What are my Chances??? Ivies!??!?!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Wow hi guys, I can’t believe this is really happening. All my life, I’ve waited for the moment when I could post my very own chance thread :’)

Please give your honest opinions, don’t hold back :wink:

College List (in order of preference lmao):
Princeton!!!
Harvard!!! (SCEA)
UChicago
Columbia
Yale
Stanford
UCB
UCLA
Swarthmore
UCSD
NYU

Stats:
GPA: 4.0 uw (counting A-'s as 4.0s. If they were 3.7, it would be closer to like 3.87)
4.6 w (again would be different if A-'s were counted as 4.7 or w/e)
SAT I: 2370 single sitting
ACT: nah
SAT II: Math II, USH: 800 Chem: 790 Lit: 780
PSAT: 229
AP’s: World, Comp Sci A (both self studied, both 5’s), Euro, Calc BC: 5’s. Waiting on Lit, USH, Bio, Art History, and French

Senior Course load: AP: Econ, Gov, Lang, Chem, Env Sci, Reg: PE, Speech and Debate, Linear Algebra at Stanford OHS (took multivariable calc junior year)
Major Awards: Made late elims at states for Policy Debate, Qualified to AIME twice (7, 5), history paper published in Concord Review (will probably submit paper as a supplement at the schools which accept it), Le Grand Concours (national french contest) bronze in levels 3 and 4, honorable mention in 5, NMSQT probably, the award for lots of AP’s

School/Personal Info
State: CA
Type: Really big public school. Our school sent like 11 people to HYMS this year (princeton hates us rip), so there’s that? My year is definitely not as strong though, so it’s iffy
Graduating Class/rank: ~625. I’d like say I’m ranked in the top like 1% but idk since counselors refuse to rank
Gender/Race: Male Chinese American (immigrated when I was 5)
Income: 200k+
No hooks (o how i wish my parents were illiterate chinese farmers who never finished middle school…) (jk that’d be really bad for me I might’ve never come to the US)

EC’s:
Speech and Debate (9-12): Captain of Policy Debate next year
Intern at Congressman’s office (11)
Intern for State Assemblywoman’s reelection campaign (12)
Quiz Bowl (11-12): We went to nationals (pace)!! placed fairly low tho
French Club (9-12): President next year
Founder of a club that promotes political literacy and civic activism in students from middle school to high school. We’ve done a lot of stuff with the local government!! (11-12): VP, President next year
Random writing competitions (scholastic art and writing) that I did ok in
Intern for science museum (9-10)
Misc art, painting related stuff but I’m terrible so I’m definitely not submitting an arts supplement
Misc volunteering activities under city sponsored program that amount to like 100-150 more hours

Summer Activities:
9th: Debate camp at Cal, Awesomemath
10th: Stanford Humanities Institute Session 1, Debate camp at Dartmouth
11th: SHI again, but session 2

Misc:
Counselor Rec: they have a system where we fill out a form with all of our info and the counselors write a letter based on that, so it won’t be too bad. I barely talk to my counselor tho, im not expecting big things
Teacher Recs: AP Lit and French most likely. I know that it’s better to have one english/history and one science/math, but I just don’t feel like those teachers really would be good… I’ve had the same French teacher for 3 years now, and she loves me so
Essays: I’ve only just started working on them but I’m hoping they’ll turn out well

You know, now that I’ve listed all of my accomplishments out for everyone on the site to see, I feel slightly better! Anyway, hit me w/ ur best shot!!!

2

You know I kind of don’t like when top students with great ec’s ask for chances to ivies and top schools because it’s always the same answer. You have a great chance better then most applicants but it’s so random now that it’s a reach for anyone. So while you have good chances at Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Columbia, and Stanford, consider them reaches. As for Berkeley, I don’t want to call it a safety for you because it’s very competitive but they love high gpa, and you have great SATs and EC’s so you’ll probably get in. UCLAs random much more so than Berkeley but you’ll probably get in there as wel, ditto for UCSD. NYU you’ll most likely get into unless your applying to Stern then it’s a reach for anybody or film. Overall you’ll probably get into a lot of schools on that list but just add one total safety incase you happen to be the unluckies Person ever. Also write outstanding essays. That’s the difference between admission to a top school and denial.

3

My son is Yale '19 so we just came off our experience at the college application thing. Our experience was very educational. He is midwestern, white and male (obvi) and some would say those are anti-hooks, you know? He was accepted at 2 Ivys (YP) but got several rejections/waitlists from those non-Ivy, highly selective schools like many that you mention. Someone here on CC suggested that schools like those know that top students will get better offers on Ivy day, so it makes more sense for them to reject those that they know won’t come and they don’t want to mess up their yield statistics for their US News and WR rankings. I’ll tell you that you have fine chances (but as MegaMetalHead said - those schools are reaches for everyone) but it might not mean that you won’t face some rejection. Don’t let your ego get too wrapped up in it or it can make for a discouraging March.

4

You seem like the classic case of a pretty smart but not super smart Asian guy. As in no crazy awards (USAMO, ISEF international award, Siemens finalist) but a lot of great awards. I would expect you to get in one Ivy or perhaps UChicago. Most ivies won’t take you but I think there will be one from that list that will.