Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am from Boston, MA. I go to public school with 400 in my graduating class. I took the hardest courseload of them all. I am a low income minority (I'm Indian). What are my chances of getting into elite schools? These are my stats:
NOTE: My three main interests are environmental science (major), writing, and politics. Basically science, and the social an artistic ways of demonstrating it.</p>

<p>COURSES: (CP = Standard/Elective, HN = Honors, AP = Advanced Pl.)</p>

<p>9th Grade:
- HN World Literature I
- HN Geometry
- HN Physics
- HN Chemistry
- HN World History I
- HN French I
- HN Piano Studies
- HE Health/Gym</p>

<p>10th Grade:
- AP American Literature
- HN Algebra 2
- HN Precalculus
- HN Biology
- AP Environmental Science
- HN World History II
- AP United States History
- PE Gym</p>

<p>11th Grade:
- AP English Language and Composition
- AP Physics B
- AP Chemistry (full year)
- AP Biology (full year)
- HN Modern World History
- CP Film Studies</p>

<p>12th Grade:
- CP Journalism
- AP Calculus BC (full year)
- AP Physics C (full year)
- AP European History
- HN French II
- CP Playwriting and Social Theatre</p>

<p>ADDITIONAL CLASSES:
- Environmental Science in Hawaii w/ Brown University
- Creative Writing in Dublin, Ireland w/ Walnut Hill Arts Academy
- Harvard Secondary School Program & Extension - 7 courses
- Introduction to Astronomy, The Galaxy, And Stars
- Introduction to Economics (Macro/Micro)
- Introduction to Psychology
- Introduction to Immunology (Medicine is one of my interests)
- Introduction to Art History
- Introduction to Music Theory
- Advanced Screenwriting (I'm very good)</p>

<p>TESTING:
- SAT I: Verbal 730 Math 770 Writing 790
- SAT II: World History 750 Chemistry 780 Biology 760
- AP (17): English Lit. English Lan. Calculus BC, Physics B, Physics C, Biology, Chemistry, World History, European History, US History, US Government, Comparative Government, Art History, Music Theory, Microeconomics, Psychology, Environmental Science
(The ones I didn't high school classes for, I did through Harvard ext. except for the two governments - got 4's on eight of them, 5's on nine of them</p>

<p>AWARDS/DISTINCTION: (2 academic, 1 sci, 1 writing, 1 political)
- National Honors Society, 2 yrs.
- AP Scholar Awards
- New England Association of Chemistry Teachers Exam - Distinguished Performance
- Model U.N. NHSMUN - Best Delegate Award
- National Screenwriting Contest - Winner</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULARS: (all take 2 hrs/wk for 24 weeks unless noted)
- Model U.N. - Liason and later Specialized Delegate, 2 hrs/36 wks - 4 yrs.
- Debate Team - 3 yrs.
- Writer/Director of Three Student Films - 3 yrs.
- Environmental Action Club - 2 yrs.
- Student Tutor/Lab Assistant in Chemistry - 2 yrs.
- Ocean Sciences Bowl - 1 yr.
- Science Team - 1 yr.
- Academic Decathalon - Honors Performance - 1 yr.
- Math Team - 1 yr.
- Creative Writing Group - 1 yr.
- Mock Trial - 1 yr.
- Member/Voter in Student Government - 1 yr.
- Visual Arts & Painting Class - 1 yr.
- Junior Varsity Soccer Team - 1 yr.
(NOTE: The ones I spent only a year in were mostly because I was playing the field, the others took serious commitment. I never spread myself thin, contributed, and did work for all of them.)</p>

<p>COMMUNITY SERVICE/WORK EXP.
- Charles River C., Environmental Volunteer - 4 yrs.
- Boston Museum of Science - 2 yrs. - Volunteer, Internship in Ecology
- Massachusetts General Hospital Volunteer - 2 yrs.
- New England Aquarium - Chemist/Water Tester - 1 yr.</p>

<p>There's a catch. I did all of this stuff. But during my sophmore year, I experienced an emotional problem (valid, explained by my guidance counselor and teachers) that made me fail all of my classes for that year. I dropped out half way through the year to do the same classes via homeschooling. My high school transcript is straight As except for that year with a GPA of 2.3 or so. However, if counting my home schooling work instead of my high school classes, it's a 3.8.</p>

<p>My recommendations are good. My essay is powerful, demonstrates my maturity through the years, and shows that I have a clear vision of where I have to go next. My extracurriculars are mostly political, my service and work is mostly environmental, and I made student films using original scripts by me. I also started my own website promoting environmental awareness, filled with original photographs and essays about the world, and promoting activism. It is a setup website for a non-profit organization I will start in college.</p>

