What are my chances for going to Harvard?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>I'm currently in my Junior year, and I'd like an opinion on whether I have a chance of getting into Harvard (or any other Ivy league, for that matter). Additionally, I'd like to know anything more I can do before admissions that would help. Some of this information is tentative (I'm planning on doing it, but haven't done it yet). </p>

<p>Ethnicity: Caucasian</p>

<p>Test Scores:
October SAT 2007:
780 Math (I missed one question :p)
800 Critical Reading
800 Writing
Total: 2380 </p>

<p>PSAT Scores:
80 Math
80 Critical Reading
76 Writing (again, I missed one question)</p>

<p>I'm planning on taking the subject tests for math, US history, and chemistry. </p>

<p>AP Scores so far:
AP Psychology: 5
AP Statistics: 5</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA: 4.0
Winner of the Junior high english department award</p>

<p>Relevant Classes, present and past:
AP English
AP US History
AP Chemistry
AP Psychology
AP Statistics
Honors English 8th-10th grade
Honors History 8th-9th grade
Accelerated Science 8th grade</p>

<p>Additionally, I am self studying for the AP Calculus AB, AP European history, and AP Music theory exams. Next year I will take AP Civics, AP Cal BC, AP Spanish, AP English lit, and AP Biology. </p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
-Played viola for 7 years
-principle player of high school orchestra
-Assistant principal of Tacoma Young Artists Orchestra in 2006
-2nd place in regional solo contest
-part of 1st place quartet in the regional ensemble contest
-quartet received rank of I (best rank) from all 3 judges in state ensemble contest
-received orchestra department award in 9th grade
-participated in All State Orchestra in 2007
-participated in the tacoma youth symphony organization for 6 years
-participated in several gigs in various quartets, both paid and voluntary</p>

<p>-Sports
-participated in Track since 7th grade
-received varsity letter in junior high track
-on track to receive varsity letter for high school track
-participated in cross country since 9th grade
-won "Most Improved" in cross country in 10th grade
-on track to earn Varsity Letter in cross country
-won the Presidential Fitness Award in 9th grade</p>

<p>-Other
-School winner of the AMC 10 2006-2007
-Winner of the Pierce County "Our own words" short story contest in 9th grade
-2nd place in Washington State math competition, team project division
-3rd place in regional math competition, individual topical division
-1st place in regional math competition, team problem division
-Captain of school knowledge bowl team
-member of Key Club, 2006-2007
-member of National Honor Society, 2006-2007</p>

<p>Leadership Roles:
-served in student council in 9th grade as senator (I had to quit student council after that because leadership class got moved to the same period as orchestra)
-planning on running for vice president of school Key Club, president of school honor society
-principle violist of school orchestra</p>

<p>Community Service:
-by the end of the school year I will have done roughly 100 hours of community service between Key Club projects, volunteering for my church (tutoring, preparing food, acting as usher, etc.), and volunteering for other local organizations. Over the summer I plan on doing another 200 hours community service for something... impressive and ambitious. Something to make me stick out. But I don't know what yet. </p>

<p>My current goals for this year are to qualify for the United States Mathematics Olympiad, win the regional solo contest, place in the state ensemble contest, and win the Washington State division for the National Institute of Peace essay contest. I am also considering getting a summer job, because I don't have any work experience right now.</p>

<p>I'm not sure what I want to major in yet. I have confidence that my admission essays will be good, and my teachers generally like me, so I think my letters of recommendation will be good as well.</p>

<p>Any advice would be much appreciated :)</p>

2

<p>“Over the summer I plan on doing another 200 hours community service for something… impressive and ambitious. Something to make me stick out. But I don’t know what yet.”</p>

<p>My only advice is to work on this aspect of your attitude, for now. Doing community service work just to improve your own chances is not a really noble thing, and your motive may be questioned at some point.</p>

<p>Other than that, especially if you reach all of your goals, I give you a 98% likelihood.</p>

