<p>Hi
I have a 4.2 GPA
All ap classes and honor classes since freshman year
3yrs of German
100+ hrs comm service
V cheer 4yrs
NHS
Volunteer at hospital
Pt job
Ranked top 3%
But my act score is only a 20
What are my chances at UCLA Baylor and Howard please comment!!</p>
<p>I know this is off subject but I’m new and cannot get a comment</p>
<p>All are reaches, first two are very high reaches.</p>
<p>There are low paying majors. It’s just a reality. </p>
<p>In theory, one should study whatever one wants to study.</p>
<p>In practice, if one wants a 4 bedroom, 2500 square foot home, an acre, a BMW, two dogs, 3 kids, an iphone, ipad, cable tv and annual vacations to nice resorts then major in something that offers that kind of earning potential and please, please, please don’t graduate and complain that you don’t make enough.</p>
<p>Money matters to most people and too many kids want to pursue altruistic goals for their money.</p>
<p>We used to volunteer with non-profits. Now kids want to graduate and work at one. Helping people was something one did with the money they earned at real jobs, now people want to earn their living helping people.</p>
<p>Go for the money and do your charity on the side.</p>
<p>Low paying jobs were low paying before most people got into them yet too many people in those jobs complain about the pay, have attitudes against those making more and can’t keep their jeoulousy hidden for a minute. That is annoying.</p>
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<p>Okay, cool, Madaboutx.</p>
<p>I was sounding like an old fogey so I thought I’d go all the way with it hence the real jobs phrase. Sorry for the offense.</p>
<p>Wait, you aren’t actually an old fogey?</p>
<p>Depends on your perspective…</p>
<p>…so, yeah. My D just confirmed it. Lol. I’m the worst ■■■■■ ever.</p>
<p>Lols, my mom wants to make her job helping others.</p>
<p>Probably why we’re so poor. :P</p>
<p>Just read a study on black high achievers in high school. It was depressing because the high achieving students were so caught in the middle of feeling alone in all their classes and feeling like an outcast among same race, low achieving peers.</p>
<p>They were ridiculed and socially isolated for acting white, talking white, dressing white and being stuck up. At the same time, the high achieving students created a mental construct that supported high achievement because they told themselves they were doing it to prove to white people that blacks weren’t academically inferior. </p>
<p>My D’s school is so diverse and accepting (though not perfect) that I was a little surprised to see this attitude persists. It was there when I was in school. I tended to outperform my black classmates while looking I didn’t. A wild side was there but I didn’t need to work hard to get good grades.</p>
<p>I lived through this and if anyone else is experiencing this, I can say it goes away. It wont go away 100% but it will reveal itself for what it really is which is ignorance and jealousy. That makes it easier to ignore, feel confident and compassionate toward others.</p>
<p>^This. </p>
<p>Perhaps this is why I’ve never had any African American friends. Even at my public magnet hs there was a huge gap between the three blacks at the top in my senior class and the 25 or so black people at the bottom. The blacks at the top in any grade were alone and it was tacitly understood that the other black people would have nothing to do with these “oreos.” It was pretty sad. T_T</p>
<p>After getting into my #1 choice school EA, I cut down on other schools, Caltech, Columbia, Harvard, and Stanford, and applied only to one Ivy League, Princeton.</p>
<p>Sometimes I wish I applied to Stanford because it offers my major as an undergrad while the other three I cut off don’t, but hey it’s alright. I like my options I have so far, and hopefully I can pay for them.</p>
<p>But to what you guys are talking about, I’m the only black person in the top 5% in my grade I believe (there’s about 700 in my class), and there’s probably two other black people (whom I’m both friends with) in the top 10% of my whole class.</p>
<p>It’s frustrating going into one of my classes and seeing the lack of diversity, but I’ve gotten used to it. And seeing as it’s my last semester of high school, I really don’t care. I still have a main group of friends that’s really diverse, and they’ve known me long enough not to call me “white” or “oreo”. There’s actually a funny story about getting people to stop calling me white (it involved Facebook actually)…sometimes you just have to stand up for yourself and not take ANYONE’s crap about your skin color or the way you should “act”.</p>
<p>The only thing I’d like to see is more blacks be in the top 10% at my school. There’s this one junior who I think has the potential to do so, so I’m going to give him a hand on how to navigate his selection for senior classes and colleges if he has the ambition to do so.</p>
<p>It can be hard to be in that position. I think it takes a little rugged individualism to be there and stay there. Although, everyone will want to claim your success as part of a collective effort in the coming years.</p>
<p>I agree with you on that Madaboutx. Although there are only a few certain people that I know had a direct hand in my success, and they will be the only ones receiving that credit.</p>
<p>The only way for me to keep my high standards in academics and athletics was not to let others define me through my skin color, that’s where the “rugged individualism” comes through.</p>
<p>My friends always tell me how I act and sound white. They say it seriously but jokingly. It really frustrates me deep down inside. I’ve been told this many other times in my life just because I’m a high achieving African American. I mean seriously, how am I suppose to act since I’m black? I know my friends aren’t prejudice or anything but it always bother me when they tell me how I’m ‘white washed’. 
I still don’t understand the meaning of that term so I just leave it alone…</p>
<p>And you will also be expected to “give back to the community.” When I was in school, I felt like I had to suppress my interests and intelligence to be accepted. Now, the idea of giving back is tough. Giving a hand is understandable but I had to escape the hood to get away from drugs and violence. Do felons give back to the prisons where they served time? I feel more like Harriett Tubman trying to help others escape to freedom.</p>
<p>Anyway, just my personal thoughts. I think anyway a person has to see things to stay motivated is acceptable.</p>
<p>Sometimes, I feel like I’m the only “high-achieving” black person who has never been accused of “talking white”, “acting white”, “dressing white” etc. My friends just say I’m smart; they manage to not bring my race into it.</p>
<p>I’m very intelligent currently a hs senior with 5ap and 1 honor class I live n the “hood” and go to a predominantly Hispanic and black school my peers n regular classes treat me great they always keep me focus and if I am stressed they remind me that I am one of the few that will make it sounds to me that maybe u are acting such a way that makes others feel less than …I encourage others to prosper and to think long term some just don’t get it but maybe that’s how I’m treated because I am the same just more focused</p>
<p>^ @Laysmarts, I wouldn’t try to turn it around. I’m glad to hear you don’t harassed. My D doesn’t get harassed. I did. I began by saying I read a research article that traced student experiences with it. It is a phenomenon that happens to many high achieving blacks. </p>
<p>You mention something interesting about your school. I will link the article if I find it again because its relevant. The article notes that in a largely white school, academic stratification often results in racial segregation that places high achieving blacks in mostly white classes, separated from their black peers. The authors suggest that circumstance may accentuate the appearance of acting white.</p>
<p>That would parallel my experience at an HBCU. There was no stigma there on academic excellence at all. It was encouraged and structures were there to support it.</p>