What are my chances at Harvard, Stanford, and Johns Hopkins?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey i want to know what my chances are of getting into Harvard, Stanford, and Johns Hopkins. I hope to become a cardiologist surgeon in the future. Also, many of you do not know Seoul National University (it was my dream school because I am from South Korea and SNU is the best school in my country), but if you do happen to know, could you also evaluate my chance on getting into SNU? Thanks!</p>

<p>GPA 3.92 UW, 4.3 W
SAT 2380 (780 R,800M,800W)
SAT 2: Math 2 800, Chem 800, Bio 800, Physics 800, USH 800, world history 800, spanish 800</p>

<p>Rank:within top 25% for sure, within 10% if lucky.</p>

<p>AP: AP Han Geo (5) Cal BC(5), APUSH(4), AP Euro (5), AP Stats (5), AP Psychology (5), Spanish literature (5), Chinese literature (5), Biology (5), Chem (5), Physics C e&m(5), English language (5), english lit (5), World history (5), Art history (5), Computer (5), Macroeconomics (5) -self studied for 11 of them</p>

<p>Senior course: AP Physics B, AP Cal bc, AP English Lit, AP Spanish, AP Macroeconomics, Work study</p>

<p>Major Award: AIME qualified, biology olympiad semifinalist, chemistry olympiad semifinalist, physics olympiad semifinalist, NMS Finalist, AP Scholars, National spanish exam Gold, Presidential award for volunteer</p>

<p>Extracurricular: Soccer (3years), Newspaper, Spanish club, national honor society, national spanish club, art club, science olympiad, young republican, field club, chess club, math club, scholars bowl, robotics, heritage club, Mu Alpha Theta, </p>

<p>Job/Work: mowed grass (lol)</p>

<p>Volunteer: at bunch of libraries and several hospitals </p>

<p>Summer activities: None (i know, its bad ). thinking about doing the Intel Science, but dont have any idea yet </p>

<p>State:ALABAMA
Race: Asian Male
School: extremely competitive. ranked in the top 10 in the nation</p>

<p>chance me. thanks</p>

2

<p>Harvard and Stanford are reaches for anyone…
JHU: match-high match
Harvard+Stanford: low reach
Your SATs are amazing…awards are great! These are gonna set you apart.</p>

3

<p>As you already know, for the really good schools everyone seems to be top in their class which also means everyone is National honor society and gold on Language exams, and taken lots of AP classes. nit just an AP scholar but an AP scholar with distinction.</p>

<p>So this is how I’d read it.</p>

<p>GPA: solid
SAT: solid
Awards: you have some
EC’s: you have some,
recs: I assume they are good
essay: only you know …but I think it will be important
Sports: not too much only one sport means you didn’t have after school distractions
Outside school activities: nothing jumps out
Team stuff (stuff that shows you play well with others) : nothing jumps out,</p>

<p>it pretty much shows you studied really hard and did some clubs… did you try anything outside the bounds of your school, like an on-line class (vitual high school) or a college class or one of the on-line free college classes like MIT’s open courseware (OCW).</p>

<p>Right now it comes across as just another kid with really good grades … so the trick is how do you make yourself look a little different. you did great…now you have to show them the real you beyond the grades (the grades speak for themselves)</p>

4

<p>Very thing points toward amazing except the iffy class rank. Being outside of the top 10% will significantly hurt you in admissions. </p>

<p>Besides that, you stand a much better chance than even average applicants to those schools. Best of luck.</p>

5

<p>Harvard: Reach
Stanford: Reach
JHU: High match
SNU: Reach (but lower than Harvard or Stanford)</p>

<p>All that I do know about SNU is that academics come first, and ECs second, if at all. For the local students, SNU, along with Korea U and Yonsei, are the SKY “reaches-for-anyone” much like HYPSMC in the US.</p>

6

<p>The reason i lack activities outside my school is because i live in a really small city in the South where it is hard for me to find any opportunities</p>

7

<p>what kind of activities should I do in alabama?</p>

8

<p>I haven’t been accepted into Stanford or anything (like you I’m applying this year). You’re a smart guy - absolutely no doubt about it (probably smarter than I am). But there are a couple of things I feel a little iffy about.</p>

<p>First: You are not a National Merit Finalist. No one is aware of Finalist status until next year. Now I understand that becoming a Finalist isn’t very hard if you’re a Semifinalist already, but that’s still a red flag for arrogance. </p>

