<p>Since I don’t feel like selling my house for Katherine Cohen’s college counseling, I decided to get the same quality counseling here and keep my house. So here are my stats, I’m not really looking for a chances evaluation, but rather resume crafting help and improvement advice. What should I not even bother including? What should I emphasize? What are some major flaws? Any help is appreciated.</p>
<p>Please gauge my chances for admission at Harvard:</p>
<p>Current Year: Junior</p>
<p>GPA: 3.9-4.0 W, 3.8-3.9 UW
SAT I: 710 M, 730 CR, 800 W Total 2240
Rank: 4-5/300
AP: Bio-4, World-4, Taking 4 Ap’s this year
Courseload: Hardest Possible </p>
<p>Awards:
2006-2007 Key Club International Oratorical Contest- World Champion
2006-2007 Key Club New York District Oratorical Contest- District Champion
Scholar-Athlete Honor
Science Olympiad Regional
Robot Ramble (Robot construction and Operation)- 3rd Place (2005, 2007)
Experimental Design- 2nd Place (2006)
Rotary Youth Leadership award
NAACP 2006 Spring Valley Regional Competition:
-Oratory Silver Medalist
-Original Essay Bronze Medalist
Distinguished Key Club Community Service member
Rockland Community College Black Achievement Award
Dominican College Leadership Seminar
2007 Rockland County Debate Forensics League: First Place</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Key Club Chairman and Coordinator
United Nations Club President and Founder
Science Olympiad Club
Debate Team Lead Debater- Captain
Academic League
Tennis Team
Science and Technology Program- Saturdays
Junior Honor Society- ARISTA
Social Studies Honor Society
English Honor Society
R.E.P.S- Student Representation Program
Mu Alpha Theta Math Honor Society
Mock Trial- Head Attorney</p>
<p>Summer Conferences:
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Conference
LeadAmerica Law and Trial Advocacy
2006 Key Club International Convention
2006 Key Club New York District Convention
New York Boys State 2007</p>
<p>Status: African American
Gender: Male</p>
<p>Chances At:
Harvard</p>
<p>*Edit I think I can raise my SAT’s a tad higher, especially in CR, where I think I can get an 800. Should I bother?</p>
<p>Yes, you should bother. The general rule of thumb is M/CR scores over 1450.</p>
<p>Where are your SAT IIs? </p>
<p>You have an AMAZING ‘list’ of accomplishments.</p>
<p>However, most have been accomplished iwthin the framework of your high school experience. My sense is that the top schools like to see some instance of high flying success–beyond you high school experience. National tennis ranking in the top 50, national or international science Olympiad awards, nationally recognized research, publioshed books, venture capital for an entreprenuerial effort and so on.</p>
<p>Also, in the face of many many lists–you must distinguish your accomplishments with a compelling ‘story’ about yourself–your essays.</p>
<p>Caveat: My opinion only and I am a parent–not a college counselor.</p>
<p>Your chances look good. I’d imagine you’d emphasize whatever it is you love about debating. Or maybe competing if you want to talk about Science Olympiad. There’s no one right answer. Your stats are probably good enough, but I don’t think it would hurt to take the SAT one more time.</p>
<p>I’m not sure college’s necessarily want to see you go beyond the high school. I didn’t go to any state competition, didn’t win any state sports titles, wasn’t ranked in anything, etc. And got into all of my top choices.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact if I remember correctly all of my awards I received were from my high school, and all of my extracurriculars were sports.</p>
<p>The only way my son went beyond his high school was to take a summer school course at Columbia in a subject that he was very interested in and work for a computer web design company. It’s a myth that Ivy candidates have to be so stellar. My son’s interests were well defined and everything he did made sense together, even his volunteering at the senior center computer lab.</p>
<p>This is where Harvard’s abandoning SCEA may help you. Retake the SAT since you think you can pull up your CR score (very well done on the Writing!). If you have not yet taken SAT-IIs, do so in June, and if necessary take or re-take next fall. As you know you will need 3 for Harvard and for a few other schools. Most others will require only 2. Don’t base your decision as to which to take on Harvard alone, but take into consideration which types other colleges require. While Harvard allows students to take any 3, many other colleges insist that one be in the humanities/social sciences and the other be in math/sciences. Check a few websites for further specifics.</p>
<p>It’s nice that you have such a well rounded list of ECs that includes math and sciences since it seems that your strength is in the social sciences/humanities where writing and speaking are emphasized. </p>
<p>If you have not toured some colleges already, do so this summer and spend some time thinking about your essay (s). </p>
<p>No one can guarantee admission into HYP or ASWP, but you do have a good chance.</p>
<p>Many thanks to everyone, all the comments have been very useful to me, and I’d appreciate any other counsel you can offer. Unfortunately, I haven’t taken my SAT II’s yet, but I will be taking Math Ic, Chem, and U.S History on Jun 02. I’ll be sure to post my scores up when I get them. I’m aiming for 750+ on all the subject tests, but that’s only an estimate, and biased at that.</p>
<p>If you’ve taken pre-calc, take Math 2C. It covers a bit more than Math 1C, but the curve, I’m told, is more generous.
