I call BS. You lead a company, while attending a top school until 9:30 PM, swimming on a national swim team, performing and volunteering, code, gather seed capital - all on your own. Wow, why don’t you quit swim team and study for the SAT or TOEFL? I hope you have provided PROOF of your company in your apps because it screams of a sugardaddy run business. If its all true, forget college and take some courses to help you in your business or of some subjects you enjoy.
@thecoolboy1234 OP may not be making money at this point. Many startups never make money but can raise money in the hope that they become profitable. Unfortunately, most fail. That is why getting a good education may be in OP’s best interest at this point in his/her life even though the company and its tranche valuation may seem enticing.
OK a 250 point score increase on the SAT is nothing to sneeze at. I agree that if you are so confident it would be doable with a reasonable amount of study time, then quit swim team, ping pong, ans Judo and study for it. You have enough accomplishments in your athletics already. A 2000+ (the higher the better) will improve your chances far more than a couple more swim trophies.
@Falcon1 I guess I understand where OP is coming from.
But I like to point out another question, where is this $1.5 million evaluation coming from? Is there validity in the statement? While I do not believe the OP is lying if I’m a college admission officer, there is going definitely be a thorough check on a company like this. Also the 1700~ SAT is going to hurt big time.
@Stevenz sorry, but I nearly cringed reading this statement.
I have to agree with others; a 470 almost certainly won’t cut it for Stanford or any top US school where English proficiency is essential. As @thecoolboy1234 said, colleges can and will check the validity of such strong claims, so any (willful) falsification will lead to rejection. I’m not saying you’re lying or anything, but schools do check these things.
I am still skeptical of the claims that you own a $1.5 million company, are on the national swim team and win international competitions, and perform piano covers, all on your own, as suzyQ7 said. If all of that is true, you should have invested more time on the SAT or TOEFL.
If the OP is an internationally competitive swimmer the first thing he should have done was contact coaches. A recruited athlete definitely does get a significant bump with admissions.
@MITer94 If someone (I.e. even the OPs father) were to invest $150k for a 10% stake, OP could claim having a $1.5m company. That doesn’t mean the company has any significant sales or earnings or even a viable product. I wouldn’t get to hung up on their claim of having this company.
@Falcon1 right. I’m just saying, if that claim is true, colleges and other places will thoroughly check for validity.
@MITer94 @Falcon1 Oh definitely! I have provided them with the link of my company’s website and I would really like them to check it out - it would be an advantage for me
@Stevenz : How about providing the link to your company website right here?
While I don’t think the OP is likely to get into any of his schools, I think it is inappropriate to request the link. He is as entitled to confidentiality out here as anyone else.
Seems like dad is wealthy. Op is privileged. Dad seeded company. Probably worth a little more than he put in and can grow if managed properly. op doesn’t have the grades or test scores for a top us school.
Maybe dad can sponsor a building?
@Stevenz You can still apply to schools, even with past deadlines. Just email, the admissions office and ask, if they will accept your application. I was torn between Dartmouth and Brown, and delayed sending an app to Dmouth. I emailed the adcoms, and I was allowed to submit, close to a week late.
Good luck!
Agree that it is inappropriate to ask for link. I was just using his dad as a hypothetical, we shouldn’t rush to judgement. Perhaps, OP has started a company that attracted the attention of some VCs. Whether this is enough to compensate for academics and test scores that are below Stanford"s norm is hard for anyone to say. My guess is that it is not but I am often surprised about admissions outcomes because we don’t get to see the full picture.
Good luck with your college acceptances. Consider applying for a Thiel Fellowship and postponing college if your company truly has potential.
Then you should be working with your club coaches and/or the National Team coaches to secure a likely letter instead of blindly applying to US universities and posting “chance me threads” here!
wooow why is everyone here so cynical all the time? @Stevenz’s accomplishments are pretty amazing. y’all sound jealous. hey steve, haters gonna hate, don’t worry about it
@itsmyusername Thanks! I believe that everyone has an opinion in this forum - my SAT scores might not be up to Stanford, Cornell or Georgia Tech’s standards, but I gave it shot anyway!
Thanks for your support anyway!
@itsmyusername Jealous? Nah not exactly. Some kids you read through their chance me threads and you are in awe of them for what they accomplished in high school. But some other chance threads you see seem like complete bs and its incomprehensible how some high schooler can achieve all those in a short amount of time.
Now like I said before, I’m not stating that OP is lying (nor do I really care) but the cynicism on CC is justified from amount of BS posts we’ve seen around here.
Good luck OP and keep us updated I’d be interested to see how you fare with your test scores.
Hey everyone… just to let you know that I got accepted to NYU, George Washington and rejected from all the others :’)