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Hey all...

I am an active Chinese male and looking to apply to a few of the upper-echelon schools (not all of them):

University of Pennsylvania (especially Wharton)
New York University (especially Stern)
Harvard College
Stanford University
Yale University
Princeton University
University of Chicago
Northwestern University
Duke University
Emory University
Penn State University

(in that order of priority)

I am very interested in business, especially the banking and finance sector. That's why my top choices are Stern (a lot of big time business opportunities ex-Wall Street) and Wharton. I am wondering if any of those are possible reaches.

Here are my STATS:
SAT I: 1550 (760 V, 790 M) only took once
SAT IIs: Taking in May and June
AP Classes: AP US History, AP Statistics, AP Chemistry (will take the 3 tests in May)
Currently ranked 4/440 at a public high school
(not higher because I am taking the most demanding courses in the junior class, my school does not offer too many AP classes - perhaps 10 or so) The gaps between the upper ranks are very small so I am going to try my best to improve.
My GPA is 99.29 weighted My school uses the 0-100 scale GPA...I do not know what it would be unweighted.
I am taking the most demanding AP curriculum possible right now and will take 4 more APs next year: AP Bio, AP Calc AB, AP Psychology, and AP English
I believe I have very good teacher recs/guidance counselor recs coming up. I am also planning on asking for a supplementary letter of rec from the chief librarian of my school (she supervises my SAT club)

Extracurriculars:

SAT Club Founder (11) created a club to assist students with their SAT tests, highly recognized by both my English teacher and guidance counselor
Spanish Club (9, 10, 11, 12*) Current President
Key Club (10, 11, 12*) will hold an officer position in this club next year
Anchor Club (10, 11, 12*)
School Newspaper (11, 12*) high chance of section editor position next year
Class Council (11, 12*) - on the prom committee
National Honor Society (11, 12*) competing for an officer position next year

Minor Activities:

Peer Tutor (10, 11, 12*)
Math Club (10, 11, 12*)
Science Club (10, 11, 12*) will hold an officer position in this club next year
Academic Team (11, 12*)

Sports:

Track and Field (9, 10)
Tennis (11, 12) will be on varsity senior year

Volunteer Work:

Volunteered at a local library (summer of 9th grade)
Volunteered at a local hospital (summer of 10th grade)

Summer Travels: (it asks for this in your college application; kinda weird)

Went to Spain in summer of 10th grade for 2 weeks

Awards: No true awards other than Distinguished Honor Roll (9, 10, 11, 12*) :-( my school does not offer many competitions...I have talked this over with my guidance counselor and he told me it is not a big deal...asking for your opinions on it

Applied for Governor School this year--I think I have a good chance of getting in (I'll see in April)


sorry for the extremely long post guys...


I am mostly interested in staying in the Northeast: this is my hometown. Please tell me my chances at any one of these colleges. Any opinions or suggestions will be greatly appreciated and considered. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this. I will respect all of your opinions and try to reply as soon as possible.

Thanks a ton!!

By Krpatel (Krpatel) on Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 03:26 pm: Edit

MIT, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Carnegie Mellon have great graduate business programs, so you might wanna check those out.

By Mysticaura (Mysticaura) on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 01:42 pm: Edit

Thanks alot for the suggestion Krpatel. I am just brainstorming some ivies...def not blindly applying to all of them...but I will definetly look at their websites for some ideas. Thanks again

Any ideas of chances at these schools guys?

By Voigtrob (Voigtrob) on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 01:52 pm: Edit

You have a lot of fantastic options open to you. I think NYU is probably a safety or low match. Wharton is essentially the same level of selectivity as HYP, so you really can't count on it, but you definitely have a great shot. That is to say, you really have a great shot applying anywhere in the country, I think.

So here is what you have to consider. What do you want in a school? What sort of atmosphere, what sort of students, what sort of location, what sort of size, etc.

The reason I say that is many of your schools have very contrasting characteristics.

UChicago and Northwestern for example. Chicago is generally more regarded as leaning towards intellectualism while Northwestern leans towards preprofessionalism.

NYU, UPenn, and Harvard are in big cities. Princeton is in Princeton, New Jersey. ;P
(Also I'm not sure on this but I believe Princeton doesn't have an undergrad business program... closest thing is Economics, I think, which is completely different from Business in that Economics is in fact a social science)

Have you considered liberal arts colleges? A degree in say Polisci or Econ or pretty much anything from a top liberal arts college could start you off at a great job, and you could easily go on to a top MBA school I believe (Wharton for example).

