What Are My Chances at NYU Stern?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

I’m a rising senior (female) and my dream school is, without a doubt, Stern. I had the impression that my chance of getting in was pretty decent until a recent college counseling meeting. Thus, here I am! :slight_smile:

GPA: uw 3.7 (we don’t weight GPAs) (this is considering that an A- at my school counts as a 3.67)
Best Private School in my state (according to k12nice.com)
ACT: 34
I haven’t taken the SAT yet (I need to…I’m a junior). I plan on taking the French and APUSH subject SATs as well!

I take all AP/Honors classes

Outside of school and facts:
side note: I think I’m the strongest in this area…it’s transcript I worry about.

I speak five languages: English, French, Hebrew and I taught myself Turkish and Portuguese (two languages that were helpful in personal endeavors). I am currently in the process of teaching myself Arabic because I would really like to do something with Israeli/Palestinian groups that aim in helping the two countries co-exist.

I am in the highest company of the third best theatre conservatory in America, in which I devote 15 hours a week to theatre (24 if I’m doing a musical). I am also a teacher assistant and teach Jazz/Musical Theatre dance to the 5-7 age division. I recently was chosen as the second best musical theatre performer in my state under the age of 18 by the National High School Musical Theatre awards.

This summer, I will be acting as a junior writer at the New York Times. I will also have an internship in the marketing department at Red Hat, which will hopefully help as marketing is the specific field in which I want study!

I’ve studied abroad twice in France, the second time I went through a joint Oxford & Cambridge University program to study International Relations. I have made plans, once 18, to go to Israel and tutor Israeli children to speak English (or other languages)

A painting of mine was chosen to be given to Japan as a gift after the Tsunami in 2011.

I created/am the leader of a club for one of the Rescue Missions in my city (a very, very well-known college town). I’ve organized a food and clothes drive for the mission.

First place in the National Latin Exam.

And two things that maybe or maybe could not help me…? I’d like to do things off of my own merit but if they’d help me in this scenario, then I would put them on my application next year. My grandfather is a former congressman/chairman of the House Budget and my great-uncle is the former CEO of Bank of America.

Anyways, I probably added WAAAAYYY too much information ahaha, this is just something I worry about very often and I figure the more information you have to judge, the better. Thanks so much in advance!

2

Well, you have put enough out here that anybody who wants to do the legwork can probably figure out your hometown, school and possibly your name…

So, your GC has told you that you can’t be sure of getting into Stern, and you are looking to see if the CC community agrees with that assessment?

If you are saying that your school has grade deflation, class rank or general position will be useful. Are you in the top 10% of your class?

nononono

Really. The fact that you are related to people who were big in business in their day says nothing about you, and trotting them out will not impress the adcomms.

  1. Be aware that some adcomms see that sort of program as more of a reflection of your parents financial situation, and basically as fancy summer camps.
  2. I don't know exactly what program you did, but I am not familiar with any summer programs for secondary school students jointly run by Oxford and Cambridge. If you did the Oxbridge program, it is not associated in any way with either university.

Afaik, the National Latin exam doesn’t have a first place, it has Perfect, Gold/Summa, Silver/Maxima, Magna & Cum Laude.

You definitely seem to be doing a lot and are obviously well-connected, but aside from a flair for self-promotion the only thing here that says “Stern” is a short term or part time marketing internship this summer. The things that you mention that you have been seriously involved in to date* - theater and IR summer school/languages/Israeli-Palestine relations - point very different directions than Stern business. Do you want to stop doing theater once you get to college? Or are you thinking get into Stern for the parents and use being in NY to pursue your theatre dreams? Is so, why not go to NYU and major in International Economics? Your odds of getting in are high, and your odds of having time to do theatre are higher than at Stern.

*(I’m assuming the rescue mission clothing/food drive was geared towards ticking the community service box)

3

Thank you for your advice. :slight_smile: I do agree that it would be a good idea to consider international economics as an area of study.
First off, I apologize that I came across as wanting to self-promote. That was not my intention whatsoever. I think when self-advocating, it’s important to talk of whatever you can of your accomplishments or information so that you can get a good idea of a person. This wasn’t self-promotion.

To respond directly to a few of your comments:

  1. Perfect on NLE. I was not certain that all members of the CC community would be able to decipher this information, thus, I put it into a more colloquial phrase.

  2. Thank you for your advice on family members. I wasn’t certain that that would be anything that could help, hence why I asked :slight_smile: you gave a very direct answer, which I appreciate.

  3. The reason I am so interested in theatre is because of language. I love how an act without words can be so expressive and communicative (dance) and how inflection and the tone of music can determine the strength of a message (singing). My passion for theatre is really on the basis of language and expression, and is not so much something I want to pursue professionally at this point. Hence why I like marketing, as it allows for a lot of creative writing, language opportunities, and human resources.

And also, no no no no. My work with the rescue mission had been in the works for two years, it was something I was incredibly invested in after fostering relationships with the people there.

4

You have an okay shot, it is tough to say since admissions to Stern is very competitve. An ACT of 34 is good enough for pretty much any school that you don’t really need to spend time taking the SAT. I would focus on other things. Stern acceptance rate last year was 13% and I have a feeling for this past cycle it was around 10-11% so you can see why your GC said it is a difficult school to get into.

If its your dream school you should apply ED (RD acceptance rate is single digits) which is a bit more lenient. Your play here is to talk up your theater involvement and somehow say you want to combine it with business studies via Stern and Tisch. That would get your application some interest.

5

Thank you so much!! Really helpful feedback :slight_smile: