<p>I know a lot of juniors are worried, and though I didn't apply to Johns Hopkins, Harvard, or whatever, I did get into a selective program (1 out of 7) at UT, and Swarthmore. Here are my stats to give you some clue :)</p>
<p>The catch is on the bottom of this post, by the way, along with the schools I applied to.</p>
<p>But here's my "chance me" thread from way back, with a few additions for this senior year. I edited my rank and added stars among accomplishments I feel really stood out. By the way - my GPA was on a downward trend, I'm no supergenius. :) GOOD LUCK GUYS! I hope this helps.</p>
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<p><strong><em>I live in the Dallas/Fortworth area and go to a wonderful school district (PISD, yay!) with a JROTC in the top 2 percent internationally. I'm also in the IB program.</em></strong></p>
<p>Academics:
Unweighted GPA: something abysmal...3.5ish possibly Weighted: 4.12
Rank: 89/1498 Percent: Top 7% (I went from rank 12 to 89, so it's not like I was improving. Giving yall some consolation :))
PSAT: 224 Math/79 CR/73 Writing/70, Finalist Standing.
SAT: 2310 Math/760 CR/750 Writing/800
ACT: 34 Math/35 English/34 Reading/34 Science/32</p>
<p>Awards/Achievements
National Honor Society 11-12
JROTC Varsity Air Rifle Badge (shoot 230 out of 300)
1st Place in 2008 Richard of York Regional, Florida Regional, and
Canadian Air Rifle Regional
<strong>Texas Conservatory for Young Artists 2007 (1 in 20 international pianists)</strong>
<strong>Dallas Piano Solo (1st Place 2008)</strong>
Dallas Symphonic (3rd Place 2007)
All-State Piano Solo (1st Place 2006)
JROTC District Leadership Award
Academic Achievement/Excellence Award (highest GPA in grade level and battalion, 4 consecutive years)
<strong>Army Academic Bowl (8th International)</strong>
Letters About Literature (2008 State Finalist)
BBTV Prepared Speech Competition (2006 1st Place, competed against two professional adult speakers.)
UT Southwestern paid internship (this summer)
AP Scholar</p>
<p>Leadership/Positions/Teams:
JV Air Rifle 9, Varsity 10
Academic Team Commander 11-12
1st Sergeant 10
Company Executive Officer 11
<strong>Battalion Executive Officer 12</strong> (second-in-command of 206 cadets over 3 schools)
Vice President Toastmasters Speech Club 10, President 11</p>
<p>Volunteer/Other:
<strong>SMU summer camp TA 11, 12</strong> - this was highly rated nationally.
**The Hockaday School Summer camp English TA 11
Published a handbook to public speaking that will be used by SMU's summer camp</p>
<p>Exams:
These are not stupendous at all, hahaha.
AP Human Geo - 5
AP English Language - 5
AP World History - 4
AP Spanish (I gave up halfway) - 3
IB SL Physics (never a strong spot) - 4
IB SL Spanish (realized I shouldn't have given up on the AP) - 5</p>
<p>Essays:
Strong, well-written, with enough creativity to make it stand out. Definitely not a mind-blower, but my teachers really liked it and that was enough for me. :) However, my Plan II statement - and I have no qualms about bragging - was awesome.</p>
<p>Recommendations:
Teacher 1 - so incredibly amazing. I adore this teacher. Basically everybody who asked him for recs got into their dream school (or schools they liked, with good scholarships).
Teacher 2 - eh. He likes me a lot but his writing skills were incredibly lacking (didn't realize this at the time)...and.....
<strong><em>HERE'S THE CATCH</em></strong>
Teacher 2 never mailed the recs to any of the schools I applied to, but claimed/pretended he did. So, I had incomplete applications to:
Carnegie Mellon
Southern Methodist University (more known to Texas residents)
Carleton College
Oberlin College
Swarthmore College
Wesleyan College</p>
<p>And complete ones to:
University of Minnesota
University of Texas</p>
<p>I got accepted into Plan II and LAH at UT, the Honors Program at Minnesota, SMU with a 26,000 annual scholarship, and Swarthmore. Oberlin rejected me outright. Carnegie Mellon waitlisted me (actually I never even paid the application fee either. this one is totally on me). Wesleyan and Carleton, oddly, never sent me a reply. But I'll assume I was rejected, haha.</p>
<p>Hope this helps! Any questions, ask me :) Luckily Plan II was always my top choice, so that's where I'll be going this fall. You guys, work hard and party hard, and I wish you lots of luck :)</p>