Chances for HYPSM

Chance Me / Match Me
1

As a disclaimer, I already have other colleges, so I’m not including them simply because I want to know my realistic chances at the super elite schools, and if there’s anything I can do to increase my chances (such as retaking SATs, taking certain APs, emphasizing certain aspects in essays/activities, etc.)

I’m looking for my chances for Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT.

The average at my school of the student accepted is about 96 across the board, and the lowest is around a 94 (one year there was a 93). I have just above the lowest, but that doesn’t make me feel any more confident about my chances. To be honest, I suffered from a slew of mental and health problems freshmen/sophomore year (anorexia, bulimia, anemia, arrhythmia, amenorrhea), my parents almost divorced, I lost a close relative, we moved to a new city, I took on WAY too many extracurriculars as distractions from these pains, I had to take on menial work for a few months to support my families when both my parents lost their jobs, and I seriously and afraid of the impact that’ll have on me. :frowning:

My guidance counselors have told me that I basically have no chance at these schools unless I seriously improve, and I’m really looking to see what I can do. Any help would be appreciated!

[Also, I’ve blurred some information, but the stats are all the same.]

Background

Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Asian
School: Public (4000)

Stats [should I retake these? If I end up with AP scores of 5 for the five I’m taking this year, will it help?]

GPA: 94.43
AP: Biology (4), Environmental Science (4), Psychology (4), Chemistry (3), European
History (4), Physics C: Mechanics (?), Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism (?), Computer Science (?), Calculus BC (?), English Language (?)
ACT:
SAT: 2290/2310 superscore
SAT II: Biology-E (770), Chemistry (730), Math-II (780)

Senior Courses: AP English Literature, AP Macroeconomics, AP US Government, AP
Statistics, Nanotechnology, Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, C++ Programming, Mobile App Development, Software Development, Existentialism, Skakespearean Acting

ECs

Columbia University
Research Assistant
Google Science Fair Finalist, Siemens Semifinalist
I-SWEEEP Finalist, EUCYS Finalist
ISEF Finalist, local science fairs and competitions

Key Club
District Webmaster
District Secretary
Divisional Secretary
Chapter PR Committee Chair
Internationally Distinguished District Officer

Raised $10K for Eliminate Project
Prudential Spirit of Community - National Finalist
Christopher Columbus Award

Online student-run publication
Editor-in-Chief
Founder of campus chapter/liaison
TEDx speaker (3x)
Panelist for 2 international conferences, 2 national panels
Outreach Liaison - connecting schools around the country

AspireIT Program (middle school computer science after-school club)
Founder
$3K grant
Pitched and won grant at local fair
Several features in local/statewide/national media

School hackathon
Director
Affiliated with MLH
Raised $10K from sponsorship

DECA
State President + Officer (3 years)
Chapter President (3 years)
Captain of VEX Robotics Team [unrelated, but the clubs are the same at my school, idk]
National HS Student of the Year
Won National DECA awards
Governor’s distinction - basically helped approve a declaration and charter

Varsity Badminton
Captain and starter
Manager for boys Varsity team
Instructor for academy (outside of school)
County-wide champs, statewide runners-up
Ambassador for the same academy

Shakespeare at the Park/modeling agency
Ambassador and playwright
Actress and voice acting
Fillmmaker and model - appearances on national TV, print media, magazines, stock photos
Scholastic Art & Writing Gold Key + Gold Medal
YoungArts Finalist

JSA/Young Dems of America
Chapter Director of PR
Regional Director
State Director of Media
Marketing intern for UN-affiliated NGO
Best Speaker for winter congress, fall state

Internship with small-ish startup
Worked on developing backend for their account-management and data handling service and UI/UX for their mobile application

Awards

I listed a few of my awards below their respective ECs, but here are a few that I couldn’t place anywhere:

Thiel Fellowship Finalist
USABO Semifinalist
USNCO Semifinalist
USACO Gold
USA(J)MO Qualifier
USAPhO Semifinalist (or qualifier, I’m not sure of the distinction for this one)
National Merit Finalist (I got a perfect score on my PSAT, so I’m sure of this)
Published book (published with a small-ish publishing house in NYC, won a few awards)
First/second place at hackathons (3, specifically)
AP Scholar with Distinction
Moody’s M3 Challenge - Semifinalist
Award at Global Maker Faire
Presented at the White House SF
Accepted to RSI

Also, my intended majors are computer science, graphic design, and possibly electrical engineering.

