Chance a Junior? Will chance back!!!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey I'm a junior so I still have some variables that may go one way or another, but I wanted to know if, with the track I'm on now, there's a possibility.</p>

<p>The colleges I'm looking at are Boston University, New York University, Cornell, and Columbia. Safeties are Clark University and University of Vermont.</p>

<p>GPA: (all unweighted)
3.72
3.67
~3.9</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
Honors Algebra II/Trig B A
Honors English A A
Honors Lit A A
Java B A
Honors Biology A A
Honors World History A A
French B A
PE A A
Art A A</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Honors Pre-Calc A A
Honors English A A
Honors Chemistry C B (I know I know, it's bad...)
AP Biology A A
AP Euro His A A
Comp Sci A A
Computer-Aided Design A A
French A B
PE A A</p>

<p>Junior Year: (projected)
Honors Intro to Calc A A
Honors Physics B A
JavaII A A
Drafting and Design A A
French A A
AP USGov&Pol A A
APUSH A A
AP Lit A A
Health A A
PE A A</p>

<p>Senior Year: (projected, sadly I've basically chosen most all my classes already)
History Elective
Honors Calc
AP French
Interdisciplinary Study: Neuroscience*
AP English Lang
Psychology (taken at a local college)
Photography
Internship: Local Historical Museum (only museum dedicated to arms and armor in the entire Western Hemisphere, btw)</p>

<p>*By interdisciplinary study, I'm basically designing a course for myself based in Neuroscience, but coordinating with many teachers. (probably about 6) First quarter will be History, second quarter the science aspect, third quarter the math and statistics part, and fourth quarter English to write my final thesis, which I have to present to the faculty committee. I planned to send out my abstract with my application so the colleges would have an idea about what exactly it means, and if they wanted my final paper.</p>

<p>Test Scores:</p>

<p>SAT (projected) 2100 or so
SATII Math
SATII French
SATII Bio</p>

<p>Freshman AP's
APUSH: 4
AP English Lang: 5</p>

<p>Sophomore AP's
AP Macro: 4
AP Bio: 4
AP Psych: 4
AP USGov&Pol: 4
AP EuroHis: 4
AP Lit: 5</p>

<p>Junior AP's
AP Micro</p>

<p>Senior AP's
possibly AP French, but that seems a bit redundant at this point. </p>

<p>EC's
French Club 10 11 12
Improv Club 10 11 12
Speech & Debate Team 9 10 11 12
Science Department Teacher's Assistant 11 12
Medieval Martial Arts Guild 11 12
Karate (black belt) 9 11 12
Homework Club Supervisor 9
Piano Lessons 10 years by time of graduation
National Honor Society 11 12</p>

<p>Volunteering (number might be a bit off, I don't have them in front of me right now)
Freshman: 190 Hours
Sophomore: 250 Hours
Junior: 400 Hours (projected)
Senior: 200 Hours (projected)
Total: 1040 Hours
Volunteering at Local Museum 10 11 12
YMCA Counselor in Training 9
Assistant Music Director of Church 9 10 11 12</p>

<p>Work Experience:
(hopefully when I apply in the summer!) Position at Local Market Store
Internship at Local Museum </p>

<p>Awards:
Speech Awards: (I honestly can't remember them all right now, haha...)
Top 10 in Pentathalon
4th Place Overall in Novice Reading
4th Place Overall in Novice Reading
6th Place Overall in Prose Reading
6th Place Overall in Prose Reading
5th Place Overall in Extemporaneous Children's Literature
Top Novice in Dramatic Interpretation</p>

<p>Scholastic Art Competition 2nd Place</p>

<p>Writer of the Month (I won the award about 3 or 4 times, I honestly don't remember but my school gives it out) </p>

<p>National AP Scholar
AP Scholar with Distinction</p>

<p>Misc:
My school isn't sending out class rankings because we'll have less than 70 kids probably graduating, which means our ranking system is f-ed up.</p>

<p>As far as recommendations go, my school is extremely small so I have great relationships with a few of my teachers, getting glowing recommendations won't be a problem.</p>

<p>I'm a strong writer, and my essay topic's a bit different (How I helped my friend cope with her debilitating mental illness) but if you guys think I should change it, I'll consider it.</p>

<p>I'm African-American/Caucasian if that helps, haha...</p>

<p>I plan to double major. For BU, I hope to double major in Costume Design and Psychology (or Neuroscience, haven't decided). If I get into any other school, then it's History and Psych (or Neurosci). And all on the Pre-Med track, haha. It'll be a lot of work, but the schools I'm looking at seem to have a lot of support systems and stuff, so I think with a lot of effort it'll work out. </p>

<p>My two major questions for right now are: Do you think I should retake/take any more AP exams? And what SATII's would look best?</p>

