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Hi everyone. Im planning on majoring in Classics and am applying to Harvard (EA), Princeton, Yale, UPenn, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, Stanford, Berkeley, and UCI. What are my chances? Please help me. Should I have more safety schools?

SAT: Verbal: 720, Math: 780
SATII: Latin: 790, Math IIC: 750, Writing: 660(retaking, hopefully can get at least 700)
AP: Euro-5, Cal AB-5, Bio-5, Lang/Comp-4, US-4 (Plan to take 6 more AP tests (11 Total)
GPA:4.40 weighted Class Rank- 2nd/ 399 (Salutatorian)(rank will surely stay that way)
Took all AP classes offered at my school, besides AP Spanish (Public School)
Race- Asian, Immigrant from Vietnam
Gender: Male
9th Grade:
English I Honors A/A
Latin 1 A/A
Geometry Honors A/A
Biology A/A
Orchestra B/A
10th Grade:
English II Honors A/A
Latin II A/A
Algebra II/Trig Honors A/A
World History Honors A/A
AP Euro A/A
Chemistry A/A
11th Grade:
Marching Band: A/A
AP Language/Composition A/A
Latin III/ A/A
AP Calculus AB A/A
AP US B/A
AP Bio A/A
12th Grade:
AP Literature/Composition
Latin IV
AP Calculus BC
AP Macroecon/Govt
AP Physics C

ExtraCurriculars:
10-12 Founded Academic Decathlon (President, Team Captain)
9-12 Latin Club (Vice President, Academic Mentor)
9-12 Science Olympiad [Science Team] (Publicity, Secretary)
9-11 Vietnamese Club (ICC rep, VP)(Secretary for all the Viet Clubs combined in Orange County)
9-12 California Scholarship Federation
11-12 National Honor Society (only for Upperclassmen)
11-12 Junior and Senior Class Officer/ Prom Committee
9/11- Orchestra, Marching Band, Drumline

Awards, Miscellaneous Info:
2 Gold Medals, 1 Silver for National Latin Exam
1 Gold Medal, 2 Bronzes for Medusa Exam (Mythology)
3rd Place for Advanced Grammar Level 3 at National Latin Convention
Won 2nd Place at California Latin Convention in the Quiz Bowl (Certamen); on the California Certamen team at Nationals
Won Award from Decathlon board for founding Decathlon
Play Piano (6 years ) Violin, and various Mallet instruments
Tutored students in many various subjects.
(200+ hours Volunteering and Community Service)
Work at Disneyland during school year
Recommendation letters will be from Latin Teacher (Only student to get an A in her class since Latin II) and History Teacher (Academic Decathlon Coach), so they will be good.


Should I have more schools that are at my reach as well? This is so stressful; thanks a lot for reading this.

By Haiiiiiii (Haiiiiiii) on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 07:36 pm: Edit

Anybodyyy? please=]

By Jess13 (Jess13) on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 09:36 pm: Edit

yay classics majors!! I'm in a similar boat...but I'm applying to Yale EA. You look great to me!! Good luck!

By Par72 (Par72) on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 12:13 am: Edit

Might look at Holy Cross-very good classics program. Believe Holy Cross offers merit aid to students interested in the classics.

By Haiiiiiii (Haiiiiiii) on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 12:22 am: Edit

Thanks a lot Par, I will certainly look into that. What do you guys think about my chances of getting into Harvard? Or any of those high reach schools I have? =] please?

By Haiiiiiii (Haiiiiiii) on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 08:36 pm: Edit

anyone? please =]

By Neobez (Neobez) on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 09:22 pm: Edit

I say a decent chance. You're salutatorian, you have an SAT score that gets you in the door, and you seem to have a general interest in the subject. So your chance is as good as anybodies.

But does your school not offer AP Latin ? I'm taking that this year. . .you should consider taking the latin SAT II in December. Then and May are the only times to take it I believe.

By Haiiiiiii (Haiiiiiii) on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 09:44 pm: Edit

Nope, it does not offer AP Latin. I took the SatII latin already. I got a 790. Should I take it again to see if I can get an 800? lol. How good is as good as anybody's? hmm..

By Neobez (Neobez) on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 04:15 pm: Edit

Whoa. Definitely not, 790 is incredibly good. Make sure that's on your app, lol.
I'm taking it in December, wish me luck.