<p>I'm applying to Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Georgetown, Oxford, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Tufts, Bates, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, and Northeastern. I am full of passion, personality and character. I love writing and I love the environment and I want to help the world. I feel like I've done a great job considering I'm not wealthy or gifted with opportunities, and my being upset over this caused my grade screwup. Will these colleges forgive me? Everybody at my school respects me, wants me to do will, and otherwise, call me a dream student. I am genuine in my care for the world.</p>

<p>My dream school is Yale.</p>

2

<p>I sincerely think your chances at Yale are pretty good.
I wish you the best of luck!
My advice would be (if Yale really is your DREAM SCHOOL) is to apply EA and if you get in there.. don’t bother with anything else unless Yale doesn’t give too hot of a financial aid package.</p>

3

<p>your academics are truly excellent and you have a lot of ECs. But you need lots of depth in a few ECs instead of many ECs, u didnt really say if you had that much depth. But you’ve got a nice chance at Yale. But ya never know with these schools</p>

4

<p>I think your chances at Yale are pretty good, but you never know. They seem to always look for one ridiculous thing to make an application jump. Yours certainly has it but you never know. But still, I would be very surprised if you weren’t admitted. I know Dartmouth has a high value on writing so that should be fine as well. Middlebury, Bowdoin, Bates, Northeastern and Tufts should be definite. </p>

<p>One thing I recommend is to submit a screenplay you have written with your application. My friend (a VERY talented play-writer who has won various awards) did this for his Harvard application and ended up interviewing with a Harvard grad who was a play-write. He ended up getting in. </p>

<p>best of luck</p>

5

<p>About half of my extracurriculars were only for one year. Stuff like Ocean Bowl, I only did because I wanted to learn about marine science but I didn’t have time to take a class. Math Team, I did because I didn’t take math junior year. While I didn’t stick with a lot of stuff throughout my high school career, I stayed in for a full year and it was an amazing year. I learned a lot about myself, the subject, and the people in these clubs. I contributed and adopted a “make the best of the time I have here” attitude.</p>

<p>I was in debate team for three years. There is no power system. However, in Model U.N. (I did it all four years), I became a specialized delegate for 11th and 12th grade. Basically, I was appointed by the President of the club to go to specialized agencies (the most difficult councils) because I was the best delegate. I won an award.</p>

<p>I essentially created my school’s film club, wrote directed and starred in the movies, gathered casts and held auditions, and produced/supervised editing, etc. I was asked to be in AP Language and Composition freshman year (I declined for scheduling reasons). I’ve written a lot of screenplays and works, one of them won a national competition against participants of all ages.</p>

<p>Stuff like Ocean Bowl, Science Team, Chemistry Exams, Immunology class, etc. were because of my love of environmental science. I wanted an introduction to as many related subjects as possible so that I could jump in when it came time for college. I stuck with my river volunteering program for five years, was an ecological volunteer at the science museum for two (going to be three) years. Both of these things were very demanding (work at the river was around three hours a week during the year, ten during the summer).</p>

<p>I had another question. When writing extracurriculars, do you write down what it will be when you’ve completed senior year or what it is so far? Like, if you join a fifteen-week ec and only did two weeks when you are doing your app, should you say two weeks for 12th grade or fifteen weeks?</p>

<p>Another update: I talked to my school, they awarded credit for my home school classes. So my gpa is officially about 3.8, unweighted.</p>

6

<p>You’re applying to MIT when you skipped a year of math? Dunno how that’ll look.</p>

<p>However, although I’m no expert, your chances look pretty good!</p>

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</p>

<p>Okay… chill out. You don’t need to try to convince us that you’re “full of passion” or that people like that you. Save pretentious phrases like “I am genuine in my care for the world” for your application :p.</p>

7

<p>I just felt like saying that because, at my school, for every Ivy applicant that wants to go out and do something, there’s six or seven that study forever to get perfect SAT scores but are self-obsessed, have no interest in politics, or really care about anything other than getting a job. They want to go to an Ivy for the sake of going to an Ivy. By what I said, I just meant I’m not some reclusive textbook reader.</p>

8

<p>If you say something as lame as “I am geniune in my care for the world,” I don’t think you’ll get in. Honestly, that’s just…yuck.</p>

<p>Other than that I think you should only list the ECs you were involved in for more than a year so colleges don’t get distracted by how thinly spread you are. I think Yale is a crapshoot for you as it is for everybody else, your chances are probably at about 20% or something–saying stuff like “I’d be surprised if you didn’t get in” isn’t fair to you. Students way better than you get rejected (and ones that have equally good and even lesser stats than you get accepted sometimes too). </p>

<p>Honestly, I personally think that the 2.3 GPA sophomore year will hurt you. Being depressed over a lack of opportunites and whatnot does not constitute a valid excuse for a grade drop. If anything keeps you out it will be that.</p>