3

<p>I wouldn’t be doing it just for the hours. I actually really enjoy working for other people, and I’ve always wanted to make a difference in society. I would want to do the community service over the summer either way, so making it something “impressive” to please colleges is just icing on the cake.</p>

<p>Thanks for the response, BTW :)</p>

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<p>You may want to look into doing the TASP summer program.[TASP[/url</a>]
Or doing a similar program for the those interested in math and science. [url=<a href=“http://www.summerscience.org/home/index.php]SSP”>http://www.summerscience.org/home/index.php]SSP</a> - Summer Science Program](<a href=“http://www.tellurideassociation.org/tasp1.html]TASP[/url”>http://www.tellurideassociation.org/tasp1.html)
Students from both programs, which are highly competative to get into, have a statistically better chance of acceptance at top schools.</p>

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<p>Or try RSI, since you have the whole math thing going for you…applications for those 2 are due very soon though.</p>

<p>Anyway, you have a strong chance, as long as your SAT IIs aren’t awful. If you had a hook like RSI or TASP, you’d have even better chances.</p>

<p>EDIT: Your goals for this year are pretty ambitious…</p>

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<p>You shouldn’t be worrying about all this already as a junior. Do something fun in life.</p>

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<p>I realize that I probably won’t hit ALL my goals- making USAMO this year will be very difficult (though I have been studying for it, and I’m going to use my precalculus and microsoft office (damn technology credit requirement :/) periods to study for it), and getting 1st place in my solo contest division will be difficult on account of the competition… but I think I can manage winning the essay contest for my state, and my school has a very good string quartet. So I don’t think those two are out of the question.</p>

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<p>Don’t ever expect to make USAMO, especially when you have a sub 800 on SAT Math.</p>

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<p>Missing that question had nothing to do with my math skills (it was marked medium difficulty, and it was the only one I got wrong- I got all the “hard” questions right). I just read the question too fast, a mistake which I’ll be careful not to repeat for the AMC/AIME.</p>

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<p>Oops, I just read my post, I didn’t mean that you can’t make the USAMO, i just meant that work your hardest to try to make it but never assume that you will since AIME is such a hard test. Also, careless mistakes on AMC/AIME is probably easier to make than on the SAT. It is just rare to find a USAMO qualifier without a 800.</p>

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<p>First of all, it is easiest to make the USAMO as a sophomore and I don’t even see an AIME up there.</p>

<p>Strong applicant though. Good luck.</p>

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<p>haha stop padding ur resume</p>

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<p>i just had to add that I love the title of this thread. its so blunt and uncoated.</p>

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<p>I’m just wondering, but what do you guys think the strongest aspect is for juanmarco in his/her resume? I mean, does his/her music EC’s, AP classes, grades, math, or sports stand out the most?</p>

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<p>Hey Juanmarco. If you really want to make USAMO, you should consider checking out the website [Art</a> of Problem Solving](<a href=“http://www.artofproblemsolving.com%5DArt”>http://www.artofproblemsolving.com)
It’s really a great resource, and I think without it, I never would have made USAMO in a million years.</p>

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<p>I didn’t make USAMO this year (I did use Art of Problem Solving quite a bit, however, I bought volume 2 and studied out of that) I got 111 on the AMC 12 and 7 on the AIME, which is pretty respectable, , but not quite good enough to make usamo :confused: I should have done more practice exams. but yeah, AOPS is a really good resource. There’s a lot of smart people (dare I say geniuses?) on the forums there. </p>

<p>I think those scores will still look good to colleges, though, and it was actually fun to study for, I learned a lot of math I never would have touched otherwise</p>

<p>and I’m not going to be taking the AP music theory test this year… though I’m still self-studying for calculus and european history (I think I can manage 5s on both of them). I didn’t want to do music theory this year because I couldn’t sight sing or write melodic transcriptions as quickly as the test required and I didn’t have time to practice</p>

