What are my chances of getting into these top universities??

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>The colleges I'm thinking of applying to are: University of the Pacific, USC, UCSD, UC Berkeley, UCLA, U of Rochester, MIT, Cornell, Emory, Johns Hopkins, WUSTL, Harvey Mudd, & Stanford.</p>

<p>Entering this school year, I am a senior. I'm a California resident living in the valley (my location is air-polluted, so that's a plus) and I am in the ELC program.</p>

<p>GPA AND TEST SCORES
Cumulative Weighted GPA (non-UC): 4.7X
Cumulative Weighted GPA (UC): 4.10
Cumulative Unweighted GPA: 3.8X
Top 4% of the class (#2 out of 170)
400+ service hours</p>

<p>SAT I: 1970 (will retake 2 more times)
CR - 580
M - 720
W - 670</p>

<p>SAT II's<a href="might%20retake,%20not%20sure%20yet">/U</a>
Math IIC - 710
Chemistry - 650</p>

<p>ACT: 29 composite (will retake 1 more time)
English: 30
Math: 28
Reading: 27
Science: 29
Opt. Writing: 28</p>

<p>Freshman: 3 Honors ~MAX OFFERED~
Sophomore: 4 Honors, 1 AP ~MAX OFFERED~
<em>got an A in US History over the summer at a community college.</em>
Junior: 5 Honors, 1 AP ~MAX OFFERED~
<em>received a 4 on the AP Chemistry exam</em>
Senior: 1 Honor, 5 APs ~MAX OFFERED~</p>

<p>My school hardly offers any AP classes as you can see.</p>

<p>E/C's
-Top of my Freshman class award with a 4.6X weighted GPA average
-4 years Marching Band, Steel Drums, Jazz Band, and piano playing for School Masses. (*I'm very good at playing piano and drumset) I get lots of service hours for this.
-Honor Band percussionist
-4 years CLC group member (Christian Life Community)
-2 years CSF Secretary
-3 years Hip-Hop Club President
-1 year Junior Class President
-1 year ASB Vice President
-Been playing piano since 2nd grade
-No sports (due to my asthma)
-Academic Decathlon team member
-2 years Link Crew member
-2 years Student Ambassador
-Tutor in chemistry</p>

2

<p>You’ll get Pacific and UCSD probably; the rest are reaches. You’re not going to get Stanford, Cornell or MIT though.</p>

3

<p>Sorry but Stanford and MIT are not going to accept you probably.</p>

4

<p>

</p>

<p>Right… #2 is what you’re gonna say buddy, not top 4%.</p>

<p>Your test scores at horrible man, esp. for the schools you’re reaching for. You’re gonna need at least a 2100 for Cornell, and at the least like 2200-2300 for Stanford. </p>

<p>Though EC’s are good, I hope you ‘tie it together’ in your essays, so it doesn’t seem like your the president of 5 clubs that only has 3 other members- the VP, Secretary, and Treasurer.
And get a letter of rec from your guidance counselor explaining how you could’ve ‘truly shined if you were offered more resources like more APs.’</p>

<p>Do this, and it’ll be a reach everywhere you apply.</p>

5

<p>

[quote=jakebarnes]
You’ll get Pacific and UCSD probably; the rest are reaches. You’re not going to get Stanford, Cornell or MIT though.[ /quote]</p>

<p>and</p>

<p>

[quote=nothingto]
Sorry but Stanford and MIT are not going to accept you probably.[ /quote]</p>

<p>Okay… can you guys please elaborate a little bit at least on why I wouldn’t get in?? Does it really not look good if I’m a bad test taker? T_T</p>

<p>And Honorlions, how else should I show leadership?</p>

6

<p>Stanford and MIT accept the best of the best. Your test scores are nowhere near that level. Unless you have some amazing hook to compensate for the low test scores, you have little chance of acceptance.</p>

7

<p>Ok, your SAT and ACT’s are not pretty. Stanfords usual SAT average is 2100, which makes your score look a bit tiny. MIT’s average is 2200. The score will hurt you, as SAT and ACT’s are a major factor in the admissions process.</p>

<p>You might get into John Hopkins as far as I know, but its a High match, or a low reach.</p>

8

<p>Alright thank you. I still have yet to retake those tests, so I’ll do my best to study for them this summer. Do you think my GPA might make the colleges a little more lenient anyways, since it’s a high 4.7+? I had a lot of A+'s in the classes I’ve taken, hardly any B’s.</p>

9

<p>Your UW GPA matters more.</p>

10

<p>Much like people have said for Stanford and MIT, Harvey Mudd won’t like the test scores either. Average there is 2200+ for the SAT I, and the middle 50% for the Math II is 760-800. And that score for chem will hurt far more than help. It really is necessary for them though, they need to be sure you can handle the work there and have the base knowledge required. Not testing well, unfortunately, is indeed a basis for rejection, as your grades will be largely based on tests in university, and at a place like Mudd it’s hard to get by academically as it is.</p>

11

<p>Yeah I getcha. Ok well it looks like it’s only the tests I need to work on then. Might as well start studying even harder…</p>

12

<p>Does anyone else agree with HONORLIONS about the leadership part? Isn’t having positions in different clubs and ability to work together with others showing leadership? Colleges like that don’t they? What do you mean by ‘tie it together’??</p>

13

<p>I think he means: To try to tell them that your president positions aren’t for small groups, because even though leadership positions are good, being a leader of a club with 3 members isn’t a great accomplishment colleges are looking for. But I wouldn’t risk time and space in my opinion to say that in your essay. Colleges would rather like a different topic then talking about your EC’s and Grades.</p>

14

<p>The clubs where I have positions in are huge. I can show you right now:
-2 years CSF Secretary (maybe 100+ who are in CSF)
-3 years Hip-Hop Club President (40+ members)
-1 year Junior Class President (prez. of over 170+ students my year)
-1 year ASB Vice President (vice prez. of the entire school)</p>

<p>I agree with you that I should talk about something rather than my EC’s and grades since they can already see those when they look at my application. They want students to express how they stand out from others. Can you give me some examples of what I could maybe talk about? I couldn’t do any sports in high school because of my allergies and asthma, so maybe I can talk about being in the Band for 4 years and my dedication to music instead? I really appreciate your advice, thx again.</p>

15

<p>For one thing, the number of members might be a good thing to include in each short description on the activities section of the CommonApp.</p>

<p>“Hip-Hop Club is a 40-person organization (round to the nearest 10) which [teaches kids hip-hop/listens to hip-hop/whatever you do.”</p>