wanna go to these elite schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I go to a very competitive high school( I am in the top 10%) I got ELC for UC's I think thats top 4 percent and I have applied to 13 schools:</p>

<p>Already got into UCSD and Irvine</p>

<p>UCLA
UCSD (medical scholar's eight year program)
UCI-already accepted
UC Berkeley
Stanford
Pomona College
Claremont Mckenna College
Dartmouth
UPenn
Harvard
Northwestern
Cornell
Boston College</p>

<p>Mostly I really want to go to Harvard or Stanford</p>

<p>I'm applying for a biology major in all of these schools
13 total AP classes throughout high school
Academics:
Freshman Year:
French 2 Honors B+/A
English 2 Honors A/A
Biology Honors A/A
Cultural World History Honors-summer A/A
Algebra 2/Trig Honors B+/A</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Chemistry Honors - Summer A/B+
AP Art History B+/A
English 2 Honors A/A
AP Chemistry A/A
Calculus AB A/A
French 3 Honors A/A</p>

<p>Junior Year:
AP U.S. History A/A
AP Calculus BC A/A
English 3 Honors A/A
Psychology/ T.A A/A
French 4 AP A/A
Biology AP A/A</p>

<p>Senior Year:
AP Rhetoric A/?
AP Government (1st semester class) A
AP Statistics A/?
AP Environmental Science A/?
AP Economics(2nd semester class) ?
AP Physics C Mechanics B+/?</p>

<p>Tests
Took the SAT three times
Verbal Math Writing Total
1. 11/2007- 740 780 760 2280
2. 10/2007 720 650 720 2090
3. 01/2007 710 680 700 2090</p>

<p>Subject Tests
Math 2C 780
US history 750
Biology M 700</p>

<p>Extra Curricular Activities
Pomona Valley Hospital- 436 hrs of volunteer work 9th grade-11grade
Hoops for Hope Club Advertising Officer 10-11
Tae Kwon Do - First Degree Black Belt 9-12
California Scholarship Federation - since 10th grade
Employment (paid job) at medical office 10hrs a week -10th-12th
Golf Private Lessons 2 hrs a week - 9th-12th
Tennis Private Lessons 9th-10th 9 hours 45 weeks
French Club - 9-12</p>

<p>Solid essays for all colleges
Good recommendations from 4 teachers
Good interview for Harvard</p>

<p>Took a non credit short story class read 80 short stories writers like Hemingway, Swift, Mann, etc.</p>

<p>Awards: Deans List Calculus AB, AP Scholar with Distinction, Principal's Honor Roll( fall 2004, spring2005, fall 2005, spring 2006, spring 2007)</p>

<p>Also not applying for any financial aid to these colleges - does this help?</p>

<p>So what do you guys think of my chances?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>What do YOU think of your chances? you know just as much as 99% of people here.</p>

3

<p>I don’t think the fact that you are not getting financial aid helps for any of the colleges.
That being said, you seem like a rather solid candidate with good scores, good grades, and a good slew of EC’s.<br>
I’d say you are in at UCLA, Berkeley, Claremont, Northwestern, Cornell and BC.
I think you stand a good shot at Dartmouth though nothing guaranteed.
I don’t know much about Pomona, but, from what I have heard, it apparently focuses on math a lot and you don’t seem to demonstrate a passion or strength in math through your EC’s.
UPenn is a reach, though a realistic reach that you can actually get into I think as long as you are not applying to Wharton.
Although I think you are a solid applicant, nothing in your snapshot resume makes me stop and say wow. So for that reason, I don’t think you will get in at Harvard or Stanford.</p>

4

<p>Accepted:
UCLA
UCSD (medical scholar’s eight year program)
UCI-already accepted
UC Berkeley
Claremont Mckenna College
Boston College</p>

