Nice going, Becky; she's anorexic.

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Props to those who recognize this quote.</p>

<p>My ultimate chances thread: I made one several months ago, got some good feedback, and replied to many other hopefuls. Now I have a better idea of what I want to do, where I want to go, and how my stats match up. I’ve edited my list of schools appropriately. Here goes:</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Race: White Guy
Location: Portland, OR (Geographical diversity, anyone?)
Income: less than $40,000 per annum
-Live with mom (divorced)
High School: pretty competitive public in Portland, OR; 5 or so kids to ivies each year, 10 more to top 30 schools</p>

<p>GPA uw: 4.0
GPA w: probably like 4.5-ish
Class Rank: 1/470ish (it’s all about the vals)</p>

<p>TESTS: I had different SAT scores that were based off of a practice test on my last thread, but I have the real ones now.</p>

<p>SAT CR: 780
SAT M: 660
SAT W: 740</p>

<p>ACT: 30 (36 E, 29 M, 33 W, 24 S)</p>

<p>COURSES: most rigorous offered (only AP’s I didn’t take were chem and phys)</p>

<p>Freshman Year: (no honors offered)
World History
Biology
English 9
P.E.
Geometry
French 1-2
Freshman Theater</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Acc/Hon English 10
Chemistry
Adv. Algebra
Acc/Hon French 10-12 (skipped 2 years)
Journalistic Writing
Health
Biology Lab Assistant</p>

<p>Junior Year:
AP English Lang
AP US History
AP Biology
AP Economics
Newspaper
Precalculus
Latin 1</p>

<p>Senior Year: just got schedule and lovin’ it
PSU English
PSU French
AP Art History
AP European History
AP Constitutional Gov
AP Calculus
Freshman Mentor (also clocks EC hours; almost like a student teacher position)</p>

<p>*PSU denotes Portland State University; college-in-high school classes</p>

<p>EC’s: probably the weakest part of my app, but hey…</p>

<p>Classical Piano: 12 Years, Guild Superior Rating 9, 10
Newspaper: Copy Editor (11), Page Editor (11) 10, 11
We The People Constitution Team: 12 (Our school has won 2nd, 3rd and 4th place in the nationals since 1999 or something)
Church Youth Group: lots of volunteering and fundraising
Habitat for Humanity: probably 120 hours so far; youth group goes on mission trips for a week once school gets out and we work on a job site somewhere; Certificate of Appreciation, Work Crew leader</p>

<p>Awards:
National Latin Exam- Summa Cum Laude (11)
Excellence in Chemistry (from school)
Valedictorian</p>

<p>Work Experience:
I’m a Teacher at a local preschool: I work like 10 hour weeks during the school year, but I’ve been doing 40 hour weeks this summer. I’ve worked since January, 2007 and plan on working up until I leave for college.
Boss loves me, wants to write me a rec.</p>

<p>Intended Major: International Relations, International Political Economy</p>

<p>My teacher recs should be great; one from my soph. English teacher who holds a PhD in linguistics from Oxford (and has been trying to recruit me, so to speak), and another from my French teacher, who practically wets herself over my love of French. Also can get a good one from my Precal teacher for UChicago.</p>

<p>Essay: I think I’m going to write about how when I teach my preschoolers some words in foreign languages, it opens their eyes to a world outside what they experience everyday, and how my own love of foreign languages has influenced me to aspire to do foreign service in a global world. (I know it all sounds kind of overdone and cliche, but it’s something about which I’m truly passionate and it matches my intended major.)</p>

<p>Wow, I wrote a lot; sorry.</p>

<p>AND NOW, FOR THE SCHOOLS.</p>

<p>Dream School:
Yale</p>

<p>Reaches:
Georgetown
Columbia
Penn
Middlebury (probably ED)
Johns Hopkins
UChicago
Pomona
Tufts
WashU St.L</p>

<p>Matches:
Boston U
Occidental
Dickinson
Bucknell
Vassar (probably more a reach)
Kenyon</p>

