MIT, Stanford, Harvard: Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>EDUCATION
William B. Travis High School, Richmond, Texas
Date of Graduation: June 2009
Unweighted GPA: 4.00/4.00
Weighted GPA: 5.6543/6.00
Class Rank: 4 out of 421</p>

<p>PSAT score: 238/240
SAT score: 2400/2400</p>

<p>Honors student
Designated Gifted and Talented</p>

<p>EXPERIENCE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Orchestra
o Violinist for 6 years
o Orchestra President: 10th and 11th grade
o Region Orchestra Member
o DC Festivals: “Outstanding Violin Soloist”
o THS Symphony Orchestra concertmaster
o Outstanding Orchestra Leadership Award
• Chess Club Founder and President: 10th and 11th grades
• Science Club Vice President: 10th and 11th grades
• Member of Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society): 9th, 10th, and 11th grades
• National Honor Society Vice President: 11th grade
• Debate
o Vice President: 10th grade
o President: 11th grade
o Travis High School Outstanding Lincoln-Douglas Debater Award
• National History Day
o State Level Entrant
o Regional Level Outstanding entry in Group Performance
• Travis High School UIL Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Competitor
• American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) competitor
• American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) competitor
• Recipient of numerous academic awards</p>

<p>COMMUNITY SERVICE
• India International Public School, Dabra, Madhya Pradesh, India
o 50+ hours as a tutor and teacher for underprivileged rural students
• Travis High School Tiger Academy, Richmond, Texas
o Peer Tutor in Science and Math
• Fort Bend Public Libraries, Richmond, Texas
o Assisted guests in the youth section of the George Memorial Public Library
• Second Mile Mission Center, Stafford, Texas
o Assisted in distributing food and clothing to lower-income families in the Stafford area</p>

<p>More: Member of National society of high school scholars
founder of bollywood bonanza club
Summer Internship at University of HOuston
Selected and participated in FBISD GT Mentorship program (highly selective, competitive research program)</p>

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<p>post in “chances” forum</p>

3

<p>watch out, Harvard and the like dont want robots in their rows. My friend got pretty much your stats and got rejected.
btw, ever considered the UK? a lot cheaper, but not less good</p>

4

<p>Oh boy an overachiever. Consider Oxbridge, they’re numbers-based. You’ll at least get deferred from Stanford and MIT but I’m not one to make the call (it’s actually very hard to get deferred from Stanford).</p>

5

<p>good point with the more numbers-based UK system: either Oxbridge, LSE, or Imperial.</p>

6

<p>Since when did Mu Alpha Theta Chapters allow members below 11th Grade? I was elected VP this year and i’m pretty sure the by-laws read you have to be a junior</p>

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<p>^yeah! The laws do say that.</p>

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<p>The bylaws say that you have to have completed geometry to apply for full membership. I completed geometry in 9th grade. In 9th grade I was just an associate member that was allowed to participate in all competitions and what not, but I was not actually a “member”</p>

9

<p>I have posted more detail about some of the stuff I’ve done. Can I get some more opinions on my chances please? I will also be applying to Cornell, Princeton, UT, Rice, Maybe Caltech.</p>

<p>Here is more detail about some of the stuff I’ve done. Can I get some more opinions on my chances please? I will also be applying to Cornell, Princeton, UT, Rice, Maybe Caltech.</p>

<p>AP Computer Science A: 4
AP US History: 4
AP Chemistry: 5
AP Spanish Language: 5
AP English Language: 5
AP english Literature
AP Physics
AP Govt
AP Economics
AP Calculus
Orchestra (play violin) for 7 years
AP computer science 2 </p>

<p>I plan to get 4s and 5s on all my APs</p>

<p>Orchestra President: 10, 11, 12th grades
Debate club founder and Vice President in 10th grade, President in 11th and 12th grade
CHess club founder and president 10, 11, 12th grades
Science club co-founder and vice president 10th, 11th, 12th grades
Member of Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society)
Member of and officer of NHS
Member of Spanish Honor Society</p>

<p>Member of Region Orchestra
School Symphony Orchestra concertmaster
OUtstanding soloist at several orchestra competitions
Solo and Ensemble Contest Rating of one on a division one solo
Orchestra Outstanding Leadership award</p>

<p>Went to National History Day state competition in 10th grade for a group performance
Organizer of the school talent show in 10th grade
Math peer tutoring 1hr/week
approximately 100 volunteer hours</p>

<p>volunteered at a rural school in India for approximately 100 hours during the summer</p>

<p>Debate
Placed at several local competitions in LD Debate and Extemporaneous speaking, but never went to state competition
School Outstanding LD Debater award</p>

<p>Participated in several UIL competitions and Computer Science competitions
I was on the school UIL and computer science team
placed in several computer science competitions</p>

<p>Class rank 4 out of 421</p>

<p>GPA unweighted: 4.0
weighted 5.68</p>

<p>AMC school champion in 8th grade
took AMC and AIME in 9th grade</p>

<p>I get subject awards in several subjects at the end of each school year</p>

<p>I know that I will have very strong teacher, principal, and counselor recommendations.</p>

