<p>I have got my thoughts and decisions together and want to apply to Harvard SCEA, Columbia RD, and Emory RD. I will chance back if you leave me a link. </p>
<p>Academics:
-SAT:2300
-3.95 (UW)/4.6 (W)
-All AP/Most Rigorous classes
-Top 5% of class out of 105 students </p>
<p>Awards:
-AP Scholar
-National Merit Scholar SemiFinalist
-Intel ISEF Semifinalist
-Spanish National Exam Honorable Mention
-Some Model UN awards at 2 colleges (Best delegate, honorable mention)
-AIME 2x Qualifier
-National History Day (1st place county, 3rd at state) </p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
-Quiz Bowl Captain
-Model UN Vice President
-Key Club President
-Amnesty International President
-Tutoring little kids at a church
-Kumon Tutor
-Reading to toddlers at a library
-Volunteer at a non profit that helps improve global health
-Founder and leader of an organization with a goal to fight the education issue that goes around failing schools in my state and uses teaching materials from a website to educate the kids better (it is in supplement to what the teacher teaches).
-Founder of a non profit organization (501(c)(3)) that fights the poverty issue in my state (Fairly successful)
-Created an app in the App Store that raises awareness about many global issues
-Annual Breast Cancer Race volunteer
-Breast Cancer Non profit organization volunteer
-Internship at breast cancer research lab 3 summers
-Did a science project on breast cancer (got Intel with it)
-Founder and president of Breast Cancer club
-Summer camp on Medicine
-Author in a publication
-Soccer Club and School (4 years Club, 3 years school)
-Assistant soccer church league coach
-Attended a soccer camp one summer</p>
<p>So based on this, what are my chances of getting into Harvard SCEA, Columbia RD, and Emory RD? I will chance back!</p>
<p>EDIT: Forgot to add a bunch of stuff and I’m actually AP Scholar with Distinction. </p>
<p>Recs: Should be very very good. I have close contact and a great relationship with a few teachers that have historically been known to write great rec letters.
Essays: Should be great. I have a lot of writing experience. </p>
<p>Misc: Indian but born in Czech Republic, first generation immigrant, low income family (Less than 65 K and drops by about another 10K due to rent), live in a single family income home (mother), with a toddler brother. I have to babysit him often since my mom works late so could I consider that an EC as well?
Attend a private prep school in a poor Southern state (Mississippi) which sends about
1-2 kids each year to a top tier school (attend on a scholarship</p>
<p>Emory is a no-doubt acceptance.
I’m going to argue that at Harvard and Columbia you’re going to be competitive with a high GPA, SAT scores, and great ECs. The only thing working against you is the heavy Indian/Asian competition at those two.</p>
<p>@bungoo, I know that being Asian is a drawback, but I thought that I would be more appealing to the admission officers in comparison to other Asians due to my diversity and my family’s diversity. I an ethnically Asian but was born in Eastern Europe, have parents from Asia, and have a brother who was born in America. In addition, I am fluent in 4 languages. A hook I assumed would be that I’m from a single parent, low income family.</p>
<p>You sound strikingly similar to my daughter (Valedictorian, 34 ACT, NMF, AP Sch w/ Dist, varsity athlete, etc) who was deferred SCEA at Harvard last year, then rejected in the regular round. The good news is that she is attending another Top 10 university that is likely a better fit for her.</p>
<p>Your profile is solid, but generic - if you are not careful, your application will be identical to thousands of others. Harvard will admit only about 2,000 students, with at least one third of these spots set asidefor hooked applicants (varsity athletes, URMs, children of faculty, etc.) so the numbers do not work in your favor. I would suggest that your work hard on your application to identify unique accomplishments.</p>
<p>Your chances at Harvard are likely the standard 3-4% admit rate. Columbia is probably similar. However, I would say that you will be a strong candidate at Emory.</p>
<p>@rmldad: Oh I didn’t think that my profile would be generic. I thought that the creation of a non profit, the creation of an organization that helps improve education in my state, and my evident passion to fight breast cancer were all unique aspects of my application. I guess I got a reality check though, thank you for taking your time to respond! </p>
<p>And if you don’t mind saying, where is your daughter currently attending?</p>
<p>My assumption is your list of ECs started with the most important to you and decreased in significance as you moved down the list. The non-profit creation is great and should be at the top of your list - be sure you can describe the specific accomplishments of the organization so that it doesn’t sound generic. Similarly, I had previoously completely missed your Intel award - great prestige if this is the national (even regional) competition.</p>
<p>Oh sorry, I didn’t put the list in any particular order. My passions are charity work/helping others and bringing the fight to breast cancer. Here’s a more thorough and organized list:</p>
<p>My activities from most important to least important charity work/helping others are:</p>
<p>-Founder of a non profit organization (501(c)(3)) that fights the poverty issue in my state (Fairly successful); I will write about how my personal poverty issue motivated me
to start a non profit to fight poverty
-Founder and leader of an organization with a goal to fight the education issue that goes around failing schools in my state and uses teaching materials from a website to educate the kids better (it is in supplement to what the teacher teaches).
-Volunteer at a non profit that improves global health
Created an app in the App Store that raises awareness about many global issues
-Tutoring little kids at a church
-Amnesty International President
-Kumon Tutor
-Reading to toddlers at a library </p>
<p>My most important to least important activities for breast cancer are: </p>
<p>-Did a science project on breast cancer (got Intel with it)
-Author in a publication
-Internship at breast cancer research lab 3 summers
-Founder and president of Breast Cancer club
-Summer camp on medicine
-Annual Breast Cancer Race volunteer
-Breast Cancer Non profit organization volunteer</p>
<p>@20more: Thank you for replying!
My 2300 SAT is not good? I thought it would be at least competitive with other applicants. And my ECs which include finding a non profit, finding an organization that helps increase education, being an author in a publication, volunteering at two non profits, and more are not impressive?</p>
<p>I don’t believe that 20more means your SAT score and ECs are “not good”. When s/he he states “not impressive”, it likely means that it will not stand out in comparison to 10,000+ other applicants to Harvard. You will make the initial cut, but need something extra to gain admission.</p>
<p>You will be competitive, but there is simply so much high-level competition that you need something more - such as being an Intel ISEF Semifinalist. Think of it in terms of a track sprinter’s analogy: if you are naturally gifted, you might set every record at your high school, win state titles and be recruited to run for Division I colleges simply based on your God-given ability. However, if your goal is to run in the Olympics, you will need your unique ability AND a tremendous work ethic in order to shave critical tenths of a second off your times. An uneducated observer might say that there is no difference between 10.3 seconds and 10.1 seconds to run 100 meters - both are tremendous accomplishments and faster than anything he has ever seen. However, only one runner will qualify for the Olympics.</p>
<p>GPA AND SAT 1 and 2 are great. EC are nice and u definitely demonstrate leadership. Nonetheless, these schools are hard to get into.
Harvard ED- low reach/ reach
Columbia RD- match/low reach
Emory RD- match</p>
<p>I see u are thinking about premed at MIT. IT is REALLY good there. EVEN though it is hard to get a good science GPA at MIT (for abvious reasons), nonetheless, medical schools REALLY like kids from MIT bc they know these students are smart and WILL excel in the science courses and competition involved in Medical School.</p>