Chance a college hopeful, won't you? :D

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>California residing, Asian male who attends a well-ranked public school</p>

<p>Freshmen Year
Social Science Honors - B/A
English 1 - A/A
Spanish 1 - B/B
Geometry Honors - B/B
Biology - B/A
IP Musical - A
Architect Institute - A</p>

<p>Sophomore Year
English 2 Honors - A/A
Band - A/A
Alg2/ Trig Honors - B/B
Chem Honors - C/B
AP Euro - B/B
Spanish 2 - B/A
IP Orchestra - A</p>

<p>Junior Year
AP American History - A/A
AP Psychology - A/A
AP English Lang and Comp - A/A
Band - A/A
Spanish 3 - A/A
Pre-Calculus - B/B</p>

<p>Senior Year
(Planned Schedule)
Band
AP Spanish
AP Calculus AB
AP English Literature
AP Environmental Science
AP Gov/Econ</p>

<p>(I've pretty much taken the most difficult classes offered at my school, so idk if this means much)</p>

<p>UW GPA: 3.55
W GPA: 4.05
UC GPA: 4.16</p>

<p>SAT I: 2180
CR: 770
M: 670
W: 740</p>

<p>SAT II's:
Lit: 740
US: 740</p>

<p>AP Scores:
Euro - 4
US (predicted) - 4/5
Lang (predicted) - 4/5
Psych (predicted) - 5</p>

<p>Extra Curriculars:
Green Club Officer - 4 years
Internship at local newspaper - 3 years
Band Council - 4 years
Band Librarian - 1 year
Band Treasurer - 1 year
Clarinet Section Leader
Pasadena Youth Symphonic Orchestra
Glendale Youth Orchestra
School Musical - 2 years
School Orchestra
First Class Boy Scout (quit after first class rank, idk whether to include that on app)
Architecture Institute - 1 year</p>

<p>Awards:
Most Valuable Band Player
Outstanding Freshmen - (band)</p>

<p>As you can see, my freshmen and sophomore grades are what's bringing me down quite a bit. During this time, my parents were going through a nasty divorce, and it was pretty tough. I do plan on mentioning this in my application somewhere, and hopefully my junior year grades make up for it a bit, but at the moment, I'm a bit clueless as to where I stand. I plan on retaking the SAT in the fall, and hopefully hitting 2300, or at least >2250. I'm also considering retaking SAT Lit again for >750 and maybe Spanish for 740-ish. I've also considered studying hard and taking the SAT Math 2C for a 750ish, which would hopefully offset my rather dismal math grades a bit.</p>

<p>My letters of rec are coming from my AP English Language teacher and my history teacher whose had me in AP Euro and APUS (she's seen me improve throughout the 2 classes, and hopefully she'll include that). The letters should be good to great.</p>

<p>My tentative college list atm, which needs to be, and will be, cut down, is:</p>

<p>Reach
Columbia
Brown
Harvard (lol I know)
Dartmouth
Northwestern University
University of Chicago
Cornell</p>

<p>Match
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UCSD
NYU
Boston College
Boston University
USC</p>

<p>Safeties
Occidental College
UCSC
UCI
UCD
UCR</p>

<p>any suggestions as to what to add/drop/reconsider from list?</p>

<p>Anyway, any suggestions, comments, advice, and criticisms would be much appreciated. THANK YOU.</p>

2

<p>Sorry… but I’d say that your chances are slim at getting into any of your reaches. I’d consider UC Berkeley, UCLA, NYU, and BC low reaches for you, given the fact that for an Asian, your GPA is quite low and your SATs are borderline… Your ECs are good, but generic.</p>

<p>Do you want to be in a city? The middle of nowhere? B/c I think the atmosphere you’d find at, say… Chicago or Columbia, is quite different from what you’d find at Cornell or Dartmouth.</p>

<p>*and I would get rid of Harvard. Without any hook, your chances are very very slim.</p>

3

<p>hmm, thanks for the advice. How much would my chances go up if I improve SAT to 2300 level and I get some better SAT II scores in there? </p>

<p>And any other suggestions/advice from other people?
Again, anything would be much appreciated. Thanks</p>