Iono, just some thoughts. Good luck.

By Mzhang23 (Mzhang23) on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 03:58 pm: Edit

Are you sure you want to do business? I myself was centered on entering the financial industry, but after a whole summer last year working at JP Morgan Chase, I decided that other jobs might be more interesting. It's cool if you know what you want to do, but, from looking at your resume, you don't really have any hard experience and may possibly not want to lock yourself into a econ track. Wharton would still be a good bet though, as it's possible to tranfer out.

You say that Stern offers you a lot of big-business opportunities ex-Wall street. Any degree in econ supported with a high GPA from any prestigous college will land you a nice Wall street job courtesy of firm recruiting efforts. Working at JPMC last year I was in charge of the hiring lists, and looking over who was hired straight from college, LAC's, non-NYC schools, and non-business undergrad schools are fairly represented. Just my 2 cents.

You should definitely talk to students at these schools before you decide on which ones to apply to. from your stats, you are a very strong candidate and would clearly benefit from going EA/ED to a school. Financial aid is a concern when applying to any ED school except for Princeton. Keep in mind that Penn's fin aid policy is to max your loan amounts; that seems to be something that surprises a lot of accepted students.

In the end, you're very good and pretty much set to get into some of the schools on your list (top 3-5 are always a crapshoot). But please do consider looking at LAC's like Williams and Amherst. They offer unparalled undergrad educations, and while a diploma from Williams has little name recognition with normal people, recruiting firms are more than able to recognize its prestige.

By Mysticaura (Mysticaura) on Monday, March 01, 2004 - 09:52 pm: Edit

Hey guys...

I am very interested in business, simply because entrepreneurship intrigues me. I am not a big fan of anything in the medicine field (worked as a volunteer for quite a while and didnt really like it). Law is very interesting as well yet I am not sure.

Voigtroib, how do you find out U of Chicago is leaned more towards intellectualism?? I would love to learn more about these things...this is the first time I've ever heard about college "preferences"

And also what are some of the better Liberal Arts Colleges I should consider?? I've heard alot of good stuff about them but I can't really decide.

Anyone else have any comments regarding college options or chances? Thanks alot for the replies guys.

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Monday, March 01, 2004 - 10:15 pm: Edit

Mystic Aura:

Are you actively Chinese or actively male?

Hee hee...

-Noel

By Jamimom (Jamimom) on Monday, March 01, 2004 - 10:23 pm: Edit

You have stellar stats so you are very likely to get into at least some of the schools on your list. Just make sure you do not just end up with schools with a less than a third chance of acceptance. It has been really competitive these last few years and even kids with top profiles should have a safety or two in his pocket. I always recommend an early action school or rolling admissions school on the list because it just makes the winter holidays more pleasant when you know you are in at least one school. Also so many kids are applying early these days that, it becomes stressful if you are one of the few without a single school acceptance in December. That can happen when you do not apply early or get deferred from a first choice early school.
Some of your choices are lottery tickets for anyone so you must treat them as such when you are putting together your college list in order to get a realistic picture of your chances. You certainly have a shot at them, but by no means are you a sure in.

By Mysticaura (Mysticaura) on Saturday, March 06, 2004 - 02:53 pm: Edit

Just nominated Treasurer of Key Club...

I'm adding U of Mich to my choices as well...

Anyone else have any suggestions regarding school choices or chances?? Thanks alot guys!

By Belle28 (Belle28) on Saturday, March 06, 2004 - 03:07 pm: Edit

hey, just skimming through,

carnegie mellon and mit have undergrad business programs that rank if you don't mind the science focus. BUT! your stats are a good match for wharton or stern, so why not shoot high? I think that if you get a good "hook" so to speak, you have a good shot there. OH! provided u have a solid set of essays (for wharton, esp the why penn essay. they love having people love their school).

your list looks a lot like mine did a year ago and ur stats are better than mine and i still got in. have a lil' more faith in urself. a few more awards or leadership positions wouldn't hurt cuz business schools like leadership, but ur definitely competitive. if comparing finaid isn't important to you and ur really sure u want to study business, both Wharton and Stern have ED programs and that's a huge boost even though you already have a high SAT score.

By Mysticaura (Mysticaura) on Monday, March 08, 2004 - 06:11 pm: Edit

I'm certainly going to take a look at some of the other schools around the area. Thanks alot for the tips...any other advice for wharton belle?? Thanks again