UPenn, Cornell, Princeton

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys, I was just wondering if I have any shot at getting into Princeton, Cornell or UPenn.</p>

<p>I go to a very competitive private high school in New Jersey.</p>

<p>I guess I'll just list some stuff and you can let me know if you need anything else to tell me my chances.</p>

<p>white male</p>

<p>SAT I: 2020 690 CR, 630 Math, 700 Writing
SAT II: Haven't taken any yet but plan on doing Math, Chem, and Eng Lit</p>

<p>GPA: 3.9 UW I did incredibly poor freshmen year and had to work instensely hard to get my grades up. I don't know if they'll see that but the self-improvement was immense</p>

<p>Rank: top 10</p>

<p>Junior year coursework: Honors English, Honors Chem, Honors Alg2/Trig, Ap US History, Honors Spanish 3</p>

<p>Senior year: AP Eng, Honors Physics, Ap Art History, Ap US History, Honors Precalc</p>

<p>Taken 3 courses at a local community college, intro to philosophy, sociology, and American Government and Politics</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Academic Team- Captain</p>

<p>Robotics Team-builder and participant when we won the 2004-2005 state championship</p>

<p>New Jersey Regional Science Fair-participant</p>

<p>Spanish Honor Society</p>

<p>Model United Nations</p>

<p>NJ Boys State representative</p>

<p>Intramural Basketball League assistant coach/player</p>

<p>Interschool Ultimate Frisbee League- Co-Founder, captain of a team, and player</p>

<p>American Cancer Society Relay for Life-helped organize and set up event</p>

<p>Worked at Afterhours Formalwear</p>

<p>Awards:</p>

<p>· The Elmira College Key Award, 2006
· Excellence in Spanish 2 CP, 2004-2005
· Excellence in English 2 CP, 2004-2005
· Honorable Mention in Eastern Civilization CP, 2004-2005
· Excellence in English 3 Honors, 2005-2006
· Excellence in United History 1 Advanced Placement, 2005-2006
· Honorable Mention in Spanish 3 Honors, 2005-2006
· Rutgers Science Fair Student Award, 2005
· National Spanish Examination Certificate of Achievement and Merit¸ 2004-2005 and 2005-2006</p>

2

<p>I don't know. Your SATs are VERY low. No APs, although the CC courses are decent. You have a lot of ECs, but they look more like things you just showed up at the meeting for. I don't see any passion. I do like the Ultimate thing, but that's not a big hook. However, those awards (I'm assuming you got them from your school) are good. Not great, but good, and without them I wouldn't have given you a shot. I'd say all of these schools are reaches for you, and Princeton might be too big of a reach. I'd apply early to Penn or Cornell and hope for the best. You can apply to Princeton RD, but don't bank on it.</p>

3

<p>Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like he's taken 4 AP classes, plus 3 at his community college?</p>

<p>At any rate, you need to raise your Math SAT score somehow, which is possible with lots of studying and practice. Cornell's deadline, however, is January first...which means you've only got 1 shot really since you also need to take the Subject Tests: Study a lot, and retake the SATs in October, then study more and take your Subject Tests in November. Or vice versa, whatever works better for you.</p>

<p>Since you won't be enrolled in a Chemistry course your senior year, I'd highly reccommend you buy a prep book and review off of that, starting at least a month before you take the tests.</p>

<p>Yes, you do have a chance, but you need to raise your SAT Math score for it to happen! According to Collegeboard.com...the middle 50% of students score a range from 630 to 720 on Verbal, and 660 to 760 on Math. You already have a "higher" Verbal score, but above a 700 would help you a lot. To get a good math score, you'll probably want around a 700, though if you state you're interested in a non-math field like Philosophy or Sociology, they might be more lenient on that.</p>

<p>Is your unweighted GPA really a 3.9 though? What's your GPA when you don't count honors credit, plusses, or minuses, AND only for academic classes (math, science, foreign languages, english, and history/social sciences) because that's what unweighted usually refers to, and if you had a bad Freshman year, I don't see how you could easily get it up to a 3.9...that being said, for Ivy League, anything 3.8 unweighted or above is usually still highly qualified, and they will give any GPA a chance, especially if there were special circumstances.</p>