4

<p>Yeahh…your chances at Columbia and Harvard especially are slim to none :frowning: It’s because of your GPA, 3.5 is reallyyyy low compared to the average applicant to those places. You also dont have very strong ECs, they just seem like scattered leadership positions and you dont have any distinguishing national/intnl awards in those areas. I think you still have shots at Northwestern, UChicago, etc etc though, don’t give up on those- retake your SATs for sure and yes, getting your SAT II scores up would also help a lot.
Your matches seem great though, I think your odds at the UCs etc are great because of your intstate residency.
Chance me back if you have time? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/736548-chance-me-top-schools-ivies.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/736548-chance-me-top-schools-ivies.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>yeahh, I already know that I’m pretty much a goner for Harvard and Columbia, haha. I just wanted to make sure of that.</p>

<p>But the schools I’m really aiming for are Berkeley and LA, and just wanted to make sure I’m OK for those schools. </p>

<p>Thanks for info</p>

6

<p>u will prob get into ur matches
try improving ur sat score, and have 750+ on SAT II to give u an edge
nice ec’s
high reach at columbia and harvard
but good chance at rest
chance me back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/737217-am-i-good-shape-ivies-top-tier-schools-will-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/737217-am-i-good-shape-ivies-top-tier-schools-will-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>thanks, anything else I could do to improve my app? Any colleges you suggest adding/dropping?</p>

8

<p>bumpity bump plox</p>

9

<p>Tough to say with the UCs, particularly Berkeley. I’ve known people who were rejected from Berkeley, despite looking good on paper with 2100+ SAT scores, decents ECs, and higher GPAs than yours. I’ve also known students who got in with crappier SAT scores, GPAs, and ECs. I also heard that there’s kinda an anti Asian bias…</p>

<p>UCLA should be a match.
Get your SATs up and you’ll have a better chance at Berkeley. </p>

<p>Maybe I’ll see you at one of those schools in 2010? :]</p>

10

<p>lol that would be awesome, solastalgic. </p>

<p>So if I hit a 2300 SAT and get my SAT IIs to:
Lit: >750
Spanish: 750-area
I don’t think I’m gonna take US again, because I’ve already forgot a lot lol.
I’m hesitant about taking Math IIC b/c Math really is not my strong suit, but if it helps…</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

11

<p>Maybe consider taking ACT in addition to retaking the SAT? I thought they were much easier than the SATs. Got 34 without studying at all (unless you count looking over the english section during the car ride to the test).</p>

<p>Wait…Don’t you just need 2 SAT IIs for UCs and 3 for some privates?</p>

12

<p>bump bump bump</p>

13

<p>Ok, your grades & ECs are not horrific…they are actually great. It’s just with that whole Asian reverse affirmative action-type thing going on…it’ll be a far reach at some schools. Your ECs seem focused…but also not seeing much diversity. I’d say for Columbia/Brown/Harvard you have a high reach, Dartmouth/Northwestern/UChicago reach, and Cornell + your matches are in the match to high match range.</p>

<p>I’d suggest dropping Harvard from the list…</p>

14

<p>haha yeah, I just put Harvard up there for fun…
I actually really wish I could go to Columbia, but eh… theres always grad school.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice so far, and anything else I could do to make my app more competitive?</p>

15

<p>you should get into your matches and safeties. the reaches are… reaches. good luck though!</p>

16

<p>bump 10char</p>

17

<p>You need to work on cutting your list down. For starters, I would get rid of both Harvard and Columbia, and maybe one of either Dartmouth or Cornell. I would also dump a couple of the UCs, to help cut ur list down a little more. Otherwise ur list looks pretty good. Good Luck.</p>

18

<p>some of your reaches are a bit out there. harvard, columbia, and even brown may be out of reach. but don’t give up hope! your junior year grades were really really good. and while northwestern, uchicago, and cornell are definitely reaches, you have a shot. as you said, getting up your scores would definitely help. other than that, you’re safeties are pretty definitely safe, and most of your matches are fits. but who knows- schools like ucberkeley, BC, and USC are getting more and more competitive. good luck!!!</p>

<p>chance me back <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/740677-please-chance-me-washu.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/740677-please-chance-me-washu.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;