I have no idea what I'm doing help!

Colleges & Universities Harvard University
1

<p>Well, this summer break I started thinking about my future,
and I asked myself what the heck am I going to do after this Senior year?</p>

<h2>I couldn’t find a answer myself so here I am.</h2>

<p>I’m writing a question about my future on Harvard forum is for 3reasons</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I know nothing about this college admission business,
for I’ve never taken interest in it until this summer.</p></li>
<li><p>Harvard is known to be one of the top colledge in U.S. if I qualify or am accpeted into Harvard I can make bargains with other schools or so i heard.</p></li>
</ol>

<h2>3. Harvard is known to give full scholarship to a student with family income less than $60k[?] and my family earns about $30k</h2>

<p>I’ve never worried about College, but I pondered tons about my future.</p>

<h2>I always respected and was jealous of kids with goals in their life rather than kids with 36ACT score, because I’m a high achieving student with no goals in life.</h2>

<p>[Well, I couldn’t find the perfect spot to put my life story in so here it goes.]</p>

<p>I came to U.S. as a 5th grader from South Korea, due to my parent’s financial issues.</p>

<p>I’m the usual class clown, except in this case,
I ruin education for others while I manage to get As. </p>

<p>Not being so fond of world’s education system in general, I guess it projected into teachers. Just for the joy of it I intentionally annoyed my teachers. Talking, sleeping, drawing, writing poetry, going to bathroom never coming back and then getting A in the test.</p>

<p>Until 2nd semester of Junior year this pattern went on, looking back at it, first semester of my Junior year was the worst when I was just against this forced learning of “Decision” class, laughed at the subjects and turned blank papers in for homework ending up getting C in the course[class which one of my GPA 1.9 friend managed to get A in]</p>

<p>It was on 2nd semester of my Junior year that I met my economic teacher that literlity yelled, smacked my head with foam sword, and talked to me about everything!
[Having a heated arguments and many times me ending up losing
but himself as a teacher also agrees if his wrong]</p>

<p>Long story short, this teacher made me want to learn to further my education and talk with more intelligent people out in the world.</p>

<hr>

<p>I loved reading books of all kind ever since I was a kid, I think its due to that factor that I’ve never tried hard in school and managed so far with unweigted 3.9 and weighted 4.0+</p>

<p>I’m a friendly enough of a guy that out of 1000 students in my highschool I can guarenty 300 knows me personally and 800 knows my name. </p>

<p>I scored 30 on my last ACT with my english score at 20. I plan on reading a book on a grammar and score at least 33 on act by sept. </p>

<p>I’ve played Tennis, baseball, basketball, and also was part of a track team for 3months until I realized how stupid it was to pay to run when I can just organize group of my friends to run with me.</p>

<p>I’m far from perfect attendence for I skipped school whenever I felt like it and my parent werent against it either. My Social/Work ethic Up to my Junior year is bad enough that I’ve never got on a honor roll with 4.0GPA.</p>

<p>I have passion for music although I’m not too good at it,
Piano taught by teachers for about 3 years until I found it too expensive and started self teaching myself, as of moment I’m at grade level 5/6</p>

<p>latest pieces learning being Sinfonia and Opus 15 by Bach.
[Little above average but not too impressive]</p>

<h2>Been in Choir program from 5th grade to present. </h2>

<p>Infomation added on.</p>

<p>Ethnicity:Asian on visa [Family looking at green card around next year march.]
ECs:Tennis,Baseball,Track,Church Praise Band, 7th grade Tutor[Jasper], VBS, Choir
Community Service: I can easily get as much hour as I want due to my Church activity.</p>

<p>oh additional question do i need to take SAT 1 //SAT II ? </p>

<p>Honestly, looking at other people statistically just on this website, I feel like I have slim chance at Harvard. But, its probably because they all worked harder than me I’m just trying to find my chance of getting full scholarship or less than $5k to any other IVY or reknowned colledge.</p>

<p>I’m surprised that I even had this much to write down, due to a fact that I’m a video game addict [Been making a effrot to try to quit last 2years and its working :)] I can easily say I spent over 5000 hours into video games. I dont regret because it made me who I am[and I’m pretty full of myself] but, I dont think college looks at my video game expertise in the admission.</p>

