4 years on CC; 2 weeks 'til decision -- Tear me apart, suze & co.!

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Well I’ve been on CC for quite a while and vowed I’d never do a chances thread until it got really close to decisions and after almost 50 months, that time has come!</p>

<p>** THE NUMBERS **</p>

<p>Rank: 1 of 223
Weighted GPA: 6.26
Unweighted GPA: 3.89
Curriculum: IB Diploma Candidate (most rigorous courseload)
Dual-Enrollment (receiving Associate in Arts Degree this semester with 80 credits)
SAT (2 sittings, no superscoring): 800 Math, 740 Reading, 700 Writing
SAT II: 800 Math IIC, 730 Biology M, 690 Chemistry
AP/IB scores: 5 on AP Calc BC (self-study)
6 on IB Psychology SL</p>

<p>** THE SUBSTANCE (Extracurriculars!!)**</p>

<p>Greetings Team at Youth Group: Leader for 4 years and founder. Strong passion for incorporating new people into youth group (and for people in general), think that came through in interviews.
Math (Mu Alpha Theta) Team: President 1 year, Vice President 1 year. Currently act as the Calculus teacher for the math team as the 1 Calc teacher at our school does not wish to participate.
Drama Team at Youth Group: Member for 3 years and perform bimonthly skits. I love it! Wrote about it in one of my college essays.
Jazz Band: Play Alto Saxophone and member for 3 years. Played various gigs around town.
Volunteer Tutoring: Many, many hours spent volunteer tutoring (outside of school) over the four years of highschool. 200+
Beta Club: Vice President and coordinator of mentoring/tutoring at local underprivileged elementary school (I believe passion about this came through also). Mentor twice a week, 1 hour each visit.
Cafe Hope Volunteering: I collect Panera donations and manage the money for our non-profit organization that serves food/drink after Saturday Night Service. Been with it since the beginning and spend 4 hrs a week in the various things I do with it.
Community College Brain Bowl/Math Team: Member for 1 year and have placed well in a few competitions.
Hip Hop Dance: Just started it this year and am having an amazing, challenging time!
CrossCountry/Track: 1 year of each.</p>

<p>** THE AWARDS **</p>

<p>1st place score in regional AMATYC (American Mathematics Association for Two Year Colleges), 3rd place in SouthEastern US
7th place in Theta Division at 2005 Mu Alpha Theta Convention
Most Outstanding Musician Award 2006
Dean’s List at Community College (5 semesters)
1st place drama in History Fair (great-grandparents flight from Holocaust)
Various top 15 Mu Alpha Theta Awards in Geometry/Calculus</p>

<p>** THE STUFF I DID IN THE SUMMER!**</p>

<p>Summer 2004: Mission trip to England (where I joined drama team) and Indiantown. This was the last time since today that I didn’t have to go to school for more than 2 weeks.
Summer 2005: 7 courses at community college. 2 classes at <a href=“http://www.artofproblemsolving.com%5B/url%5D”>www.artofproblemsolving.com</a>.
Summer 2006: 6 courses at community college. Missions Trip to Belize. Worked 20 hours a week. HELL.</p>

<p>** THE WORK EXPERIENCE **</p>

<p>Work as a Math Tutor at my local community college in their Math Lab: Summer 2006 20 hours/week
January 2007 – present 13 hours/week</p>

<p>** THE *OTHER STUFF<a href=“That%20Will%20Probably%20Affect%20My%20Admission%20the%20Most”>/i</a> **</p>

<p>Location: Florida
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Economic Status: Middle Class
School: Sends a few to top schools. One or two a year (recently 1 to MIT, 1 to Columbia, 1 to Dartmouth, etc.).</p>

<p>** THE UNIVERSITIES **</p>

<p>Columbia University (Columbia College)
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton (deferred ED)
University of Chicago
University of Florida
Yale University</p>

<p>** THE END.**</p>

2

<p>Just outta curiosity, I’ve seen your’s and other’s GPAs over 6.0 and 7.0. How do they get that high? The highest scale we have around here is 4.0 + 1 pt for APs.
So just curious. Thanks.</p>