<p>Prospective major: engineering
Started peer tutoring program and orchestra mentorship program
Gave private lessons to other violinists
Tutored students in every subject
Volunteered at special Olympics and second mile mission
Compsci 110% student
Chem. 1 highest grades
Spanish 3– outstanding student overall
Organized chess tournaments against local area schools
Rotary club work in India</p>

<p>Two times Student Ambassador Program Invitee
Invited to National Student Leadership Conference
Invited to Congressional Student Leadership Conference</p>

<p>Bollywood bonanza cofounder and copresident
Psat: 238
Sat: 2400
Presidential scholars
NMSQT Finalist
2008 District UIL competitor
April 12, 2008 – Choice Festivals Dallas – THS Outstanding Violin Soloist
Accepted in Welch Program 2008
Accepted in UH Internship at Texas Center for Superconductivity
7 keys to success – 2 time Outstanding overall participant</p>

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<p>chances please?</p>

<p>If MIT and Harvard are a reach, which schools do I have a good shot at?</p>

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<p>Yeah so it’s not so much that MIT and Harvard are a reach, its just that your scores don’t guarantee you. With your scores, all you need to do is show the colleges that you have a personality, and you’ll be in. The thing is, people say “reach,” when really they mean “who knows.” Because you see, technically you cannot get better scores. If I were to put my money on it, you’ll probably only get rejected by like 1 or maybe 2 schools you apply to (probably totally randomly) and accepted everywhere else. I really would not even bother with “chancing” just because you’re so frickin qualified.</p>

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<p>any more suggestions?</p>

<p>thanks kfive, appreciate it</p>

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<p>I would suggest looking into the Jerome Fisher program at UPenn. You get a engineering degree and business from UPenn. They only take 40 kids. I think you have a shot. One of my friends got in, and after his freshman year, he’s already working at a hedge fund. UT should be your safety. Your in due to the 10% rule. I think you have a chance at most schools. You just need to show your not a college application whore, and you actually are human and have a personality. good luck! chance me?</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/548705-let-s-put-smile-face-chancing-me.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/548705-let-s-put-smile-face-chancing-me.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>damn spades, what a baller friend uve got</p>

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<p>Some things I would like to highlight from my stats (I am proud of these things :slight_smile: ):
I have done more than 100 hours of volunteer work at a rural school in Dabra, India.
I have worked with Rotary clubs in India, administering drops of the Polio vaccine to rural children as part of the rotary campaign known as Polio Pulse.</p>

<p>I have done an engineering internship at University of HOuston</p>

<p>I have been accepted into the Gt Mentorship Program in my district (only 10 kids from the entire district, approximately 10% of applicants were selected)
This program will allow me to work in any selected field with professionals in the industry. It will also train me for professional life: interviews, speeches, business meetings, etc. Seems to be very prestigious. I am the only student representing my school.</p>

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<p>does anybody know of dual-degree or interdisciplinary programs at mit, harvard, stanford</p>

<p>like the kind that spades was talking about</p>

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<p>more chances?</p>

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<p>Dual-degree program’s I’m not sure about and actually don’t think exist with those schools. However, MIT-H have a cross registration progam that lets you take certain classes at the opposite college but you do NOT graduate with degrees from each one, this cross-reg only can be seen on your transcript where it will note “Classes taken at Harvard.” I plan on doing this.</p>

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<p>You have impressive accomplishments, but what do they say about you? All it shows it that you’ve been bright and versatile. Who are you? Are those activities actually meaningful to you? If i were an adcom, i would guess that you’ve been doing all those activities (they’re so standard), because you’ve been wanting to impress the college, and also because you have so many activities going on. I’m not saying you look boring. some of ur activities are cool. but it looks like you’ve been trying to impress adcoms by doing things that generally look prestigious. Idk if i’m right, but that’s exactly how my reaction was to your profile.</p>

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<p>First, a few suggestions:</p>

<p>Emphasize the following EC’s in your application:
[ul][<em>]Teaching and volunteering in India
[</em>]Internship at University of Houston
[<em>]Bollywood club
[</em>]FBISD GT Mentorship program
[/ul]</p>

<p>These activities are very unique. They’re the activities that adcoms will remember you by. Emphasize them by listing them first on the common app and possibly writing about one of them in your essay. Definitely choose one of them for the question that asks you to briefly describe one of your EC’s.</p>

<p>The rest of your EC’s are good, but they’re boring. Everyone does Mu Alpha Theta. Everyone does debate. Everyone plays an instrument. I’m exaggerating, but the point is that these activities do NOTHING to make you stand out. One exception is if you’re good enough to play in the orchestra at whatever college you attend, but I doubt you’re good enough based on what you listed. </p>

<p>If you package yourself right, I think you’ll be very happy come April. You’re qualified to attend every school on your list. The only question is whether you’re able to stand out in the sea of applicants.</p>