Chance Worried Kid on T20 Prospects ECON/FINANCE

Chance Me / Match Me
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Chance Me – Finance / Econ, Ivies + T20s

Demographics

  • Male

  • State: Suburban/Rural Midwest

  • School: Mid Sized non-competitive public highschool/middle income

  • Hooks:

    • National-level elite athlete (no recruiting)

    • Midwest Rural Non-feeder

    • Significant time commitment outside school (32+ hrs/week training & travel)

Intended Major

  • Primary: Finance / Economics depending on school

  • Secondary interests: Quantitative economics, global markets, economic history/ Agricultural economics

Academics

  • GPA: 3.85 UW / 4.5 W

  • Rank: Not officially ranked

  • Course Rigor: Very high

    • 10–12 APs total

    • AP Calc BC, AP Statistics, AP Physics, AP Lit, AP Lang, others (All 5s a couple 4s)

    • Independent Study (History → financial & economic analysis) (A one-on-one class with a teacher in our school that focuses on a topic not offered by school, info attached to transcript)

    • Online AP coursework to supplement school offerings

  • Grades:

    • A / A- range in hardest STEM courses

    • 2 B+ in Physics and a B+ in BC (contextualized by 4+ weeks missed for national competition and a 5 on the AP exam)

  • SAT: 1530

  • Could only take 3/5 classes during first two trimesters due to skating commitments for all 4 years, supplemented w/ online classes → less possible ap classes for me to take + 4+ weeks of missed instruction due to competition traveling yearly contextualized in add. info.

Extracurriculars

National-Level semi-niche Olympic sport athlete

top 10 junior out of thousands of competitors and top 20 ranked US

30+ hrs/week training

2× consecutive National Medalist

Multiple U.S. Championships + World Cup Qualifier appearances

Co-Founder & VP – Investment Club

Built schoolwide finance competition (70+ participants)

Led members in 3+ competitions

Portfolio analysis, macro discussions, stock pitches

NY Fed Challenge – Economics Research

Agricultural economics research

Policy analysis, data modeling, team presentations

Wharton Global Youth Program EoF

Valuation, capital markets, investing frameworks

Stock evaluation & pitch presentations

Chief Editor of my cultural center magazine

Led editorial board and publication process

Earned Presidential Volunteer Gold Service Award (250+ hrs in 11th grade)

Sold 5k Magazines per Year raising 10k per year, 30k total in USD

Cultural center youth leadership program

High-profile event (1000+ people attending) coordination leading 50+ volunteers

History Club Co-Founder

History Competition competitor

Qualified for a history competition National Championships (won multiple lower level comps and its a well known competition in history competitions)

Kumon Tutor (Paid)

Tutored 100+ students in math & reading

Coordinated coworkers and supported center operations

Marketing Internship

Gained 26k+ followers on tiktok, 10m+ views, 100k+ direct revenue raised (solo)

Cultural Reading Club

Orator/Teacher to 20+ people

Awards / Honors

  • 2x National Medalist (Overall classification, 10th grade, 11th grade)

  • Presidential Volunteer Service Award – Gold (11th grade) Bronze (10th)

  • national history competition – National Championships Qualifier + attended

  • Johne Locke Essay Comp High Distinction

  • AP scholar with distinction

Essays

  • Strong narrative writing background, pretty good essays, excellent supplementals

Letters of Recommendation

  • APUSH teacher: Strong

  • English teacher: Decent, nothing crazy

  • Counselor: Contextual, explains athletic travel, independent study, online coursework

Schools

RD:

  • Michigan Ross

  • Cornell (Dyson / Econ)

  • Columbia

  • NYU Stern

  • Duke

  • Dartmouth

  • Brown

  • Princeton

  • Harvard

  • Berkeley (Haas interest)

  • Notre Dame

  • Georgetown ( Legacy )

  • Uchicago

Im really worried about my uw gpa and my B+s? for the 2nd trimester update I will have all As.
ALSO to note, i have already been accepted into uw madison so im not worried about my profile being reachy, –> little to no cost constraints

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You’ll find out soon enough.

Your profile is fine - and your B+ are no big deal but if you “contextualized” which I see as excuse making, that could be seen as excuse making. You don’t know why you got a B+.

But you are certainly capable of getting into any school. And hopefully will.

So best of luck.

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Thank You! I see the excuse making concern and you might be right. I mainly mentioned it in my application because I would miss almost a month of school for the world cup qualifier and champs circuits. I guess I can only wait and hope now.

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That’s all you can do. Just curious, why did you choose to not get recruited for sports?

You have Wisconsin so you’re already golden.

You’ve done what you can. You’ve got a fantastic profile. So wait and see. Depending on your goals, Wisconsin may be just as good anyway. But I wouldn’t worry about a few B+ - although in Calc wasn’t the best to get it in - but unlikely to be a reason to get rejected.

But you’ve been the best you that you can be. If you’re not admitted anywhere else, it’s their loss.

You can get to the same place from no matter which school you attend. I’m more concerned with you and your drive and persistence - than I would be with - say - Harvard or Wisconsin.

Good luck.

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Yay!

This is exactly what I am thinking also. UW Madison is a very good university.

When I see finance and economics, one thing that comes to mind is that both overlap with math quite a bit. I was a math major and in graduate school (master’s) took exactly one single class that was not a math class. It was econometrics. Even as a math major it had me spending at least one Saturday afternoon going over the underlying mathematics to make sure that I understood the math properly. I also liked it quite a bit. UW Madison is very good for math, and is ranked in the top 10 for math in some rankings. Of course when I see “agricultural economics” this also makes me think of UW (for example in some rankings it has a top 10 DVM program).

So I think that you are already in great shape.

The rest of the schools that you have applied to are reaches. I think that you are academically qualified to attend any of them but so are probably something like 80% of the other applicants and of course these are schools with single digit acceptance rates.

And if you do get into one of the other schools on your list, then you should think about whether you would actually prefer it to UW. You do not need to attend a famous school just because you get in, particularly when the alternative is this good. Also, when planning for a budget remember that prices go up over time and you are considering majors where a master’s degree is a very real possibility. If you can get a bachelor’s and a master’s without any debt that can be helpful.

I have known a few students who were exceptional at either a sport or music, and had to decide what to focus on. One friend of a daughter was an exceptional skater and very graceful and was doing double axels at a rather young age. She had to decide whether to focus on her sport and aim for the Olympics, or focus on academics. She went with academics, and I am pretty sure that she is an MD now. The same daughter was exceptional at music and also decided to neglect it to focus on academics. This particular daughter is a DVM now. In both cases they had to make the conscious decision to neglect their other talent to focus on academics. Missing a month of school would not be a good plan once you get to university, although you might at some point choose to skip an entire semester (or quarter if at a university on the quarter system). Missing an entire semester strikes me as a much better plan compared to missing a month in the middle of a semester.

Regardless I think that you are already in great shape, will be at a great university in September, and just need to wait and see which one it will be (and how warm of a coat you will need, although “quite warm” would be the answer for several schools on your list).

Best wishes.

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Congratulations on being able to balance your academics with skating. On the positive, I have seen a “similar profile” to yours head to Harvard. On the other hand, that person went to a top tier private high school and was also a legacy, both of which may have helped.

Without the elite level sport accomplishments, I think you might struggle at the top tier. It is not just the Bs, but it is the fact that they are in the wrong classes for a stem finance type. On the other hand, if a school wants a skater, you just might be the one.

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