Chance Me for Harvard REA: NE Feeder, ROTC Scholarship, 1570, Top 5%, Niche interdisciplinary

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • US domestic

  • State/Location of residency: Texas, but school in New England

  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): T5 Boarding School (Think Andover, Exeter, Choate)

  • Other special factors: White hispanic, 4-Year ROTC Scholarship to Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Transferred to Boarding school as a reclassified student after 2 years at a private day school (so 2 years at day school, 3 at boarding school)

Cost Constraints / Budget
None

Intended Major(s): History and Literature Concentration w/ field of Latin American Studies

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: At high school #1: 4.3/4.3; Won’t post high school #2 GPA due to unique grading scale, but near the top of the class*

  • Weighted HS GPA: At high school #1: 4.53; *

  • Class Rank: My school ranks top 20%, 10%, and top 5%; I am in top 5%.

  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1570 (800 M 770 R)

List your HS coursework

This is pretty tough to do concisely, as my current high school has hundreds of courses, unique level system, no APs (but I can take the tests), etc.

  • English: AP Lang (5), Senior electives pertinent to Latin American niche

  • Math: AP Calculus

  • Science: I’ve taken all lab sciences, including maxing out the biology curriculum (post-AP)

  • History and social studies: AP World (5), US History, and Senior electives pertinent to Latin American niche. Latin American history course for credit at Georgetown (A)

  • Language other than English: AP Spanish Lang (5) 3 years of post-AP Spanish courses (including independent research scholar program at my HS after maxing out curriculum). Portuguese course for credit at Northwestern (A)

  • Visual or performing arts: Run-of-the-mill art, music and debate classes

  • Other academic courses: Religion and philosophy

Awards

  1. ROTC 4 Year Scholarship to Harvard, Princeton, and Yale

  2. Highest Departmental Prize for Spanish at my boarding school

  3. Selected for competitive independent scholars program at my high school to pursue independent study with a faculty member in topic of choosing within the department for which I have completed all offered courses (Spanish)

  4. National Spanish Exam Gold

  5. 3x PVSA Gold (600+ Hours)

Extracurriculars

Research Assistant to PhD Candidate, T25 University

Reviewed primary and secondary sources for a college senior seminar on Argentina’s history and politics; supported research and course design.

Intern, Documentary for My City’s Biggest Historical Site

To explore the Texas-Mexico relationship and promote the preservation of historical memory, I developed a project to interview historical reenactors working at the museum. (video on YouTube and website of the organization).

Legal Services Translator (Spanish)

Translated housing, immigration, and legal documents for immigrant clients at Texas legal-aid nonprofit.

Website Developer

Built bilingual online hub with legal guides and aid directories for Spanish-speaking immigrants navigating U.S. processes (6,200 site visits).

Independent Research & Publication

Published Latin American history research in two decent journals; submitted a 7,000-word Falklands War essay to The Concord Review.

Dorm Leadership

Selected to provide academic, social, and emotional support to students navigating boarding life and to sustain a strong dorm community.

Eagle Scout (Patrol Leader, Quartermaster), Scouts of America

Led troop members to hand-build and deliver 20 wooden beds to low-income children in my area as my Eagle Scout Service Project.

Blogger

Created blog on classic Mexican short stories, posting analyses; building 12-piece series on depictions of revolution in rural Mexico.

Varsity Sport; Club Player for a National Team

5-year varsity player; All-District Honors. Walk-on. Competed nationally. Not recruitable.

Spanish Peer Tutor

To promote fluency and understanding, assisted students with Spanish grammar, conversation and cultural studies at all leve

Essays/LORs/Other
LORs will be very strong from history and Spanish teacher. My counselor rec will be my strongest, as her advocacy for me got me 1 of 2 nomination spots from my grade for a public ivy scholarship (Think Morehead-Cain, Thomas Jefferson)

Some essays talk about South Texas/border/hispanic identity

I had a good interview in-person with a Harvard alum

Schools

Harvard REA

All Ivies

Duke (legacy)

Stanford

Northwestern

Georgetown

UVA

UNC

UT Austin

W&M

2

Explain to me here - ROTC 4 Year Scholarship to Harvard, Princeton, and Yale

If you have this, doesn’t it mean you have acceptance ? Or if you get in, you get this?

The only potential hiccup I can see is you say AP Calc. AB might be an issue whereas BC wouldn’t - so not sure how your school does it.

