My chances at a "good" school

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Hi all, hope everyone is doing good :slight_smile: alright so my name is Vikram and I am going to be a senior when next school year starts. l want to get into a good school so here’s what I have in mind:</p>

<p>Dream school:
Stanford</p>

<p>Realistic:
John Hopkins, UCF (University of Central Florida)</p>

<p>So I’ll describe what I’ve done so far and please don’t think of this as boosting my ego, I have been reading CC for a while now and I know most people are more talented than I am :slight_smile: so I would like to know what my current chances are of getting into these schools and how I can improve my chances of getting into Stanford. Please keep in mind that I came to US in 9th grade :)</p>

<p>My profile:</p>

<p>9th grade classes and grades

  1. Aerospace Engineering Magner - A
  2. Pre-AP Biology - A
  3. ESOL English - A lol this is a state requirement for us :frowning:
  4. Algebra-1 honors - A
  5. AP Human Geography - A (5 on the AP exam)
  6. CCC (computers for college and carreers) -A we actually got college credit for these courses
  7. Team Sports -A </p>

<p>Extra-cirricular:</p>

<p>PROFIT: [PROFIT:</a> Pictures Represent Opportunities For Inspiration in Technology | ITEST Learning Resource Center at EDC](<a href=“http://itestlrc.edc.org/profit-pictures-represent-opportunities-inspiration-technology]PROFIT:”>http://itestlrc.edc.org/profit-pictures-represent-opportunities-inspiration-technology)
Starting off for Siemens research paper :slight_smile:
Volunteering at the temple (don’t know if that counts)</p>

<p>10th grade

  1. Aerospace Engineering Magnet 2 - A
  2. ESOL - A
  3. AP Biology - A (5 on the AP exam)
  4. AP World History - A (3 on the AP)
  5. Algebra 2 - honors - A
  6. Geometry honors - A
  7. Business Software App - A (again college credit for this as well)</p>

<p>Extra:</p>

<p>Internship at eprentise
Volunteering stuff
Second year at PROFIT
Starting to contribute to Ubuntu: <a href=“https://launchpad.net/~dhillon-v10[/url]”>https://launchpad.net/~dhillon-v10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>11th grade: (haven’t gotten back my AP scores yet)

  1. AP Computer Science - B
  2. AP Stastics - B
  3. AP English -B
  4. Pre-Calc. - A
  5. AP Chemistry- A
  6. AP American History -A</p>

<p>Extra:
Internship at Sun/Oracle
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation stuff
Volunteering at church
Lacrosse varsity
Making good progress with Siemens, my topic is in robotics and I am just about done with it :)</p>

<p>Next year: (I can’t afford any B’s)

  1. AP Calculus BC
  2. AP Physics B
  3. AP Physics C
  4. AP English
  5. AP Psychology
  6. AP Economics/Government</p>

<p>Test Scores
SAT: 1700 (will get this up to 2100)
SAT II: Chemistry: 620 Biology: 700
Also going to take AMC, very likely I will make it to AIME, I have before :)</p>

<p>FLVS: (online courses)
AP Art History
Spanish 1 and 2
HOPE (its like physical education)</p>

<p>I have been contributing and actually leading some teams in Ubuntu and OpenSolaris. Next year if I get good grades and all that what are my chances of getting into Stanford, there’s probably more stuff that I haven’t put up there in the profile but if you guys find anything specific that I haven’t mentioned please tell me, anyways what are my chances of getting into Stanford (if any) also how can I improve that. Thanks a lot for your time :)</p>

2

<p>Dream school:
Stanford Given your SAT’s you have very close to zero chance.</p>

<p>Realistic:
John Hopkins Still a reach.</p>

<p>UCF (University of Central Florida) IN.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for your reply soze, I have been asked by Washington University at St. Louis to apply there as well and they send me a letter saying that I would be a good candidate, now I know that they send those out to like a thousand people, do you think I can get in there, also what needs to be worked on besides my SAT’s? This was my first post at CC so am I missing anything out from that profile thing? Thanks for your time I figured Stanford is out of reach for me, but here at my school some people with lower than me SAT score and about the same grades as me got in (early decision) so I posted Standford as well.</p>