<p>Likely to be accepted
Northwestern
Cornell
Pomona</p>

<p>Decent Shot
Dartmouth
UPenn</p>

<p>Maybe
Harvard
Stanford</p>

5

<p>is AP Rhetoric?</p>

<p>I can tell you’re probably asian, am I right?</p>

<p>Your lack of any really interesting Extracurriculars, leadership positions or awards will make getting into anything harder than Cornell very difficult (including harvard and stanford). Although you have good grades/courses</p>

6

<h1>Why do you want to go to each of those schools…what draws you to them?</h1>

<p>and please don’t say prestige or they are elite, that is meaningless</p>

7

<p>I agree with citygirlsmom. Many of these schools have virtually nothing in common with one another aside from prestige. Why would someone who’s interested in Stanford and Harvard, both major research schools on opposite sides of the country, also be interested in say, Pomona or Claremont McKenna? And people who are attracted to Dartmouth and UPenn are generally very different from people attracted to Harvard and Stanford (although I can see some overlap with Dartmouth and Pomona or Claremont McKenna).</p>

<p>Also, if you’re interested in an 8 year med program…I’m confused as to what you are looking for. And what on earth is AP Rhetoric? It sounded made up to me and I looked it up and couldn’t find it anywhere…</p>

8

<p>I actually see some commonality between this list. For example I think Dartmouth and Stanford are actually very similar.</p>

9

<p>Kittylow is right to ask the reason behind each desired school, especially as Claremont McKenna, a great school, has little to offer a pre-med, biology major. School selection does not have to have obvious commonalities, but each should have a reasonable attraction to the applicant beyond a high prestige rating.</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>Let’s see…fairly large school (about 6,000 undergrad and 12,000 grad) with some of the best grad programs in the country located in a sort of suburban, small city about 30 or so miles away from San Francisco in sunny (and warm) California versus a relatively small school (about 6,000 total including grad and undergrad) with only 3 grad schools located in the middle of the snowy woods of an extremely small town (total population of Hanover is about 10,000 of which 6,000 are Dartmouth students). One school has an extremely huge Greek scene while at the other it’s not so huge. I mean, yes, they are both great schools. But the vibe is definitely different. Dartmouth considers itself a liberal arts school, more similar to almost any LAC than to a major research university like Stanford or Harvard.</p>

11

<p>The reason I think Stanford and Dartmouth are similar: Both socially are campus based schools with laid back, yet active, students of similar undergraduate size. Both in beautiful settings with the outdoors nearby. I can absolutely see someone liking both places, the LAC vs. University difference aside.</p>

12

<p>i’m also doubting the existence of “ap rhetoric”…& no offense your test scores don’t look that great, altho that doesn’t mean you’ll have no shot</p>

13

<p>Sorry, slipper1234. I guess we’ll just have to disagree on the two schools’ similarities. The LAC vs. University issue is a large part of it and for some students it can be very difficult to set that fact aside. Aside from that, undergrad wise Dartmouth still has about 2,000 fewer students. That may not seem like a lot but think of it this way: Stanford’s undergrad is 50% larger than that of Dartmouth’s. And if you consider both campuses as a whole (undergrad and grad), Stanford is way bigger. This makes a huge difference in the amount of attention undergrads receive (back to the LAC vs. University argument). In terms of environment…I’d say New Hampshire and California attract different kinds of people. It’s not just anyone that can handle a foot or two of snow almost on a daily basis along with temperatures that can dip below freezing in the winter. It’s also very different being a short drive away from a city like San Francisco than being 3 hours away from Boston and Montreal and 4.5 hours away from New York. For example, I’ll bet Palo Alto has a McDonald’s or Burger King or Wendy’s at least while at Dartmouth you’ll probably have to drive into Vermont to find any chain restaurants.</p>

<p>And, yes, both campuses have nature nearby. But the type of nature is radically different. I agree both campuses are laid back as in they aren’t overly snobby or preppy, but so are hundreds of other schools. It’s not much as far as common factors go.</p>

14

<p>I’m guessing AP Rhetoric is just another name for AP Language and Composition.</p>