Hey guys I was wondering what my chances of getting into an Ivy League are. I’m not Ivy obsessed nor do I have plans to go to one but I just want to see where I stand.
Weight Gpa: 4.6
Unweighted: 4.0
Course Rigor: around 15 APs + IB ciriculum
SAT: 2320
ACT: 34
EC’s:
President of Key Club
President of Tennis Club
Number #1 on Varsity Tennis
State Tennis Qualifier for three years
3rd in State History Fair
Various Science Olypiad Awards
Placed at National Mu Alpha Theta Competition
AIME qualifier
Classically trained in guitar
Part of a cultural dance group
I’m still not clear on what I want to do in the future, but currently business and medicine have caught my eye. If you guys could also give me advice on how to improve my application that would be great! Thank you!!!
Each Ivy League is vastly different, so I’ll assume you mean where you stand in terms of being a viable candidate for “Ivy-caliber” schools.
Stats are very strong, EC’s are a little scattered but still pretty good.
Are you an underrepresented minority?
As of now, it’s too late to add anything substantial to the application. Very memorable essays can certainly help a lot, perhaps making some kind of connection between your EC’s.
Are you a junior or senior? If you’re a junior, are you good enough to be recruited as an athlete? That would increase your chances dramatically.
@rdeng2614 yup I’m a junior and I’m female and Asian. Could you elaborate on what you mean by scattered? My main strengths in ec is math, science, and tennis sorry if I wasn’t clear on that.
You can probably get into cornell or dartmouth off stats/ecs alone. The others are pretty high reaches, and you will need good essays for any of them
@sattake Yh I’m semi confident my essays will be well written because of my past experiences so I have a lot to talk about as well as future plans (I’m an immigrant). What do you suggest I do to improve my application for colleges like Harvard?
Your stats are range. You can write great essays. Honestly I would rate your chances as very low for Harvard. You are an overrepresented minority and have not shown “excellence” in a passion in your ECS. But if you write stellar essays then you could get in.
Yup I agree! I’m studying to qualify for the USAJMO which will hopefully show more excellence in my passion for math. I’m also planning to get a research internship over the summer (maybe even start writing a paper). I’m also starting biology Olympiad at my school and starting a chapter in my community for a charity which contributes to aiding underdeveloped regions in the country I’m from. Would any of these increase my chances?
Yeah definitely. I don’t know if the fruition of these projects will be done in time for college apps though.
EDIT: Oh, you are a junior. Yeah definitely do these things. If you can make an olympiad camp or do some quality research then you have a great chance for a lot of schools (if not Harvard).
Great! Thank You so much!!!
By scattered, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, is that you have interests in a lot of areas: Tennis, History, Math, Dance, Music. It makes it difficult to stand out among a bunch of applicants. You really have to emphasize one or a few parts of your EC’s to make your app memorable.
It’s hard to say if well-rounded or pursuing a few specific interests is better which is why I’m saying it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Harvard specifically said (an admissions rep and a current student told me when I asked them so I’ll assume it’s valid) they like well-rounded people, while other schools like quality over quantity.
But, one’s thing for certain. If you can play Division 1 Tennis and can get recruited, your chances at the Ivies increase dramatically, much more than starting a Charity/Bio Olympiad/Research, which are awesome, but not nearly as eye-catching as being a recruited athlete.
Oh by the way, you can’t qualify for USAJMO as it is for tenth grade and under. You can try for USAMO which is really tough to qualify for.
I got the feeling that you were good at tennis, but not recruited athlete level. I could be wrong though. In most cases it is quality over quantity, so focus on a few areas of extracurriculars (research or math) and push these areas to their limit (qualifying for national/international olympiads or participating in the intel or siemens competitions with your research).
Yeah, you are ivy-obsessed.
Harvard is very, very hard to get into. There are only so many seats and hundreds of thousands of applicants. The odds are not good.
As an ORM, your application has to stand out: like being a recruited athlete in tennis (in other words, at national player level) or being a URM with perfect EC’s or a type of celebrity.
Starting activities, late in your Junior year, will be viewed as padding your resume.
Additionally, the ivies have a history of being socially and environmentally conscientious, so they tend to like people who buck the trend (Think of the kid who made the clock from spare parts and was arrested, only to be invited to the White House. Think of Malala).
There are lots of GREAT colleges besides the ivies; Harvard is not the only college that exists.
Actually, there aren’t hundreds of thousands of applicants, it just feels that way, LOL.
rdeng Harvard does not like well rounded students. They like a well rounded student body. Also you dont have to have perfect ECs you just have to have something they want and that can vary from student to student. Did you take classes for all 15 of the APs? What makes you stand out from the rest of the applicants?
How the hell are people saying “high reach” for every ivy?
I think you will absolutely get into at least one ivy.
-_-
Work on qualifying for USAMO and I see you having a much higher chance