4

<p>I can’t believe that anyone with an SAT score lower than 1700 was accepted to Stanford. If there were people that did, as you claim, they had to have had all six of their parents attend Standford, in addition to being a recruited athlete. Unless you score 2100+, your chances at Standford or Johns Hopkins are slim to none. UCF is certainly realistic as you assumed. Also, you need to retake your SAT IIs. Standford looks for 750+ for each SAT II.</p>

5

<p>WashU. sends those to pretty much everybody. They are famous for drowning students in marketing materials. Please don’t think that because you got their marketing materials that they are making a “request” for you to apply.</p>

<p>Nobody without a major, major hook gets into Stanford with under 2100, let alone under 1700.</p>

<p>You are completely out of reach for Stanford and still a very big reach for WashU or JHU. I know you said you think you can get your SAT to 2100, but 300 point jumps are pretty rare (not unheard of, but rare). If you did get it to 2100, then you would have a reasonable shot at JHU and WashU., but they would be still be reaches. You need some match and safety schools on your list.</p>

<p>You are right about not being able to afford any B’s next year. This is because your grades went down between 10th and 11th grade. You want to make sure you can show an upward trend again.</p>

<p>Also, don’t report the “3” on the AP world history.</p>

6

<p>“Nobody without a major, major hook gets into Stanford with under 2100, let alone under 1700”</p>

<p>I disagree, a kid at my school got accepted last year with a 2060 SAT and his only EC’s were JV tennis, math team, and like 150 hours of volunteering. Another kid got accepted this year with a 2280 SAT but his only real EC was voluneering. I think that the essay and teacher recs can play a huge role and cause admissions people to overlook semi weak SATs or ECs. At Stanford specifically it seems like they care a lot more about who you are as a person than standardized test scores.</p>

7

<p>I can almost believe the 2280 unhooked kid, but I don’t believe that a 2060 kid as you described got into Stanford without a hook. Sorry, but I’m just not buying it.</p>

8

<p>The 2060 guy was also accepted to MIT and Harvey Mudd, he is currently attending Harvey Mudd. I don’t know his score breakdown but I know he was very good at math, he had a 4.0 GPA in full IB, and he was probably very successful in math team although I’m not quite sure of the extent. I’m guessing he had an 800 on the math section and really emphasized his interest in this in his essays. </p>

<p>I don’t get how thats so hard to believe, essays and recs are huge factors at Stanford. Personally I think the SAT is less important than taking hard classes and having a high GPA in them. Even so I’m sure he was on the borderline for acceptance, don’t know how the hell he got into MIT either.</p>

9

<p>It’s hard to believe because it’s 300 points below the typical Stanford student. I still think he must have had a hook (URM, legacy, etc.). I do believe that he got into Harvey Mudd and given that I’m not sure too many people turn down BOTH Stanford and MIT for Harvey Mudd he probably BS’ed you about getting into Stanford and MIT.</p>

10

<p>I read somewhere that the average Stanford SAT score, the 50th percentile, is like 2150 in which case 2060 isn’t THAT far off. A 2360 SAT is by no means a typical Stanford student, thats gotta be like 85 percentile and above. </p>

<p>And yeah I don’t get why he turned down those great schools (even though Harvey Mudd is also great). He was poor, asian, and I think a first generation college student. Harvey Mudd gave him a great financial aid package and Stanford/MIT apparently didn’t. He actually seemed as surprised as you that he got into those schools. I’m about 100% sure he wasn’t lying also.</p>

11

<p>Hold on.
I told you he had to have a hook (1st gen is a hook, poor is even better).</p>

12

<p>Thanks for the reply guys, seems like I need to start working harder and apply to school within my reach.</p>

13

<p>I’m not an expert, but I would recommend taking the SAT II’s again. If you got an A in AP Chemistry, you should be able to get 750+ on that SAT II.</p>