Chance a hopeful URM please!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

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<p>I'm a senior from Oregon and I really want to attend some top-level school chances and advice would really be appreciated. I'm an African-American URM from Oregon and my high school is pretty highly ranked in Oregon for public schools but we're nothing special.
My Colleges:
Duke
Emory
Yale
Stanford
Harvard
University of Miami
University of Washington
USC</p>

<p>My Stats:
ACT: 32
Class rigor: By the time I graduate, I will have taken around 6 AP's:
AP Psychology
AP Biology
AP Chemistry
AP Lit and Comp
Calculus
Statistics</p>

<p>lots of honors as well, but too many to list</p>

<p>UW GPA: 4.0 so far
Rank: 1/680-ish students but I share the rank with some other kids because my school doesn't weight grades</p>

<p>EC's:
Speech and Debate team (This is my main one)
~Awards
6-time District Champion in 5 different events
Northern Oregon LD Debate Champion
Impromptu State Finalist
Won numerous local competitions
National Qualifier to Birmingham Alabama
Broke at Nationals in Impromptu</p>

<p>~Honors
National Forensic League All-American
Speech and Debate team president for 3 years
Many team awards like best new speechie(when i was a freshman), Most Valuable Speechie etc...
Set School Record for most posts (correlates with distinctions below)
Four Varsity Academic Letters</p>

<p>~Distinctions
Merit, Honor, Excellence, Special Distinction, Superior Distinction, Outstanding Distinction
Hoping to get Premier Distinction before i graduate</p>

<p>Senior Class Vice-President</p>

<p>Track and Field 1 year (Varsity Letter)</p>

<p>2 year Cav Crew leader (Nationally known as Link Crew, helps lead incoming freshman through first days of school)</p>

<p>Medical Explorers Member</p>

<p>Participant on "High Five" Game show, Kind of like quiz bowl but a little better and not as frequent</p>

<p>Other Honors/Awards:
AP Scholar
Award of Excellence (Pretty big deal, got it in front of my whole school)
Honors Diploma
Some Student of the year stuff but not that big of a deal</p>

<p>Volunteer:
Church Youth Group Leader (200+ hrs)
Hospital (100+ hrs)</p>

<p>Summer:
Job-Shadowed an Anesthesiologist and watched several surgeries</p>

<p>I'm also hoping to write my best essays to further improve my chances. I am also hoping my URM status + Geographical location will give me a little edge as well. Please chance me and any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I think you are good for everything on your list except Harvard, Yale and Stanford. Those your ACT is slightly low and even if it was 34+ you would still have to hold your breath and pray. Can you still retake the ACT? How about the SAT? Have you applied EA or ED to any schools?</p>

3

<p>hmm well I don’t really want to take the ACT again, i’m lazy lol, but I guess I could if it was really that important. I figured my URM 32 was like the equivolent of a regular 33 or 34 but maybe that’s just wishful thinking haha. I hate the SAT and don’t want to take it, but I may apply to Duke ED and/or U Miami EA.</p>

4

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<p>The rigor of your course load is based on what is offered at your HS, not the total number of APs. </p>

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<p>Perhaps, if you are low income or attend an underserved HS; but maybe not if you attend a suburban HS and have a upper-middle class profile.</p>

5

<p>Solid GPA + class rank. With your URM status and coming from an underrepresented state, I think you’re in at the majority of these schools. </p>

<p>Understand that HYS is a reach for most everyone, but with your stats, I’d give them all a chance. Show some real passion in your essays, particularly around speech and debate. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>OR is not an underrepresented state. It may not be as highly represented as NY, TX and FL, but it is also not a ND, WY, AK, etc.</p>

7

<p>Excellent shot at all.</p>

8

<p>in at all but HYS, where I think it’s a 50/50 shot</p>

9

<p>Entomom:
Well, seeing as I wasn’t in the mood for letting you know all the difficult classes my school offers, I figured telling you the amount of AP’s I took was better than nothing. In general it was meant to show I didn’t take an easy schedule. And seeing as that’s how about 90% of kids on CC do explain it, I find it rather weird you find it important enough to comment on. But to respond, it’s considered a fairly rigorous course at my school, where most kids take no AP’s at all. As far as the URM thing goes, I thought it didn’t matter much. Seeing as most colleges are income blind and nowhere on my application does it hint how much money I have (unless you count my parent’s jobs, which are pretty generic and don’t give a hint either way). And while my high school has wealthy kids, it also has kids that have to take showers in the gym because they have no running water. So…yah, I should pretty much get the same advantage as anyone. It would have been nice if you would have complemented the criticism of my presentation with an actual answer to my question, but thanks anyway…I guess. Thanks to Everyone else too!!
Any other opinions?</p>