Please help chance a huge procrastinator?

I’m a major procrastinator, and am also really stressed out on the whole college application process. If people could please help chance me, I would be incredibly grateful. Thanks!

SAT: 2170. 760CR, 680M, 730 W(1st time). 2340. 780CR, 790M, 770W (2nd time)
SAT 2: 800 Math 2, 800 Chinese, 710 World History, 690 Physics - Should I send in my world history or physics subject test along with math 2 and Chinese? I’m planning on doing a science major, but nothing engineering so science isn’t necessarily required.
Unweighted GPA: 97.1 (our school does GPA on 100 scale). I have a rising GPA trend though. Started at around a 95 in freshman year and went up to a 98.7 in junior year.
Rank: 7/200ish
Senior Course load: AP Bio, AP Economics, AP Gov, Dual Enrollment College English, AP Calc
Number of AP’s taken: 4 (our school offers very few AP’s and I have self-studied two)
AP Scores Reporting: AP World-4, APUSH-5, AP Lit-4, AP Physics 1 -3
Honors: National Honor Society (2 years), National Merit Commended, Selected for SSP (had to leave mid-program due to personal reasons though)

Extracurriculars: Piano (All-State, won some regional concerto competitions, play for school musical productions and school’s Jazz Band), Violin (All-State, Area All-State, All-County, Concertmaster for school orchestra, school’s Contemporary Strings, and pit for musicals when required), Science Olympiad (Vice President, won a couple of medals at the regional level), Quiz Bowl, Ping Pong (co-captain of school team), New York State Math League
Community Service: Technology things for local hospice and Helping Hands, specifically soundboard, some other music performance things, totaling maybe around 200 hours?
Work Experience: Teach children piano
Essay: Thought it was pretty good, talked about failure and how I learned from the experience.
Recommendations: Probably both really good. One is from my AP Lit teacher who really likes me and I’ve had for 3 years. The other is from my AP Calc teacher who I’ve had for 2 years and wrote the teacher rec to get me into SSP. Guidance counselor recommendation is also probably really good since I talk to him a lot and he knows me pretty well.

State: New York
School Type: Small Public
Ethnicity: Asian, Chinese
Gender: Male
Applying for financial aid

Intended major: Biology (either molecular or computational), Neuroscience

Schools:
Princeton University SCEA
Stanford University
Brown University
Johns Hopkins
Tufts
Cornell
University of Rochester
Boston College
Boston University
Northeastern
SUNY Stony Brook
Potentially Villanova

Is 12 schools too much and are there other aspects of my college list I should be focusing on or other colleges I should add? Should I mention SSP in my honors/extracurriculars even though I left mid-way (I do talk about SSP in my common app essay though). What should I do with the subject test situation? Thanks so much!

New to the Chance thread, but we had a bunch of seniors go to Villanova and one went for Bio. You will for sure get into Villanova, your stats are really impressive. Ivy’s are a crapshoot as is JHU and Stanford. So many qualifies applicants don’t get it that it is hard to chance. Most of your EC’s are pretty normal stuff, not really anything that sets you apart from the crowd of other applicants. With great essays, you will most likely get into one of your reach schools.

Edit: JHU looks at GPA!! I am assuming your GPA translates to a bit under a 3.9, so your chances there are good as well.

Thanks @manspeak2u! I pretty much expected that with the Ivy’s and pseudo-Ivy’s like Stanford. Do you think SSP will help in my EC/honors because it’s a very selective summer program?

Also, will having an uncle that went to Princeton help my chances? There’s a spot on Princeton’s application where it says if a parent, grandparent, cousin, uncle, aunt has previously attended, but I know it isn’t the standard legacy status.

I think you have a chance at being accepted into at least one of Tufts, JHU, and Cornell. The other schools are mainly based on luck

Well, the dramatic increase in your SAT scores has me thinking about retaking. I got a 2200 the first time around (700 M, 710 CR, 790 W) and have a 34 on the ACT (also taken only one time), but I’m sure if I actually study, I can boost to a 2300 on the SAT.

