What are the chances

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I just got deferred from Harvard. I am taking 6 AP classes this year.</p>

<p>School Type: public
Location: New York
Race/Gender: Black/ African American Male
Prospective Major: History
AIM: Hermes2623
Unweighted GPA: 94.75
Weighted GPA: 96.64
Class rank: ? of 385</p>

<p>SAT I Scores
SAT I Math: 670
SAT I Verbal: 660</p>

<p>ACT Scores
ACT Composite: 32</p>

<p>SAT II Scores
SAT II Writing: 660
SAT II U.S. History: 700
SAT II Math IC: 630
SAT II Ecological Biology: 620</p>

<p>Long-form Info</p>

<p>Extracurricular Info
Newspaper
Yearbook
Wrestling
Track
Karate - national competitor
Focus on helping America
Key Club
Art club
National Art Honor society
National Honor Society
Student body governemnt - treasurer</p>

<p>Venture Scholar
Who's Who Among American High School Students
High Honor Roll each year
Honorable mention - National Spanish Exam
National Honor Roll
National Society of High School Scholars
National Achievement</p>

<p>I went crazy and applied to 20 schools. What are my chances at:
Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UPENN, Dartmouth, Brown, Duke, Georgetown, Washington University in St. Louis, Northwestern, Cornell, Notre Dame, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, Tufts, Boston College, and Tulane.</p>

<p>I already got into Michigan Honors and Binghamton. I know its alot of schools but I got insecure and I decided to do the extra work so I can have alot of options at the end(hopefully).</p>

2

<p>stanmaster22:</p>

<p>Harvard: Reach
Yale: Reach
Stanford: Reach
UPenn: Reach
Dartmouth: Reach
Brown: Slight Reach
Duke: Slight Reach
Georgetown: Slight Reach
WUStL: Match
Northwestern: Slight Reach
Cornell: Slight Reach
Notre Dame: Match
UCB: Reach (out of state)
UCLA: Reach (out of state)
UCSD: Slight Reach (out of state)
Tufts: Slight Reach
BC: Slight Reach
Tulane: Match</p>

3

<p>thanks. any more ideas?</p>

4

<p>Did you apply ED anywhere?</p>

5

<p>I did early action to Harvard and got deffered</p>

6

<p>Harvard -major reach, Yale- major reach, Stanford- major reach, UPENN- major reach, Dartmouth- major reach, Brown- reach, Duke- major reach, Georgetown- major reach, Washington University in St. Loui- reachs, Northwestern-reach, Cornell-reach, Notre Dame- amtch, UC-Berkeley-reach, UCLA-match, UCSD-idk, Tufts-idk, Boston College-low match, and Tulane-match.</p>

7

<p>You should decide where you want to go instead of letting the colleges pick for you.</p>

<p>Most of the schools on your list are reaches. Hopefully you'll get into ones you'll be happy with.</p>

8

<p>Damn that's a lot of colleges you applied to. I think your main weakness is your test scores, especially SAT IIs (you need some more 700+).</p>

<p>Harvard: 5%
Yale: 7%
Stanford: 7%
UPenn: 15%
Dartmouth: 18%
Brown: 18%
Duke: 18%
Georgetown: 28%
WUStL: 18%
Northwestern: 30%
Cornell: 30%
Notre Dame: 50%
UCB: 20% (out of state)
UCLA: 25% (out of state)
UCSD: 35% (out of state)
Tufts: 50%
BC: 50%
Tulane: 85%</p>

9

<p>Wow I really didnt realize my chances were so bad. My friends, teachers, and counselor said that I basically can get into any school because of my karate, minority status, and my high score compared to other african americans. I know for a fact that some of these schools you call reaches are not, like cornell. They even sent me a fee waiver. I'm really not sure why you guys say my chances are so low for some of these schools so can you please explain why.</p>

