IVY LEAGUE for a Hopeful Oklahoman

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>I’m from Enid, Oklahoma. A large town with a population of 50,000. I wish to go to these “top-notch” schools because I’m an egotistical ■■■■■■■ (lol) and want a change from my middle-america lifestyle. I am currently a Junior enrolled in our town’s biggest public school. </p>

<p>I don’t want ANY ******** whatsoever, I want the opinion of strait-talking people so I can figure out what to do. I KNOW THIS APPLICATION SUCKS BIG-TIME COMPARED TO THE ELITE COMPETITION, but give me something to go off of. I havn’t started the test-taking phase (SAT, SAT-II’s) ETC. But I am in the proccess right now of taking some of these tests for the first time in my life. I am determined to do well on them and believe I can get at least average scores (32+, 1450+). This is a very big factor I’m aware, but assuming I get all of the test B.S. covered;</p>

<p>Here we go:</p>

<p>CLASS RANK: 1/463 </p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 unweighted, 4.463 weighted (AP’s are worth 4.5, advanced 4.25, I have every year maxed out my schedule strategically in a way which would give me the most points, with very few exceptions)</p>

<p>ACT: 27 (been a while since taking, VERY BIG WEAK SPOT, will re-take and get to 32+ expected by beggining of senior)</p>

<p>SAT: Just took first time today, I feel extremely confident, but lets say 1400 to reflect my pessimistic attitude.</p>

<p>CLASSES:</p>

<p>Currently enrolled and in the OSSM (Oklahoma School of Science and Mathamatics) Enid Regional center program. The addmissions were tough (people come in from all over western Oklahoma, just happened to be in my home town). The course includes AP level calculus, calculus 2, physics, and mechanics crammed into a year study fun! (not). </p>

<p>AP BIOLOGY, AP BIOLOGY LAB, AP EUROPEAN HISTORY, AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. Next year will be taking almost strait AP level history courses.</p>

<p>Advanced Algebra, Algebra II, Geometry, Trigonometry, World Literature, American Literature (currently enrolled), etc etc. (maxed out whatever my school would offer as far as the “necessary” classes go). </p>

<p>JOURNALISM: Took newspaper in 8th and was the editor of the paper in 9th grade, but dropped it because I could not stand the objectivity required for good work (I’m all about opinions lol).</p>

<p>Foreign Languages: Took spanish all the way up from grade school until 9th, then went French I, Spanish I, French II, and now in French III.</p>

<p>L.D. DEBATE (my ultimate uncontrollable passion): I love debate so much, it is not a very serious class to take in my school unlike most schools. I have taken Debate since it was offered in 10th (school only offers Lincoln-Douglas), I have only won local novice tournaments, working my ASS off this year on the side of all of my math and science to win big on local levels (noone to debate with where I live, I try to debate at least once a day through online-chat-mediums, but I have a lot to learn). I want this to be my to be my “hooK”. I know this is pathetic, I know it probably isn’t the best hook to choose considering i’ve done so poorly at it, but this is what I plan to pursue heavily throughout this year, next summer, and especially senior year. I’m going to debate institutes up northeast for sure to help (probably Yale’s program). </p>

<p>POLITICS: Helping found the Enid, Oklahoma High School Republican Club (heh, not good for the liberal ivy’s). Helped campaign heavily for local senate/house races, mildly for State level, and of course the general “help bush” with yard sign balognie. We won big locally, barely won state level, and of course Bush is in office. I am looking into the page program for U.S. house this summer. Politics and Debate is what I want to do the rest of my life. Parlimatarian of JSA (only in my school since last year). I ran for STUCO president last year and lost, but worked heavily to run a “funny” campagin and got tons of compliments from my peers and it was an awesome experience. My main problem is I appear (or am, probably) a stuck-up ■■■■■■■ whos full of himself to the point where you want to puke. Probably why I’m so concerned with my “Harvard”, or whatever.</p>

<p>B.S. CLUBS (clubs I take not as seriously as the above): French Club (Vice-President), Spanish Club, Poetry Club, Community Service Club, SWAT (Im going to drop this club possibly, not that important).</p>

<p>OTHER EXTRA-CURRICULAR: Not much time for this, I lift weights at least 4 times a week and I’m extremely scrawny and unathletic lol. Next year I will take independant study at the OSSM regional center for Statistics and Electromagnatism. </p>

<p>I’m a WHITE MALE and son of a upper-middle class small-town lawyer. So the politically correct A.A. programs aren’t going to help me lol. I know these schools want very specialized people (who at the same time reflect a very versatile grade/test score resume), but as it stands now, would my chances at least be in the 0-5%? I appreciate those who take the time to answer. I know these forums are full of posts like mine and it probably gets old, but please be as realistic as possible and even if it means the “YOU SUCK KID, YOU ARENT GETTING IN” replies if that’s what it takes.</p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>George</p>