Your stats are great, and as far as I’m concerned, your extracurriculars demonstrate passion. If your essays are great and recommendations are as well, I’d say you have a good chance at every one of your preferred schools. Make sure you remember that rejection from an Ivy is not a reflection of your self-worth though. Sometimes, admission is a tossup. I’d take another SAT Subject Test, if you have the time - as you’re Chinese, I’m not sure how an 800 on the Chinese exam looks, lol

Pro:
Solid GPA / Test Scores

Cons:
You are from NY and mainly applying to “name” schools
Chinese needing Financial Aid
Common activities - piano, violin, science

You will definitely land at several schools on your list.

Suggestion: make sure your essays make you memorable, show your personality and tell your story. Open with a strong hook, make sure you are original (not cliche), and make it so the admissions reader feels like they were there with you. Write creatively, descriptively, and conversationally. An admissions essay is not a history report, and a boring essay grammatically correct is not a good essay. Each reviewer reads 50 essays a day on average, make yours stand out. Your goal is for them to go to bat for you partly because of your story.

@SirPepsi Thanks for your response! Yeah I was concerned with that as well, which is why I wanted to send in an additional Physics or World History, but I didn’t do as well as I would have liked. Which do you recommend that I submit? Also, slightly related question, when should I send my SAT scores? I have heard some people say that they send in the scores with their application (so like now for early action), but I’m afraid that Princeton will receive my scores too late, since the CollegeBoard says it could take up to 5 weeks.

@ClarinetDad16 Thanks for your suggestions! I will definitely try to add that component into my essays because of the cons you have listed.

Forgive all the unnecessary commas, etc. in my first post - my phone makes it difficult to see what I’ve typed.

I think you should submit all your scores, but if you have to choose, go with W History. The fact that you scored well demonstrates well-rounded ness, a trait that will appeal to pretty much any top-tier university.

As to when you should submit, the Collegeboard - I believe (someone correct me if I’m wrong) - guarantees shipment within 2 weeks, but if you’re aiming for a closer deadline, consider rush shipping.

@SirPepsi Thanks for your suggestions! I don’t know where I heard up to 5 weeks, so I was kind of nervous, especially since the deadline i is Nov. 1 and I have yet to submit them. I’ll probably do the regular process then.

If you’re trying to get it there within four days, you should probably pay for the rush shipping.

I would hesitate to submit the 690 Physics score since that is around the 50-55th percentile for that subject test (notice a perfect 800 is only the 90th percentile meaning 10% of students nationally get a perfect score on that test): http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Subject-Tests-Percentile-Ranks-2012.pdf

I would instead let your SAT I and Math IIC scores speak to those general skills and not let the subject tests negate/reduce them, especially since you are applying as a science major to the some of the most competitive science magnet schools in the nation. The 3 in AP Physics suggests you may have been nervous (especially if you got an “A” in the course), but the 690 in Physics confirms you probably don’t know the material that well or struggled, which is a red flag for a science applicant where physics is the basis of applied math, a staple of science. Schools like Princeton, Stanford, JHU will undoubtedly be receiving many of those 10% of students nationwide who got perfect scores, and your 690 is going to probably fall 1 to 2 SD below the average subject score in Physics for their applicants (or any science subject test score submitted for that matter). As you said, you are a science major and not an engineer, so this may not be all that important, unfortunately you didn’t take other advanced science coursework or science subject tests, so all that can be referenced by the admission’s committee is your performance in physics (and any grades in non-AP science coursework). If your grades in science coursework are strong then I would definitely omit the Physics subject test and let your grades speak to your science ability. Be wary of offering a direct comparison between yourself and other applicants when you don’t need to, especially in a comparison you will probably lose. Make the committee assume on your other merits that if you had taken the physics subject test you probably would have at least scored their applicants’ mean (which your other scores are meeting or exceeding), instead of proving that you didn’t.

How much financial aid will you need? McGill is less expensive than most US colleges, but has no aid available for non-Canadians. You should check out their website to see whether you can afford to attend. If you can, then I think your stats would almost certainly get you in, and they offer a world-class education.