<p>Hey guys, I will be a senior. I would really like to major in Biomedical Engineering but am afraid I am not nearly as competitive for this. If you guys could please chance me and make any suggestions I will be very grateful. I know it's a huge reach but as they say "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars"! </p>
<p>Upper-Middle Class (probably wont qualify for financial aid)
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Hispanic
State: Idaho-Small ski town (20k people)-terrible high school (800 students total)<br>
Class Rank: Top 5%
Unweighted GPA: 3.9something
APs: US Hist-4, Govt-waiting, taking Comp. & Lit, Calc AB, Physics all senior year
SAT: 1st-1960 CR(620) W(670) M(670) 2nd-2070 CR(620) W(720) M(730)
SAT II: US Hist. 680 took Math II and will take Bio M </p>
<p>One of my major concerns is my high school transcript. My freshman and sophmore years I had many easy classes (ceramics, body development/PE once every tri) with only one AP (US Hist.) and only Honors English classes. However, my school doesn't offer many AP and the only type of Honors course is in English(I took all available). Junior year I realized I needed to drop all the PE and easy classes and step up the academic intensity. Senior year I will take 3 AP classes. </p>
<p>ECs/Awards:
Latin I Award
Latin II Award
Science Award(Junior Class)
Community service hours-around 100
Football (freshmen/sophmore)
Basketball (freshmen/sophmore)
Tennis (junior/senior)
Guitar Lessons(30 mins a week-play 1 hr a day-junior/senior)
Rock Climbing Club (junior)
Student Union (student leadership-junior/senior)
Be A Fan Team (2009 world winter games-special olympics-months of setting up and 1 week of missed school to help with Special Olymics Sun Valley)
National Honor Society (sophmore/junior/senior)
NHS Junior Vice President (junior)
Youth LEAD (State Dept. funded 2 week AFS program to Middle East(Jordan, Israel)-cultural exchange and mollify tensions-student ambassadors/representitives from idaho-18 students selected from 6 schools)</p>
<p>As I said earlier, this is also a weakness of mine because there is no reflection of an interest in engineering/science/math at all. While this is my fault, I live in a small and isolated valley (1hour 30min drive to the closest city of 100k people +) and there are no science or math clubs at my school (I am trying to start one). </p>
<p>As far as recommendations and essays go-I should have strong teacher recomendations but a weak community recommendation (if at all) and the counselor recommendation is a toss up (my counselor loves me but isn't as "informed" as I would hope). I haven't thought about essays yet. </p>
<p>Questions/other info:
I will take the ACT but I am done with the SAT. Should I stress any of my ECs or not include any? Will my eaiser classes in my Freshman/Sophmore years hurt me that much? I plan on job shadowing a doctor at the local hospital. What else can/should I do to make myself more competitive? If I know my letter of recommendation from someone in the community will be weak should I just not include it since it is optional or should I get a friend to write one (wouldn't this seem inappropriate and possibly hurt me)?
...should I even apply and would EA help/be more realistic (don't want to waste my only EA on a school if I will likely not be accepted)? </p>
<p>This will be a HUGE help. Thanks in advanced!</p>