Chance a junior without perfect grades.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am currently a junior in Highschool, and I have no idea where I want to go to college. Nor am I really sure what I want to do in my life. I had a bit of a rough start in my highschool career, mostly due to my own end, but also some personal issues came up, as well as some "blockades" by my parents. BTW, if you want to make some suggestions for colleges, feel free, though, financial aid is the most important factor to me, and I prefer need blind/no loan financial policies. I am not a bragger/affirmer, and I will chance anyone back!</p>

<p>State: Washington
Income: $70-$90,000 (I would think it's more in the realms of 70K-mid 80s at best)
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: Male
School type: I guess a competitive public, we always send the most kids to UW Seattle. Also, we send 30-50ish kids to top schools every year.
First generation college student</p>

<p>Financial info: Sister in 2nd year of college (entering 3rd) at a state school, with no financial aid or scholarships. We have not made any extravagent purchases in the last 5 years, probably longer. We have no incredible assets to speak of other than our house, and our 3 cars, none of which are nice by any means (one is quite old, mine, one is a used 2002 model, the other is a 2006-2007 model). Though, I think our home equity might be a bit high?</p>

<p>Career paths: I am interested in a path that could lead me down to the medical field, pre-med, biology, etc. I'm kind of interested in law/business as well, though, to some extent DECA has killed some aspirations for business.</p>

<p>Degree options: B.S., B.A., or M.B.A obviously, but if I can I want to duel-major or duel-degree, not sure if I have to be selected for this/apply, or if I can just opt to do it.</p>

<p>Schools applying to (subject to change)
UW Seattle (honors college?)
U Penn (specifically the Roy and Vagelos program/Huntsman program in that order)
CMC (specifically 4 +1 MBA program)
Brown (PLME?)
Vanderbilt (4+1 program?)
Colby College
Pomona (Should I apply here if I like CMC more?) If you don't think so, switch with WUSTL dual degree program.
Washington and Lee</p>

<p>I might apply to Harvard as a joke with some friends, I'm just curious as to what you think my chances would be though (reach to rejection :p)</p>

<p>Highschool Academics</p>

<p>IB Diploma Candidate</p>

<p>Freshmen: Japanese 100, PE/Life fitness, Physical Science, English, Math core 100, and Social Studies. 3.05 and 3.15 GPA respectively
*during summer I took the equivalent to freshmen “Honors Math core 2”, but crammed into a month)</p>

<p>Sophmore: Beginning Marketing, Math core 200, Pre-IB English, Japanese 200, Pre-IB chemistry, Pre-IB World History. 2nd semester same courses, but switch Pre-IB chemistry to Pre-IB Biology. 3.23 and 3.83 GPA
*during summer I took “Intro to chemistry”, “ceramics 1”, and "intensive intermediate algebra" at a local community college, earning A equivelent grades in them</p>

<p>Junior: IB Philosophy, IB History of the Americas, IB Biology I, IB English, Advanced Marketing, Japanese 300, Math core 300
<em>during fall I took intro to organic chem/biochem, and Pre-calc I</em> Earned A equivelent grades
<em>During winter I took Pre calc II</em> earned an A equivelent grade
<em>During Spring I took discrete mathamatics</em> earned an A equivelent grade
<em>During the summer I'll be taking concepts of the physical world, ceramics 2, and intro to stats</em></p>

<p>Senior: IB Calculus, IB Biology II, IB Senior English, Retail Marketing, IB Senior History, IB Theory of Knowledge, Japanese 400. I predict a 4.00 for the year, but not indefinite.
Final unweighted GPA I predict a 3.75-3.91/4.00
I don't think I'll take any more courses at this community college</p>

<p>I don’t know how my school does weighted, but I know they don’t give us one as sophomores. Though, I am sure I will be in the top decile of my class.</p>

