mochabear

College Class Year: 2013
High School: Public
High School Type: large (800 per class), sends roughly 5 per year to ivys

Academics:
GPA - Weighted: 4.59, Unweighted: 3.76
Class Rank: 38/820


Scores:

SAT I Math: 720
SAT I Critical Reading: 730
SAT I Writing: 800
SAT II U.S. History: 770
SAT II World History: 730
SAT II Literature: 720
AP's:
US History: 5
European History: 4
World History: 5
American Government: 5

Senior Year Schedule:
AP Calculus BC
AP English
AP Economics
AP Statistics
AP Environmental Science
AP Spanish
Journalism (our newspaper is a class, im editor in chief)

Extracurriculars:
Intern for DNC, been working on campaigns since 2004; founded microfinance club at school; co-captain of debate team; president of FBLA chapter and region; vice president of political science club; president of amnesty international chapter; life scout in boy scouts, may become eagle; editor in chief of newspaper; national honor society; moderate community service hours

Summers:
2007: FBLA National Conference, IR Program at Georgetown
2008: Pennsylvania Governors School of Excellence for International Studies

Colleges of Interest:
Yale, Brown, Georgetown, Columbia, UPenn, Amherst, Tufts, UChicago

Extra Notes:
My transcript is rather sketchy, as I have straight A's in all my liberal arts classes, but B's in 5 of my 6 math/science classes. My reccomendations will be decent but nothing spectacular.

I need some other people's perspective on this whole process. Right now, Yale is my first choice, but I doubt I can get in, so I may just early decision/action somewhere else. Could you chance me at various ranges of schools, so harvard/princeton/yale/stanford, and then the "easier" ivies, brown/columbia/penn, then the low acceptance lib arts, amherst/swarthmore/etc, then slightly higher acceptance schools like georgetown/tufts/etc. I figure since all these groups have comparable percentages for acceptance, if I can get into one in that group, I can get into all (though obviously there is some degree of chance to this process).
Thanks for chancing me.

DelendaEst

yo mochabear,
If i were an admissions officer, the newspaper editorship, debate, the DNC, and the microfinance club would jump out and impress me and outweigh the math/science sketchiness (but only a bit. Transcript is REALLY important). SAT scores are great, but Yale might want it a little bit higher, so you might want to consider a retake (but only if you want). Your senior courseload looks rigorous, which all colleges like!

As for the "various ranges" of schools, with the ivies, top LACs, and the other universities, it is extremely random. A lot of admissions offices look at an applicant in the context of his/her possible role in the freshman class. for example, if they have too many musicians, they'll axe the weakest one. I got into Wharton, but not into Cornell, which surprised people, but you just have to be open to the randomness. I would say you have great chances at georgetown and tufts, and suggest Washington U at St. Louis. U Chicago is an AMAZING school, and it is Early action (at least in my year) so its a great "safety" (i put that in quotations because its not and never a safety, but is for people who aspire for the top universities). As for the ivies and stanford, you never really know, but I would say you have a good hook, but I dont want to give you false hope because it really is random. If you have stellar senior year grades, that helps too.

And if you're applying to any programs (like PLME at Brown or Huntsman and Jerome Fischer at Upenn) or specific colleges (Wharton, Stern) the acceptance rates plunge to like 5%-10%

cheers, and best of luck!

mochabear

thanks delenda...
i have to big questions:
1. does the fact that im an over represented minority (Indian Male?) help, because I'm going against the stereotypical Indian science route, or hurt just by virtue of the fact that im an ORM?
2. on my app should I list extracurriculars that all have a similar theme, to show focus, or try and list a lot of the more disparate ones to show im well-rounded?

SomeGirl

Georgetown, Amherst, UChicago, and Tufts are matches. The rest are reaches. Your stats are very impressive!

Chance me .. ;]
I really need some needed help!

DelendaEst

I think for listing extracurriculars, you should list all of them, and obvious themes will start to emerge. And remember, put the most important and impressive ones first, so when you list all the others afterwards, it will make you seem well-rounded, AND focused, because all your impressive ones follow one theme.

As for being an ORM, I was an ORM (Asian male) going into classics, which I thought would help me, but I have no idea. On one hand, you hear all these stories of these harvard admisisons officers seeing East Asian kids wanting to be doctors and saying "ugh, another one wants to be a doctor." But on the other hand, ithe admissions philosophies of the different schools differ heavily. For example, I know Brown likes to have extremely diverse people who go out of the norm, so that might help.