<p>EDIT: Can you re-take AP tests to bump the scores up?</p>

2

<p>good ur a junior, you need to boost those ECs some and you can aim for HYPSM.</p>

3

<p>stanfordwannab3, thanks for the reply. Yes, EC will be improved. I’m going to start the whole volunteering thing shortly. I assume “HYPSM” means “Harvard Yale Princeton Stanford MIT?”.</p>

<p>Are you in/going for stanford right now as the name suggests?</p>

4

<p>since i am a wannabe, yes im an applicant. actually im doing harvard EA, the others regular.</p>

5

<p>Good luck with that mate.</p>

6

<p>thnx, word of advice: dont take ur easy classes lightly junior yr, cuz they can bite you in the ass.</p>

7

<p>other opinions?</p>

8

<p>b-bump…</p>

9

<p>bump</p>

<p>…</p>

10

<p>You need to have more ECs and not just volunteer work, some sort of focus. You have a decent shot at HYPS, but I would make sure to look into the other Ivies as well. Dont the the mistake of only applying to Harvard then having the next best school be your state school. the non Harvard Yale Princeton Ivies have a lot to offer.</p>

11

<p>You will be a fish out of water in HYPSM. Republicans over there are more liberals than Democrates in your neck of woods. Don’t forget you campaigned for the 9th century senatorial candidate.</p>

12

<p>If you want LD to be your hook, I would encourage you to debate national circuit or at least work to qualify to nationals. <a href=“http://www.victorybriefs.net/vbd[/url]”>www.victorybriefs.net/vbd</a> is a good national circuit debate source.</p>

13

<p>I’m quite aware of the national circuit, I’m preparing this year and this summer especially to work my way into it.</p>

14

<p>that’s good, it’s really fun and I just wish I could travel more. Oh, and I just noticed you said you were planning on going to an institute on the east coast–NDF is really good and I would strongly recommend it. It’s pretty indisputabley one of the top 2 institutes in the nation. <a href=“http://www.nationaldebateforum.com%5B/url%5D”>www.nationaldebateforum.com</a></p>

15

<p>Wow, this looks like a very good debate institute.</p>

<p>From the site, regarding application:</p>

<p>"Admissions to the NDF Varsity LD Program are competitive and selective. Please fill out the Admissions Form and send it in by May 1, 2004. "</p>

<p>I would have no chance of getting in since I have never competed nationally in my life, all I have done is competed locally and done average, i just want to GET good, but I’m not already good. If you’ve gone to this place, I assume it isn’t the type of place you can simply flash your transcript to get in? How would I get in?</p>

16

<p>I wouldn’t worry about not having competed circuit before–I’d only gone to one circuit tournament before when I applied and I got in. I mean, you won’t get into a top lab or anything, but they actually had a lab or two set aside for people who had mostly competed regionally. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the instructors are any less quality. Plus, even if you aren’t content with the people leading your lab, they have “office hours” where you can sign up to meet with someone of your choice for 15-20 minutes to talk about whatever you want. It’s really great. I would defintely encourage you to apply, I think as long as you have had decent sucess locally you should be fine. But if you want a back-up, I would suggest National Symposium for Debate (<a href=“http://www.nsdebate.com%5B/url%5D”>www.nsdebate.com</a>). It’s new this summer, but it looks like it will have a phenomenal staff, including many former and current ndf instructors.</p>

17

<p>Thanks bananas, I’ll give it a shot, but you originally said:</p>

<p>“It’s pretty indisputabley one of the top 2 institutes in the nation.”</p>

<p>Out of curiousity, what would the other top institute be?</p>

<p>And what has been your success with debate since you’ve gone to these camps (or in general for that matter)?</p>

<p>[EDIT:] Also, let’s assume I go into a debate camp and do poorly in debate, do my chances at getting into an ivy essentially go from 5% to nothing?</p>

18

<p>I private messaged on the debate camps–if anyone else was reading this/is interested, I’d be happy to share my thoughts if you send a pm my way</p>

<p>I really don’t think anyone will care if you went to camp and don’t do very well in debate. I don’t think I even wrote on my app that I went to camp. Plus, they won’t really know how good or bad you are at debate if you don’t tell them. You don’t exactly send in your win/loss record…You’ll likely do well somewhere; just highlight your achievements. I may have never ripped up the national circuit, but I was still able to put that I was a state semi-finalist. Lastly, I don’t know if you’re planning on applying early anywhere, but if you do, most of the season will probably happen after you apply.</p>

<p>Just some thoughts… remember, it’s probably (hopefully) more important that you show commmitment and passion than success per se</p>

<p>hope this helps</p>

19

<p>I would recommend ABC (Atlanta State, Boise State, and Copper State.)</p>