2

<p>I think that since you’re a minority, that’ll help you…but honestly, I think your chances are pretty slim.</p>

3

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</p>

<p>While I’m glad you’ve realized that all this is bad and that you should stop, second semester junior year is far too late for you to have this realization and get into Harvard. </p>

<p>Things Harvard Admissions People Value Highly:
High GPA: It sounds like your GPA is not terrible, but not very good within the context of your school if you don’t make honor roll? Not sure if I’m interpreting that correctly.
High standardized test scores: If you were to get a 33 ACT, that would not be an unreasonable test score for Harvard. A 30 with a 20 on one section is such an unreasonable test score. So you don’t make this criterion right now, but let’s assume your ACT does go up. (Many colleges will still expect you to take the SAT IIs, although there’s no need to take the SAT I).</p>

<p>If one passes those two bars, which I am not sure you do, one still will not be offered admission at Harvard unless one has the following things also:
Stellar recommendations: Do you think you will get any of these…? These aren’t just for teacher’s pets or anything; they’re for people who are respectful of other people’s efforts to learn things, for example.
Stellar extracurriculars: Sounds like video games took up too much of your time for that.
Other: Your father is looking for a building to put his name on, etc.</p>

<p>I’m sure you can be admitted to a good college, especially since your GPA is still quite high and your SAT is reasonable, but Harvard is still far too high to reach.</p>

4

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<p>Well Harvard particularly wasnt my choice of school, since I felt pressured by time I was just thinking if I can get into harvard I’ll get into colledges I want to get in afterwards.</p>

<p>

I apologize for my unorganized writing, I was jotting things down as I went and didnt even bother to proof read it. Well our standards for Honor roll is about 3.6 I couldn’t make it due to my conduct. “Teacher Evlaution on social/worth ethic”</p>

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</p>

<p>Just simple grammar practice mostly important on usage of Commas and Learning the difference between Than and then has increased by english already up to average 26.5 over last 3 tests. </p>

<p>

I respect people working hard to get into Ivy League, and respect their dreams. I know I haven’t nearly worked as hard compared to somepeople who wants to get into Harvard I’m just asking to be evaluated and I really thank you for your help.</p>

<p>

Could I ask what “Stellar” Recommendation and Extracurriculars… is?</p>

<p>

Thank you :)</p>

5

<p>-Harvard isn’t a very good metric for whether you can get into other colleges, because it works the opposite way. If you can get into Duke, say, maybe that’s indicative of your ability to get into Harvard; if you can get into Harvard, you can get in most anywhere else. So don’t worry about admission here.</p>

<p>-I’m afraid I’m not familiar enough with the ACT to comment on section-by-section, but a 700 score on one SAT section is pretty low for Harvard (although by no means a dealbreaker especially if the other two sections are higher), and the internet is telling me that that is about a 32 ACT. 20 to 26 is impressive, but 26 to 32 sounds like an equally big leap?</p>

<p>-That said, all top colleges are a reach for you.

Extracurriculars: My extracurriculars were not stellar, and I had one national championship and another bunch of top-3-in-the-nation finishes. How was my resume not stellar, then? Because my friend who cleaned the floor with me in our competition was rejected from HYP. Obviously, my extracurriculars were very good, but by no means were they an automatic ticket to admission if she was rejected. (She was and is a lovely person, but my recommendations and essays must have hit more of the right buttons. She says she’s happy that she was rejected, because she thinks she’s doing better at her other Ivy than she would have at Harvard; I’m guessing that came through a bit in the application.)</p>

<p>Recommendations:

Recommendations need to say not only “applicant is smart,” but make a convincing case for “why applicant is interesting, has good character, and would be a generally good addition to campus.” If your teachers blocked you from the honor roll, I doubt you’ll get stellar recommendations. While I believe you that you’ve turned it around, that came very late in the game, so college admissions officers might be forgiven for thinking you’re riskier than applicant B with similar stats and resume but without the previous disruptiveness in school.</p>