im developing an inferiority complex reading these boards

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>I’m planning to major in either Economics or Applied Math.</p>

<p>Asian-American Male from Strong Public High School (this year ~7 to Princeton, many others to other top colleges)
GPA (estimated): Unweighted-3.55, Weighted-4.21 <- declining trend (I hope I can get straight A’s senior year)
PSAT: 227
SAT (might retake in October): 2260 (730 V, 800 M, 730 W) - all from one sitting
SAT IIs (might take another one): Math Level 2: 800, Chemistry: 770, U.S. History: 720
APs: Comp Sci A - 5, Comp Sci AB - 5 (estimated), Calc BC - 5 (estimated), Chem (estimated), U.S. History - 4 (estimated)</p>

<p>Next year’s courses:
AP English Lang
AP US Gov
AP Physics
Multivariable Calc
Robotics
Spanish 4</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Several Piano Awards, including 1 1st place in NJ, Delaware, & Pennsylvania
Several Math Awards
Participation in Technology Showcase 2004 (top students in computer classes from K-12 showing off what theyve done)
Graduated from Chinese School
Graduated from Community Emergency Response Team Training
2001 Johns Hopkins Talent Search 2nd Place in New Jersey in Math</p>

<p>Science Club Member (4 years, including 12th)
Math Club Member (3 years, including 12th)
Chess Club Member (4 years, including 12th)
Ultimate Frisbee Member (4 years, including 12th)
Piano (10 years)</p>

<p>~200 hrs of volunteering, including web design for an international symposium, piano accompaniment, TA at chinese school
~4 hrs/wk Soccer Referee
~12 hrs/wk job at Library</p>

<p>I think I might have forgotten some stuff, but this is basically it. I haven’t really put much emphasis on getting good grades in high school, especially junior year … so hopefully I can pick it up senior year and colleges will see it as a trend, not a fluke =)</p>

<p>College List:
* Carnegie Mellon U
* Case Western Res. U
* Columbia U Fu Found.
* Cornell U
* MIT
* New York U
* Northwestern U IL
* Rutgers NB/Pscataway
* U Chicago
* U Illinois Urbana
* U Michigan
* U Virginia
* Vanderbilt U
* Washington U St. L.
* Wesleyan U</p>

<p>If you could give me some chances on these colleges that’d be awesome :slight_smile: Thanks</p>

2

<p>someone…? anyone…? haha</p>

<p>oh btw, school doesnt rank</p>

3

<ul>
<li>Carnegie Mellon U - MATCH</li>
<li>Case Western Res. U - MATCH</li>
<li>Columbia U Fu Found. - REACH</li>
<li>Cornell U - SLIGHT REACH</li>
<li>MIT - REACH</li>
<li>New York U - MATCH</li>
<li>Northwestern U IL - WEAK MATCH</li>
<li>Rutgers NB/Pscataway - SAFETY</li>
<li>U Chicago - WEAK MATCH</li>
<li>U Illinois Urbana - MATCH</li>
<li>U Michigan - MATCH/SAFETY</li>
<li>U Virginia - MATCH</li>
<li>Vanderbilt U -WEAK MATCH</li>
<li>Washington U St. L. - WEAK MATCH</li>
<li>Wesleyan U - MATCH</li>
</ul>

<p>Your chances are very solid, and there is no school on your list that is an extreme reach. You are in a competitive space, and a lot will depend on your essays, how your EC’s are viewed, and the amount of demonstrated interest for each school (obviously each school wants to get the idea that you want to go there more than any other school… and you will need to create that impression for each school). By the way, unless you have had continuous involvement with some project from your middle school years, do not list any honors/achievements that are not associated with your high school years. As an example, piano has been a continuous EC. Your JHU honor, while admirable, had its end years ago.</p>

<p>You may be doing yourself a favor by retaking the SAT Reasoning Test in October. I believe that most of these schools will allow composite SAT scores, and if you can bring one or both of your CR/Writing scores up, it will improve your chances with those schools I’ve evaluated as being WEAK MATCH for you. </p>

<p>Incidentally, don’t worry about your high school not ranking their students… nice to have for many colleges, but many high schools are moving away from ranking. Also</p>

<p>Also, when your Guidance Counselor is asked to provide a recommendation, s/he will send along a School Profile to the college. If they don’t know about your high school already (and in all likelihood, a competitive h.s. will already be known by most elite colleges), they will be able to assess how you have done compared to your peers and evaluated against the school profile.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

4

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>I was just checking the Rugg’s rankings for Tier I schools in Economics, and Washington U St. L. wasn’t on the list for Tier I. Does anyone know the selectivity of Duke U compared to WashU?</p>

5

<p>Duke is slightly more competitive than WashU… but it’s almost a “wash” ;)</p>

<p>You might look at whittling a few schools from your list. If your intest is in Econ/Applied Math, frankly I don’t see Wesleyan as being particularly strong by comparison to some of the other schools. Wesleyan’s math emphasis is on pure math vs. applied math. Also, I think you’re reasonably SAFE with either of UIUC and UM. </p>

<p>To the extent that you can, try to visit as many campuses as you can. Many students know that visits made all the difference in their college choices.</p>

6

<p>Um. You don’t need to retake anything. You’re an incredibly strong applicant, and I hate having someone like you around to compete with (my top two schools are in your college list hahaha). But seriously, you’re amazing. Don’t worry about the others on this board…everyone here is all, “omgcollege31ACT=badz!!1!” So yeah, you’re fine. Don’t develop complexes haha. Just keep up the good work ;-)</p>

7

<p>What I find extremely odd is that you took comp sci ab after taking comp sci a.</p>

8

<p>Thanks for your advice guys</p>

<p>Apparently Wesleyan is strong in Economics (source: Fiske guide to colleges) so I added it in.</p>

<p>And in our school the next step after taking Comp Sci A is Comp Sci AB. It’s just the natural progression.</p>

9

<p>Wow, a CCer not applying to any of the letters in HYPS.</p>

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<p>Haha…I considered applying to Princeton but I decided that it was probably too extreme a reach for me and I wasn’t too bent on going there anyawy</p>

11

<p>you’re a black male who graduated from chinese school?</p>

<p>um.</p>

12

<p>I’m Chinese…</p>

<p>Where does it say I’m black?</p>

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<p>Just to live up to CC (and because your stats are really good), I think you should apply to at least one letter in the HYPS.</p>

<p>Perhaps Princeton as you suggested =]</p>

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<p>I think someone didn’t read carefully enough…it says Asian American, not African American</p>

15

<p>Are you guys sure my GPA won’t affect me that much? Because there are a lot of people in my school who try really really hard and have like 3.9+ GPAs</p>

16

<p>bump</p>

<p>As an afterthought,</p>

<p><a href=“http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2006-07-07T170232Z_01_SP148141_RTRUKOC_0_US-INDIA-PRINCE1.xml&src=rss[/url]”>http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2006-07-07T170232Z_01_SP148141_RTRUKOC_0_US-INDIA-PRINCE1.xml&src=rss&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>The colleges will know you’re aprox rank if your school is strong. If you’re not top 10%, the GPA will hurt you.</p>

18

<p>My school doesn’t rank…but I’m probably not top 10%.</p>

19

<p>hah. sorry, i could’ve sworn it said African not Asian male.</p>

<p>my bad.</p>