What are my chances of getting into USC, Rice, Harvard, Princeton

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey, hope I’m not being too much of a nuisance. I am applying to these schools regular decision.

Here are my stats:

School Type: Regular Public School (One of the better public high schools in the state), sends one maybe two students to top 20 universities each year
GPA: 3.87 UW, 4.94 W (Both should be going up), Ranked in top 6%
SAT: 2230 (M-680, CR-760, WR-790)
SAT II: US History-750, Math 1- Should be 710-740ish
Junior Year: 4 APs (US History, English, Spanish, Physics) made an A & A+ in all of them
Senior Year: 7 APs (Macro-Econ, Chemistry, English, US Gov, Psychology, Env. Science, Calculus AB) So far all A’s
AP Exams: World History- 5, Spanish-5, US History- 4, English-5
Awards: Commended on PSAT, National Hispanic Scholar, several school academic awards, AP Scholar with honor, should be an Eagle Scout soon, Microsoft Office Specialist Certified (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Access, Outlook) if that counts

EC’s: Boy Scouts (A couple of leadership positions), National Honor Society, Every other honor society pretty much, Chess Club, Academic Decathlon Junior Year

Volunteering: Have about 60 hours through NHS, and some from Boy Scouts

Work Experience: Nothing pertinent to my major, got a job at a concession stand for the first two years of high school

Recommendations: Should be really good, had intellectual and nice conversations with both and they really like me

Essays: main essay- Writing about my grandparents (impoverished and came to this country and were discriminated against) and parents’ (Grew up in poverty as well and became successful) hard work laying down a path for me to pursue my passions, other questions- writing about my love for backpacking and the outdoors/ Boy Scouts experiences

Other:
Mexican-American
Family income: upper middle class-ish, definitely need financial aid to attend these schools
From a large state that probably sends many kids to these colleges
Probably Economics/Business major
I guess the hook is my family’s history of poverty-my grandparent’s immigration and how they were discriminated against and how my parent’s grew up poor and went to segregated schools but became successful

Thanks for any input

2

Your hook isn’t a hook. Your only hook is being a URM.

3

Yah, that’s why i put the “I guess”, it’s not really definite

4

USC is a maybe.
The others are reaches.

5

USC - high match
Rice - low reach
Ivies - reach

6

I think your chances are good for all of them

7

Mexican-american is huge

I’d say:
Rice and USC - high match
Harvard and Princeton - reach

8

Your scores are really good and they are a match for USC. Harvard and Princeton however are Ivies, and are different for a reason. I know of a few people with 3.5 GPA’s who have gotten in. Your essay is actually a huge part, but I think you’ve gotten something wrong. Your essay should be about you and not your other family members. Sure, mention them in the background, but don’t make the entire essay on them. Admission officers want to know you and your history because they are admitting you. I would highly recommend revising your essay.

9

Thank you for the advice. I was planning on editing that but now I will probably overhaul the essay, thanks again for the input.

10

Same as people above are saying. I hope these aren’t the only schools you’re applying to because the odds are a little against your favor. And just a general rule, all ivies are reaches. While your GPA and test scores look good, your ECs aren’t outstanding which could hurt you a little when you’re applying to schools that have admission rates in the teens.

care to chance me back? thanks