What are my chances to ivies and T20's

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

gpa: UW: 4.0 School only does weighted though but straight A’s.
senior year courses: Calc 3 and Differential Equations, AP Euro, AP Econ (both), AP Gov, AP Lit, AP Physics E & M, AP Spanish (Or spanish 4) probably another AP courses provided I don’t run out.
straight A’s through high school
Act: 36
SAT: 1570
Class rank: Top 5 out of 800 (I have straight A’s but there’s bureaucracy from rich kids who get their parents involved to take classes I’m not allowed to).

Took AP Stats, AP Human Geo, APES, AP Lang, APUSH, AP Physics, AP Chem, AP Calc AB, BC all 5’s 4 in AP Bio

Awards:
Couple state DECA awards, NMF
ECs:
NHS
Participate in Freshman helping program at my school
DECA
TEAMS
Math Competition Club at my school
Key Club (executive position)
Junior year summer participated in program for college students at a local T20 college which utilizes STEM to improve the community. (Will talk about in Essay cuz it changed me for real)
Volunteer for my Temple
Helped my mom significantly go to college during my high school career. Helped her with application, during college with every single paper, and applying to jobs. (she can’t speak English very well). Spent many hours a week doing this so I consider this an EC.
Worked on a successful stock market machine learning algorithm for the past 3 years (Will talk about in Essay cuz big for me). I have a good finance/CS narrative that I can write about.
Planning on participating (if I get in) in a program like quest-bridge college prep, LEDA, SAMS, SUMAC, PROMYS, or something of that sort in the summer before senior year.

income: <35k/year
Personal facts: 1st generation immigrant, lost a sibling, single parent
State: Some Midwest state that not overly represented in T20’s (which is good).
School: Public but majority of top students are 150-200k+.
majors: Finance/CS/Math/Physics I haven’t decided yet
-Will probably apply to quest-bridge

Wow, I sound pretty promising right? Lets change that.

Race: Asian
Parent’s Education: Has M.S.from a foreign university. However, circumstances made it worthless). Also M.S. from a foreign university 25 years ago is very different to college nowadays so I really didn’t get any help there. Helping (Will have just graduated when I apply) her get a M.S. here though so she has a future.

RIP My chances

My dream schools would be Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Stanford, Harvard, or MIT (lol not even applying to the last 2) but I’d be happy with any Ivy or similar school though.
Princeton is my #1 though.

Additionally: I know all of these are reaches. However, I have guaranteed admission to a T20 (hard to explain). but its one of the worst T20’s. However, its still one of the best colleges in the world obviously. Just want to point out that I’m not completely ignorant of how hard it is.

2

Notre Dame or WUSTL?

3

Are those the schools I can get into? Not really interested in Notre Dame although Business program is decent and I thought WUSTL was only good for premed.

4

WUSTL is amazing across a wide range of majors/programs.

Not hugely less selective but have you thought about Duke, Emory, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon?

Your story and your stats are impressive, and you’ve picked good topics to hook your essays on (the STEM program and your algorithm).

Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Stanford: You already know that your chances there are slim even with amazing HS record and compelling story. Best change at Penn, I assume you would apply to Wharton.

5

Let me guess: Cornell? :smiley:

6

Can you get in? Absolutely you have the stats. Will you get in? Probably to some.

7

“but its one of the worst T20’s.”

I realize that you go on to qualify this statement somewhat, but it is still one of the most amusing (or should that be “bemusing”?) things I’ve read on CC.

“Worst” is an entirely subjective evaluative term in this context, and it is quite different from “lowest ranked.” For some people (e.g., those with an aversion to urban life), Columbia or U Chicago might be the “worst” of the T20s. For those seeking a LAC-like vibe rather than a pre-professional one, Harvard or Penn might be the worst.

Mistaking ranking for personal fit could very well lead you to make an enrollment decision that you would ultimately live to regret. Moreover, unless your career goal is focused on prestige-centric fields like i-banking or management consulting (where attending a “target school” provides a huge recruitment advantage), choosing a higher ranked school within the T20 simply for the sake of climbing a few notches on the [ever-changing] US News scale is unlikely to pay big dividends in and of itself.