<p>and I kind of bombed the rest of my goals- I never wrote that essay (too much work) and both my solo and quartet didn’t do so hot at solo contest…</p>

<p>but I got 3rd place in another music contest, so that should help make up for it, right? And our knowledge bowl team just got 2nd at state… so that should look good too.</p>

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<p>I have been reading posts on here because our daughter unexpectedly got into Harvard, and is trying to decide whether to go. I’m going to stop reading things on CC, because it is giving me an impression of Harvard students, or at least those who aspire to be Harvard students, that is troubling.</p>

<p>I don’t think it is putting it too strongly to say that you are spiritually sick. Do you do anything at all in life without thinking about how it will “look” on your resume? Do you even know how to be an authentic person?</p>

<p>In my experience, and I am in my late 50’s, failure is a great teacher. Getting in to Harvard will ultimately only make this sickness worse. Maybe you and all the others who are living in this way should take a year off and do something nice that noone knows about but you. Or take some great classes at a state college or university, where students work full-time or have kids and still do school. It might change your definition of success.</p>

<p>I am not trying to be mean. I hope that someday these thoughts will help you.</p>

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<p>Agree with cc2. Compmom is not only mean, but also pretentious and disingenuous. I do not believe anybody accidentally got into Harvard including her daughter. Everyone is trying their best. What’s wrong with aspiring to go to ‘Harvard’? To say the least, it keeps kids on the right track instead of getting into troubles.</p>

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<p>I am sorry about how my first post came off. It wasn’t my intention to be mean, just direct, and on rereading I can see how it could be misread. I am just an old hippie, to be honest, and my cultural values may be hard for some young person to understand in 2008.</p>

<p>Thank you to those who have written me reassuring messages about Harvard and who understand where I am coming from.</p>

<p>Just to clarify, I did not say “accidentally”, I said “unexpectedly.” Our daughter wanted to go to a conservatory, and applied to Harvard because most other colleges did not have the music she wanted. But she was focused on the conservatory admissions process, which is very time consuming. She also has several major chronic illnesses, and missed out on a lot of high school, so things like stats and GPA aren’t on her radar. She’s happy that she is not in pain this spring.</p>

<p>Just to be clearer: the things I suggested (taking time off, going to a state college or university for a few courses) are things I myself have tried. I got out of the academic rat race early (at 18, actually, when I went to work in a fish factory instead of to Brown, and then worked with nurses in Appalachia) and never went back. I’ve had a good life and, although I am outwardly not very successful, I am happier than I would have been if I had kept on living for outward appearances, as I did in high school.</p>

<p>My older son is at an Ivy. I tried to talk him out of it, in favor of UMass, to be honest, because of finances. So he has paid most of it himself. He is very happy, but I do think he has absorbed some elitism, and some values that I hope fade once he is back in the real world. You may not understand my point of view here, that the Ivies cause me to feel concerned about values, and I assure you that I am not being disingenuous. It is very weird to live on a campus that is engineered by admissions to include only what one person calls “1%ers”, people who are driven to excel. It is not the real world. I worry about the effect on kids who are not so intense, and, maybe, even more, the kids who are.</p>

<p>We have looked at so many good schools with our two (out of three) kids so far. There are great books out like Loren Pop’s “Beyond the Ivies” and “Colleges that Change Lives.” Kids in Massachusetts are committing suicide over things like grades, and schools. Kids like the poster here make me worried. Please, enjoy your young years.</p>

<p>Final note: I am now studying again at UMass Boston and absolutely love it. Hence my mention of state universities. I have developed an interest in social history, and their American Studies program is outstanding. The personal attention from professors is amazing. Since I am in my late 50’s, I am doing this out of sheer interest, a wonderful luxury that comes with late middle age. My wish for you would be that you could feel that same interest, detached from ulterior motives, in your high school classes. Good luck.</p>