<p>Second: your laundry list of extracurricular activities looks impressive if depth is seen by variety. In reality, it is not. Stanford won’t care if you did 20 extracurricular activities if you don’t show leadership in any of them; they’ll see it as resume padding. You haven’t listed any leadership positions, so I’m guessing that you either don’t have them or they aren’t significant enough for you to remember. If you’re not a recruited athlete or exceptionally talented, being an athlete is just like any other extracurricular. </p>

<p>Third: Your awards are okay, but you haven’t stated their depth (i.e. regional, state, national, etc.). What your awards show about you is that although you are smart, you haven’t put your stamp on any of your work (i.e. once again, you haven’t shown leadership).</p>

<p>Fourth: Reporting that many test scores is iffy. It can either make you look pretty darn smart or make you seem like all you can do and want to do is take tests (which is corroborated by your awards).</p>

<p>That being said, you’re not automatically disqualified or anything. These are just my two cents. Good luck!</p>

9

<p>Snimma is pretty on point. And dude, don’t try to force newfound activities in now because you got a little criticism on it. Work w/ what ya got.</p>

10

<p>If I am not mistaken about how soccer leagues work in Korea, Korean kids that show some soccer promise attend a soccer academy and failures that came closest to make it to the big show spend rogue years trying to go to college afterward.</p>

<p>Since many of the local students that attend SNU spent pretty much every waking hour in high school to prepare for the Suneung (it serves the same purpose as the SAT, only it is far harder than the SAT; Korean high schools are notorious for teaching to the test), many SNU students have little or no athletic skills. For this reason, SNU has never been a sports powerhouse. Who knows, perhaps you’ll play on SNU’s soccer team if you actually got into SNU… but that would probably be the only college where you’ll play soccer, unless, somehow, you came on Johns Hopkins’ radar, because your post gave me no indication that you were recruited by Harvard, let alone Stanford.</p>

11

<p>I think you have a great shot at John Hopkins and a reasonable shot at Harvard or Stanford. You should apply to other ivy leagues as well though</p>

12

<p>What kind of leaderships should i do thats related to medicine field? also, i ran for presidents and vp for my clubs but i lost by few votes… what should i do to get favor of the voters?</p>

13

<p>whats the point in taking 7 subject tests…?</p>

14

<p>For the people bashing him for doing good on tests my cousin got into Yale and he took every subject test other than the language ones and got 800s on all of them and a 1600 (there was no writing section) on the sat. I don’t think any college would reject him for doing well on tests. Getting perfect scores on tests won’t hurt you.</p>

15

<p>thanks dirtysocks!</p>

16

<p>Dirtysocks, don’t get me wrong: I’m not bashing him. </p>

<p>Dontneedtoknow, I hope I’m not coming off that way. All I’m doing is saying what any admissions officer might possibly think considering that almost all of his extracurricular activities has to do with taking some sort of test or academic qualification assessment (his Olympiads, AIME, Scholars Bowl, etc.). Now, to the OP, I think you should start working with what you have rather than do something completely new. Follow your passions! In all honesty it’s a little too late for you to do some new revolutionary extracurricular that will bump your chances of getting in (not that you should be doing that in the first place). If you are truly passionate about what you want to do, you’ll look for opportunities yourself rather than depend on kids like me on the Internet haha. </p>

<p>@Dirtysocks: Correlation does not prove causation. Your cousin probably had a lot more going for him than just his test scores. </p>

<p>Once again, passion in what you do is the most important thing on an application. Don’t worry about trying to impress them! If you fit in a school and the adcoms see that, you’re in. If you don’t get in, it’s not because you’re not good enough or smart enough. It’s simply because you’re not the best fit for that school.</p>

17

<p>Oh and by the way, I personally talked to Duke, Stanford, Harvard, Georgetown, and Penn admissions officers at an “Exploring College Options” seminar. All of them except Georgetown’s explicitly told me that they aren’t necessarily impressed by someone who, while smart, takes so many tests that it almost seems like testing is his/her extracurricular activity! Take that any way you want to @Dirtysocks and @Dontneedtoknow.</p>

18

<p>JHU is a safety unless you somehow manage to insult the admissions council with some glaring error.</p>

19

<p>First of all, I just read a post you made in June and you said you’re a rising junior planning to take lots of AP… ap tests arent until May. so what happened??</p>

20

<p>@hopenorthwestern that was my brothers stats lol
@ snimma95 no offense but ‘follow your passion’ is very stereotypical and thats what all colleges say, but thats too ideal to follow. lets be honest… better grades, better chance.</p>