Academics:
SAT I–1490 (I’m thinking about retaking the SAT to improve my reading score from 690 to at least 740). But even with a 1490, what are my chances?
Weighted GPA–103.566/100 (Not sure how my school weighs the GPA).
Unweighted GPA–N/A (I’ll update this)
Ranking–Last time I checked, I think I was 7/624, but I’ll just say 10-15/624.
SAT II–800 (Math II), 750 (Biology E), 740 (Chemistry)
AP’s–5 (Calculus BC), 3 (World History). I’ll be taking AP Physics 1, APUSH, AP Lang, and AP Statistics in May 2017.
Projected Senior Year Course Load–AP Government, AP Lit, AP Comp Science, Differential Equations, AP Physics 2, and Studio Art.
Common Awards: 2 County Math Awards, Top 10 BNL Bridge Building (I don’t think this counts), Honor Roll (I think?), DECA States Top 10, DECA Regionals Top 15 (or 16?), FBLA Regional Top 5.
Extracurriculars:
Math Team, DECA, French Honor Society and possibly NHS.
Job/Work Experience: I plan on finding a job over the summer.
Volunteer Experience: Finished 100 hours at local hospital. Plan on going back to the hospital this summer and taking on a new volunteer role.
Writing:
Will work on the essays.
Art Supplement–I will have artwork to possibly send as an art portfolio
Other:
Will I Apply for Financial Aid? No.
State: New York
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket Range: 150K-200K
Hooks: Maybe my unique interest in pen spinning will be a hook? idk.
Personal Reflection:
Strengths–Good grades, challenging workload, volunteering
Weaknesses–SAT score, lack of leadership positions, and unimpressive accolades.
Increase your SAT, try to get leadership within your ECs.
As it stands, your grades are outstanding, your SAT is borderline average/below-average for Ivies+equivalent, ECs are anemic and typical. In all honesty, nothing in your package stands out.
@beepybeetle How can I make my package more impressive? I don’t think I can win many more awards by the application deadline, so should I improve primarily on EC’s and leadership roles (start up a club, make a pen spinning website to begin a club outside of school, and get leadership positions on the board for each of the clubs I’m in)?
@1618dz I would suggest leadership. I didn’t do a whole lot in the way of razzle-dazzle ECs either, but I had tremendous depth in one extracurricular activity. If you can do something spectacular with one or two of your ECs, it’ll help you out, and give you some material to draw upon for your essays.
Not to dash your hopes or anything, but I feel like it might be useful for you to see this; https://redd.it/62tku1
a post I wrote after receiving a whole bunch of unexpected rejections just a few weeks ago. No matter how hard you try, the admissions processes at top schools deny entry to TONS of qualified students. I know it’s nice to believe in the process and the fairness of it all, but it simply isn’t fair all the time. That helps some, and hurts others.
I spent the last few years with everyone telling me I’d be the one to end up at top school. I applied to a lot of them, but I didn’t put hardly any research into my safety options or my fits. I subconsciously thought that I would get in, so I just haphazardly applied to easier schools and poured my efforts into the harder ones. I do truly believe that I was unlucky- I got rejected from even all of my fit schools, which I picked using 25 years of data my high school has conglomerated about the stats of kids from my school that get into certain colleges. However, it can happen.
I wish you all the best in your top college pursuits. Honestly, when you start applying to the top top schools, all the competitive applicants look exactly the same. They’re all qualified and impressive, just like you are. Put yourself out there and see! You’ll never know if you don’t try.
That being said, I would also really put some time and effort into finding other schools that you know for sure you would be happy at. I didn’t do that, and now I’m in a very uncomfortable position where I have to attempt to choose between two safety options that I really dislike and am quite unhappy about. Trust me, you don’t want that. Name really is not everything, and as a top student there are plenty of great schools you could attend…like, for free. Really spend some time thinking about if name really is everything. Try some top schools. But find some other schools you love too- from someone who didn’t and is now very unhappy about it.
The only reason why I ever considered applying to Ivies was after a couple of visits. Taking a step back and reflecting on the applicant pool of these colleges, I realize that people all around the world who have won international awards, served as researchers in labs, or have been a captain of a varsity sports team are competing against me. Despite having a package with “nothing that stands out”, I will bolster my application with recs and the essays when I apply to any Ivies that I’m interested in. However, I’m not expecting to get into any of the top colleges, which is fine because I understand the daunting competition I’m up against.
Also, what are my chances for getting into Caltech, UC Berkeley, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Boston University, University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne, UCLA, and SBU?
You just need a lot of involvement in one extracurricular. For me, I’m completely committed to dance. You just need a passion that shines through in your essays and makes you unique
I would like to study applied mathematics and physics. My family has enough for out of state public, but not enough for a private school. I’ll need financial aid for a private college.
@ericacv I actually have a passion for pen spinning. I’m not sure if anyone knows what it is, but it’s something just like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voqYX8_VjvQ. I’m planning on writing about pen spinning in my common app essay. Do you think that would be a good idea?
I don’t think anyone in the adcom would be interested in your pen spinning skill. You may put it in your essay if you can make an impressive story out of it.
Just watched that pen spinning thing- it’s freaking cool. Make something of it (teach younger kids, start a youtube channel with it, promote the ‘sport’) and you’d significantly increase your chances because out of thousands of apps going to ivies, not many are going to have pen spinner written anywhere on them.
Just make sure growing that ec is still fun for you.
I had no idea what pen spinning is. I’m getting up there in age and I think it’s pretty amazing! I would imagine it takes a lot of focus. So, you never know… ECs are supposed to be about your passion, not what someone else thinks your passion should be. So, start that club… maybe you could teach it at a local kids’ summer program. ( I wonder if it could help kids with ADHD/ADD with focusing skills? Just a thought.)
It’s not a hook, but pen spinning could be an EC. It’s unique and definitely memorable - make it more than just a hobby though. @inthegarden has great suggestions - do something tangible with it to show your passion.
