What are my chances for HSYP/other ivies?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello, I am currently a high school junior, and so far, I have no idea where to even begin to assess my chances. By the time I apply in fall of my senior year, I will have around a 3.9 unweighted and a 4.4-4.5 weighted overall (9-12). I have, as of today, completed two college classes (latin 101/102) along with 12 ap classes, although I plan to do another 7 next year and 3 over the summer. I got a 34 on my first act sitting, but I was 1 point away on any subsection from getting a 35, so I think I will retake it.
To speed things up, I will list in the traditional format:
ACT (breakdown): 34, 11 writing SAT II (subject, score): Only one taken so far, 780 World History Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): at application time it will be 3.9; right now it is 3.87 Weighted GPA: at application time it will be 4.4-4.5; right now it is 4.35 (9-12) and 4.55 (10-12) Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): NA AP (place score in parentheses): World History (5) European History (5) Art History (4) Physics I (3 - I was a freshman who was very sick) Senior Year Course Load: AP Gov, AP Econ, AP Lit, Modern Classics, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, AP Computer Science A, Adv. Topics in Mathematics; along with 5-6 summer classes (3 of them aps, 2 at community college probably!)
Number of other EA applicants in your school: to top schools, a lot. Probably more than 60. I go to a very competitive public school.

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel, etc.): Loads of regional science fair awards, but that’s about it. Those include a congressional letter of honor from my rep., along with a state rep. letter of recognition; as well as some private organizational recognition.

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (name, grade levels, leadership, description): I am in the process of filing 3 or more patents along with my research partner because I invented a method in biotechnology on certain plants (sorry I can’t go more into it here!), cofounder (one of two founders) of a small biotechnology company (only revenue from local science fair and school donations, with revenue to come from the ip, but not in time for application unfortunately). I am also head of 3 clubs at school, and founder of one of them (philosophy and 2 market orientated clubs). I am also on the lab team of a biotech team, but the competition is slightly after early application. :frowning:
Job/Work Experience: Independent research in a lab I guess but I worked for myself
Volunteer/Community Service: not really much
Summer Experience: I will be interning for a different lab, as well as taking classes, finishing my patents, and perhaps volunteering for a museum. I have other plans but they haven’t actualized yet.
Ethnicity: white, not hispanic
Sex: M
Location: western US
Weaknesses: GPA! I have six b’s. Also, I’m not sure if I am too one dimensional?

Now, here is where things get hairy. I have wanted low-key wanted to go to Harvard, but for the last few years, they have only accepted one person from my school early. There is this girl in my grade whose father is head of the Harvard alumni city association, and her older brother went to harvard a few years back. I don’t think I can compete against that. Stanford usually accepts 3 or so from my school, but those kids are all crazy qualified.
Honestly, what are my chances? Thank you for your time and consideration.

2

Don’t self eliminate because they’ve only picked one in the past. It’s a reach but you never know.

3

@stressedoutjuniorze you are definitely a qualified and competitive applicant for all of these schools, even Harvard and Stanford, but of course the competition is really fierce.
Is Harvard our top top choice or is it between Harvard and Stanford? In any case, given that there is this girl you can’t compete against due to her Harvard connections, it might be worth applying to Stanford SCEA to slightly increase your chances, and then applying to Harvard RD.

What are you planning on studying? bioengineering?

4

@Sportsman88 Thank you for your response.

@Penn95 I love Stanford; however, upon visiting the surrounding area, and speaking with some people there - they seemed like zombies - I am honestly a little intimidated by the environment. I want to go to college to honestly follow my passions, however the people whom I have talked to, albeit in my very anecdotal experience, described it as more stressful than high school! But, while I have not had the chance to visit Harvard, but I have met someone who is attending, and he spoke very very highly of it. I have talked with some individuals at my rented labspace that attended there as well, and they all referred to it as the best time of their lives, and strongly encouraged me to try to go, and they described it as a better fit for my personality, and scoffed when I mentioned Harvard. I am really at a crossroads - and I am mostly concerned that I’ll get into neither, of course - and am really not sure if I am competitive at all or where I should try to apply to begin with, hence why I made this thread. Honestly, before this year, when I saw my incredibly bright senior friends get crushed with rejections all over the place, I naively though I could pave my way forward at my pick - but now I am beginning to question everything!

Also, is one dimensionality a concern? I love history, but there aren’t many history XCs besides volunteering for a museum, which I have been emailing around for…

5

Usually the impressions i have heard are the other way around. Stanford has abetter social life, tis students are more social, laid back. but keep researching both and you will get a better idea.

Here is an interesting article published by the Harvard crimson on Harvard vs Stanford.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/10/30/stanford-vs-harvard/

Regarding whether you are competitive enough, yes you are but of course you should cast a wide net. All of the ivies and top schools let alone Stanford and Harvard, reject thousands of top applicants each year.

You should build a reaches, matches, safeties list.

6

In the RD round, everyone’s a reach (well, everyone without a big hook or multiple hooks) at HYPSM and Chicago, Columbia, and maybe ten other Ivies and equivalents.

If you develop a favorite, you might consider SCEA or ED – it appears to help, anywhere from a little bit to quite a bit.

For instance, Harvard’s SCEA admit rate this past cycle was around 15%, about three times its overall rate and about four times its RD admit rate.

UChicago’s RD rate was about 2%, while its ED1 rate was in the teens.

Northwestern’s overall admit rate was about 10% and its RD rate was like 7-8%; its ED rate was about 25%.

ED rates at Princeton and Yale are in the high teens, Penn and Brown are around 20%, and Cornell and Dartmouth are in the mid-20s% like Northwestern.

Middlebury, a top-5 LAC, has an ED rate around 50%. They might be the best example of a highly elite school really putting weight on ED applications.

Stanford’s SCEA admit rate this past year was around 9%, I believe. That is still about 2-3 times what their RD rate is.

MIT is one school where the restrictive EA increase is fairly minimal. And at Georgetown, the RD admit rate is actually higher than their ED acceptance rate.

So ED/SCEA can help, but it doesn’t have the same effect everywhere, so if you are considering that route do your research.

However, I suggest only applying ED anywhere if you are sure it’s your #1 choice. SCEA is not as binding, but it still limits your other early apps, so be careful there too.

It’s generally a good idea to make sure, with all of your apps, that you actually like the school and can afford it without too much debt.

Finally, like Penn95 said, add matches and at least one safety to your app list.

Try to find schools that fit you academically, environmentally, and socially.

7

@prezbucky
MIT’s EA is not restrictive. It is like Northeasterns or UMich where you can apply early there and to other schools.

8

Well that helps explain why it gives such a subtle boost.