That said, your superb academic record makes you a competitive applicant at any of the T20s. The fact that you have “finance” first in you list of prospective majors suggests that Penn and Cornell might be worth giving extra attention to, though Stanford could prove ideal if you imagine a career at the intersection of finance and tech. (While Princeton does not have a business program, its street cred is obviously enough to open almost any post-graduation door in finance.)

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@Itisatruth Yes, CMU is on my list of colleges. I just forgot to mention it. It is right up there behind Princeton for me as I love the atmosphere. Unfortunately, I would be applying for CS which makes it just as though as the ivies for me.

@TomSrOfBoston No, its not an Ivy. I’d rather not say what it is though. :slight_smile:

@MrSamford2014 Sorry, I did mean worst-ranked but I dislike the culture as well as I have had a lot of experience with the university in question. The atmosphere is also why Princeton is my #1.

I do intend to go to graduate school and become and hope to work in the tech sector of wall street so prestige does matter a lot to me.

Princeton was interesting to me because I love the atmosphere there and they have a financial engineering program which is pretty unique. I always regarded Wharton as out of my range although Cornell may be worth a shot. Stanford is way out there as well. However, if I do get into one of the several summer programs that I am applying to that are “feeders” for many of these universities I may have a greater chance.

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You have very bright chances to get in at least one of the top 20 colleges but there are no guarantees in this system, even for absolutely perfect candidates with Asian background so prepare for disappointments as well. However, with your family income and single parent status, odds are in your favor. I’ll be surprised if you didn’t get in 2-4 out of 20.

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@CupCakeMuffins thank you. Honestly I was just wondering about my admissions chances to the top schools. Since I have guaranteed admission and full ride already to one of the T20’s, fellow T20’s like Emory, Vanderbilt, WUSTL , Rice, etc, aren’t worth it for me. The schools I would go to above the T20 for this reason are schools like Stanford, MIT, CMU, UPenn, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Harvard, Uchicago, MIT, Cornell, Yale, and maybe Duke (because it’s a prime feeder for the field I want to go into). It’s a crapshoot but do I have a chance of getting into one of these? The schools I named, bar Duke, are one step above anything else, even T20’s. I just wanted to know if I’m even competitive,

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If you have a guaranteed admission to one of the top 20 then you should only apply to your dream schools. As you have a full ride from one, most likely your aid package will be comparable at others as well, if not then you can appeal or reject their offer.

You are competitive enough but do know that you may not get any other acceptance so I say embrace the college who is showing you love until you have an acceptance to a place you love more.

Please ask your GC to seek assurance from the guaranteed acceptance school, you don’t want any confusion in this matter.

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Thank you for the advice. I already have guaranteed assurance so I am good on that front. Anyone else want to chime in and chance me? Suggestions on things to improve on to get into those top 10 schools?

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Id bet money on you to get into one top 10 school. Strong stats, stronger hooks. What else do they want? A cure to cancer?

Dont stress out. Enjoy your last year of highschool, you have achieved excellence. And at the end of the day, go to a place that welcomes you, not for the name. Good luck, keep me posted.

14

Honestly, without the low-income, single parent Asian situation, and possibly your unrepresented state, you wouldn’t be competitive as most Asians are at MIT, Stanford et al, if you go the CS/Math/Physics route. If you go finance, then as others have said you have a really good shot at Penn ED, but if Princeton is your first choice, then you should apply there SCEA and see what happens. We may be able to help more if we knew your home state, at the risk of exaggeration, if you’re from North Dakota, you’re in anywhere, if you’re from California, it would be tough.

“Since I have guaranteed admission and full ride already to one of the T20’s, fellow T20’s like Emory, Vanderbilt, WUSTL , Rice, etc, aren’t worth it for me.”

