<p>I haven't organized all of my stuff yet, so I will list some basic stuff. Will you guys kind of give me very vague idea of my chances at some of the colleges? (like, do I even have a shot at making it to *****)
The colleges I want to go to are:
The very top: Harvard, Yale, Columbia
Just below: Johns Hopkins, UChicago
Little farther down: Northwestern, Wash U in St. Louis
(feel free to correct me on my extremely biased and unfounded "ranking" of colleges as well :)
My brief and vague profile:
Race: Asian-Korean yeah, I know :(
Currently living in a small city, Missouri (it's the third biggest "city" in MO, but that's really not saying much)
Public high school of about 1.8K students.
Rank: 20 of 351. top 10% obviously
GPA: 4.8364 weighted/3.8691 unweighted (ouch, I know)
Courses: Since freshmen year, I've been taking the hardest classes our school offers I could fit into my schedule. I've taken 2 AP classes in junior year, which is when kids are allowed to take AP classes. As few as that is, I'm one of the single-digit number of juniors at my school who took more than one AP classes. My classes are way crappy compared to my competition, but it is the absolutely most advanced combination possible in my school. Do colleges take that into consideration?
Tests:
SAT I: 2150 can't get the different sections. The website is temporarily unavailable. Math was by far the highest IIRC
SAT II: Biology, 770; I've also taken us history and mathIIC, but they are both below 700 :(
ACT: 32 with writing. Math and Sci were by far the higher scores
AP US history, 4; AP Euro history, 4; AP Biology 5
Recommendations: I'm told that I'm the history teachers' favorite. Also, I'm apparently the only student our school's biology teacher actually admires...? I've had to get recommendations for Cabinet application, and I had some of the best recommendations from teachers, I'm told. I do not know my counselor at a very personal level, but if he had to pick one student from a burning building, I have a very good chance of being chosen. Weird way to put it, but appropriate.
EC's: Our school does not have a lot of the prestigious, selective groups. It's mainly different clubs based on different students' interests. I'm in:
Cabinet-this is the top leadership position offered in my school. There's the President, but in my school, he/she is considered as just another position on the Cabinet.
Math club: I'm an officer
Academic Team: I'm a top (some say only) candidate to becoming the varsity captain. I will find out next Wed.
National Honors Society-All the way from sophomore year
My city's Youth Symphony. We played at Carnegie Hall last summer, which is not something everyone can say :)
I play three different musical instruments (violin, piano, drums), but those are more like hobbies/interests. Only one that actually gets me awards at competitions, etc is violin.
Community Service:
If church counts, I have A LOT. I play drums at my church, and I translate for American people that come to my Korean church. I have yet to actually calculate it, but I have been doing all of this for all of my HS years.
Other than that, I am very weak in this area. I have a few here and there with Cabinet and NHS.
Essay: I've been told by teachers, peers, and grades/ratings that I am a very good writer. Again, though, at my school that's not saying too much.
Miscellaneous points/concerns:
-I've been told that many of the top colleges "favor" students that stand out in their modest, relatively rural areas over flawless kids from crazy competitive areas like NY, where everyone is that way. Is this true? Seriously, of the graduating seniors every year, only a handful go out of state. I can actually name the four people from last year that went to prestigious/recognized colleges (WashU, NYU, Vanderbilt, Amherst).
-As you have noticed by now, my school is not too academically advanced/challenging. However, I have taken the most challenging route possible through the years. Do colleges take this in consideration, or will they just laugh at my pitifully low number of AP courses compared to kids in the big cities?
-As far as I can remember, I have received no prestigious, nationally-acknowledged awards. I have maybe one a few school/district wide awards/honors. Is that really bad?
-For now, I'm decided on going medical. However, I'm ambidextrous in terms of subjects because I'm also very interested in/good at history/humanities, so I don't really care what I major in (the only reason I chose medical was because of monetary outlook). Will it increase my chances of admission if I go into history/philosophy/humanities instead of medical?</p>
<p>That's it. Again, it is a very poor list off the top of my head, so I will appreciate even the most vague advice. If my unorganized style bothered you, I sincerely apologize. It is simply my informal style. And again, thanks for reading all of this and possibly giving me some idea about my chances.</p>