<p>Alrighty, here's my go at it. I'm just looking to see if I'm aiming correctly and to get a few questions answered, nothing too special. I've tried to keep out the small details and just focus on the major stuff, so this is an abridged summary of me.</p>
<p>Intended Major - Engineering</p>
<p>Colleges:
Harvey Mudd - Most interested in. Will forgo FA for it.
Stanford - Second most interested in.
UC Berkeley/other UCs (still looking into them) - Third
MIT
Rose-Hulman
Carnegie-Mellon
John Hopkins
My safeties are Canadian universities, which I will not bother listing. This is a preliminary list, I'll probably refine it over the summer. I kinda fell in love with Mudd though, and will be gunning for it as much as possible.</p>
<p>Basic Info
Gender: Male
Location: Canada
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Financial Aid: Yes, except for Harvey Mudd, where I qualify for the merit award anyway.
Legacy: None of my family members have attended an American university. My father was the top scholar in Canada in his graduate years, however, and is a minor celebrity in his field (psychology). But as far as I know, won't help me.
Personality?: Bit of an enigma. I'm simultaneously nerdy, artsy, and athletic, depending on the time of day. If I'm determined to do something, I've rarely ever failed. Humour is my favourite trait, and I'm a huge Monty Python fan. Definitely not looking to become an average student.</p>
<p>School:
Public school, Enriched/Gifted Program. About 150 students in the program, 1400 students in the main school.
Ranking: Seems to be top 10% (Main school). I'm going to have to force this out of my very inactive counsellor.
Courses: I tried the best I could, and technically I did take the most rigorous set of courses available to me. However, the gifted program I was in allowed for very little student choice and foisted upon us some ridiculous requirements, even forcing us to take PE in grade 11. I'm not going to shower you with my full courseload, but I have got some APs in there at least.</p>
<p>Numbers:
SAT: 2220 (750 Math, 750 CR, 720 Writing w/ 8 essay)
GPA: ~3.8. 4.0 this year at least, definite upwards trend. Earlier years like grade 9 were around 3.6.</p>
<p>ECs
Not going to inundate the thread, I've never managed to get through the full list of anyone's ECs, so here's the important stuff:
Sound Crew - I joined in grade 10, was apprenticed under the grade 12 student leader, and became the student leader in grade 11. I'm in charge of sound engineering for concerts, plays, tournaments, and etc. with about a dozen students at my command.
Film Club - I founded a filmmaking club at my school, we've just played around with a few projects, nothing too ambitious as of yet.
School IT - I'm the unofficial IT guy of the program I'm in, and I do regular work on the main school's website.
Leadership - Cabin leader, tour leader for grade 7's, organization of school events, etc.</p>
<p>Sports
I'm a distance runner, so cross country and track. Second fastest in the history of my high school, and second fastest in Vancouver high schools. The fastest guy (same guy for both) just graduated, leaving me to take top in the city this coming year. I'm currently top 20 in the province, next year should break top 10.</p>
<p>Employment:
I worked a full summer at a place called Constructive Media, relatively well known web solutions business. 40 hour work week as a Project Coordinator, working on a new database for Blackberry partners.
I also do my own web design on the side, and built a University/Scholarship/Summer program site with two grads from my school for Canadian teens.</p>
<p>Awards:
I've had a plethora of school-awards, mostly small Athletic/Academic/Service awards. The most important one has been my earning a Gold Greyhound Pin, which is a cumulative award (must fulfill requirements for all areas). I was one of three students to get this award.
I've twice had my essay been chosen as top two in my class and sent on to the Royal Commonwealth Society Essay Competition, where I got a rank of "Commended" on both. I got 94th percentile on the TRU Chemistry contest, given just a general top 25% for the PASCAL Math Contest (they never gave me my exact ranking, but I wasn't top 10), and I won the University of Regina award in Physics/Astronomy in the Canada-Wide Virtual Science Fair.
I also got the top prize of "Most Original Film" in the ID Tech Camps Nationwide Digital Video Contest. Probably doesn't count for anything though.</p>
<p>Other Talents:
I drum, play a bit of guitar, but the music I make is mostly electronic/computer generated. I'm an avid reader and I write fiction, use to keep a blog of my works until my somewhat sketch web host disappeared without a trace. I've sold some of my photography, I make movies with friends, designed a fair few websites, dabbled in programming... Oh, and I have my Advanced Open Water scuba diving certification, as well as my basic lifesaving certifications.</p>
<p>Major Questions/Concerns:
1) I'm Canadian. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm thinking that I really need to be something special to be considered, so my chances are severely worsened. Am I right in thinking this?
But aside from chancing me at these schools, if anyone can answer the following few questions, that would also help. I'm not asking you to research them for me, just in case anyone just knows from researching themselves or attending the colleges.
2) Is my running a potential factor to help me anywhere? Should I possibly be trying to advertise myself to some schools as a track athlete?
3) Are Canadians considered differently than oversea internationals at any of the colleges? (again, I'm researching this myself, but it'd be a wonderful shortcut if anyone just knew)
4) My counsellor is particularly uncooperative and apathetic, and I won't get much help from him in communicating with colleges. Is that going to particularly hurt me?
I'll probably end up posting more specific questions in the appropriate forums.</p>
<p>I do appreciate any feedback, and I'm more than willing to clarify or restructure this. I've never made a chances thread before, and I may be falling for several classic blunders, but I tried my best to read through the stickies first.</p>