Hey, so if I don’t get accepted ED to UChicago, I’ll be applying to a few other schools, including Princeton. However, I don’t really know if Princeton is truly attainable or if it’s just a pipe dream. What do you think?
Bio:
-Citizenship: US
-State of residence: rural PA (nowhere near Philly or Pittsburgh)
-Income: ~$130,000
-Race: White
-Gender: Male
School:
-Type (Public/private & size): public school, pretty rural and small (only 110-120 students per grade), kinda crappy tbh
-Graduates (How many go to Ivy’s/top 20): Two recruited by Cornell the past few years, other than that no one. A few have applied to top colleges but almost all of them got wait-listed/rejected. Most go to local or state schools.
-AP’s Offered: 8 offered, I have taken all of them
No one has ever applied to Princeton from my school to my knowledge (or at least in the past 20 or so years), so I don’t have anything to go off of. I can’t simply look back at what other people did, since no one really goes to good schools from my area.
Academic Profile:
-Unweighted GPA: 3.9-ish, mostly A’s
-Weighted GPA: 100.4, between a 4.4-4.6
-AP’s*: 10th grade - Bio (3); 11th grade - Chem (2), Calc AB (5), Lang (4), CSP (3); 12th grade - Lit, CSA, Gov and Politics
-ACT: not submitting
-SAT: 1550 (750 CRW 800 M) (one sitting)
-SAT II: only submitting to Princeton, but Math Level 2 (700) and Literature (680)
-Rank: 2/~115
-Course Rigor: hardest at my school; no one else in my grade has the same course rigor as I do
-Current Courses: AP Lit, AP CSA, Economics (no honors available), AP Gov, Psychology/Sociology (placed into these not by choice, no honors available), Honors Physics (signed up for AP Physics C, but class was cancelled due to lack of students), Gym/Health (required), Calculus 2 (dual enrollment at local private university)
EC (In order of importance/commitment):
Explained in Additional Information section that my extracurricular involvement has been affected in certain ways beyond my control, and that for the extracurriculars I did I put as much effort into them as I could. Have participated in around thirteen extracurriculars total, but the seven I listed are my most important ones.
-Captain of Quizbowl/Scholastic Team (officially since 10th grade, but involved since 8th; have competed at nationals, won my local region’s broadcast quizbowl competition two years with me on the team, specialize in literature, geography, and visual fine arts, but also general knowledge)
-Work (typical minimum-wage job, not providing details for privacy reasons)
-Marching band (10, 11, 12)
-Editor/Writer for School Newspaper (11, 12)
-PJAS (12, behavioral psych research project)
-Web Design
-Contributor for online political liberal publication (not sharing for privacy reasons)
In addition, I might be working with a senator for my congressional district, but that’s not set in stone yet, so I just mentioned in in the Additional Info section.
Honors:
- High Honor Roll (9, 10, 11, 12)
- Qualified for a national Olympiad (11) but it doesn’t really matter; it wasn’t the USAMO or anything
- Top 5 Individual Players at a few quizbowl competitions
- AP + PLTW Student Achievement in Engineering
- Chosen as Student of the Year for my school
*The only AP scores I will report are the 4 and the 5.
*I know that at Princeton, subject tests are recommended, which basically means required. But will sending mine ruin my chances, since they’re so low. I will not be able to retake them, so I’m stuck with the ones I have.
Recommendations will be good. I haven’t seen any of them, though. Guidance counselor’s rec is probably pretty generic, but hopefully decent. Also got ones from my history teacher and engineering/AP Calc/AP CSA teacher, both of which will be excellent. However, my additional recommendation is probably the best. I got one from my quizbowl advisor, and she has helped me out so much over the past few years, and she knows me better than any other teachers.
Common App essay is excellent. It’s very well-written, and the story is also great. I talked about how I’ve always loved to travel and explore, and how living in a small and rural region has affected my dreams and plans. Demonstrates my ambition and is pretty interesting.
For the Princeton supplement, I’m just using my UChicago extended essay, since it fits the prompt. It’s pretty creative and different, so it will hopefully help me stand out from the other applicants. I’d rather not share the topic, but it shows my resilience and again my ambition, along with other parts of my personality.
I’ve started working on the short answers, and so far they’re as good as short answers possibly can. Pretty much show off different sides of my personality.
Obviously no one can give me a definite yes or no on whether or not I should apply. However, do you think I stand a chance? Or would it be an automatic waste of money? And is there anything I can improve about my application before submitting?
Thank you so much for reading this, and I can chance you back if you want!!!