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Chance Me / Match Me!
1

My reach schools are Georgetown, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, and Cornell
I’m also applying to American, Haverford, George Washington, Bucknell, Lafayette, and Colgate

I got a 36 composite on the ACT (only one I took, 33 on writing), and I might take the SAT if I qualify for NMS.
I’ll be taking the subject tests in October (Spanish, Math II, US History).
My GPA was a 4.0 at the end of this year, but my school goes up to 4.33 for getting an A+. I got one A+ and one A- (but the A- was in a class where the maximum grade one could receive was a 94).
I’ve taken 5 APs and gotten 5s on all of them (Bio, APHuG, APUSH, Psych, Lang).
I’m taking 4 APs next year, along with a bunch of requirements (gov, econ, health, gym, etc.).
I don’t really have that many major awards, except AP Scholar with Distinction and probably NMS Semifinalist (my NMS Selection Index was 224).

My ECs are as follows:
Quiz bowl (4 years), captain and president
Model UN (4 years), current treasurer
Founder of Linguistics Club
Current Copy Editor for the school newspaper
Volunteer tutor with local organization (2 years)
Part of the school GSA
Used to do Science Olympiad

This summer I have a paid internship with the Suicide Prevention Center. I’m also taking a Coursera course in economics (which will probably be my major).

My essays and teacher recs will probably be pretty strong, but it’s hard to say. I’m going to work really hard on those. I’m also good at interviewing.

I’m white and go to a public school in NY. I think my biggest problem is that I don’t have any major hooks. Can anyone give me any advice?

2

Good scores, and tbh because I don’t know your scale can’t tell you much on your GPA
Ivy and the such don’t care about NMS at all (Well like a little, but not too much), so don’t cut anything out to put that in there
O.K. your ecs confuse me and are kind of weak, so I would rank you as having an average chance of admissions.

3

Tbh, I don’t think Ivy League schools will think of you as a special kid - they’ll think of you as an average Ivy League applicant. You have a perfect ACT score, yes, but your ECs are less than impressive. A test score is a very small segment of the application. Schools want to see what you bring to the table as a person; they see this through your ECs and essays. If you write VERY interesting essays, you have an OK shot of getting in. I don’t mean to scrutinize you or anything. What I would love more than anything else is for you to prove me wrong and get in! The thing is, many applicants will have the same test scores as you. It’s the ECs and essays that really make the difference. When looking at results threads, there isn’t honestly much of a trend in terms of seeing many more kids accepted with a 36 than a 33. What I’m trying to say is that a kid who scores a 33 on the ACT with amazing ECs and essays will almost definitely gain admission over a person with a perfect ACT score but little to no ECs.

I would give you some info and tell you to do something big outside of school, but it’s already too late for that. The best thing you can do is write really good essays. If you do that, with the combination of your test scores, you’ll have a decent shot at your reaches.

4

Agree with above. Your scores and academics seem great, but on par with the other likely applicants. You have some decent ECs, but my main problem is that none of them really relate to economics. They also aren’t particularly special or tell me about you as a person. I think schools appreciate a demonstrated passion. I do think though that with a good essay and a good rec you’ll have a good shot.

5

If you’re willing to chance back -
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1903072-please-chance-me-at-harvard-brown-bu-u-of-m-tufts-johns-hopkins-u-of-c-ill-chance-back.html#latest

6

I agree with everyone else- maybe if you discuss specific things your clubs have done (Linguistics Club for example, which sounds interesting) that would beef up your application. Also, I do agree that perhaps your extracurriculars need to be more centered around economics, and you should have probably taken AP Macroeconomics/Microeconomics this year in order to show a real interest in the subject. I do think you’re a good applicant though.

Chance back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1904474-chance-me-for-the-following-rising-senior-with-huge-upward-trend.html#latest

7

I would say that for selective college admissions, your impact matters more than your title.

Example:

Captain of the Quiz Bowl team - looks “meh” to a selective college

Captained the Quiz Bowl team to 1st place at States - looks great to a selective college

As Captain, met with schools administrators, petitioned board of education, and rallied public support to disburse enough funds to have a faculty advisor for the first time - looks excellent to a selective college

As you can see, the presentation and context is very important and can make or break how your extracurriculars are valued.

8

My school doesn’t offer macro/micro, which is the main problem. I’m taking a Coursera course on microeconomics with UPenn right now, which I’m going to try to include in my app to show that I’m challenging myself in economics.

@yikesyikesyikes Thank you! I’m going to write about quiz bowl in one of my Georgetown essays, and probably a paragraph in the Common App somewhere as well. I’ve done a lot more than just captain the team and I want to make that show.

9

@luvquizbowl probably should have self-studied haha

I kid, the Coursera course should be fine.

10

Yeah, junior year was a doozy. I tried lol