3

<p>My school works on an add-on system, like .02 or .04 extra per IB or Dual Enrollment Course. With near 25 classes at my local community college and a full IB/pre-IB schedule since 9th grade, that’s a lot of add-ons.</p>

4

<p>Oh ok! No schools have that around here so I always forget about it. I feel dumb =]</p>

5

<p>Obviously none of us have the whole picture. But, my picks are…</p>

<p>*University of Florida- Accepted</p>

<p>*University of Chicago- Accepted (if you presented yourself as well-rounded)</p>

<p>*Columbia University- Accepted</p>

<p>*Don’t be suprised if you are rejected from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, & MIT. Be prepared mentally and then if you are accepted it will be a suprise :). GPA & SAT are fine, but I’m not sure if there is anything amazing that distinguishing you enough to get you into that top ~7% (especially in the Caucasian pool). It may just come down to the type of applicant the university is low on this year, how great your essays were, or even the mood of the adcoms :o . You definately have a chance though (and better than most do). Best of luck.</p>

<p>BTW… Tell me what you think if you have some extra time.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=310563[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=310563&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Y’all can’t just let my thread go and die like that…</p>

7

<p>If a person is unsure about HYPM, then Columbia isn’t easy to say, either. You have a good chance at all of them, I think.</p>

8

<p>I actually think you have a shot at MIT.</p>

<p>Northwestern would really like you, but you didn’t put them down. Many of your e.c.'s fit within their own college opportunities. And they seem to like outgoing, well-rounded students, which it seems you are. They are less interested in the “extreme” achievement in the e.c. field that HYP tend to favor.</p>

<p>Did I miss in your post an indication of what your intended field(s) of study might be? Or what attracts you to these specific U’s? (The latter is also important in <em>your</em> attractiveness to <em>them</em>.)</p>

9

<p>I would have added a mid tier ivy or great LAC. You have a lottery ticket for HYP, but without outstanding ECs and just good SATs, you’ll be lucky to get into one. That goes for Columbia and MIT too. Chicago yes with a good app and yes at Florida…</p>

10

<p>My major will be in either mathematics or a hard science (i.e. Biology).</p>

<p>Thanks for the comments, pretty much spot on what I was thinking, suze.</p>

<p>And epiphany, I thought I’d like Northwestern too, but a visit there didn’t go well. It has such a small campus and the tour, as well as the information session, was so dull and uninteresting that I decided to not even apply.</p>

<p>Anyone know how much my courseload will factor into decisions? The full IB diploma and an Associates Degree from community college. Was all that time worth it (in terms of admissions, that is; I know that the skills I learned in time management and the knowledge I gained are priceless)?</p>

11

<p>IB just isn’t unusual anymore and many don’t think more highly of the program than AP. Most everyone who gets into HYP will have had a very rigorous high school program. 35% are from private schools, many of wish offer classes beyond IB and AP.</p>

12

<p>I don’t mean to rain further on the parade, but I thought that I had read on certain college sites that if you already have 2 full years of comm. college, that the college might not consider that candidate for freshman admission? Hopefully I’m wrong about that.</p>

13

<p>Yeah, you are. I asked a representative from Harvard (at an admissions meeting) about it and she said I should apply as a freshman. The representative from University of Chicago (when I visited) said that also.</p>

14

<p>thanks for the correction on that.</p>

15

<p>I think you are definately in at Florida and Chicago, and you have a great chance to get into at least one of your other choices.</p>

16

<p>Suze,</p>

<p>I’m just wondering exactly what you’re stats are, what college you attend (If you’re in college), or what colleges you applied too. What makes you so all knowing?</p>

17

<p>Just to once again praise suze’s knowledge, I am now wishing I had applied to a top 20 school. After my rejection from MIT (which, although depressing, wasn’t unexpected b/c I never requested an interview – very stupid/ignorant on my part; the rest of my interviews were quite awesome), I’m paranoid that I’m going to end up at UF. <em>sigh</em></p>

<p>Wish me luck. I’ll update the thread so y’all will know how I fared.</p>