What are my Chances at Ivy League schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Im an African American Male from a moderatley competitive school in Silver Spring, MD</p>

<p>GPA- 3.75 UW, 4.30 W, i know im 6 out of 280 but my school doesnt rank so for colleges they see top 2.5%
SAT
SAT1- 800V,790 M (first and only sitting)
Sat 2
800 writing
780 chem
700 bio
670 us history Took it in 9th grade after only taking honors
800 world
730 math 2c
720 physics Even though i never took physics and am now taking ap physics</p>

<p>Ap scores
AP BIO 5
AP CHEM 5
AP GOV 5
AP STAT 5
AP WORLD 5
AP LANG 4
AP CAL BC 4</p>

<p>Senior Schedule
AP PHYSICS
AP LIT
AP EURO
Multivariable Cal, Discrete Algebra, Data Analysis - at a local Community College
Rest of day from 1pm-5pm interning at NIH </p>

<p>Volunteer
400 HOURS total from Holy Cross Hospital, saturday tutoring, key club, public library, and community outreach
Intern at FDA, DOD, NIH
Doing research at NIH may be able to publish results in American jOURNAL of Medecine in may</p>

<p>Extras
Parents are immigrents
Family makes between 20-25 k a year for a family of 5
Section 8 welfare housing, no insurance, free lunch at school, etc.
I used to sell drugs, gangs, and stuff back in 7-9 grades but i changed in second semester of 9th grade. My gpa in 1st quarter was like 1.9 uw. i failed all my tests in 8th grade and was recommended for retention but luckily i let go after my school had failed too many people ( weird luck right). All my neighborhood friends are either in jail, have a baby/dropped out, or are still in gangs</p>

<p>I have exactley 100 hundred dollars of my own family savings for college (;-/), No but i do have a few scholarships that add up to at least 8 k </p>

<p>sO WITH that what are my chances at
Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Cornell
Stanford
Penn
Maryland- College Park - Harder now 3.3uw/1300 sat
JHU- Also harder now 3.6uw/1400 sat</p>

<p>thnx.</p>

2

<p>Good job on your accomplishments. I think u're pretty much a lock at all ur schools.</p>

3

<p>Interesting. You're numbers and background seem unreal. You're basically in everywhere.</p>

4

<p>really i thought that my grades were too low to get into Harvard. Im mean im not trying to use affirmative action or whatever but i know people with 4.0s and 1600s get wait listed. I dont know but i think i might ed/ea at MIT just to make sure becuase i dont think affirmative action really is gonna do that much. My only real hook is my family situation but even then my neighbor whos family was from Dominican Republic made under 10 k a year and he got rejected from Drexel. I mean he had like a 2.5 gpa and a 32 on the ACT but i thought that he would have at least made it to Drexel.</p>

5

<p>Are you kidding me? Is this a joke? No offense if it isn't. If it isn't, congrats on turning your life around. That's remarkable.</p>

6

<p>im still kinda not well comfortable telling this to harvard or something. I mean why would they want a kid who did all this stuff when there are kids who cure diseases and come from warfare and other circumstances. I just wished i could have fixed my first 9 th grade grades becuase they really hurt me. Also i just recently thought about going to any private school or selective school and so my ec's are really lacking. I didnt even know about olympiads and RSI until yesterday when i first came to this site (i just got a computer). So i dont know if i should really use ea/ed on harvard when i really dont think i can make it there. Presidents and stuff have gone there and why would they want me especially since i want to study bio medical engineering. I think for sure i will apply to MIT, JHU and MD but thats pretty much it. Besided even if i made it to harvard i probably couldnt afford the 40k a year tution even with aid.</p>

7

<p>harvard, and many other schools, will completely waive tuition for students from families with less than $40,000 a year incomes (the number may be different). The point is, it is not likely that you will have to have more than possibly an oncampus job, ie you'll likely recieve a complete scholarship, or as close to that as to make no difference.</p>

<p>The one thing that people don't understand is that Harvard is just another good college.</p>

8

<p>Very good.</p>

9

<p>OMG very nice turnaround</p>

10

<p>Wow, I'm incredibly happy for you. Not only will you get into any college, but you also deserve to.</p>

11

<p>Your turnaround is indeed heartwarming. But I do have a question, not directly at you but more general. Please don't feel defensive about it. Why do people apply to schools knowing they don't have the financial resource to pay for it ? Harvard is 40+K. For a family of 5 making $25K, it will owes $15K even if all of it goes to pay for tuition. Harvard doesn't owe you an education. Sure some schools are generous in grants in exceptional cases, but to expect your school to basically carry you with little family contribution is absurd. Don't take this personally. I had to ask.</p>

12

<p>yourworld, schools give out what is know as "financial aid."</p>

<p>"For a family of 5 making $25K, it will owes $15K even if all of it goes to pay for tuition."</p>

<p>i dont think ANY elite school would make a student pay more than 5000$ if they were that poor. id be suprised if they had to pay a cent before they graduated.</p>

13

<p>Do you follow the news at all? Within the last few monthes, Harvard already said they would waive tuition for families making less than 40,000. I think you would be a perfect candidate at Harvard. First, you come from a poor African American family. Harvard and the rest of the IVYs are desperate for socio-economic diversity. I wouldn't be surprised if over 25% of Harvard's African-Americans are previously wealthy or athletes. Second, you have quite a hook: From selling drugs to aceing AP exams. If you aren't accepted by Harvard, I'm sure you'll get accepted by one of the others, with the college willing to go to great lengths to help you out with tuition. The goal of the IVYs isn't to have a population of pampered white and Asian kids. If everything you say is true, I'd say you're a lock.</p>

14

<p>it's good business for the university in the long run. places like harvard at which students from families earning less than $40k get full rides remove the disincentive for poor people people to apply. this in turn can boost its academic quality, which in turn strenghthens the reputation of the school. the persons on scholarships whom the colleges invested about $160,000 - $200,000 will probably donate back to the school should they achieve financial success. however, the biggest factor in these financial aid packages is definitely the prestige that comes along with having the academically strongest student body.</p>

15

<p>It would be interest to see if alums who were given full or near-full rides tend to give back more to their schools. Does anyone have stats?</p>

16

<p>Out of all applicants I've ever seen on College Confidential, your chances are better than just about anyone.</p>