So I really really want to get into Princeton in two years, when I’m a senior in the class of 2019. I would like to know how I can strengthen my application during these two years. My current stats:
GPA (unweighted 4.0), weighted 4.2 ish
Rank: 1
AP’s taken: AP Chinese, AP European History, AP Calculus AB (probably all fives)
Courses: APs plus all other honors courses and occasionally electives
Planned APs: AP Chem, AP Calculus BC, AP Us History, AP Lang, AP Comp Sci A, AP Physics Mechanics, AP Physics E and M, AP Statistics, AP Psychology, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics (self-study), AP Spanish
SATs: not taken yet (1430 PSAT)
ACT: not taken yet
Leadership: Math Club Officer, Science Olympiad Officer (most likely president in senior year), Summer Missionary, Fellowship of Christian Athletes Leader, Water Project President (9th grade), manager/director of VBS
Extracurriculars: Science Olympiad, Math Club, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Worship Team, Google Science Fair, Mock Trial, bunch of middle school stuff
Awards: Perfect GPA awards (lol), Performance at Carnegie Hall (piano), hopefully finalist for Google Science Fair, won local art competition, submitting apps for writing and art awards, medals for Science Olympiad (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 5th) made States this year, working toward doing better on AMC competitions
Teacher Recommendations: Probably great, because I have great relationships with my teachers
Community Service: 1000+ hours
Future Major: Math
Ethnicity and gender: Asian female
Parents education: Bachelors (mom), PhD (dad)
Income: not low enough for substantial financial aid
School: Public, suburban
I just don’t know where to develop a spike that admissions officers will notice so I’m too well-rounded
This should be mandatory reading for posting on CC: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways
thanks, I’ll take down the post
Wait, I don’t think I can. Oops
Math at Princeton is extremely advanced. My son’s room mate was a math concentrator and had extensive experience in working proofs prior to coming to Princeton. He had been admitted to many top schools and chose Princeton because he felt it would offer the strongest development for him (FYI he went on to PhD studies in another top math program after Princeton). He ended up being essentially average among other math concentrators, many of whom came from Eastern block and Asian countries.
If you are considering applying as a math concentrator you will need some significant advanced work in the next two years. Princeton does accept applicants to the school as a whole, however, and many applicants change their intended concentration with little to no difficulty so an applicant could certainly intend one concentration and switch to another with advisor approval. However, if you indicate math as a concentration your application is likely to be viewed with a comparison to current students and their preparation. (FYI - My son who was by far top in his high school in math and placed in the top 25 in a national math contest told me he would not have been even close to having adequate preparation to be a math concentrator)
Otherwise you have built a strong resume and will undoubtedly have some great options when it is time to apply for college. Try not to set your sights on a single school. Rather, apply to a broad spectrum of matches and reaches. Best wishes to you!
@Cantiger
Thank you for that advice!!!