Chances for early at Princeton/Wharton?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Academics:
Large public school in suburbs of NJ
SAT: 2310 (800M, 760CR, 750W)
ACT: 34
SAT 2s: 800 (Math 2); 800 (US History); 790 (Spanish)
GPA: 4.7 (W); 3.97 (UW)
Rank: in my class of 400, I think I’m 3rd, 4th, or 5th (school doesn’t rank)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Chem, AP Calc BC, APUSH, AP Art History, MicroEcon AP, English 4, International Politics, Independent Study in Spanish
AP: Have taken 6 tests, 5’s on 5 of them, 4 on one of them
Major Awards: AP Scholar thing, National Merit Scholar, top 20 in nation in National History Bee, other regional quiz bowl awards, top 10 in quiz bowl national championships </p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Quiz Bowl (9,10,11,12) — 5-man team placed in top 10 at National Championships; individually, I was in the top 20 in the nation at the National History Bee national finals and have won many regional history bees/bowls; numerous nationally-competitive team awards for quiz bowl, as well)
Field Hockey (9,10,11,12) — less popular sport in America for males. I play on my region’s “select” team (we’ve won 1st and 2nd in a few tournaments), co-founded a club at my school, and last year I was a weekend coach for the U12 group at my former club.
Town’s Youth Advisory Board (9,10,11,12) — Vice-President in grade 11, President in grade 12.
ASB (9,10,11,12) — Frosh Rep, Soph Class President, Junior Rep, Treasurer right now</p>

<p>Summer Activities: volunteered at a camp, went to leadership camp, took a Global Studies course, history research at local university
Teacher Rec 1: Should be good, but there were a lot of smart kids in that AP class
Teacher Rec 2: Should be amazing. Said last year that I was the best student she had taught in a long time; I was the only person in her career to get a 5 on the AP test for that class. She’s taught me for all 4 years of high school (ind. study this year)
Counselor Rec: should be good, but then again, there are a lot of smart kids in my grade
Essays: I think my common app one is really good/unique, but I’m still trying to cut it down to under the word limit. The Huntsman essay is good as well, haven’t started the Penn or Princeton supplements.</p>

<p>Other:
State: NJ
School Type: large public
Income Bracket: 180K
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Hooks: None</p>

2

<p>Princeton: Low Reach
Wharton: Low Reach</p>

<p>These schools are reaches for everyone.</p>

3

<p>You look really good, but I won’t guarantee you anything given that, well,…it’s Princeton and Wharton we’re talking about. Apply ED to Wharton to maximize your chances.</p>

4

<p>Thanks everyone! Yeah, I’m still trying to decide whether being locked in to Wharton (if accepted) is worth giving up the opportunity to go to Princeton…</p>

5

<p>Personally, I don’t think your ECs are strong enough to justify not applying ED to Wharton unless you’d MUCH rather go to Princeton. You’re also an Asian from a large public school NJ, which definitely puts you in the overrepresented categroy.</p>

<p>Beyond that, you should know that Wharton/Princeton are very different schools. What do you want to study? What are you hoping to do with your education? If you want to do the investment banking/PE thing, then Wharton is a no brainer. If, on the other hand, you’re more interested in the operations/academia side of business, then maybe Princeton would be a better fit. I’m generalizing obviously.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the feedback! That’s what I’m leaning towards right now; what do you think could be stronger about my ECs?</p>

7

<p>You have very few of them, and none of them are really interesting. These schools see tens of thousands of applications, thousands of which have ECs that are very close to what you’re doing. None of them are bad, and your grades and scores are near-perfect, but these schools get so many people like you. You’ve done nothing really to stand out.</p>

8

<p>low reach, considering that this is princeton and penn we’re talking about.
chance me please !</p>

9

<p>Alright, thanks for helping me get a sense of what my situation is :/. Out of curiosity, what would you consider an “interesting” extracurricular?</p>

10

<p>An “interesting” extracurricular could be any of three things.</p>

<p>1.) Something you’re passionate about that you’ve taken to the next level - professional, extremely advanced, teaching it to others, whatever. Something that shows you don’t have it on your application just to have it on your application.</p>

<p>2.) Something unique (and preferably that betters the lives of others.) This is harder to define, because if I could give you “typical” examples they wouldn’t be unique anymore.</p>

<p>3.) A combination of the above two.</p>

<p>It’s something that, when your application is being read, makes you stand out instead of fading back into the crowd of people with the same grades, scores and ECs that you have.</p>

11

<p>Princeton: High reach
Wharton: High reach</p>

<p>Upper middle class Asian Male from NJ!!!
Good luck</p>

<p>Is you HS a feeder school to Princeton?</p>

12

<p>^yes, the feeder question is rather important.</p>

13

<p>Not exactly a feeder school (we’re pretty far from Princeton itself), but we’ve gotten 4 kids into Princeton every year for the past 5-6 years. Granted, a good number of those were wealthy URMs. On the other hand, Harvard and Yale seem to hate us haha, we never get anyone into Yale who isn’t an athelete/wealthy URM, and we get like 1 kid into Harvard each year.
And yes, I realize that I’m in the worst situation possible demographically, but I guess it just means I have to make up for it through essays/recs/other things.<br>
@Ruprex — just wondering, would my making it to national quiz bowl finals consistently year after year (both team and individually) not be “interesting” ? I’ve been doing Geography Bee/Quiz Bowl since I was like 9 years old, so I’m not exactly sure how it comes off as I’m doing it “just to have it on [my] application.” I’m just trying to understand this admissions process from a realistic perspective…</p>

14

<p>@sup: I’d like to go into consulting, that’s what seems most interesting to me at the moment because it’s more of a “thinking” job than IB/PE/VC. If today were 1993 or even 2003, I’d probably go to law school because I’m more humanities oriented and arguing/analyzing for a living sounds like the best job ever. Unfortunately, it looks like law school today is a long and expensive path with little guarantee of a job, and law firms aren’t really hiring at huge levels.</p>

15

<p>Promotional, I’m not saying they’ll think that, but even though you’ve done it for a very long time it’s still a very common thing to do. It’s cool that you made it to nationals, and that’s worth something, but Quiz Bowl itself is a very, very common EC to have for applicants to top schools like this. It obviously isn’t hurting your chances, and it’s better than nothing - but when the reviewers read over your application there isn’t really much there that makes you different from the other thousands of applicants they get. </p>

<p>Everyone who gets into these schools who doesn’t have some sort of “hook” will be around as qualified as you are. That’s why interesting extracurriculars matter a lot to them - it’s what sets people apart at that level.</p>

16

<p>Thanks, Ruprex. That’s very helpful. So I guess at this point, what I need to do is emphasize my more “unique” (albeit not “interesting”) ECs like a male playing a typically female sport and the impact i’ve had in my school/my town? (If I actually end up applying to Princeton)
Thanks a ton for all your feedback, guys —*people I know in person are not very good with objectivity, lmao (but this is expected)</p>

17

<p>^^ IMO Princeton won’t care about you playing field hockey. Unless you are a recruitable athlete, sports involvement is not that important - especially a non-traditional club sport.</p>

18

<p>You are well qualified</p>