<p>Can someone please chance me for Harvard, Yale, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Cornell and UC Berkley? I am a Canadian student. I’ve already looked up the stats for HYPMS and I’m in their range for the most part, but seeing as international admissions are so much more competitive I have no idea where I stand. So if you were an international student and got into any of the schools listed above, please give me some feedback! Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Schools I’m Applying For:
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Cornell, and UC Berkley</p>
<p>**Class Rank: **1 out of around 300 students (public school)</p>
<p>GPA/Average: 99.5% (Junior year - senior year grades are not out yet)
(100% in honors math, honors chemistry, honors world history, and psychology. 99% in honors biology and economics. 98% in honors physics and honors computer science. 97% in honors English. My school does not offer AP.)</p>
<p>Canadian schools do not have a GPA or a weighted GPA. I don’t really know how to calculate mine, seeing as I have no idea how my Canadian courses correspond to US ones. For example while the US school system have algebra I, algebra II, geometry I, etc., we only have 1 math course for each grade level that covers everything. If someone knows how US universities calculate Canadian GPAs please let me know and I will send you a full list of my courses. (Or you can teach me.)</p>
<p>**Course Load: **
I have a very rigorous course load and took every enriched/honors course there is in all 4 years. My grades have done nothing but improve (every grade achieved in junior year is higher than the grade achieved for the corresponding subject in sophomore year, and every grade achieved in sophomore year is higher than the one achieved in freshman year). However, because all the honors courses are single-blocked (meaning that there’s only one class), my schedule is often conflicted and I was forced to take a few courses at a lower level (mostly during grades 9 and 10). I have a spare this year because my only options were phys ed and parenting. Will the colleges take that into consideration? </p>
<p>SAT Scores: 2360
800 Math
790 Writing
770 Critical Reading</p>
<p>SAT II Scores:
800 Math Level II
800 Chemistry
790 Physics
760 Biology (will retake in January)
790 Chinese with Listening (though I was born in China)
??? World History (planned to take in January)</p>
<p>AP Scores:
I’m studying for a few AP exams on my own - I plan to take them this May. However I don’t know if that counts for anything as admission decisions will be made before I get my AP scores. If it makes any difference I plan to write the Calculus BC, the statistics, the biology, the chemistry, the physics, and the computer science AP exams.</p>
<p>**ECs:<a href=“my%20biggest%20weakness”>/B</a>
From most important to least important:</p>
<p>1) School/Community Math League:
Years Involved: 7-current - 6 years
Hours/Week: 15-25 (up to 45 during competition season)
Leadership Positions: Team captain for various contests and competitions, club leader, and school representative
Notes: Although I’m not officially the founder (the school started the club), my friends and I were the first to join. I was mostly responsible for organizing everything. This club is actually regional - I captained the MCTIC (a national Canadian math competition) team of another high school in our region in addition to my own school’s team. There were no leadership positions during freshmen year, and I was captain and club leader from the sophomore year on. </p>
<p>2) Community Service/Volunteering:
Years Involved: 9-current - 4 years
Hours/Week: 8-10
Leadership Positions: Project coordinator at the local senior home. I also volunteer for the local hospital, but I don’t meet their minimum age requirements to qualify for a position.
Notes: I’m responsible for coordinating the majority of recreational outings for the senior home. I’m not as involved as I was before, but during my sophomore and junior summers I’ve coordinated over 20 events and raised around $5000 with various fundraisers. I was not the only one involved but I did do most of the planning.</p>
<p>3) Peer Tutoring/Mentoring for Newly Immigrated Students:
Years Involved: 10-current - 3 years
Hours/Week: 4-5 (used to be 8-12 during sophomore and junior year)
Leadership Positions: Co-founder, co-leader
Notes: This is a student tutoring group created to help new immigrants adjust to the English language and life in Canada. We meet twice a week, but I now only attend once.</p>
<p>The next one’s a bit weird and unconventional, so I don’t know if I’m going to include it in my application.</p>
<p>4) TVXQ Fan Club China and International:
Years Involved: 4-current - 8 years
Hours/Week: 10-15
Leadership Positions: Administrator, Moderator, Project Coordinator, Graphics Team Leader
Notes: I’m not sure if this qualifies as an EC. TVXQ is a south Korean boy band (not exactly application material, I know), but it’s more what I do within the fan club than who the fan club is for. As project coordinator, I organize many fundraisers and donation projects in the name of the band. For example, last year, to celebrate one of the band member’s birthday, we donated over $11000 Chinese yen (around $1500 USD) to a Chinese orphanage under the TVXQ name. I also organized a volunteer project to help with the SiChuang earthquake, in which several hundred fan club members participated. This fan club has actually made it into the Guinness world records for being the world’s largest fan club with over a million members worldwide, so being in a leadership position here for 8 years has got to count for something, right? Please give me some advice as to whether I should include this in my application.</p>
<p>5) Work:
Years Involved: 9-current (4 years) for job at the restaurant, 6-current for other miscellaneous jobs (6 years)
Hours/Week: 15-20 at the restaurant, 6-8 for tutoring/babysitting, 2-3 for others (ad deliveries, snow shoveling, lawn cutting, etc.)
