A China kid's chance at Stanford. Thanks!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
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<p>(I used to post "A Chinaman's Chance at..., but it seems like everyone's arguing over that term instead of giving me insights, so I changed it and let's not discuss it anymore.)
Hi, everyone. Thanks a lot for reading my post.
I came to the States 3 years ago from Shanghai, China, and I frequently g back for volunteering and visits.</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>SAT I: took it 3 times, most recent one: 1560, 760 V 800 M
SAT IIs: Math IIC 800, Physics 800, Chemistry 790, World History 800, US History 760, Writing 740
APs: calc bc 5, chemstry5, physics c mech. 5, physics c e&m 5, world history 5, us history 5(projected score; they lost my free-response section!!!), english language and comp. 5 </p>

<p>GPA: 4.36 weighted, 4.0 unweighted, ranked 2nd in class,
College courses: have taken/am taking/will take 6 math courses at Pomona, Harvey Mudd colleges. Engineering Physics at Citrus College
Use all resources available to me at my public high school, courseload difficult.</p>

<p>ECs:
Math Club co-president, science club president, JETS Varsity captain (1st in S. CA, multiple choice score best in history; free-response sucked though--15th nat'l), currently organizing Science Olympiad, Physics Bowl/Olympiad teams at my school(not many ppl interested...) Bio research at Keck Graduate Institute (now)
Speech and Debate team treasurer; won many awards in congress, policy debate, thmatic interpretation, duo interpretation, etc.; represented team and the USA in a trip to Azerbaijan in 4/2004.
School tutoring for four years
Full-time volunteering last summer: China Shanghai International Arts Festival, shanghai int'l piano competition, and Shanghai Business Daily; worked as a translator, interpreter, organizer, and editor.</p>

<p>Possible Essays for Stanford:
discussed my experiences being a Communist Young Pioneer(controversial, but decided to take the risk) and how that shaped my life.
my experience in Azerbaijan (a basketball game, in which I discovered another side of my debate coach, an admirable man).
And neat short answers</p>

<p>Thx a lot everyone. Could you guys give me some opinions?</p>

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<p>mind if i ask you how you study for verbal??? i am so stuck!!! i am chinese too, but my verbal is only 600, how do you get so high? wat do you eat??</p>

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<p>hmm extremely high ( at least compared to me)</p>

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<p>Although Stanford is extremely difficult to get into as you know, especially for Asian-Americans, I would say that you have an EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT chance of getting in. Good luck and write great essays. Everything looks wonderful and most importantly, interesting and unique.</p>

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<p>Im tempted to say your overqualified...lol, but maybe thats just because I applied to Stanford and don't want to compete with your practically perfect stats. </p>

<p>In all honesty, the numbers are great, but what'll get you in is good essays and it sounds like your on the right track. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Yeah, I took a couple of SAT courses throughout the years, and basically did so many practice tests and memorized vocabs. I didn't do too much reading(except the passages on the practice tests) because I had to do so many other things. But after all, effort pays off. For foreign kids like us to do well on verbal, we'd have to spend tons of time on it. And do lots of practice tests (real ones preferrable) I got some 1600s on the practice tests, but didn't do my best on the real one--but I am definitely happy about my score. Once more, there are hardly any geniuses in the world, but with effort, you can become more successful than them!
Hope what I said is helpful, thx!</p>

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<p>I would think that Communist Young Pioneer will be unique -- something that the adcome will be actually interested to read. Also, this way you can make sure that they don't overlook the fact that you came to this country 3 years ago. You can use the other story for one of the shorter essays. Your stats and ECs look great. Good luck.</p>

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<p>People say that Stanford is for ivy rejects; I dont agree. Although Stanford is pretty wild compared to ivies, but its students are mostly extremely talented. My friend is attending Stanford, and he drinks and has parties every week and gets pretty crazy, but when it comes to study, he is extremely focused and talented. After all, Stanford is a fun place, as well as a top college in the US (HYP,MIT,Stanford, Caltech=first tier)</p>