U Va., UNC-Chapel Hill, U of Michigan, Fordham University---Chances please?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi, I am EAing to every school above, so please chance me, thank you !
Majors:
East Asian Studies (U Va., UMich)
History (Fordham, UNC)

Personal Info:
Rising Senior in a NYC specialized High School, Male, Asian-Pacific Islander from a family with less than $30K income (not sure if I am a first generation college student because both of my parents had some college-level education OUTSIDE of the United States but their alma mater literally cannot be found on Common App), first generation myself.

Stats:
GPA-100 scale: Unweighted 98.5, weighted 103.5
SAT 1500 (700 Reading&Writing and 800 math)
SAT II: US History 780, Math 770
APs:United States History (5), BC Calculus (5), World History (5), Russian (4), will be taking AP chem, AP Literature and AP US Government this year. AP Scholar.

ECs:
Varsity Fencing Team Epee starter-3 yrs (1 yr city champion)
Lighting department manager for school theater-2 yrs
History Club founder-1 yr
School tour guide-4 yrs
Math tutor-1 yr
Red Cross Club-treasurer-1 yr

Working Experience:
Online organizer/promoter for a local museum, 1 yr

Awards:
NY Olympiad for Spoken Russian- 1 yr with Gold Medal and 2 yrs with Silver
Russian Essay Contest-Gold Medalist
Stony Brook University Japan Center Essay Contest-Finalist

Miscellaneous:
Native Mandarin/Cantonese Speaker, fluent in Russian
Rec Letters from a Cornell history professor and my APUSH/CAL teacher.
Average essay and supplement.

2

Please chance me!

3

So here’s the thing, chance me threads are getting tougher to answer because of the increasing unpredictability in college admissions and we only know your competition in a general sense. If there are only a few people applying for East Asian studies that are fluent in Mandarin and Russian, you’re in good shape because your stats and course rigor are very good. If you know upfront your essays are going to be average, then it’s UNC, UM, UVA are going to be reaches for OOS, apply early is not usually an advantage. You shouldn’t resign yourself to having average essays, that’s one of your chances to stand out, to tie together your interests in languages, math etc… Fordham should be a match, maybe a safety. You should think about a few colleges in between wrt selectivity as well. Good luck!

4

Well, thank you! I mean in term of essay I just want to “eliminate” in the process of consideration, let’s say, if it wouldn’t hurt and isn’t 200% impressive but somewhere in the middle, how good my chance will be?

5

Have you looked into Questbridge? I think it caters to students with your stats and income. But I don’t know if it partners with any of the schools you want to apply to.