Also you don’t have to take all 3 SAT-IIs in one sitting. Take two at a time, then take another one in October (or 2 if you need to re-take) and retake the SAT in November. That should leave you enough time to apply to schools that have ED/EA deadlines of Nov. 1.</p>
<p>It’s a very quirky process out there, even for high quality applicants, and that you are.
Soo…why is the only place you mentioned Harvard? You and everybody else needs a bigger list. Unless you only wanted to hear feedback on Harvard, and have other places in mind, too.</p>
<p>Derrick
Most people can’t tell from your list the level of your commitment to Key Club…but I can, as S was a Lt Governor from NY last year ,I know what that entailed, and your level is so much higher.
He did not apply to colleges on Harvards level,even though he was NMF ,had 8 Ap’s,etc b/c of the major he was interested in and he wanted merit $$.
But I will say, the college that wound up giving him their highest out of state student scholarship was VERY interested(when he was interviewed at their scholar weekend) in his community service/leadership capabilities that came from the Key Club involvement.Be sure to elaborate on them.
Best of luck in your search. I know you will expand your list past Harvard/Ivy.Your accomplishments are impressive.</p>
<p>marite, I’ll probably try taking the 2c come October, but I just want to make sure that I’m familiar with the Math 2c content first? Do you think there’s an advantage to taking the 2c over the 1c as far as credibility and the effect on admissions counselors?</p>
<p>cathymee and paying3tuitions, thanks for the feedback, I’m definitely going to also look at more reasonable schools, but right now I’m just trying to assess my chances at my dream school. I appreciate all the critiques! I’m always open to more suggestions too.</p>
<p>Derrick - Kudos on your record, and on your ambitions! You must know that admission to Harvard is a crap shoot (or if you’re a poker player, the equivalent of drawing to an inside straight). But you have as good a shot as anyone so definitely go for it.</p>
<p>Two thoughts. The first is a common theme – retake the SAT and make sure your SAT II’s are high quality topics and high score. The second relates to your ECs. A long list is often interpreted as “lots of activities but little involvement.” IMHO your ECs are critical to admission so find someone who can help you make your EC involvement shine. JMHO. Good luck.</p>
<p>With that in mind, should I try to divide up my EC’s so that a few are seen as illustrative of a common theme. (Ex: Group Debate, Mock Trial, Oratorty, all under Art of Persuasion)</p>
<p>Look . . . you know this already. Kids with prizes in all three of robotics, oratory, and sports are pretty rare. African-American kids with prizes in those three areas are much, much more rare. African-American kids with those prizes and your class rank and SATs . . . well, you wouldn’t have to rent somewhere much bigger than your bedroom to hold a plenary meeting.</p>
<p>Schools look for unique; you have unique. People will pay a lot of attention to your application wherever you apply. No one can tell you that you are a shoe-in at any hyper-competitive college, but I would be willing to go on record as saying that if you apply to five or six colleges you will have plenty of choices.</p>
<p>Raising your SAT would be gilding the lily, but, yeah, go gild it. Might as well, it’s your (relative) weak spot on paper, and it can only get better. And prepare for your SAT IIs. But more important is to give yourself the time and the discipline to write some great essays, and also to make certain you will have some glowing recommendations written by teachers who are fluent in College Glowish.</p>
<p>This is a really important point! A long laundry list of ECs doesn’t do much to flesh out a person as much as concentrating on a couple of areas of interest. </p>
<p>If you could only tell the adcoms two things about you, what would they be? And then craft (and I do mean craft) your application to get those points across.</p>
<p>Also, people will tell you, “Oh, you’re a URM? You’re in for sure.” Don’t believe it…If you are mid-class or upper class socioeconomically, you probably won’t get much of a boost. So don’t count on it.</p>
<p>Oh yes, retake the SATs and prep for the SAT 2s. Get prep books for the SAT 2 subjects you plan to take the test in (not including math)–it could be that your class in high school did not cover all the subjects that will be covered on the test.</p>
<p>And for heaven’s sake, be sure to get a good list put together of schools that you like that you’ll be able to get into. Frankly, the odds are not in favor of any Harvard applicant.</p>