<p>Safeties:
McGill (match-safety)
UBC
American
Richmond U London
George Washington
Whitman (legacy)
U Washington</p>

<p>I don’t intend on applying to all these schools (probably 10 at the most), but I thought I would list all those schools in which I am interested.</p>

<p>Thanks, you all are a great help.</p>

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<p>You accurately gauged your chances, I think.</p>

<p>Out of curiousity, how many years did you take Latin before participating in the Natl Latin Exam?</p>

3

<p>oregonian valedictorian with a 2180 and a demonstrated passion for languages–i’d save middlebury for ed2 and take your shot at yale EA.</p>

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<p>that’s a great movie</p>

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<p>wait, why would u even do middlebury ED?</p>

<p>if u get in, it doesnt matter if u also get into yale- dont u HAVE to go to middlebuy?</p>

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<p>Agreed. Do not apply to Midd early just because you think it’s your best chance to get into a reach school. Apply to your dream school. Middlebury does, as mentioned above, have ED II.</p>

<p>That said, cut out half of your schools. 22? Really? Write down the sizes and relative merits of each schools and divide them in to categories. For instance, you’ve got Pomona and Oxy on your list. They are basically the only west coast schools on your list. Do you really want to go out west? And do you really want a school as small as Pomona? Etc. etc.</p>

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<p>aguy, the OP would be applying to middlebury ED2, which is different from ED; if he’s accepted to Yale, in these circumstances he wouldn’t even apply to middlebury.</p>

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<p>Curious to how you won “Excellence in Chemistry” but you didn’t pursue AP Chemistry xD.</p>

<p>Good chances at all your schools, but “raise your SATs.”</p>

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<p>Yeah, I know my math scores for both the SAT and ACT are mediocre for my schools, and that science score is just downright balls; I’m retaking both and shooting for 700+/30+ on both. Or else just shooting heroin.</p>

<p>Also, that’s why I said PROBABLY on Middlebury ED; I didn’t know whether Yale would even be realistic, but now I think I might do their restricted EA, and the devil take the hindmost. Midd would be my second choice.</p>

<p>Ses- yes, my list is ridiculous; I’ll probably end up taking out Penn, Pomona, Oxy, Hopkins, Bucknell, Richmond, Whitman, and Washington at least, but obviously I have a hard time letting things go.</p>

<p>Mj93: I’d taken Latin for one year and got a perfect paper on the exam; I guess I just REALLY like grammar, and I loved the etymology involved in the course. Linguistics are kind of my thing, too. I also took the AP French test after one year and got a 4 on it. I really mean it when I say I like languages. I think I might found the Multilingual club at my school next year, and do a few weeks of Russian, some of German, some of Chinese, etc.</p>

<p>And, finally, Castel: the Excellence in Chemistry award- this came as a surprise to me. I guess it was just that I worked diligently in the class because I knew it would be challenging and I was right. Our school’s chemistry program is pretty tough. To tell the truth, AP Chem was on my junior year electives list, but it conflicted with Newspaper and I would have shot myself in the face with all the work plus test prep I was doing last year.</p>

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<p>Also-</p>

<p>If I go to Yale, I will most likely be a Classics major with an International Studies minor. On the PSAT questionnaire, I said my intended major was Classics, and when Yale sent me a letter, they sent a supplement explaining how glorious their Classics department was. It seemed a bit as if they were recruiting.</p>

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<p>Hey, nice to see another language geek on here! I skipped three years of Spanish and got a 4 on AP as a sophomore (w/out taking the class. And I’m white, hahah) Now I’m taking college Spanish and a little Arabic for fun, I’m excited. </p>

<p>Anyway to your chances. I am a little biased but I think you’re a very strong, unique applicant with as decent a shot as any at Yale. And I know what you’re sayng about your essay being cliched, but I think they’ll catch on if you’re passionate about it. At least I hope so, I’m doing basically the same thing about speaking Spanish with Head Start kids.</p>

<p>On second thought, don’t apply Yale EA! Too much competition for me. Hahah. Good luck–I mean, buena suerte. And whatever it is in French.</p>