By Haiiiiiii (Haiiiiiii) on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 05:06 pm: Edit

good luck. I was soo pissed cause I skipped a derivative problem and forgot to go back. Grhh.. It was vito, too. But yah, good luck on that. Did you go to NJCL convention neobez?

By Neobez (Neobez) on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 06:38 pm: Edit

nope, i did not. I haven't done anything with Latin outside of the national latin exam (silver medal last year) and latin honor society. I might go next time though. You should look into the medals you got, I think there's a scholarship in it if you get a gold medal in your senior year, also one if you get gold medals 3-4 years or something like that. There's a website for it, google it. I'm really gonna work for getting a gold this year.

my hardcore interests are more in mathematics, english, and film though.

i might double major, more likely minor in classics. My stats aren't quite as good as yours, but I'm applying to duke, dartmouth, brown, georgetown, emory, uga, georgia tech, and UNC. taking sat in october. . .hoping for 1400+.


Like you, I'm gonna get a rec from my latin teacher (has taught me for 4 years).


I think you have a very good chance of getting into ATLEAST 2 of the ivies you listed above. You seem really strong all around, with accolades to prove how good you are. I'd be surprised if you didn't get into all of the non-hyps.

By Haiiiiiii (Haiiiiiii) on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 08:05 pm: Edit

You really think so? haha I hope you're right. As for NJCL convention, I totally think that you should go. At first, when I went to CaJCl, I thought it was weird that people cheered for Latin, but then at NJCL, "wow", people are soo pyscho about it. I thought that I was all that and what not back in California when I beat people at Certamen, but man, those other states, esp. Virginia were soo hardcore. It's like wow; and there were students from Boston Latin Academy. WtH? lol do they just study latin there? Anyhow, it's really great. I plan on going next year in Missouri. (after all the college stuff has been done).

By Jess13 (Jess13) on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 10:59 pm: Edit

4 medals in a row you get the Oxford classical dictionary which is really cool, and you can apply for a scholarship if you get a gold senior year on level 3 or above (I believe)...

By Succor101 (Succor101) on Saturday, September 25, 2004 - 02:22 am: Edit

Hi, thanx for posting on mine...your ECs and awards look very strong. I think classics majors are probably in high demand.

By Birdchick21 (Birdchick21) on Saturday, September 25, 2004 - 10:18 am: Edit

Good luck!

I've never heard of 'the classics'. What are they?

Thanks!

By Haiiiiiii (Haiiiiiii) on Sunday, September 26, 2004 - 12:38 am: Edit

Classics is a major that focuses on Greek/Latin Civilization and Literature.
Anybody else have any comments? Like which schools are my safeties. I'm guessing only UCI. Should I have a few more safeties?

By Haiiiiiii (Haiiiiiii) on Sunday, September 26, 2004 - 09:48 pm: Edit

lol anyone else?

By Haiiiiiii (Haiiiiiii) on Monday, September 27, 2004 - 11:43 pm: Edit

BUMP

By Burutzagiuribe (Burutzagiuribe) on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 10:12 pm: Edit

for undergrad, yale/brown/harvard are the best in classics. i took a classics class last year and the prof was AMAZING. he had come to brown from harvard because he liked the environment better. i know at least three peeps here who turned down both yale and harvard to come to brown SPECIFICALLY for the classics department.

i think you'll have a hard time getting into HY. it's probably not going to happen. you can use your latin/other ECs to get into brown or columbia though, and that's actually the better result, because they're classics departments are untouchable.

By Haiiiiiii (Haiiiiiii) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 11:40 pm: Edit

BUMP.

By Wisconsinguy (Wisconsinguy) on Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 09:38 am: Edit

I've never heard anything bad about Dartmouth's classics department. The profs are all incredible, some of the best on campus.

By Haiiiiiii (Haiiiiiii) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 08:28 pm: Edit

BUMP AGAIN.=]

By Sybbie719 (Sybbie719) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 10:51 am: Edit

Daughter is a freshman at Dartmouth and is takinf her fist class in Classical History in hope so being a Classics major (Classical Studies) while doing the pre-med track. She did not go to college with the thought of being a classics major, just looked through their course offering and decided that this is what she wanted to do. There are about 30 people in her class, says it is a lot of reading and a lot of work, she says that her professor is fantastic.

What appeals to her is the study abroad programs in Greece and Italy for classics.

There is a Parent on the Parents forum who has a daughter who is a classics major at Brown and just raves about it.

I would suggest that you look up the classics departments at the schools which you are interested in to see if hteir program really appeals to you.