Notes: My family isn’t poor enough to qualify for welfare, but we’re by no means rich. My dad’s the only one with a job, so I try to help out as much as possible. Would the universities consider this at all (since my family’s not exactly poor poor)? </p>
<p>Awards/Honors:</p>
<p>National Level:
- various math awards for contests like the Euclid contest, the Canadian Open Challenge, the Pascal/Cayley/Fermat contests, the Fryer/Galois/Hypatia contests, and the MCTIC competition (team award - placed first in Canada). Most of these awards I’ve got every year, though I have only placed first nationally once (though it was tied). I got a perfect score on the grade 9 Fryer contest, but so did a bunch of other people. For all of the contests mentioned above I placed within the top 3-5% nationally, but didn’t make the top 5 (with the exception of the Fryer contest). My school does not let us write the AMC/AIME.
- I also received multiple invitations for the national Canadian Olympic Math Camp - they pick around 30 or so kids (nationally) that they think has the most potential of making the national Canadian Olympic Team and train you. I had to turn the offer down both times because my parents couldn’t afford to send me there.</p>
<p>Regional Level:
- various science awards for science fairs and Olympiads. I placed second during my sophomore year for regional science fair and also got the engineering award and the technology award. Freshman year I got an honorable mention.
- Loran award semi-finalist (finalists have not yet been selected). The Loran award is a really prestigious scholarship award, based on character, leadership, community service, and academic potential. I’ve made it to the semi-finals (only around 180 out of around 2000 applicants are selected as semi-finalists).</p>
<p>School-Level:
- various subject awards of distinction for math, science, history, English, and school involvement (most I got all 4 years)
- Highest Level of Achievement Award (basically class rank)
- Academic Award of Distinction and placed 1st on honor roll during the entire duration of my high school career</p>
<p>Recommendations:
I got my math and world history teacher to write the teacher recs for me. The math teacher I’ve had for all 4 years and has given me 100% all 3 years (current year mark is likely to be an 100% as well). The history teacher I have had last year and will have again this year. I got an 100% in her class as well - plus my final project impressed her greatly (she said it was the best she had seen in all her 35 years of teaching). I think both will write me stellar recommendations, so I’m not worried here at all. Likewise, my guidance counselor will probably write me a pretty good rec as well. I’ve talked to her extensively this year and know that she has a very good idea about my strengths, accomplishments, leadership qualities, etc.</p>
<p>Essays:
I have not finalized my essays yet, but one of them talked about how I want to inspire younger female students to pursue math, a field mostly dominated by males. My main one I’ve written several vastly different rough copies of, but I’m still not satisfied with any of them. I haven’t decided what I want my main essay to be about yet - anyone have any pointers? Overall, I don’t think my essays will hurt my chances, but I also don’t think they’re amazing enough to get me in. </p>
<p>I know this is very long, but if someone got into HYPMS internationally and can give me some idea on where I stand I’ll be VERY grateful. I don’t want to waste $500 only to find out that I had no chance at any of those reaches. In summary my grades and test scores are very strong but I don’t have any amazing ECs. I have a bunch of awards for national math contests and competitions but only placed first once (and I share that position with like 5 other kids). My recs will likely help me and my essays won’t hurt me. How do I stand?</p>