What are my CHANCES??

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>South Asian Female, Junior, US Citizen, from Texas
Economic Status: family income currently ~$40,000ish, one parent unemployed</p>

<p>Class Rank: 5/~600ish
Current GPA: around 4.2-4.3 w, 4.0 uw (yeah, it's on the low end of HYP students...)
SAT: latest is 730M/720W/680CR without much studying (yeah, I know, need to study more)
PSAT: 215(soph), 211(jr) - low (i was sick) but rumor that students in my state (TX) were so bad this year that ~210 will be the NMSF cutoff this year... hoping for the best! but will probably get Commended <em>sigh</em>
ACT: not yet taken, but saw the official prep book and it looks easier than the SAT!</p>

<p>Soph APs:
* AP Computer Science A (5)
all other core classes were honors/pre-ap</p>

<p>Jr APs:
* AP Computer Science AB
* AP Chemistry
* AP US History
* AP Calculus AB [not BC due to schedule conflict, may take BC exam]
* AP English Lang
* AP Spanish Lang [may not take exam, will probably fail since not a native speaker]
currently taking pre-ap physics, a requirement for ap physics at my school</p>

<p>Sr APs:
* AP Biology
* AP Physics
* AP Government
* AP [Macro?]Economics
* AP Statistics
* AP English Lit
- considering AP Psych and/or AP Music Theory if either is offered by school
- may self-study for AP Human Geo to get AP International Diploma; would qualify for foreign-language requirement even without AP Spanish because I speak another language</p>

<p>Extra-Curriculars: [will include senior year]
* Girl Scouts: 4 years [Patrol Leader, may do BGFG Advisory Committee next year]
* Student Council: 4 years
* Key Club: 4 years [newspaper committee, currently running for officer for next year]
* Spanish Club: 3 years [unsuccessful run for officer position, will try again next year]
* Science Club: 2 years [founding member, secretary, lettering supervisor]
* Youth Group: 2 years [secretary]
* Tennis: 2 years [freshman, JV2 teams - did for PE credit, quit after soph year]
* Computer Science Competition Team: 3 years
* Science/Math Competition Teams: 2 years? [this is the first year, no competitions yet!]
* piano player since 3rd grade, self-taught since 4th grade</p>

<p>Volunteer Work:
* 3 years with Cook Children's Medical Center (1.5 as Junior Volunteer, 1.5 as Child Life)
* Tutoring school children of various ages both outside of school and as part of Key Club, Spanish Club, Science Club
* various volunteer work with Key Club including work at the Food Bank, tutoring, HI-KIDS (programs and fun events for low-income minority kids), storytelling at a book store, fundraising
* Serving food with my place of worship for 4+ years
* various volunteer work with my Youth Group including various food and supplies drives and fundraising, visits to hospitals and nursing homes, worship service</p>

<p>Summer Programs:
* Texas Prefreshman Engineering Program (TexPREP): 3 years
* Cook Children's Medical Center Junior Volunteer Summer Program: 2 years
- will do some summer program this year - have applied to RSI and others, will do U Texas First Bytes if I don't get into others since I have been told I am pretty much guaranteed admission there
- plan to do some research this summer, whether associated with a summer program like RSI or something I do on my own (have arranged to work with a professor if I don't get in)</p>

<p>Awards:
* Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards, working on Gold Award; Bronze, Silver, Gold Leadership Awards; Cadette and Senior Challenge Awards; various other Girl Scout awards in math/science, health, safety, language, and sports; trained Program Aide
* TexPREP awards: Outstanding in Logic, Computer Science, Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Writing; Most Improved in Writing and Computer Science [previous year], Biology
* Graphics 2008 (Computer Science competition) - 3rd place team
- currently 3rd place individual in Best of Texas: Computer Science Div. 5A, hope it lasts
- will compete in various math/science competitions like UIL, hope for the best!
- unfortunately school doesn't offer olympiads because doesn't have the $$ to do so</p>