Obviously, your school is your best source and I’m sure they place people at all these schools.

I’ll go back to the all Ivies - Dartmouth isn’t Columbia which isn’t Yale - they do have differences. So other than a big name, where do you actually fit?

I imagine every school is possible and most certainly W&M. UT would be if you are in the top 5% a a Texas HS but I imagine still happens.

I don’t know if Legacy at Duke will matter if it’s not early decision - it doesn’t mean Duke won’t happen, but I don’t know that you get a lift.

I mean, I’m sure you have several offers to many offers from this list.

But talk to your school counseling.

Best of luck.

PS - one other point of note - it’s a niche field….are the top overall names necessarily the top name in these fields? You might look at offerings for each school to ensure they can meet your needs. When you look up rankings on line, I see other schools….

3

So, for the scholarship selection, applicants list 6 schools (or 7 for an additional public school, as one of every three schools listed has to be an in-state public). My top 3 were HYP, and when I was selected, my scholarship is luckily applicable to all 3 of those. If I get in, it’s a full ride. Even though winning it doesn’t mean I will necessarily get accepted, those 3 schools now know that I won’t need aid and I will help fulfill their ROTC quota.

As for Calculus, I am in AB, but I’m not really worried because my highly advanced sciences (especially most post-AP bio independent research course) (hopefully) pick up the slack.

In terms of the Ivies being quite different, I won’t lie and say that I’m not attracted to the brand name. However, something I learned in touring both boarding schools and colleges is that I truly love a wide variety of academic/social/geographic environments (and it’s hard not to when considering the caliber of these schools). I was fortunate to tour schools all over, and these were just some of my favorites.

As for the state schools, according to the data from my school (looking specifically at my GPA/SAT cohort), W&M, UNC, and UVA are virtually guaranteed. Only UT is questionable because I don’t have enough school-specific data, and I no longer qualify as in-state.

Thanks the feedback.

2 Likes
4

Sigh

Arguably your school has the best college counseling office in the nation, with all sorts of data on past applicants. They are well-versed on guiding students to build an appropriate college list. These resources can answer your questions better than anonymous people on the Internet, even if any of these people has experience with your school.

The other advantage of your college counseling office is that they would tell you, correctly, that your life is not doomed if you “only” take AP Calc AB. You ask opinions on anonymous websites and you run the risk of getting totally asinine answers.

I’ll also add, and this is premature since you don’t have acceptances yet, but you might want to consider the logistics of ROTC in your decision making. While Yale and Princeton have ROTC on campus, Harvard students travel to MIT.

Good luck

5 Likes
5

Are your parents not residents of Texas?

Are you interested in a military career?

Have you thought about the academies?

6

I’m kind of surprised your school allowed/encouraged so many apps. For elite private schools, a huge part of your chance is the counselor rec. They’re landing 8-20 kids/year at Harvard, they know what their Harvard performance is like. Question is whether counselor thinks you’re 1 or 40.

With ROTC, I’m pretty certain you’ll be admitted based on visible info. They want to fill those slots. Have you contacted the unit CO? As this isn’t a conventional ROTC scholarship you might not be on his radar to advocate for.

1 Like
7

Hi, Thanks for the feedback.

The CCO at my schools is pretty transparent about their expectations for our college lists, and —I’m probably contributing to the problem when I say this—students don’t listen. Kids throw 20 darts at the T20 board year after year, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop. As such, I felt like I had to do the same to stand a chance. The counselor rec is going to be quite strong considering the scholarship nomination I received from her, but I have no clue how many kids are going to apply early to Harvard this year.

I’m a bit confused about what you mean but the scholarship not being conventional. It’s just a 4 year Army ROTC scholarship. The school I conducted my scholarship interview with was MIT (where Harvard trains), and the interviewer ended up offering to write a letter of rec for the scholarship. This means I’m on the radar of the cadre, but I don’t think that means much since MIT faculty likely won’t be in cahoots with Harvard admissions.

Thanks so much for the feedback!

8

Gotcha. The MIT Army CO has some pull with Harvard admissions, interviewing with them was a very good move. Harvard wants to fill 5-12 Army ROTC slots, so you’re in a pretty good position.

(There are some weird specialty scholarships, very generous, related to HYP ROTC. Thought you might have one of those).

9

It’s a shame it is necessary, but the way things are, it is necessary. You were wise to do so.

You would have a wonderful experience at any of those schools.