A New Twist on an Old Game

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>This is an opportunity for you to test your skills and see how good you actually are at predicting what people’s chances are at various colleges.</p>

<p>I am a senior in high school and I have already applied to eight schools and heard back from seven of them.</p>

<p>Here is my record</p>

<p>GPA: 3.83 (at one of the hardest schools in the country. In this history of the school a mere three students have graduated with a 4.0. You cannot get an A+ (or a 4.3), honors, advanced, and AP courses are all calculated equally. The GPA is entirely unweighted)
Rank: N/A - my school doesn’t rank
SAT I: Verbal - 800, Writing - 780, Math - 760
SAT II: Spanish - 730, Literature - 700, US History - 780
APs: Euro - 5, Spanish Language - 5, US History - 5, BC Calc - 5</p>

<p>Classes this year:
Linear Algebra/Multivariable Calculus
AP US Government and Politics/AP Comparative Government
English 12
Modern Literature
Advanced Spanish Language and Culture
AP Biology</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
-3 years of student government (my school elects four representatives per grade and then those students and several faculty elect one president, VP, treasurer, and secretary from within the group)
-2 years as secretary of the student government
-3 years policy debate (I’m not a superstar at debate, but I have some awards from elimination rounds and one or two speaker awards)
-4 years math team (Co-captain of the math team)</p>

<p>What I’ve done over the summer:
-Before sophomore year I went to two weeks of a tennis camp and counseled at a different tennis camp for four weeks
-Before junior year I went to four weeks of debate camp at MSU and volunteered for 100 hours at Children’s Hospital
-Before senior year I went to seven weeks of debate camp at the University of Michigan</p>

<p>Recommendations: I haven’t read either of them, I waived the right out of respect and trust in those who I asked to write them. I had my Spanish and English teachers from junior year write them and I think they were pretty positive.</p>

<p>Essays: I’m very proud of my writing ability and consider it one of my main assets. I wrote one funny essay about trying to read A Tale of Two Cities when I was twelve, failing miserably, and eventually finishing the book four years later. I wrote another about my experience electioneering in the school’s student government.
Counselor’s Recommendation: I like my college counselor. We got along well. I think she wrote a fairly good recommendation.</p>

<p>Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Religion: Agnostic
Location: Mid-Atlantic</p>

<p>Applied to:
Harvard (early)
Yale
Princeton
Georgetown (School of Foreign Service)
Brown
Dartmouth
Wesleyan
University of Michigan</p>

<p>In one week I will post where I got in (if there are at least ten responses to this post).</p>

2

<p>Hope you got accepted to Georgetown SFS, at least it’s my dream school among with Harvard. But your resume seems quite solid, you could have got accepted to all…</p>

3

<p>havard, yale - reject
princeton - waitlist
all others- in</p>

4

<p>Sounds like fun…</p>

<p>Harvard (early) - deferred/rejected
Yale - waitlisted
Princeton - accepted
Georgetown (School of Foreign Service) - accepted
Brown - accepted
Dartmouth - accepted
Wesleyan - accepted
University of Michigan - accepted</p>

5

<p>Be more specific about “agnostic.” Were you raised in a specific religious setting, or were your parents completely lapsed in THEIR religious upbringing and passed the savings on to you?</p>

6

<p>My parents were Unitarians and, bored with the church, I left at age seven. I’m not aggressively agnostic, I just don’t hold any beliefs in a higher form of life or life after death. The only relevance this really has is the squares I checked on one or two applications, but I doubt it made any real difference.</p>

7

<p>thats good you got in wesleyan… pretty good school</p>

8

<p>I would also like to respond to some of the language in Heavenwood’s inquisitive post.</p>

<p>“were your parents completely lapsed in THEIR religious upbringing and passed the savings on to you?”</p>

<p>While my parents were not raised outside of a church, I categorically reject the notion that one has to attend a church or believe in God to have a moral and ethical outlook. I have seen quite a bit of oppression, intolerance, and hypocrasy contrary to stated values by people among all faiths and I sincerely doubt that going to church makes you a better person. Empathy, selflessness, and understanding are probably much more valuable qualities, and the notion that these are only attainable through prostration to the divine is as insidious as it is dishonest and uninformed. Just my take.</p>

9

<p>I was kidding around Yossarian. I’m an agonstic Jew myself.</p>

10

<p>I agree with amp. Your grades are amazing, but your ec’s and volunteering aren’t at the same level. You either did what amp said or perhaps even better. You are a really good student and will excell wherever you end up!</p>

11

<p>I thought the ECs were my weakness as well</p>

12

<p>They were definitely my strength lol. I volunteered for hundreds of hours, varsity and captain of sports, and I’m in or was in (with some high positions) Spanish Club, Italian Club, NHS, Art Club, Film Club, Diversity Day Committee, etc…</p>

13

<p>Where do you plan on going?</p>

14

<p>ya…wats your favorite?</p>

15

<p>I liked Yale a lot.</p>

16

<p>I looked over this but am declining to participate. It’s really no more than a guessing game when it comes to the top universities in the country. Your stats fall within their range, definitely, but I can’t figure how we’re supposed to intelligently derive where you did and didn’t get accepted past that because any one of those schools deals with a pool of qualified applicants several times larger than their freshman class.</p>

<p>Hopefully you had better luck than I’m having so far though.</p>

17

<p>Harvard - Deferred/Waitlisted
Yale - Rejected
Princeton - Rejected
Dartmouth - Accepted
Brown - Accepted
Georgetown SFS - Accepted
Wesleyan - Accepted
Michigan - Accepted</p>

<p>Most of you were pretty close. Bravo.</p>