2

Accepted to RSI=admit one to MIT. You got that down.

It’s impossible to chance anyone to Stanford now, so it’s up in the air. But I say apply :slight_smile: I think you have a good chance.

Luckily you don’t fall prey to “Asian Male Syndrome”, and despite your problems, I think ya fared pretty well (I know I didn’t fare as well as you did when I was in the throes of mental illness). I say apply wherever you want (money granted) you’ve done a great job, and numbers aren’t everything. You’ll end up somewhere great.

3

Please don’t fall prey like the poster above me and chance this lol. The effort here for the fake app was so bad. I would have at least put Native American as the race.

4

You might want to prioritize getting the mental health issues resolved before you worry about which of these colleges will accept you. You might want to look at Arizona State – they have a strong electrical engineering program and design program and they have a lot of counselors available. Also, ASU won’t reject you because you have too many ECs.

5

…there’s no use lying. the point of chancing is to quell nervous fears, gauge if you should pay the app fee and even bother. Young Arts Finalist…Scholastic Gold…ISEF…if it were real, I’d say match to all…

6

Hi, thanks for the comments. I’m not looking into ASU, primarily because I’ve already got some college options (I suppose you can look at my other thread for this) and because it’s in a location I’m not too fond of. I do respect their engineering program, though, and I do actually know a few people who are majors in CS at the school. I’m also aware that they’re putting together a pretty cool hackathon, which is exciting.

7

First, let me commend you on battling (and even conquering) your challenges. Its funny, you sound a lot like me and what I’ve been through. But i agree with everyone else…that you NEED to square away all you previous demons before taking on more stresses. Especially if you are considering the aforementioned schools as they will add even MORE stress during your tenure there. Speaking of…after looking at your credentials (and being an alumnus of the “M” of HYPSM, if you will) I’d say you have a decent shot. Just remember, and I tell ALL appliacants who apply to any of these schools, be more than just an application. Go there and put a FACE to your NAME. You’d be surprised how far you’d get doing that. Not only for these 5 but all your prospects in general.

8

Hello - there seem to be some doubts about the authenticity of your profile. If it is indeed true, then I think you have a great shot at all of these schools.

If your guidance counselor really said you “basically have no chance” then it is a real disservice to the guidance profession.

9

TED speaker x3? Model, and all those ailments? Varsity badminton captain, Columbia research assistant (they don’t have enough kids at Columbia who want to do that?), published book with a few small awards, every science and math award imaginable, and quite a few that are unimaginable. Either you are not being truthful, or you are humble bragging like I have never seen in my life. I will go out in a limb and say you’re in to all of them, if you are in fact a real person who has really done all this. Just wondering when you sleep. You might have to do a bit of editing, because I think you might possibly have a hard time getting colleges to actually believe you have done all this. Your counselor should reinforce this by corroborating on his/her recommendation, because you only have ten spaces in the activities section. Good luck if you are legit. Surely you should be so famous with this amazing resume that they should be begging you to come to their college.

BTW, I looked at your other thread and see that you are already accepted to Cornell and CMU. As a junior. So you applied to HYPSM and were rejected? You are going to stay in school an extra year and hope you get accepted to somewhere better next year? You need to convince that you are real, sorry.

10

It’s pretty obvious that if she’s USABO, USNCO etc. semifinalists, then she should’ve gotten 800 in her subject tests. Also, she would breeze through school classes even if she has a lot of work.

Totally fake.

11

Yes, I am also having a hard time reconciling all these high level awards with all the lackluster scores on the APs/SATs/SAT2’s. Nothing wrong with those scores, they are good scores, but definitely not what I would expect from someone with a long list of national awards in those and related subjects.

12

If people are still thinking this could be true, notice the last post didn’t mention any of this. She even said staying behind an extra year for ISEF but yet she became an ISEF finalist in a few months after?

13

“I suffered from a slew of mental and health problems freshmen/sophomore year (anorexia, bulimia, anemia, arrhythmia, amenorrhea),” If this is true, you should not even be considering the schools you posted about.