Help! I’m desperate! Chance me for my Regular Decision schools please!

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi guys, I got deferred by Stanford so I guess I have to turn to my backup schools right now. Chance me for Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn (LSM), Cornell, and UCLA (my mom wants me to apply to somewhat of a closer school).

Weighted GPA: 5.08
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Class Rank: 2/434
SAT: 2390
ACT: 35 (not sending)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Bio, 780 Physics (kill me plz)
Junior/Senior Year Workload: AP English, AP US History, AP Physics C, AP Biology, AP Computer Science, AP Spanish, AP Calc BC, AP Psych

Awards: AP scholar, 1st Place at Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair in Neuroscience, National Merit Semifinalist, 1st place State Bio Olympiad, National honors society, Spanish honors society

ECs:
SGA Co-President
Co-President of Key Club
President of Science Competition Club
Vice President of Biology Olympiad Club- placed well at state competition past few years
Co-Founder and Co-President of Psychology Club
Founder of Non-Profit percussionist group that donates money to research and therapy for the mentally disabled (thousands of dollars raised)
200 hours of volunteering at soup kitchens, coaching sports for disabled children, and hospitals
3 year Research Internship at University of Hawaii, Manoa - studied huntingtin and proteins associated with neurological disorders and disabilities and helped work on gene therapy related cure
4 year Varsity Tennis Player - team captain for two years, state championships in 2016

Subjectives:
Letter of Rec #1: 9/10 - This is from my AP Bio teacher (got a 5) and we always had good rapport
Letter of Rec #2: 8.5/10 - This is from my junior year English teacher. We were always close but I’m a little afraid that I joked around too much in her class.
Counselor Letter of Rec: 10/10 -Got my internship through him freshman year, he really sympathizes with me
Essays: Strong, genuine, somewhat cliche but very well-written

Jobs:
Paid camp counselor, paid internships, saved up for an pre-owned car

Hooks: Pacific Islander (not just Hawaii), first gen, took care of disabled aunt

2

I think you have a great chance! Your test scores are great and you have a variety of ecs. I also think that first gen will especially help. I think you’ll definitely get into ucla. Good luck!

Chance me back please?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1946256-chance-me-for-brown.html

3

BRO CHILL THIS PROFILE JUST HAS SO MUCH STRESS. You’re not going to get in by being perfect stats-wise. You’re going to get in because colleges want you as a PERSON. You’ve already proven yourself to be high-achieving, so don’t stress about not having perfect scores or whatever.

Just be you, have fun with it, and know it’ll all be ok in the end.

Also, make sure you can afford UCLA since they don’t give out OOS financial aid anymore. Are you applying to any other schools aside from these? What about USC (for the NMSF scholarship money)?

4

Sorry for being stressed! The whole college process is a little scary (first person in my family to go through it here). I am applying to University of Hawaii as a safety. I hadn’t really considered USC, but I’ll start my application if you recommend it!

5

@IvyorCry2021 obviously you seem like a very impressive applicant but do you have any actual safeties on your list? because if not you need to. all i see is the 8 ivies and UCLA. The ivies are super-reaches for anyone, regardless of stats and therefore you need a more balanced college list. Honestly I do not get why some people apply to all eight ivies. Not all ivies are the same and in fact there are substantial differences between them. There is good chance that if you like and can see yourself attending some of them, you will be miserable at some of the others. Please do some in-depth research about the ivy league schools and do not apply to them just because they are ivies.

6

@Penn95 Thanks for the advice! I have done research on all the Ivies and am applying to all of them simply because I can’t decide which one I like most for neuroscience. I am applying to my state school (University of Hawaii) as a safety and I do have others in the mix, such as UCSD. Would you recommend any others?

7

@IvyorCry2021 , you’ve done remarkable in highschool doing the things your passionate about. I really saw several interesting hooks! Good luck.

8

Unless the odds are REALLY against you, you’ll get into UCLA and at least 2 of the Ivies. Would you be okay with attending any of the 8 Ivies? If not, like @Penn95 said, you might want to research each Ivy a bit more. Good luck! Don’t let others get you down.

9

But as I said before try to include some safeties/matches on your list. There are many super qualified applicants getting rejected from the ivies each year.

10

@IvyorCry2021 Your profile is amazing, but the harsh realities of Ivy league schools apply to everyone, regardless of stats or scores. To be honest, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if you got rejected from all the ivies; I’ve seen students with phenomenal resumes (better than most on CC) get rejected from all the ivies. At your level it comes down to how you come across during the interview and essay process. Harvard does not want stats, it wants people who are going to make a name for themselves and bring the school glory.

With that said, you’re probably above average within the application cohorts, and seeing that acceptance rates are typically ~6-10% at Ivy Leagues, I would bet on statistics that you’ll probably get into one of them.

11

Neuroscience - you should have near-ivies Johns Hopkins, Duke, Caltech and Vandy on your list. Reaches for everyone, but you have great stats. Here’s also an earlier related thread:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1888641-universities-with-top-undergraduate-neuroscience-programs.html

12

Stanford deffers only 9% of early applicants, so they must have thought you were competitive.
Given that you are a hooked applicant (first gen) and have a nearly percent sat score/ great stats/ECs…
Harvard- to close to call/ 50/50
Yale- to close to call/ 50/50
Princeton- accept 70% sure
Brown- accept 100% sure
Columbia- accept 100% sure
Dartmouth, accept 100% sure
Penn (LSM), accept 100% sure
Cornell, accept 100% sure
UCLA- accept 100% sure

13

@bubblepop12444 nobody is 100% for any Ivy…those odds are all 25-40% too high except for UCLA

14

@jackoneill the percentages were how certain I was of OP gaining acceptance… OP has a 2390 SAT, first gen, ranked #2 in class, multiple state science and tennis awards, and founded a nonprofit, and is in an underrepresented state…So yea, I’m 100% sure that OP will get into schools.