Chance at Columbia, Cornell, Penn, Berkeley

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Class of '10!</p>

<p>Basics: Asian female, one of top 5 public schools in California, family income $200,000 (not applying for financial aid)
Class rank: 11/486 weighted
GPA: 3.89 unweighted<em>/4.36 weighted (highest GPA in class is 4.6)
—></em>awful start on freshman year (suspended for drug issue)</p>

<p>FRESHMAN YEAR:
Honors Freshman History
Honors Algebra 2
Honors English
Bio
French 1
CompSci
PE</p>

<p>SOPHOMORE:
AP World (5)
Honors Precalc
Honors English
Chem
French 2
AP CompSci (5)
PE</p>

<p>JUNIOR:
APUSH (4)
AP Calc BC (5)
AP Eng Language (5)
Physics
French 3
AP Human Geo (5)
AP Bio (5)</p>

<p>SENIOR:
AP Gov/Macro
AP Stat
AP Lit+Comp
AP Chem
AP French 4
AP Psych
Video production *art requirement</p>

<p>+self-study: AP Music Theory (5)</p>

<p>SAT: 2400
SAT II: Chinese (800), French (720), Lit (800)</p>

<p>ECs:
DECA - member (9-10), VP school chapter (11), co-president school chapter (12)
Interact - member (9), Treasurer school chapter (10-11), president school chapter (12)
Piano - (4-12)</p>

<p>Awards:
DECA - 3rd place statewide conference (10), 2nd place international conference (11)
Piano - CM level 9 (9), CM Advanced (10-12), CM Senior Award (12), first place sate comp* (10), third place in national comp* (11)</p>

<p>---->*$ from competitions used to help fund a new piano for the senior center</p>

<p>Volunteer Work:
Peer math tutor (9-12) 400+ hours
Organizing our city’s annual talent show (7-12) 30 hours
Playing piano, reading books@Senior center (9-12) 200+ hours</p>

<p>Summers:
International student delegate to France (3 weeks full time, 9)
CSSSA for music (3 weeks full time, 10)
EPGY for business (3 weeks full time, 11)
Music camp counselor volunteer (100 hours, 10-12)
Teaching piano, earned $4000 total* (200 hours total, 9-12)</p>

<p>—>*9th grade summer, $ went to buy drugs
10-12, $ used to help fund a new piano for the senior center</p>

<p>Teacher Recs should be good(:
Essay is about how piano helped me overcome my XTC addiction in 9th grade (started in 7th grade)</p>

<p>What do you think?
Responses greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>DRUG issue? that sounds pretty bad…but then again you got a 2400…</p>

<p>Hope you have a mind blowing essay</p>

3

<p>wow we really should be friends! ;.
my essay is about piano too (well not drug related) and i self studied music theory too lol! i’m applying to columbia, cornell, and berkeley too n_n
EDIT: and i’m pretty darn good at compsci too
but I had to write about a misdemeanor/suspension on my app relating to drugs in 9th grade too
my friend was like “i don’t think they’ll give you too much **** for that, since you’ve worked hard after that” and I sure hope he’s right.</p>

<p>ok enough about me…</p>

<p>I think you know very well that you’re an outstanding applicant though :stuck_out_tongue:
other than offsetted GPA from freshman year and your little issue there D:</p>

<p>best best BEST wishes to you! because I can TOTALLY relate. you obviously deserve to go somewhere nice.</p>

4

<p>2400 SAT. Wow.</p>

<p>If you can write beautifully about your drug problem, addiction, hitting bottom, and overcoming it, then I think you can explain your way out of getting hurt by that. That’s a powerful topic and a great hook. Don’t make excuses with the essay, but use it to show the human cost of drug addiction and how you overcame it. Great hook with the piano thing.</p>

<p>Get someone to specify in their rec (preferably the counselor or principal, especially if they were involved in your suspension) about how far you have come since that day, how you are 100% clean and sober now, and how they believe you to be a stellar student who would never make the same mistake again. Maybe somebody who supervised your detox/rehab could talk about how hard you worked to overcome the addiction and how you are clean now. </p>

<p>Have you done anything related to helping addicts? Maybe do some service to spread awareness of drug abuse/addiction (especially MDMA/ecstasy) or help people kick the habit. Volunteer in a detox unit or halfway house. Something to show that you are using what you learned as an addict to make sure people don’t have to suffer like you did.</p>

<p>Nice GPA and rank. </p>

<p>I got into Berkeley out-of-state last year and couldn’t afford to go. My grades/scores weren’t as good as yours. You can get in there.</p>

<p>Cornell is supposed to be the easiest Ivy to get into. I’ve never applied and know nobody there.</p>

<p>Penn’s “Pg. 217 of your autobiography” essay could be interesting for somebody with such an interesting life story and writing talent like you. </p>

<p>I got WL’d at Columbia last year and didn’t make it in. Once again, I applied pretty close to the deadline and didn’t have scores/grades/service as good as yours at the time. If you apply ED, supposedly chances of getting in are 21%, but don’t take my word. I just read that on this site. </p>

<p>Ivies are weird, as we all know. Nobody has a “good chance” of getting in, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Nevertheless, if anyone does have such a chance, someone with a 2400 SAT, compelling life story, high GPA, and interesting EC’s/service does.</p>

<p>What are you interested in? What do you want to study and do with your life? Make sure you can present a clear idea of your future. Show them what you want to do with your life and with the education and opportunities they can provide you with. Interview wherever you can and blow the interviewer away with a compelling (but short) story of your fall and rise. Use interviewers as contacts to prove to the admissions committees that you are a normal person who they would never have suspected was once an addict and someone who would never do it again. They can attest to the fact that you are not a risk for them to let in and will be a serious, intellectually involved candidate.</p>

<p>What an amazing story. I am in awe of you. Make it work for you and you can get into any of these schools.</p>

<p>Best of luck. I hope this helps. Could you chance me? Mine’s called Crossing My Fingers. I’d greatly appreciate it. </p>

<p>Peace.</p>

5

<p>I don’t mean to nitpick you at all, you are absolutely incredible and on paper a thousand times more qualified than I am.</p>

<p>However, you might want to take a math or science SAT subject test. Right now you have only foreign language and regular language, and I’m not sure that flies at UC’s.</p>

6

<p>Not sure how much a drug suspension will hurt, especially at top schools, but your other stats are pretty well rounded. Should be atleast competitive in your mentioned schools.</p>

7

<p>2400…cant argue with that
and your essay sounds pretty interesting, should stick out</p>

<p>hey chance me back.
ivy league 2014/others?</p>

8

<p>Hey everyone :slight_smile: thanks for all your opinions, although now I do realize how pointless chance threads can be… And my SAT was superscored; sorry for the confusion. Best single-sitting was 770/800/800.</p>

<p>Just thought I’d follow up by saying that I will be attending Columbia in the fall! Woooo :D</p>