<p>Wow that was longer than I expected... Thanks everyone!</p>

2

<p>You’re on the right track - just please make you sure you don’t stress to much over EC’s and padding. </p>

<p>Your GPA is decent, your course rigor is excellent, and your EC’s are also decent. The only thing that worries me is that your EC’s are really widespread and honestly don’t have any consistency which is indicative of a student who simply chooses EC’s for apps. Not blaming it on you, almost everyone does it, but try focusing a bit more on a few EC’s that are more related towards science and neuroscience, in your case. Trying to get an internship or something at a local medical program/hospital would be amazing.</p>

<p>You’re doing fine :)</p>

3

<p>Haha, yeah that has crossed my mind a lot lately.
The problem with it is that the hospital demands a lot of hours, so it takes away from my other volunteer positions, especially the one I have the museum (I applied for volunteer, my badge says intern, so it’s kinda both…?) which I enjoy the most out of all my EC’s. Is it worth giving up a lot of hours for the internship at the hospital?</p>

4

<p>In a sense, yes. If you think about it this way, 99.999% of students applying to these universities have done service one way or another. However, since you’re so interested in neurology and pre-med, entering an internship at a hospital or a local college’s medical program would evidently show your specific interest in medicine and would therefore look more impressive. Not as many students go through the process of completing an internship which clearly demonstrates their interest in a certain field. </p>

<p>This is, of course, my opinion. I do believe that giving up hours at the museum for an internship, taking your particular interests into account, would be completely worth it. To be honest, you already have exemplary service for Freshman and Sophomore year. I only have about 160 hours in accumulation of both! </p>

<p>What you could try doing is focusing on the museum service hours throughout the school year and participate in a sort of medicine-related internship over the summer, which I’m certain would still leave you a satisfying amount of time to do a bit more service at the museum during that same summer.</p>

<p>So pretty much just keep working hard to get that good GPA/test scores and try to get an internship. I hate to pull the race card, but being African-American will also help a lot. As I said before, don’t stress out too much, you’re doing great :D</p>

5

<p>You have good rigor, beneficial URM status, good enough GPA, really nice awards, and really awesome volunteering hours. Your ECs seem a bit sparse right now, so don’t include things that might make your app look worse. You are definetly in the running right now! But it’s time to start piecing everything together, just as you are doing. I suggest finding what you’re doing that makes you stand out from other applicants, even other applicants from your own area. Like answer this question for every college you like: </p>

<p>What will you contribute to the school campus?</p>

<p>I agree that you are missing some science-related ECs, and sacrificing some hours at your other places might be worth it. Good luck :)</p>

<p>Boston University-high match
New York University-high match
Cornell-low reach
Columbia- low/mid reach</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1027620-brown-ed-chances-i-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1027620-brown-ed-chances-i-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Ah… alright!
I’ll apply at my local hospital and see what happens. I do work at the museum on the weekend whenever I get the chance, but thankfully next year I’ll be able to integrate it into my actual school schedule, which will make racking up those hours a lot easier which will leave time for the hospital. I’ll try my best to juggle everything, but thank you very much for the advice!</p>

<p>What other science EC’s can you suggest?
I still have time to swap around my schedule a bit if there’s anything pressing I should try and get involved in.</p>

7

<p>shameless bump!</p>

8

<p>bump10char</p>

9

<p>Boston University-match
New York University-match
Cornell-low reach
Columbia-low-mid reach
Well, safeties are safeties.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1023030-chance-me-everywhere-ill-chance-you-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1023030-chance-me-everywhere-ill-chance-you-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

10

<p>Bump10char</p>

11

<p>Doing research @ a local uni, entering science competitions, science club, etc all are nice!</p>

12

<p>Narrow your Extracurricular Activities to a specific category to show interest in one certain field, being writing, if you achieve your projected test scores and community service hours, cornell should be a low reach, while Columbia remains a high reach </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1031518-chance-me-lehigh.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1031518-chance-me-lehigh.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

13

<p>Boston University-high match
New York University-high match
Cornell-low reach
Columbia- low-mid reach
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1035327-chance-me-ill-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1035327-chance-me-ill-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

14

<p>Which would look better and increase my chances…
Taking actual college courses during the summer or doing a research internship?</p>

15

<p>Boston University-match
New York University-high match
Cornell-reach
Columbia-low reach</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1033554-chance-me-ill-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1033554-chance-me-ill-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>bump10char</p>

17

<p>bump anyone? Please?</p>

18

<p>Boston University- In
NYC- High Match
Cornell- Match
Columbia- Reach</p>

19

<p>Boston University-match
New York University-high match
Cornell-reach
Columbia-reach</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1037524-chance-i-will-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1037524-chance-i-will-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

20

<p>Bump please?</p>