Unique home school situation. Ivy league chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I plan on becoming an investment banker, at a top firm, which means top business school, which means ivy league college. </p>

<p>The catch is, I am in home school, hsi.edu to be exact. It is completely self taught. My gpa is as perfect as it can be, I get an A on every piece of paper I send in, including my supervised exams (4 per subject per year). I haven't taken my SAT's yet, but have taken practice ones and scored 1400 both times. </p>

<p>I used to go to a private middle school (same one as cal ripken's son) then half a year of public high school (my scholarship ran out at private school) then into home school. My gpa was always above 3.5 in private school and I literally had 99%+ in every class during my short public high school visit.</p>

<p>I also play guitar and piano, again self-taught. I play guitar very well and am always being told to pursue it as a career. I will make a studio recording cd before applying to colleges next fall. </p>

<p>Let's see what else...I ran my own business when I was 15, selling laptops online in bulk between major companies nationwide. I made 12K in 6 months, but it made me fall behind in school...which is partly the reason why I'm 18 and only half-way through my 11th grade courses.</p>

<p>For sports...I play tennis. I have been playing since I was 10 and have a very realistic chance at becoming ranked in the top 3 Junior 18's in Maryland by the end of next year.</p>

<p>Additionally, I am a very good artist and have, over the past 3 years, learned quite a lot about graphics design (photoshop, 3ds max, flash). I have been offered positions at design companies online in the past and will probably start my own sometime next year. </p>

<p>So on paper I look pretty weak since I am in home school. But if I do all the things I mentioned above over the next year will I have a chance at Columbia, Penn, Stanford, or maybe Cornell, Duke?</p>

<p>I will do some community service type deals next summer, although I always thought real world talents should be looked at higher than meaningless paper statistics...well that's my opinion anyway =/ I hope the person reading my application feels the same way.</p>

<p>Oh btw, my parent's aren't rich, my dad makes 45K at a government programming job and my mom does freelance online for graphics and illustrations, etc. They used to both have 70K/year jobs before Bush came into office, but were both laid off, have been struggling ever since =/</p>

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<p>Oh and I was born in Russia, moved here when I was 6. I am fluent in Russian. Does that help or lessen my chances?</p>

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<p>Well you certainly have some unique experiences, so if you can write essays that really convey that, you will have a good chance at all of those schools. I think UPenn might be your best shot, as they tend to put less emphasis on test scores than those other schools. Also, if there's a school you like that you are good enough to play tennis for, you should definitely look into that. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Thanks. What about me being a russian male? Will that help? </p>

<p>As for tennis...I would love to play for Harvard they have a great tennis team. The only way I see myself getting in there is if I am #1 or #2 in Maryland by this time next year.</p>

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<p>If you are a recruit, you can potentially get in anywhere including Harvard. I would say though apply to multiple ivies, including the ones that are Worse at tennis. Perhaps even all of them, Brown and Dartmouth at a minimum. You will get more star power at those + by applying more places you have a better chance of getting in.</p>

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<p>All the schools you are looking at accept homeschoolers. (I know - mine was homeschooled the entire way through, and received more than a full tuition scholarship to Smith, where she is now, having entered at 16. She was also recruited at Williams.) Columbia is the only one that requires more of homeschoolers than of anyone else - 5 SAT IIs. Princeton's valedictorian was a homeschooler. I know a homeschooler who entered Harvard at 14, and one who entered this year at 17. I have another homeschooling friend at Swarthmore (who had taken courses at Penn instead of high school.) It just isn't that uncommon anymore.</p>

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<p>Thanks guys this is great motivation =]</p>

<p>Any ideas for what sort of jobs or community service I should look into before applying?</p>

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<p>"I will do some community service type deals next summer, although I always thought real world talents should be looked at higher than meaningless paper statistics...well that's my opinion anyway =/ I hope the person reading my application feels the same way."</p>

<p>Well, you're right on track to become an investment banker if this is your attitude to community service........I guess your "real world talents" of starting a business and playing tennis - not to mention having gone to a school that Carl Ripken's son went to! - are far more meaningul than the rest of us who just rack up hours of "meaningless statistics" helping others.....I interviewed for Yale for many years and they said everyone had great stats - could I try and discern who might have the inner moral concerns and regard for human dignity to want to give back? Or is that not on your radar screen?</p>

<p>You don't do "community service type deals" because a college app supposedly requires it, but because it is part of who you are.</p>

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<p>i think that writing good essays is a must for u if u are aiming for ivies. the condition of being russian is a plus as it is being asian for asians or spanish for spanish ppl...so jsut try to embody ur whole experience in ur essays and work on those test scores (sat's 1&2) and u should b fine</p>

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<p>I'm sorry, but i've always kind of been wary of home schooling. I find it hard to believe that you have gotten an A on EVERYTHING you have turned in...Everyone is bound to get at least a B occasionally. Who grades your papers? Sorry if this seems kind of abrasive, but I knew a home schooled kid whose parents just gave him A's on everything...seemed kind of unfair.</p>

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<p>nedad - sry thats not how i meant it. i know there are geniune people who actually enjoy doing the work but almost everyone i know who went to public schools around here went to community service jobs and sat in the corner waiting to clock out and get their hours...or joined every single club possible at school to show their "leadership" potential. i think taking care of my little brother all day and running my own business is more rewarding as far as real world character traits are concerned. we were all forced to do a great deal of community service back at private school and it was the exactly the same for everyone. it helped us tolerate others, but no one really wanted to go out and help on their own time. when i said "bullsh1t" i meant "fake". people join clubs for the sake of joining them, not actually benifiting =/</p>

<p>pimpa10 - ty, i will definitely work on my essay, already have a few drafts lined up</p>

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<p>kgordon - if you want to get specific i received five B's out of the past 200 assignments i have sent in. my parents dont grade my work, nor do they help me. HSI picks their choice of textbooks out of the past 20 or so years, sends them in to me in a big box, and i read them front to back. there are 40 submissions per subject, with each submission estimated to make you work for 6 hours. 4 supervised exams are thrown in during the course of the submissions, per subject. </p>

<p>i take the exams and submissions and send them in to HSI at my own pace, they send them back to me graded. they worked it out so cheating isn't an option. </p>

<p>i find it a lot more challenging than public school, but not as much as private school. only thing i really had trouble with was teaching myself geometry.</p>

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<p>bump, any job or community service suggestions over the next year?</p>