<p>sooooo... do i have a chance? i really hope so, but i'm afraid of the rejection letter.
also applying to other Ivyies, Duke and similar schools, U Cal Berkeley, UCLA, Rice, Stanford
my safeties include U Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU (already got a full ride!)</p>

2

<p>Well all I can say is that I hope you get in because your resume looks a lot like mine…cept the Girl Scouts…ugh camping</p>

3

<p>

haha, not much of a camper myself! (note the omission of “outdoors” in GS awards above) I can do it if needed, but I’m not a super-outdoors person. I do love some outdoor activities, though. Thanks for the reply and good luck to you as well!</p>

4

<p>According to my calculations, 13.1468645138%, rounding up, of course.</p>

5

<p>Actually, I’d say 13.1468645138% rounding down.</p>

<p>How could you make such a silly mistake Amadeuic?!!</p>

6

<p>I’m obviously not an adcom officer, so I can only critique you. You clearly have a great resume, and you’re very involved and accomplished. It’s hard, though, to tell where your passion lies. Your ECs don’t seem to be targeted toward anything specific – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but you just have to make it all work in your essays. If you do have a specific interest (old or recent), you have the rest of junior year, the summer, and some of senior year to focus on it and make them stand out in your application. I will say that you definitely have a good shot of getting into a lot of great schools. Good luck!</p>

7

<p>You should be a bit worried when someone says, “your resume looks a lot like mine.” Find a way to make your application really stand out. Show them where your true passions lie and how you plan to act on them in the future.</p>

<p>Other than that, boost your test scores and good luck!</p>

8

<p>Haha… I didn’t even think of that…</p>

9

<p>thank you so much for the advice and replies! This will all be really helpful. Mustafah78, I definitely agree with you that I haven’t done enough to make my app “stand out”…</p>

10

<p>Your chances are the same as everyone else’s. No one on this site can tell you if you got in or not and you can’t change anything now, so what’s the point of asking?</p>

11

<p>Sijit, the reason I ask is that I can get an idea of where I stand among other potential applicants, as well as what I can do to improve my chances. For example, several have suggested here and on my Yale chances thread that my application doesn’t “stand out” enough, and one person on the Yale thread was even specific about what I could do, mentioning that I could focus on. for example, comp sci related things to show a focus in and passion for comp sci. Of course, no one here can tell me for sure if I’ll be accepted or rejected (unless one of our fellow CCers here is an adcom in disguise…) but surely suggestions on what I can do can make a difference, both for me and for other CCers in a similar situation looking to boost their apps and compare themselves with other applicants like me.</p>

<p>And I would argue that I can change some of these. I can study and improve my SAT score. I can work harder and improve my GPA and rank. I can get a summer job or an internship, or something similar to show my passion in a particular field and “stand out” from the others. And who knows, I may win some fantastic award! They say that the summer before senior year is the most important, and I plan to make the most of it. So yes, while there likely won’t be a drastic change in my stats, there may be enough of one to make a significant difference in my chances for acceptance.</p>

12

<p>Sorry, I thought that you were a senior. The “chance me” threw me off. If you’re a junior, then it makes sense for you to ask advice, although I have to warn you that some of the people on here are probably more clueless than you are. </p>

<p>As far as ECs are concerned, most people on here will tell you that you need to do more. This isn’t true. There’s a reason MIT only has space for five. Don’t worry about quantity, worry about your interest in them. Shallow ECs won’t get you anywhere.</p>

<p>Long story short, there are better sources for figuring out your suitability. Go to the college’s website and find out the median SAT scores. Those will be more helpful than whatever inflated idea you’re getting from people on this site. Likewise with the GPA. After your actual stats are out of the way, focus on being yourself.</p>

<p>If you really feel a need to tailor your interests to Yale, then visit their website and find out what they value in students. Remember that the vast majority of people on here will get rejected, so obviously they don’t have all the answers.</p>

13

<p>Thanks for the advice!</p>