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<p>Oh, ha, I totally understand the “don’t apply; higher chance for me” mantra; I have a feeling that may be the largest reason behind the brutal chancing on this site.</p>

<p>SEtitan- I worked with some Head Start kids too! Although none spoke French, my Latin and French allowed me to converse, mainly in the imperative mood, with them in what may only be described as the most pidgin of Spanish. I did, however, speak some Russian; Portland, especially in the outlying areas, has a large Russian population.</p>

<p>I was surprised that there weren’t more kids on this site who were major language gluts (or should I say glots?); from what I can tell, it’s mostly Asian Engineering/Premed hopefuls from California on this site.</p>

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<p>I did a 6-week Head Start program this year and it ended a couple of weeks ago. I drove by the building today and almost cried, I miss those kids so much! </p>

<p>We had four languages in our class: English, Spanish, Somali, and Aromo (Ethiopia). It was predominantly Spanish-speaking though. I learned quite a bit of Somali, but it was mostly pre-school stuff–like “Ebb!” which is stop, and the words for scissors, paper, eating, etc. I would love to be able to speak Somali or a language like it; Arabic’s as close as I’m going to get in High School, I think.</p>

<p>Yup. We language geeks–pretty much anything humanities actually–are not that common here, which is why I don’t look at chance threads too much; I mean, why compare myself to an Intel ISEF Finalst kid when that’s obviously not who I’m really going to be competing against? </p>

<p>Good luck, really. Saying “don’t apply” is the highest compliment in my book. It means they’re scared of you :)</p>

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<p>Exactly; I’m fully surprised that there are not more of our (exalted) kind here, especially after The Economist ranked foreign language specialists as one of the upcoming highest-in-demand career or something or other. And, at the risk of sounding arrogant, people who are gifted in humanities always seem much more intelligent to me than those who are experts at math and science.</p>

<p>My Chinese is very limited, so I didn’t really use it too much at Head Start (I do, however, speak a few words with one girl at the preschool where I work), but my Russian helped a bit (mainly “Nyet!” or “Ya nye znayu” (No, and I don’t know)). I more or less teach/taught the children French, rather than using it as a means of communication, and the same with German. I love/loved it!</p>

<p>And yes, although I would admit to anyone that foreing languages are my specialty, I do love all aspects of the humanities: English, History, Art History, Philosophy, Literature… That is one of the main reasons I would be a Classics major at Yale; the study is truly interdisciplinary, incorporating Literature, History, Art History, Law, Philosophy, and, most importantly, two of the most essential and foundational languages ever.</p>

<p>I can’t wait to dive headfirst into Academia.</p>

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<p>Okay, a slimmed-down version of my college list:</p>

<p>Dream School:
Yale (Restricted EA)</p>

<p>Reaches:
Middlebury
Columbia
Georgetown
Tufts
U Chicago</p>

<p>Matches:
Dickinson
Occidental
Carleton (match/reach)
Vassar (match/reach)</p>

<p>Safeties:
McGill
UBC
American
Whitman (legacy)</p>

<p>I know my list is very reach-heavy, and still pretty long, but I’ll probably only apply to about 10 of those schools.</p>

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<p>Move Carleton up to the reach category and you’re good.</p>

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<p>you have excellent chances. Continue doing great work. Break a leg!</p>

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<p>Thanks, caligurl; positive feedback is like a breath of fresh air on this website. I try to be positive/reassuring, while also being realistic.</p>

<p>Yeah, I wasn’t sure about Carleton, but they do seem more like a reach school. Thanks, mj93.</p>

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<p>I think Carleton is actually a match for you, at the very most a low reach. I live very near there and you look like a perfect candidate for them.</p>

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<p>Anyone who can provide the quote you did for this thread should absolutely go to college in a small town in Minnesota. My daughter can quote that movie practically line for line, which I think had some impact on why she is attending Carleton. </p>

<p>My favorite? “That’s why we Lutherans use grape kool-aid for the blood of Christ”.</p>