<p>After visiting several schools in New England/Mid-Atlantic over the summer, I have to say that Harvard is my favorite. Would y'all say that applying early to Harvard hurts/helps my chances there?</p>
<p>Major: economics, possibly double major (econ/history or econ/management)
Minor(?): music</p>
<p>Schools I am considering (in order of preference):
Harvard (SCEA)
Stanford
Princeton
Chicago
Penn
Yale
UC Berkeley
Northwestern
Cornell
NYU (safety)
UMass (safety)</p>
<p>Personal
Location: town with good mid-small school in Massachusetts
Gender: Male
Race: Asian
Financial situation: upper middle class
Other: bi- or trilingual immigrant from Taiwan (this helps, right?)</p>
<p>Academics
GPA UW: ~3.95 (all As one A-)
GPA W: ~4.6 (will rise this year because of APs)
Rank: not given by my school, but I am in highest percentile range and probably will be valedictorian
Senior Classes: 5 APs (Physics, BC Calc, English, Statistics, Latin); I'm pretty sure no one in my school has such a difficult schedule
Prior AP Classes: Chem, Euro
Out-of-school AP classes: Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth distance education (AP Macroecon, AP Microecon, AP US Gov't & Politics)
Misc: I am taking a math course at a college in the spring, but can I mention this on either the EA or RD apps?</p>
<p>Test Scores
SAT I: 2320 (800V, 750M, 770W, only a 9 on essay!?)
SAT II: Math II (800); Chem (790); Physics (800)
APs: all four 5s (Chem, Euro, Macroecon, Microecon), will likely get six more 5s this year</p>
<p>Academic Awards
National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist (likely; will known in several days)
AP Scholar with Honor (will be sure of this in a few days)
Honorable Mention (6th place), Northeast Section (that's NH & eastern MA) of American Chemical Society chemistry exam
Yale Book Award (is this actually worth mentioning?)
In-school awards for various subjects (are these worth mentioning?)</p>
<p>Music Awards
Performance at Carnegie Hall for American Fine Arts Festival
2nd prize, Puigcerda (Spain) International Piano Competition
4th prize, Connecticut International Piano Competion
Four consec. years of prizes (three 2nd prizes, one hon. mention) MA Music Teachers Assoc. statewide competition</p>
<p>Activities (includes summer stuff)
President & founder, Tri-M Music Honor Society and related group Music in the Community (basically lots of music-related service throughout area; this is my primary activity)
Leader/Coordinator (highest position), local program that tutors disadvantaged talented middle schoolers in nearby town in conjunction with renowned private high school
Member, National Honor Society
Volunteer, local hospital admin dep't
Volunteer, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston)
Volunteer, local International Institute (basically helps immigrants)
Member, Mock Trial team
Member, technical theater crew
Participant, local career mentoring program
In-school independent study (music-related)
Member, table tennis club</p>
<p>Summer Activities throughout high school (this might be my weak point; it sounds like a lot but really isn't. Unlike my school-year activities, these seem to be quite scattered and short.)
Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth camp (2 years)
Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth distance education (2 years)
International music festival in Spain (1 year)
Music-related volunteering (4 years)
Robotics/engineering (guess what, music related) project with another student (1 year)
Volunteer at local hospital (3 years)
Volunteer at art museum in Boston (1 year)
Paid piano teaching (1 year)</p>
<p>Employment
piano teaching (1 year paid) (this is independent and not reported as actual employment, so should I mention this?)</p>
<p>Other
Essay: I expect to be ok to good (I don't really know what exactly to write about yet)
Interview: I expect to be ok
Teacher recs: probably good</p>
<h2>Counselor rec: awesome</h2>
<p>Again, does applying early to Harvard decrease my chances of getting in? I expect my GPA to rise a good deal because of all the APs I am taking this year.</p>
<p>Summary
It is obvious that my main interest is music...Is this good or bad? I assume that I should send a recording of my performances.
I seem to have a solid activities participation (especially volunteer work).
Essays, teacher recs, and interview are unlikely to be awe-inspiring.
My weak points seem to be work experience, summer activities, and lack of athletics.</p>
<p>So, what are my chances at the schools I mentioned above? I visited all the East-coast schools I mentioned, and ended up wanting to go to Harvard.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for all feedback!</p>