So you would prefer the T20 you’re in, to these schools, you made it sound like you wouldn’t attend the school since you didn’t see it as a fit?

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I find this post arrogant and somewhat offensive. And you are not first generation no matter how you spin it as worthless. You are lying if you try to represent yourself as such. Someone in my family as a degree from a top 20 and an MBA from top program and is unemployable so the “value” of any degree doesnt necessarily equate to employment or income.

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Tippy top privates have not sent out admits yet.
The ECs listed here are light and for a CS major, any math-sci ECs besides hs math club? Or besides a summer stem exposure? There are very few midwest states that suffer a lack of good applicants to tippy tops.

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@MaybeIvy2020 thank you

@theloniusmonk Thank you for the advice. I will look into Penn ED but I felt like I had no shot because it was the Wharton. I will PM you my home state.

@Center I know you came here from my other post. I wanted to apologize for that. It was an early morning 3 hours of sleep thing (which is no excuse at all). It was based off of irrelevant fears of an immature teenager. I shouldn’t be relying on any sort of income or non-merit to save me nor will I. The bad word usage of the post did not help my case either.

Second of all, I was not planning on talking about first-gen and college degrees to appeal to colleges. I was just sharing it with college confidential as what has been MY experience. I was hoping the parentheses would explain that a bit.

I believe the VALUE of a degree to be more than its economic gains. Hypothetically, if my parent went to UPenn, I would want to go to UPenn too, and I would get a UPenn legacy boost. There, my parent got value out of their degree by motivating their kid to go to UPenn in a way they would never be able to otherwise, and the legacy boost.

To talk more about the soft value, I’ll talk about the motivation and goals. In my experience, my parent has never pushed me academically and she, to this day, remains clueless about my academics, but I appreciate this because I’ve been able to do what I wanted. On the other hand, I have never been able to receive any academic help or college help. Both of these things are what I thought are the benefits of having a college degree in the family as well.

Additionally, I know there’s that idea of parents reading books to you as a small child and things like that, which improves your cognitive ability from an early age and doing all of those nurturing things to stimulate your brain and create a learning environment from an early age, but I grew up in a 3rd world country and based on what I’ve asked my parent, that never occurred.

However, I do acknowledge that subconsciously I probably had a desire to go to college because of my parent, even if it was never talked about to me. I do believe that THIS is the biggest benefit a college degree can have on the family and probably why you are correct. My parent going to A college HAS helped me.

@lookingforward thank you for the honest advice. I know my chances are though and I am going into this with the mindset that I don’t get into any of the top 10 to avoid heartbreak. To add on, creating a successful stock algorithm is a very under-recognized EC. I spent years on it and I fully hope to illustrate my passion and the skills I learned from it. Furthermore, for it to be successful, I had to compete with people who do it for a living and work in the very place where I want to work in the future.

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Nothing wrong with your other thread. Yes, you write on a very adult level. But getting into a TT is much more than that or your backstory or “a good finance/CS narrative” when missing the math-sci ECs. The algorithm won’t tip if it was solo (as opposed to via an internship, eg.) CS can need to see collaborative math-sci experience. (Math competition, yes. But no guarantee, maybe not enough.)

Also my concern is whether you have an idea what TTs look for, the holistic, the stretchy choices that reflect awareness and drives. Or what they want to learn about you from your EC choices/record and the essay.

Can you just name your state so we can assess that?

You’re set on trying. Fine. Pick targets wisely, as informed as you can be. Understand more about what they look for, so you can make your best presentation. It’s not just your wants, not just your challenges, like income or school issues, but how you triumphed despite. And that’s “Show, not just tell.”

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@lookingforward pm’d you my state. I am confident that I will get into AIME this year. Do you know of any other Math EC’s. My school really doesn’t offer many others, Unfortunately, Math research for ISEF and such is extremely difficult at a high school level but if I don’t get into any of the summer programs in the original post, I will be doing engineering research at a T20 this summer.

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You’re a junior? That gives you time to fine tune.