What type of candidate am I for Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stanford?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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TL;DR: Carefully researched these questions on CC and other resources, but need additional advice. Asian male, 4.0 unweighted GPA/4.15 weighted, 2250 projected October SAT score, started an international nonprofit and did some high level work at a public transportation agency, among other ECs. What type of candidate am I for HYPS? I also ask another few questions about whether I should EA to one of HYPS, drop a TA period which counts as a 2.0 on my school GPA, and take SAT 2’s.

Details by topic below.

Intro: Thank you for taking the time too read this question! It means a lot to me, and if there’s any way I can reciprocate, like posting admissions results on the results pages for schools, or something more specific, please let me know. I’m asking this seemingly common question on CC because despite thoroughly researching this issue, reading the profiles of admitted students from HYPS, and asking teachers, family members, college application consultants, I honestly cannot determine how much of a shot I have at HYPS. I completely understand everything about the extremely low acceptance rates, so I’m not asking if I can get in or not because that would be impossible to accurately predict; I’m asking if I have a chance at getting the chance to be admitted—if I am, say, the type of student that could be seriously considered for admission.

Early Action: Should I consider applying EA to HYPS? I was thinking of Stanford specifically. Some people are telling me I’m borderline HYPS material, so applying EA would hurt me because I’m not one of their strong applicants that would normally be accepted in the EA round. Also haven’t taken SAT yet.

Background, School, and GPA: I’m an Asian male, currently a senior. I go to a public school in the Bay Area that was just ranked one of the top 250 high schools in the United States. Typically, very few students get into HYPS from our school, maybe one to Harvard every 2 years? Around 5-15 to UC Berkeley each year. Total school size around 1,300. I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA. Throughout freshman and sophomore year, I was one year ahead in Math and took both “advanced standing” English and History which has no GPA impact. Because of the lack of GPA boosting classes at my school, despite my advanced classes, my weighted GPA is only 4.15 for those 3 years in high school because of 3 AP classes I took junior year. Senior year I have a more relaxed schedule, 5 classes with 1 TA (teacher’s assistant) period and 1 AP because I was refused the 3 APs I wanted to take due to schedule problems. Not factoring in my TA period, I would have a 4.25 senior year GPA.

Should I Drop This Class: On a separate note, if anyone wants to advise, my school counts my Teacher’s Assistant period as a pass-fail class which, if I pass, counts as a 2.0 on my GPA. A 2.0! I don’t know if I should drop the TA period or keep it, my parents are worried about unintended consequences of having a lower school calculated GPA, counselor, advisors, and most teachers say keep the class because colleges will not use it for GPA calculation. I do not believe I am in the running for valedictorian because other students have taken more APs than me, so it shouldn’t hurt me there. Maybe it’ll hurt me with scholarships?

SAT Scores and Sat 2: I “only” got a 211 on my PSAT last year, but it seems I’ll get a 2250-ish on my SAT taking it for the first time this October, based on practice test results. I can probably raise that to 2300+ for November or December if I study. Not sure if I should take the SAT 2s, as they’re optional for HYPS, and I’m only getting like 700 on Sat 2 English for example, and I wouldn’t have another chance to take the SAT 2s. But I could study for them and maybe do well.

Extracurriculars/Hook: So the big question is, what have I done to distinguish myself that makes me think I might have a chance? Well, I started an international nonprofit this summer/junior year. Basically I led an 8 person team from my school to successfully raise $1,500 on Indiegogo to finance a trip to Central America where I set up a small computer lab and taught classes at two schools for computer and English skills. Also I ran a pilot program for the main idea of my nonprofit (which was the main purpose of the trip). The main idea and differentiating factor of my nonprofit is that we connect people with online jobs so they can raise themselves out of poverty, something known as impact sourcing, which is supposed to be a self-sustaining revenue model, and not a lot of nonprofits have a self-sufficient model. We’ve having problems with this business model in that we haven’t been able to find reliable partners and resources to get people online jobs, so despite reaching say several dozen people with the program, aside from the training and the computer lab (which is a lot) we have not directly connected many people with online income, maybe four people partially? I could work on that further though, with more effort it would probably be more successful. I might have to switch to the model of shipping donated laptops and selling some donated laptops to continue operations, which I should be able to do successfully. I’ve also worked as a project specialist at a transit agency, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), where I gave key design recommendations to the planning team based on hundreds of customer feedback entries to make capital improvements to BART stations. I also designed a marketing program to reach low-income ethnic minorities with a website and flyer campaign. I’m also 1st place on my schools Academic Decathlon team, have done varsity track and cross-country, Model United Nations, Trivia Team, and interned/worked at a nonprofit and web startup.

