hopefully_ivy

Student:

User Name: hopefully_ivy
College Class Year: 2014
High School: Private
High School Type: sends many grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes

Academics:

GPA - Unweighted: 3.76
GPA - Weighted: 0.00
Class Size: 150

Scores:

SAT I Math: 720
SAT I Critical Reading: 610
SAT I Writing: 650
ACT: 34
SAT II Math Level 2 (IIC): 800
SAT II Chemistry: 780

Extracurriculars:

Significant Extracurriculars: editor of school yearbook
dance- for 13 years
large research projects
newsletter editor for organization i work with
lacrosse
i play the flute


Leadership positions: yearbook editor for 3 years
editor for a newsletter
JV captain for lacrosse team


Athletic Status - list sport and your level: lacrosse: 9-JV, 10-JV, 11-JV captain and varsity player, 12-Varsity


Volunteer/Service Work: helped create a community service program with an organization which provides free health care to poor villagers in china
Honors and Awards: - 3rd place in a writing contest
- 1st place in science fair (twice), 2nd place once
- yearbook has won several awards


College Summer programs: - creative writing course freshmen year summer- got an A
- lab research soph year summer, entered and won science fair
- internship at U of M junior year summer and thru out senior year


Colleges of Interest: upenn*, colombia*, univ of michigan, stanford, princeton, duke, nyu, mit

dococtopi

Your GPA and SAT are a little bit low, but that shouldn't stop you. Your SATII's are just right. Your EC's are your strongest point, so make them stand out on the application. I was in the same boat as you: low scores, great EC's. Emphasize them on your application as much as you can.

You should be good enough to get into UM, NYU, and any university in the nation of Colombia. I'd say you have a decent shot at schools like UPenn, Duke, and Columbia (that is, if you're interested in Columbia University in the City of New York), but remember many applicants will be just as competitive as yourself. Schools like MIT, Stanford, and Princeton are crapshoots anyways, and unless you've cured cancer or something, there really is no telling how well you'll fare among your competition.

hopefully_ivy

haha oops, that was a typo! i meant columbia

yeah princeton, stanford, and mit are my real 'reaches' but im starting to worry that i wont get into upenn which is my top choice. my gpa could have been higher, but unfortunately my performance was poor which resulted in a lower gpa

as for applying to princeton et al, should i? bc if i dont get in, it would have been a waste of a lot of my time writing essays and supplements. i could focus on perfecting my other applications

last, i am planning on taking the sat again and i am targeting for a 2200. hopefully i get at least a 2100 with this goal.

conorske

Retake the SAT for sure--the average student scores at least 40 pts higher the second time.

As for applying to ALL those schools, I think, personally, you'd be better off saving the money and more importantly the time to focus on Penn and Columbia.

Biggie_Smalls

If you really like one school, try ED. It helps a lot with improving your chances.

dococtopi

Take that with a grain of salt. A lot of ED programs are used by universities simply as a gaming tool to make the school's admission statistics look better. They have the power of the "defer." They know that this applicant likes their school a lot because they're applying ED, and they defer this applicant, only to admit them in RD. Since the adcom knows they're in love with their school, the applicant now has a higher chance of matriculating, increasing yield. Not to mention ED has often been cited as a way for schools to screw the middle class.

I was in the same position as you. I would say apply everywhere. It seriously won't hurt. If you're worried about the time commitment, realize that you'll be reusing many essays and ideas in all of your applications, so it won't be too difficult by the end. My advice would be to pick a school EA or ED (I chose Stanford). You'll be essentially forced to finish at least one application early, giving you valuable experience down the line. And you get feedback early as well. I finished my Stanford essay in the fall and reused the same essay for nearly all my schools. By the time I was done with the rest of my applications, I had revised my Stanford essay countless times, and had realized the mistakes I made on my Stanford application that got me rejected. If you really don't think you'll make it in, at least do yourself a favor and apply early to get the practice of filling out an application (especially since Stanford/Princeton is CommonApp) and writing essays. It'll be invaluable later on with your RD apps.

Dzilyabch

If you can get your SATs up by 100 or 200 points, then you will at least have a decent chance at Columbia.
It seems that Columbia really takes into account your uniqueness. So try to highlight what makes you special in the app.

kiwiskimo

I think your standardized test scores are perfectly fine. Your 34 ACT hits the mark. However, do like what I did. Spend a month or two flipping through a grammar book. I did so and my writing went from 670 to 800.

I would suggest ED. I don't know your ethnicity, but if you're asian, you would have a hard time getting in, if you're white, its a gamble, and if you're a minority, then you're pretty much set.