<p>I'm in Gr. 11 in Canada. Chinese background. Aiming for Wharton, Columbia, Princeton, Yale, NYU, University of California, University of Chicago.</p>
<p>SAT: (will take in June)</p>
<p>SAT II:
Math II (will take in May)
Biology E/M (will take in May)</p>
<p>*Please assume it will be 2100+ if it's impossible to chance without SAT scores</p>
<p>Courses:
Hard courses, will be taking all available AP courses next year (which is only 2)</p>
<p>Last semester GPA: 95% (top 5% for sure, estimate top 10)</p>
<p>Awards: (still working on this =()
Honour rolls
French award
Music theory award
DECA top 20
(will try to get more business/community awards)</p>
<p>ECs:
Executive of Music Council
Orchestras
*Will start business club next year
Writer for school magazine
School soccer team
Peer-tutoring
Member of some other clubs (unimportant)</p>
<p>Community Involvement
- Co-founder and a board director of a non-profit youth organization (doing all sorts of things)
- Leader of high-school team in a youth group that is a part of the city's community development program. (doing outreach for election campaign 2010)
- One of the editors of a youth magazine published by the public libraries
- Outreach volunteer for city's environmental program
- The school board's youth orchestra</p>
<p>No work experience
One summer is spent on reading books and another is spent visiting family in China.
Next summer...will attempt to start up a small business.</p>
<p>Thanks Skaggs~ I am really committed to the non-profit organization and the election campaign project, working many hours on each every week. Is this not enough? Should I look for more things to do??</p>
<p>That’s great! I think that if you can develop your relationship there, you should be fine. That’s my opinion, and someone more qualified would be able to expand on this…but I think that Penn really likes when students are committed. They like the well-rounded student, but they also enjoy the well-lopsided student. I think that rather than looking for more things to stuff your resume with, keep your passion towards the activities you’re currently doing. If you find more opportunities, great! If not, you have obligations to great activities already.</p>
<p>Hmm well I’ll be honest man…Im not crazy optimistic here. You basically NEED a 2300+ for Wharton, Princeton, and Yale since you are a hookless applicant. However, the dealbreaker for me was your ECs. Don’t get me wrong, they arent horrible or anything. However, I dont feel that they come all that close to the HYPS level. </p>
<p>I really believe you should make your highest reaches the Columbia-type schools as I simply dont see HYPS working out. However, I do think if you apply to ALL the ivies and score about a 2200 on your SATs. You have a good shot at one of them.</p>
<p>Thanks Robbie,
What kind of ECs are good enough for HYPS? Any suggestions for a business student? No research or those kind of things but what kind of things can a business student do?</p>
<p>Well, I would HIGHLY suggest you get some kind of internship this upcoming summer. Additionally, enter some finance or econ challenges or try starting your own business. I did reread your profile and your ECs are prbly lower ivy caliber as is. Howver, being from Canada may hurt.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s necessarily a good thing to be doing too many activities for your college application. You don’t want to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. That doesn’t mean you can’t be well rounded, it just means that you should be passionate about the things you are doing because that is what people notice. A lot of the kids I have met who have incredibly long resumes are not nearly as impressive in person. You don’t want to be just another list on a sheet of paper, you need to show yourself for who you are. If an internship does this, then do it. But don’t do it just to get into Wharton, because if things don’t work out you may feel that it wasn’t worth it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestion! Although you confused me at “lower ivy caliber”, do you mean my ECs are below the ivy caliber or have reached the standard?</p>
<p>PS: Thanks poeme. I really think that compared to most my ECs list is really short, do you guys think it’s a reasonable length based the quality or is it just too little?</p>
<p>Only YOU can determine that. Ask yourself for each of your commitments, do I enjoy this activity? Do I have enough time to pursue this position to its full potential? Does being involved in this help me develop and evolve as a person socially, intellectually, emotionally? A lot of kids I know do all these activities, but don’t seem to be able to describe how what they do has affected them. There are so many kids applying to college these days, and a lot of them have all the right pieces in their application. However, I truly believe that it is not having these pieces that sets you apart, it is the way that you put them together. These are just my observations, I absolutely am not attempting to guarantee anything.</p>
<p>that’s a great suggestion! also, in terms of marks, does it make little difference if you are within a certain grade range? like does it matter if your average is 92% or 95%?</p>
Study those SAT’s. Good luck!</p>