: Taking Time Off](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/time_off/index.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/time_off/index.html) Personally, I couldn’t agree more that high school students are overworked these days. The word “passion” is thrown around a lot, but I seldom see any true evidence of it. I’m currently on a gap year, doing all the things I love, and suddenly I’ve found that I’m a happier person, not to mention more energetic and optimistic (and perhaps even friendlier ;)). So you definitely have a good cause.</p>
<p>I completely agree with you! I’ve actually found that after a while I start to second guess myself because of grammar. Sometimes I’ll be speaking and then I’ll say something like “c’est quoi les choses que tu as faites?” and then I’ll stop and say it again as “tu as fait”, when in reality I was right the first time. </p>
<p>I suppose they probably would. Right now my essay is on the duality of being a German-Jew, and how I came to the decision that I wanted to be a German citizen despite my family being victims of the Holocaust though.</p>
<p>I like U Chicago quite a bit. You think I’d have any chance there?</p>
<p>UChicago? I think so - and that’s speaking objectively. They’ve been known to overlook lower GPAs and SAT scores if the applicant in question has a distinguishing quality (which is evident just from reading your thread).</p>
<p>That’s good to know. I really like U Chicago, but my guidance counselor said it was an extremely high reach. I was going to give up on it haha.</p>
<p>I certainly don’t think you should - especially since your essay topic seems really interesting too! UChicago’s big on essays. I remember that there was one student at one of my former high schools who got in. His objective stats were much lower than yours, but he had some of the most fascinating ideas, which I’m sure showed in his essay. He had no hooks either.</p>
<p>Well that brightens up my day a bit :). I will definitely put UChicago back up as one of my top choices. Thanks for the advice!</p>