Question Summary: For HYPS, am I a strong applicant, average applicant, weak applicant, applicant with no chance? Depending on what type of applicant you think I am, should I considering early action for Stanford or HYP? Bonus points if you have any advice on the whole issue of my Teacher’s Assistant class being calculated as a 2.0 on my GPA and if I should take SAT 2’s considering my current practice test scores of around 700.

Again, I’d be really thankful if you took the time to answer this question, and I’m happy to help however I can.

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Without test scores it’s harder to tell. I would say you have an average chance. From your description the biggest negative you have is strength of course schedule. If you are taking 1 AP class and 1 non-graded class and there were theoretically 4-5 AP options then you are not taking the strongest courses your school has to offer. Not that you need every class to be an AP but if they are offering a bunch and you are only taking one that doesn’t show as much academic interest. If it was a school problem that you could not take any more make sure you explain that in your app in the other info section and be sure your counselor mentions it as well. For a number of the ivies applying early does increase your odds because you are locking yourself into applying to only one and going there if accepted. We crunched the numbers mostly for Princeton but the odds were much better. If your SATs don’t come out at least at the 50% for these schools I would consider them to be an extreme reach. My son has a 35 ACT and is 1 subscore point from a 36, 4.4 gpa, 7 5’s on AP tests and taking 5 more this year plus a dual enrollment college math class, class pres, and a sport team captain and we consider these schools a total lottery. Fun to play and you might win but if you don’t get in don’t feel bad.

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When colleges say something is optional/recommended, that means it is mandatory for all candidates who are not shoe ins (won Intel, USAMO, other awards). You are not a shoe in, so you should definitely take the SAT II’s if you want to be competitive.

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@dcplanner True, test scores are important. I’m assuming I’ll get 2250+ which I think is highly probable. It was in fact a school problem, and I will mention it, thanks!

@thatswhatitis Thanks for your advice. I’ve heard conflicting opinions on this, and I’m open to persuasion, but right now my Dad’s advice is causing me to want to deemphasize and possibly not take the SAT 2’s. My Dad thinks I shouldn’t bother too much with them because they might decrease my competitiveness if I score poorly, and I’m not confident in my own abilities to increase my score a lot. I’m currently approaching 700 on SAT Lit and Bio, which is not great at all, and may be difficult to improve especially with the lack of abundant practice tests and my other priorities like school and college admissions. My father thinks I should spend the time I could spend prepping in other ways, like getting a nice internship along with a nice letter of rec. Thoughts?

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Oh and if anyone has any thoughts on whether I am “HYPS material” or not, I’d be happy to hear.

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You might as well ask if a 20-sided die is “20 material.” Past a certain level of competitiveness, your profile matters less than things like whether your application is read just before or just after lunch, how your reader feels about (insert extracurricular here), or whether it’s warm and sunny or miserable and rainy outside when your app reaches the top of the pile.

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Does your school rank? If your school rarely sends kids to HYPS (odd considering how highly regarded your schools is), then you really have to be one of the best if not the best student in your grade.

As for your EC’s, starting a nonprofit by yourself is pretty big as the application process is really long. It shows a lot of commitment to create one from scratch.

Definitely take subject tests, as since your school doesn’t offer too many AP’s, you need these standardized tests to prove your academic capability.

Depending on your class rank, comparing yourself to the peers in your grade (stats-wise), you could range from an average applicant to a strong applicant.