10

<p>well, i didn't rate your chances, and the others may have been being a bit harsh. i think maybe people didn't take into account your minority status in evaluating your SAT scores, and perhaps they either didn't read all your activities or didn't really notice the gravity of your karate (which i'm sure is much more evident in your apps, at least i hope you didn't list it below 4 other ECs on your app like you did on here...). we also know nothing about your recs from counselors and teachers (and if your teacers/counselor think you can get in anywhere and you go to a competative HS, then I think the recs will be quite good). lastly, remember who is responding to your post - these are high schoolers, not admissions officers, so don't take anything you read on here too seriously. to me, it looks like you're qualified and would excel at any of those schools, but at HYPSetc, 95% of applicants are just as qualified and it is a crapshoot for everyone. good luck and stopp fretting, you'll get into a great school...if not because you're a great candidate, then because of the sheer volume of apps you submitted (you're crazy)!!</p>

11

<p>You're chances are not as bad as Flavian noted....</p>

<p>Harvard: 25%
Yale: 25%
Stanford: 35%
UPenn: 50%
Dartmouth: 50%
Brown: 50%
Duke: 60%
Georgetown: 60%
WUStL: 70%
Northwestern: 75%
Cornell: 80%
Notre Dame: 90%
UCB: 50% (out of state)
UCLA: 55% (out of state)
UCSD: 60% (out of state)
Tufts: 75%
BC: 75%
Tulane: 99%</p>

<p>I really think a lot of posters here underrated you. You have a good ACT score, accompanied by decent EC's. If your class rank is in top 10% I'd say you are good to go because you are a URM. Good luck.</p>

12

<p>lol thanks. I know I'm crazy but I really want options at the end.</p>

13

<p>I really wish my chances are like that. Thats what i thought they were too. Thanks.</p>

14

<p>Stanmaster,
What are you getting out of repeatedly asking this question? No one here can tell you whether you are in or out of any college. You have at your fingertips the ability to research things like SAT ranges and average gpas of the successful applicants at the colleges you are interested in.</p>

<p>You also can look at the colleges' web sites and see profiles of their freshmen classes. You can use the archieves of places like CC to see the stats of successful applicants. With that info, you can have a rough idea of your own odds.There is not one person here that can give you better info than what you can get on your own in the ways that I have suggested. Why keep putting yourself through the "What are my chances" posts? </p>

<p>Also, I fear that by applying to 20 colleges you have hurt yourself because I doubt that you could put a lot of focused effort into individualizing each application. Despite what students here seem to think, what gets students into top colleges isn't their list of activities and stats. What makes a big difference is how the students present themselves on their applications, and what students emphasize in the applications should be partly determined by what interests the colleges. Simply dumping info onto applications isn't helpful.</p>

<p>This includes what the students say about their actual actions with their activities (for instance, just saying one is student government treasurer is not that impressive when it comes to top colleges. Top colleges get many class presidents as applicants. Many SGA presidents do absolutely nothing ecept decorate for the prom. Saying that as student government president, one involved the school in a successful campaign to raise $10 k for hurricane victims is). </p>

<p>Essays also are important as are recommendations. Students typically have absolutely no idea about whether recommendations are helpful or not -- even if the students have seen the recommendations. The same is true for essays. Students regularly post here essays that are boring or otherwise unhelpful, yet the students describe themselves as great writers.</p>

<p>As for your list of achievements, some need to be dropped off your application because they aren't impressive:</p>

<p>Venture Scholar -- this is not impressive in college applications since science-oriented students with SAT scores of 1000 or less can get this. Only keep it on if the college waives the application fee or offers other perks to Venture Scholars. Do put it on, though, for local scholarships because local people won't be savvy enough to know that it's not much of an honor. This also goes for the below honors that I suggest that you remove.</p>

<p>Who's Who Among American High School Students: Absolutely meaningless. Do not include on your college applications.</p>

<p>High Honor Roll each year: Not impressive. Colleges are interested in your gpa. Most people applying to top colleges make high honor roll. </p>

<p>National Honor Roll: Meaningless.
National Society of High School Scholars: Meaningless.</p>

15

<p>Ok. Maybe I was biased because of my own stress. Anyways, good luck to your applications!</p>

