Am I competitive for Harvard EA?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Am I competitive for Harvard EA? </p>

<p>[ ] SAT I: 2360 2nd time (800W 800M 760CR), 1st time was 2050
[ *] SAT II: Biology M 780, Math II 800, Chemistry 770
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.89 UW, 4.20 W
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 2.5%
[ *] AP (place score in parenthesis): Biology (5), Projected 5s for Chemistry, Calculus BC, Physics B
[ *] Senior Year Course Load: AP Statistics, AP Government/Economics, AP English (self study), AP Computer Science (self study); Will be taking additional college science courses at a local community college (Microbiology, Organic Chemistry)
[ *] Major Awards: Siemens semifinalist, USNCO Qualifier (x2), National Merit Commended, probably will be AP Scholar
**High School Transcript:*</p>

<pre><code>Freshie

Biology 1/2 A/A
Chinese 3/4 A/A-
Advanced English 1/2 A/A
Advanced Contemporary World Studies/Health B/A
Geometry A-/A
PE 1/2 A-/A+

Summer Courses at CC (community college):
Applied Chemistry - A
Piano I - A

Sophomore

Algebra 3/4 B+/A
Art/Law B/A
AP Biology A-/A
Advanced English 3/4 B+/A
World History A/A
PE 3/4 A-/A-

If you're wondering why I had such terrible grades first semester, it's because I had a family death at the time and suffered from major depression. But whatever, excuses are excuses.

Summer Courses at CC:
Trigonometry - A
Precalculus - A

*Junior *

Biotech A/A+
AP Calculus BC A/A-
AP Chemistry A/A+
Honors English A-/A-
AP Physics B A-/A+
US History A/A
</code></pre>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<pre><code>[ ] Extracurriculars:
**American Cancer Society (founder and president):* 2 years
-Raised $10,000 through extensive fundraisers, donated to various research organizations
-Promoted the awareness of cancer and age-related disease by organizing assemblies and lectures for the schools and masses
-Contacted professors at Stanford to come to our high school and lecture about cancer
Chemistry Club (president): 2 years
-Prepared and entered USNCO
-Provided free AP chemistry tutoring for the masses
-Raised money so members could conduct chemistry experiments for fun (experimenting with catalysts, observing chemical reactions, titrations, etc.)
Math Club (vice-president): 4 years
-California Mathematics League
-Provided free Calculus tutoring for the masses
-Writing out all the digits of pi
Chess Club: 4 years
-Winner of Fall/Spring 2009/2010 tournaments
-Chess, what else?
-Chess Rating: 1740
Biological Sciences Organization (founder and president): 2 years
-Raised money so members to experiment with different enzymes, organisms, etc. at instructor's lab
-Mentored junior members for their local science fair projects, i.e. how to conduct research and write about it, gave them ideas for researching at lab in school
-Gave lectures about fun AP Biology topics (immunology, gene expression, biotechnology, molecular biology and cells, etc.); In fact, the audience preferred my lectures over my school's current AP Biology teacher's lectures... Therefore I was given permission to teach one of my AP Biology teacher's classes for a brief amount of time (a week), giving informative lectures regarding cell structure and function. It went very well.
-Organized career exploration field trips in which members could see what it would be like to be a virologist, biomedical research scientist, radiologist, etc.

[ ] Job/Volunteer/Community service:
**UCSF Fellowship/Cancer Research:* Summer 2009
-Experience with laboratory equipment and development of research skills
-Was allowed to independently research tumorgenesis in rats after a certain period of time
-Created own research project, identified method of delaying tumor formation
Stanford University Cancer Research: Spring 2010 - Present
-Semens!
-Created own research project after a quick training and introduction to the new laboratory, cancer research, etc.
Stanford Hospital: 4 years
-170+ hours
-assisting the elderly with their daily activities, made sure that Alzheimer and dementia patients had enough exercise everyda
-general paperwork
</code></pre>

<p>Other:
[ *] Interview: How important is this?
[ *] Intended Major: Human Biology
[ *] State: California
[ *] School Type: Competitive public
[ *] Ethnicity: Caucasian/Asian (Father is white, mother is Chinese)
[ *] Gender: XY
[ *] Income Bracket: Less than $60,000</p>

2

<p>I think you’ve got as good a shot as anyone else lowincome. Your scores and extracurrics are great. Even though you don’t have a 4.0 a 3.9 is unlikely to hold you back, especially after reviewing the rigor of your course schedule. In my opinion, your few weaknesses are GPA and maybe lack of involvement in a sport. At the end of the day it is a crap shoot, but if it were my decision, you’d be an admit.</p>

3

<p>^ I’m actually on my school’s badminton team (3 years, will be 4 years if I continue next year), but I did not feel like mentioning it because I thought it was a common sport for an Asian and because I wasn’t captain or anything. It also doesn’t tie in with any of my “passions”, so I probably won’t mention on my applications either.</p>

4

<p>Your chances seem pretty AMAZING!!! I would be surprised if you did not get in! Btw- I have a question; what did you do, to improve on your SAT score by so much. I got a 2030 my firs time ( :frowning: ) and I’m retaking in October. How did you study for it he second time, becuase I really need to improve my score, and I was planning on studying over the summer.</p>

5

<p>Two things are required for such a jump on the SAT: the correct resources, and burning determination. I actually got a 2050 in the May of my sophomore year, and it only took the entire summer of diligent studying to get it to a 2360. </p>

<p>I didn’t do much preparation for math, since I guess I was naturally good at it, but you might want to check out gruber’s math work book if you’re having problems. For critical reading and writing, I employed the blue book, the red book (CR and Math are still valuable in the old tests), silverturtle’s guide, direct hits, and barron’s 3000 words. I basically went through all of those, and analyzed each of the mistakes I made in practice tests from the blue book.</p>

6

<p>A great essay will seal it for you ;-).</p>

7

<p>“Math Club (vice-president): 4 years
-California Mathematics League
-Provided free Calculus tutoring for the masses
-Writing out all the digits of pi”</p>

<p>writing out all the digits of pi… lol</p>

8

<p>^ Yes, we did that on Pi Day.</p>

9

<p>How did you do that? I thought it was infinite?</p>

10

<p>I suspect ■■■■■ here</p>

<p>American Cancer society ???
You mean this?
[American</a> Cancer Society - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Cancer_Society]American”>American Cancer Society - Wikipedia)</p>

11

<p>And even if you aren’t ■■■■■ don’t kid yourself </p>

<p>You are competitive</p>