4

<p>Those schools are difficult even with a 4.0 GPA and a high SAT score. Academics are still the most important part of your application, and when you aren't a 4.0 student it becomes even more unlikely that you would be accepted w/ a 2020. The most important thing you can do right now is to study for the SAT. A 2200+ would give you a shot at Penn and Princeton and make you realistic for Cornell.</p>

5

<p>Cheese: I do have aps, but my school only allows seniors to take ap classes other than us 1 ap. My ecs are definitely not just something I show up at a meeting for. I'm captain of the academic team which means I'm on it and have all teh administration duties, boys ststae is a week long program, model un requires actual work in terms of writing papers and there is a conference for it, science fair I needed to create an project for it, and the others are intermural sports that I had to play, organize and had responsibilities outside what a normal player does.</p>

<p>Confused Student: I plan on doing the subject tests in Oct and SAT I in Nov. If I rush my scores from both will I still make the deadline for early decision? This being to whichever I have the best shot at getting in (Cornell).</p>

<p>I honestly think my math will go up because on most of the practice tests I've done I've gotten high 600s-710ish and when I was taking the real test it had some things I forgot to look over. And I've always had no probelm with CR so I didn't bother studying for it.</p>

<p>With that being said if I raise my sat scores and do well on sat IIs do I have a chance? Also are there any good study guides for either sat 1 or 2 (I know there's a lot, just not which ones are good)?</p>

6

<p>Anyone else?</p>

7

<p>Need some other opinions.</p>

8

<p>UPenn and Princeton are, reputedly, ridiculously hard to get into.
Cornell, on the other hand...I know people who were accepted who were similarly or less qualified.</p>

9

<p>That's very good to hear. I see that your taking a lot of APs during senior year, very good. I just noticed the APUSH, I had a mindfart there. Here is my question, you've taken cc courses, which is very good. If you explain to the school that you're not allowed to take APs then it shouldn't hurt you. One question. I see that you took comp gov at a cc. Why didn't you take the AP? Do you not have the scores back yet?</p>

<p>As for you ECs, I didn't say that you just showed up; I said you made it look like you just showed up. If you present them like you did in your second post, then you're a lot better off. My concern is that while you have decent ECs, there are going to be a lot of people in the applicant pool with equal or better ECs and better academics.</p>

<p>Okay, now that I know that you took the APs, here's my new opinion. You've got good academics. You said yourself that your freshmen year wasn't your best, but most schools don't look too closely at the first year, so you should be alright. APs are good. CC courses are VERY good. Your ECs are decent. I've seen better, but I've seen a lot worse. My suggestion would be to play up 2-4 things you really liked and were really involved in. Get really detailed about those. Your big weakness is your SAT scores. However, if you can get above 700 on each subtest then you'll be doing fine in that department. </p>

<p>Again, I'd go EA/ED with Cornell. Send an app to Penn and Princeton, but have backups. You can't really tell with Princeton, and Penn is getting pretty tough. Get the SATs up though, and I think Cornell would be an option.</p>

10

<p>Thanks for the advice.</p>

<p>These are just some things I thought I should have listed in the original post: also on the chess team at my school and the math league starting next year. I'm going to be a first generation college student, low income ~40k ish.</p>

<p>My school only offers ap in: english, us history, art history, chemistry (they only have 4 people signed up as school ended so I doubt it'll exist), and calc. We don't have any gov one yet, I tried to start a gov and euro history but the history department head turned me down. So I'm taking basically all I can (I'm going into precalc honors next year, asked if I took precalc at a cc if they'd let me go into calc and they turned me down again). </p>

<p>I'm looking into taking another cc course this summer if I can find one that fits into my schedule.</p>

<p>I know my sat is low, I thought I did better than 630 on math. Quick question: if I take 3 sat 2s in October, and retake the SAT1 in november, can I still get the scores to cornell in time for them to be there when I apply for early decision?</p>

<p>There is a reason why my performance was so poor on the first sat...if you want to know you can pm me and I'll tell you.</p>

11

<p>troteck-</p>

<p>I find myself in a similar boat </p>

<p>everyone will say SAT scores too low, but don't listen to them. that is such a small part of the application. The majority of people with higher scores have not much else. you are the complete package, apply early to princeton if that is your #1 choice. don't let those lurking in the "what are my chances" section bring you down!
best of luck!</p>