<p>Maybe the best way to judge your chances is by reading some of the individual school forums. The ivys and top schools all have people posting their stats for the ED/EA round.</p>

16

<p>I'm sorry, but I'm disreguarding every post above by not reading them and saying that you have about a 70% chance at Harvard.</p>

17

<p>The quality of your ECs, not a laundry list of activities, is what matters a lot to admissions. Also, college can't read your mind, so you and/or your references would need to provide detailed info demonstrating the quality of your ECs.</p>

<p>Simply having a membership in a club is meaningless. What matters is what work you did in the club and what you helped accomplish for the club, school, community, etc. Colleges want students who will be active participants in campus organizations.</p>

<p>Extracurricular Info
Newspaper --What did you do? If you simply wrote the occasional story, that is not impressive except possibly to second tier and below colleges. If you took this as an easy class, that is not impressive. If you were editor in chief and wrote or suggested and edited some projects that won state awards or helped lead to changes in your school or community, that would be very impressive. If you started the paper, that also would be impressive. If you were writing for professional newspapers, that woudl be impressive -- particularly if you were writing real news articles, not personal columns.</p>

<p>Yearbook -- see above.
Wrestling -- If you are nationally ranked, a state champion, a champion of a large urban area, that could be very impressive. Being captain could make one stand out a bit, though lots of sports captains apply to top schools. If you were just a member of a medicre team, not impressive.
Track -- see above
Karate - national competitor -- this could be good particularly if you highlighted this in your application, and had, perhaps, a reference from a coach. If your essay was a trite, "How I won the big match," that would be so cliche that it wouldn't help you much.
Focus on helping America -- Simply listing this would be meaningless. Depending on what you did, selection process for it, etc. it either could be meaningless or could be impressive. I hope you explained it better on your apps than you did here. I have never heard of it before.
Key Club -- meaningless unless you have an office and did something specific that is impressive
Art club -- see above.
National Art Honor society -- It may or may not be impressive, depending on how hard it is to qualify for. Have you won city (since you are in NYC), state or national art awards? That would be impressive. Keep in mind that because you are in NYC, you face strong competition from applicants in your area who are some of the country's best in their fields of expertise. </p>

<p>National Honor Society: Most applicants to top schools qualify for this. If you had an office and did some impressive community service, this could be impressive. In most cases, though, it looks like resume dressing.</p>

<p>Student body governemnt - treasurer -- not that impressive unless you did something special with your position such as created some kind of fundraising campaign that provided major help for your school. If you just had occasional meetings, and kept up with the budget, that's not something that would make you stand out.</p>

18

<p>um...here's the thing. You're taking critiques the worng way. The people on this forum dont know you, at least not like the counselors who like you so much do, and we have very little knowledge of how great karate as an ec is for you. Most of your awards, I would agree with an above post, need not be included on apps. The Who's Who thing especially. And Harvard SAT ranges are significantly above your scores. Your GPA is not that impressive. Your essays could be awesome, but to tell the truth, I don't think they'll help with the Ivys. I would rate pretty much everything a reach, save for the UC's and tulane. Sorry.</p>

19

<p>I just wanted to add that banking on the urm thing's very uncool. Someone who has significantly better stats than you do (a large part of the applicant pool at the Ivys) may not get in because you are playing on your race.</p>

20

<p>"I just wanted to add that banking on the urm thing's very uncool. Someone who has significantly better stats than you do (a large part of the applicant pool at the Ivys) may not get in because you are playing on your race."</p>

<p>Banking on the URM status simply doesn't work. The top colleges will take URMs with lower than average stats for the college if those URMS have something special going for them. The same thing is true of candidates of all races who have something special going for them.</p>

<p>Colleges, though, don't automatically take URMS because the URMs apply. I have seen URMs with similar stats and ECs to what the OP posted get rejected by places like Harvard. I saw a URM who was a recruited athlete and had scores higher than Harvard's average and a national academic EC-related award get rejected probably because of having grades that were below Harvard's average.</p>