Should I bother applying to Ivy League RD/ Chance

Chance Me / Match Me
1

I’m getting in the last of my apps, and I was just wondering if i should bother applying to some Ivy leagues (Cornell, Columbia, Princeton mainly) with my stats.

Here’s a brief preface of my stats/achievements
Male; middle eastern
Academics:
ACT: 33 composite (35 E, 32 R, 33 S, 30 M) 34 Superscore (35 E, 34 R, 32 M, 33 S)

3.8 unweighted; 4.45 Weighted (5.0 Scale)
Class rank: N/A (probably around 10%)
High School: public School in middle TN ranked top 10 in the state; extremely competitive
Total AP classes: 12
AP Scores
Ap Human (4)
APUSH (5)
Physics I (3)
Ap Bio (4)
Ap Psych (5)
All other classes i’ve taken have been Honors.
Principals List/ Athletic Scholar

Senior Year Classes:
AP Physics C
AP Calculus AB
AP Macroeconomics
AP Microeconomics
AP US Government
AP Computer Science Principles
AP Literature and Compostition

Accomplishments/ EC:

Fluent in English, Arabic, and French

Varsity Soccer all 4 years and captain; Captained my club soccer team to win state championship this year

President and Founder of a county wide coding club in which i teach kids and students county wide different aspects of STEM (nominated for the student innovation of the year);
through this club i invented a database that school uses to expedite early dismissals and late arrivals
Nominated for “Technology Student of The year” for the Nashville Technology council

Shadowed a vanderbilt surgeon and conducted research for 2 summers
volunteered at the same hospital for 2 summers (fetching wheelchairs and providing patient hospitality)

Division II fifa player

Organized a christmas drive in which students can donate presents that will be sent to the salvation army

Volunteer instructor for the Nashville Technology Council for 3 summers

National Honors Society- vice president
Science National honors society
Mu alpha theta (math honors society)
French honors society
math competition club
United Way

Youth in government and Model UN for 3 years
– i have also done some small community service projects and small clubs scattered throughout my high school career—

Proficiently play Alto Saxophone and Piano; perform concerts and at private events

Recs
One of the professionals who helped me develop the application
the teacher that sponsored the coding club will also write one
decent relationship with counselor

Essay:
wrote about an experience i had in the middle east. Peer edited by my english teacher and college counselor: They said it was a powerful and unique essay

2

You would have as good a chance as any. Go for it. Have you run the NPC? Make certain you can afford first.

3

Have you thought about fit and programs rather than fancy names? If you’re really interested in aerospace engineering (previous post) why not Purdue and U Mich instead of Columbia and Cornell?

4

i did i did apply to purdue and michigan but columbia has a really Astrophysics program so i thought i would apply

5

If you can get into Harvard, you can get a full scholarship to just about any school in the country. Unless the degree has M.D. next to it, it’s not worth 250k. You’re much better off graduating debt free with a decent job than having an ivy league degree and a $1000 a month student loan bill.

6

@coolguy40 Stop copying the same message over and over and changing a few words. Your statement is sooo false. You’re practically saying that going to a good school is not worth it unless you’re becoming a doctor. Also, just because you don’t go to an Ivy League school does not mean you’ll end up just having a “decent” job. Your viewpoint is very deluded. Who are you to be telling people that they’re going to end up with loads of student debt and start of a career on the wrong path?

7

@ab2002, I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, but I’m a working professional and I know how the system works. Most entry level jobs last about 6-12 months. Big New York financial firms do routinely recruit Harvard graduates for $100k…but it’s New York, and at that salary, you’re barely living paycheck to paycheck. Add $1000 a month in student loan bills and see how prosperous you become. A cost of living adjustment would put that job around 45-50k, which is a standard entry level salary. It’s no value at all.

After the first job, experience is everything. The longer you work, the less the degree matters. Employers are more interested in whether you can do the job than where you went. Also, a master’s degree from a regional state university will trump a Harvard bachelors degree any day of the week. My advice is, if you can graduate debt free, you’ll be that much further ahead. That’s why I copy the same message over and over. A lot of high schoolers are putting a lot of unhealthy pressure on themselves based on a common misconception that an Ivy League is a golden ticket to prosperity. The reality is that they are their own golden ticket.