Chance Me - SCEA / CoS

Colleges & Universities Princeton University
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Or most likely CoS, I should say. I have a bunch of other interests as well that I always might pursue, but CoS is the plan for sure. Looking at certificates all over the board as well.

Anyways, I’m mildly freaking out now that I’m doing Common App stuff and Princeton has been my goal for a couple years and I really don’t think I’m going to get in. I’m hopeful, but also not confident at all.

Personal:

I’m a white male from a solidly middle class (not upper-middle) family. I lived in South Africa for just over five years, in which time our family did mission work (and lived normal lives as well – I was in school there) before returning to the United States just in time for my freshman year. I don’t have any spectacular hooks, really. Not a legacy, not a first gen student, and, well, my demographics speak for themselves. Unfortunately. In addition, I moved to a different state this summer. (Yes, a new school in my senior year. Wonderful.) Oh, and I switched schools between freshman and sophomore year.

Academics:

ACT - 36 (36 on all normal sections, 11 Writing)
SAT - 1570 (probably irrelevant given ACT)
SAT IIs - 780 Literature, and unfortunately 770 Math 2
GPA - 3.9UW/4.2W
School doesn’t rank.
I’ve taken the max number of AP classes that my schools allowed both in Junior (4) and Senior (5) year, but before that… 1 AP in Sophomore, none Freshman. Not impressive. I’m quite frankly mad at my past self for basically not caring about anything until Junior year.
PSAT - 1490/223, have been confirmed as a National Merit Semifinalist, and will likely be a Finalist as well.

ECs:

Piano (2013-present)
Model United Nations (2015-present) - Elected 2017-2018 Head Delegate at my old school prior to leaving, and founded a Model United Nations at my new school. Was chosen as the Outstanding Delegate for Model International Court of Justice at the MUN convention we went to in the 2016-2017 school year.
Literary Magazine (2015-2017) - our 2016 edition, which I contributed to, won the School Literary Magazine Pacemaker award.
Young Adult Literature Club (2015-2017) - A front for a Harry Potter Club. Founding member & Prefect of Ravenclaw (2015-present)
Forensics & Debate (2016-2017)
Quiz Bowl (2016-2017) - team that I was on came in 2nd in our state competition.
National Honor Society (2016-present) - Vice President (2016-2017)
Scholar Council (2016-2017) - Secretary (2016-2017)

So, see all those ECs ending in 2017? Yeah. That’s a problem. I’m not sure what I can do, though – some of those aren’t available at my new school, and some of them aren’t realistic – NHS and Scholar Council, for example, there’s no way that I could be an officer at my new school (especially given that elections were last year), so I lose those leadership positions. Lit Mag doesn’t exist here, Debate exists but is on a day that most students have off when I’m doing actual school, and Quiz Bowl clashes with Model UN at this school. How screwed am I?

Volunteer Experience:

Served at my public library for all of high school, served on the Teen Advisory Board in Junior year (and would have senior year, if not for… ya know). Accumulated a good couple hundred hours, received the Governor’s Volunteer Excellence Award, and whilst on the TAB received a joint Outstanding Citizen Award from my town.

I was chosen to attend HOBY in the summer between sophomore and junior year, and returned the next summer as a junior staff member, serving for around 90 hours over the course of 4 or 5 days. (We weren’t paid – in fact, we even paid all of our own expenses.)

That’s… about it. I’ve had a bunch of people tell me that this is good, but honestly, I feel like that’s only true when considering being admitted to non-ridiculously competitive colleges. Especially for Ivy Leagues, I feel like I’m really not qualified. Especially with those lackluster AP course lists – although, to be fair, my school freshman year only allowed freshmen to take AP Human Geography, which I couldn’t take because I had moved back from South Africa like two weeks before and I was just happy to get in some decent classes, Sophomore year I should have done more, Junior year I took as many as I could (required credits made it almost impossible to get more than 4, and my counselor point-blank refused to let me take any more), and Senior year I had to go to the principal to get my course load as heavy as it is now, and with the different state graduation requirements… even if more AP classes had worked in my schedule, I would have had to take those reqs instead.

I’m basically screwed. I think so, at least – I’m just hoping that’s my paranoia. So, yeah – chance me. That would be wonderful. Thank you!

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@SBMain

Tough demo. But your life experiences can make you unique. Your scores and stats are great, a 770 SAT II is still very good, so no worries there.

Your ECs are a mess, but that’s beyond your control.

Here is what I advise:

Even if you cannot join in-progress clubs as a leader, still participate. This shows your passion and commitment. But touch on this in either an essay, or via LoR from former school counselor / teachers. I think they’d be sympathetic to your plight.

Even if there isn’t a club that parallels what existed at your previous school, do one of two things: start the club at your new school (making a difference in your community, showing leadership and commitment to your passion) or self-study/self-research at home in your off-time (showing commitment).

Whatever you do, you need to craft an essay on moving around so much, that your awesome experiences (show, don’t tell these experiences) come at price (consistency of ECs, 3 schools in a short amount of time, etc.), but show how you have still found your way/grown/persisted with your passions - even when faced with this challenge.

You may want to consider getting last school’s school counselor to document that you took “most rigorous” course load available as a supplementary upload to your app. Last, you should consider getting LoRs from teachers that know you the best, even if not at your latest school.

Good luck, you’ve done fine work, but you need to double down on your essays and turn your interesting and different life experiences (that came at price) into some great essays that really conveys your unique personal narrative. Your “weakness” might be your best strength!

Good luck,
Psy

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@psywar

Thank you for the awesome advice! As far as ECs go, MUN I’m actually starting up, I’m gonna see what I can do about Quiz Bowl (or Academic League, as they call it here), Forensics/Debate is physically impossible to do because I have classes both on Mondays and 0 periods when they meet, and most people at my school have one of those two free. However, I’ve actually joined a club called JSA (Junior State of America) that’s basically political debate, so I feel like that continues on that particular thread (and I’m actually in an officer position in it, which is pretty great). I’m definitely joining NHS (in fact, I’ve actually been working on the application over the weekend), so that really just leaves Lit Mag as the one thing that I definitely can’t do. Most of my ECs are basically just taking on a new form, and while it’s worse than it would have been, I’m definitely doing everything I can to minimize the negative impact.

My main Common App essay is actually about the whole moving around process (it used to be a more lighthearted unique-type essay about roller skating but I got rid of that), the supplement is killing me as far as knowing what exactly to write though.

Because you seem to know what you’re talking about: I’ve heard the 770 Math II is actually fairly bad (and the 67th percentile that it represents is… iffy at best when I typically score much higher) – is that not accurate? I’m really not very informed when it comes to SAT IIs, I just took a couple because they were recommended by Princeton (well, three to be precise, but World History… we don’t talk about that.) Any info would be awesome!

Anyways, once again – thank you for your advice! It’s super helpful and I’ll definitely see about getting my old counselor to make sure to send course scheduling info and such (I think that’s happening already but through my new counselor? But I’m not sure) and as far as recs go, I’ve got my favorite two teachers writing them for me (which I’m super pumped about because I actually didn’t ask either of them, they offered to write them unprompted).

The guidance really is appreciated! Have a great day/night/whenever!

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@SBMain m2 sat2 @ 770 is good, not great. But with your ACT, SAT and likely NMF scores, you show that your m2 score is an exception rather than the rule.

From your other work, I didn’t get you were a STEM kid. Might be a bad assumption?

At Princeton you can AB COS, vs. BSE COS. If you indicate BSE, your 770 may count against you, but if you AB, it shouldn’t hurt you at all. Still Princeton is a lottery, have safeties and matches.