<li>Brown </li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>WashU in St. Louis</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>University of Michigan (Rolling dec.)</li>
<li>Columbia (Legacy)</li>
<li>NYU</li>
<li>Tulane (Safety and Legacy)</li>
</ol>
<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.85 Weighted: 4.01
Class Rank: Top 5% (school doesn’t rank) class of 175 people
Top 75 US High School in NY
Looking to go Pre-Med, but also minor in Political Science or Ancient History</p>
<p>SAT: 730 CR 700 Math 680 Writing (2110/1430</p>
<p>SATII: World History:750 (Will take Molecular Biology and US History SAT II’s)</p>
<p>AP’s: 6
World History:4 (Will have Language and Comp, US History, Economics, Literature, Physics B)</p>
<p>EC’s:
I’ve played the saxophone and clarinet for 10 years in Pep Band, Jazz Band, and the Wind Ensemble.
I have played jazz guitar for the past 2 years as well.
Latin Club- 4 years- Class Officer
Economics Club- Stock Exchange team leader
Varsity Golf and Baseball- 2 years</p>
<p>Honors/Awards:
High Honor Roll: 12 times (Through Junior Year)
High School Honor Society
Molecular DNA Center Senior Scholar- working under a molecular biologist
Researched a gene on the smell and perception of sweat molecules in my molecular biology class.</p>
<p>Volunteering:
I have volunteered for an optometry organization for the past 2 years and I help to write lenses for people in third-world countries. I plan to go on one of their retreats to South America this summer.</p>
<p>Essay: I have a speech impediment (called stuttering) which I’ve battled throughout my whole life. I plan on talking about how I “found my voice” and became a liberal living in a conservative community where I felt comfortable voicing my opinion. Stuttering has shaped who I am as an individual and I would like to showcase how this makes me different from everyone else applying to these top schools.</p>
<p>It looks like you wouldn’t have too much of a problem going into any of these schools. For pre-med (eg bio or chem) i would go to brown they have a really good biology program from what ive seen.</p>
<p>i would say that you are all set for NYU and Tulane.
For Brown, Cornell, and Columbia, though, you’re going to want to get those SAT scores up if you can. yours arent bad, but it cant hurt to raise them if you can.
you do have really nice stats, esp the volunteering and the essay sound good.</p>
<p>Looks like you are in good shape for all of the schools.
Anything you can do is get your SAT score up to atleast 2200 and concentrate more on Math</p>
<p>Can you chance me back? My first choice is cornell.</p>
<p>stuttering is your hook. that’s cute, heh :P. sorry if that’s offensive.</p>
<p>anyhow, i agree that you’ll probably get into Michigan, Tulane, and NYU pretty easily. Brown and Columbia will be the toughest. applying ED to Columbia with that legacy could be a wise choice. make sure your essays and recs are outstanding, obviously. Cornell, WashU, and JHU shouldn’t be too bad. I think you’ll get into one or two of those. I also agree that taking the SAT again (2200+) or ACT (33+) could really boost your chances. GL!</p>
<p>Definitely in the running for all the universities , good luck with Brown and Columbia though ;). I absolutely love the essay topic! Sounds very interesting :)</p>
<p>Well it doesn’t sound like you wallow in self-pity, so that’s a start. You should focus on the changes you’ve seen in yourself and the strength you’ve developed because of learning how to deal with it. My advice would be not to spend too much time talking about embarrassing or difficult moments, opportunities lost, the sad stuff. If it’s needed for context, a short paragraph might sufficient, and then you can move on to explain how you’ve dealt with the challenge, what it’s meant to you, etc. I think that as long as you don’t pity yourself, you should be able to write an essay that reflects your attitude. However, definitely have other people read your paper. They may read it differently than you and show you places where rewording might help you give the right message.</p>
<p>ED is your biggest help at this point, but I would truly try your best at improving scores. It looks like your record has this big jump from doing nothing to doing everything. Keep up the everything part and it won’t look fake.</p>
<p>You are taking a big risk using stuttering as your topic if you don’t have a truly insightful twist on the subject. Others can’t tell you what the impact has been on you and how it contributed to who you’ve become.</p>
<p>That is a great point, hmom5. If you don’t know what to write, it hasn’t had a big enough impact on you, and admissions will see it and think it looks contrived or just fake. I know in writing that you don’t mean any harm, this isn’t meant to insult you or the like. :)</p>