<p>Test scores
ACT: Math (30), Science (30), English (36), Writing (12), Reading (36). Composite: 34, I don’t think I’ll retake
PSAT: 230 (80 writing, 80 reading, 70 math)
SAT: 2320 (800 writing, 800 reading, 720 math). I don't think I'll retake it</p>

<p>I haven't taken any SAT IIs yet, and I'll take a while to choose which ones.</p>

<p>Leadership/Extra Curriculars</p>

<p>Medical Club/HOSA
10th Grade- co-founded with a friend, Co-President
11th Grade- Co-President
12th Grade- Co-President</p>

<p>JSA
10th grade- Public Relations officer
11th Grade- Secretary
12th Grade- President</p>

<p>Key Club
10th Grade- Fundraiser
11th Grade- Fundraiser
12th Grade- President</p>

<p>DECA
12th- Vice President</p>

<p>Work Experience
10/20/07-04/23/08: Ostroms, Cashier
4/30/09-Present: Jamba Juice, cashier/juicer
09/1/09-06/11/10: Student Store, Manager (non-paid job, we sell food, clothing, etc to kids during lunch)</p>

<p>Volunteer
Key Club- expected 150 hours by senior year (50 hours each year from soph-senior)
Hospital- 1000ish hours by senior year (I am the "Senior Volunteer")</p>

<p>Awards
Freshmen: Honor Roll, Japanese Award
Sophmore: National Honor Society, Japanese National Honor Society, Key-club member of the year award, Reflections Honorary participant award (literature)
Junior: NHS, JNHS, Key-club member of the year award, 2nd place at DECA regionals, 1st place at DECA state, 1st place at DECA nationals, Reflections State award (lit)
Senior: TBA (I predict the first 3 though)</p>

<p>Other information
Reischauer Scholar
My poetry has been published by our school literary magainze, and in national anthologies/magazines
I attended “Business Week”, “Advanced Business Week”, and “Healthcare Week”, at colleges during the summer
National Hispanic Scholar (???)
National Merit qualifier (???)</p>

<p>Reccomendations:
1. I am choosing an english teacher I had for two years (I participate strongly in class, have shared poetry with her, and make her laugh alot :)
2. My DECA/marketing teacher who saw me win at nationals
3. My IB philosophy teacher/hopefully my IB senior history teacher, who is also the IB coordinator.
I may substitute #2 with my junior math teacher, whom saw me through the year and helped me study to get into Calc as a senior.
Essay: Should be strong.</p>

<p>Other notes: During my freshmen year my grades were a combination of not realizing the ramifications it would have on my future, as well as just a nonchalant feeling about school. I got a C+ first semester, and some B-s. And in my sophmore year I did well in all of my classes, except for Pre-IB freaking chemistry where I got a D (I took the class because I wanted to pursue IB bio, and it was required. Otherwise I could have taken IB Physics and taken a normal-class as a soph). And then some stuff happened second semester, and sadly I failed to get a 4.00 then, but I still did well all considering.</p>

<p>My poor chemistry grade prompted me to do something on my own about it. Part of me wanted to retake the class at my school to "change" the grade on my GPA, but that would have made me ineligable to do IB Diploma.</p>

<p>In addition, my original IB-diploma plan had me going core-2 math, core-3 math, and then IB Math studies. It would essentially be "IB pre-calc lite", what the normal IB-diploma kid at my school would take as a junior (IB pre-calc that is). I really wanted to get Calculus in my highschool career, so I took pre-calc at the same community college, and got tutored by my teacher and my advanced math friends. And I have officially taken a requirement test to get into IB Calc, and passed!</p>

2

<p>Watch your ‘‘joke application’’ to Harvard be accepted…</p>

3

<p>confused on your overall GPA/rank…your test scores are great, and being Hispanic will help a ton. if you continue the upward trend that i think i see here, and dominate your essays, you’ll have a good shot at most schools on your list and more (shoot high; schools want URMS+first generation!):</p>

<p>UW Seattle - IN
U Penn - slight reach
CMC - match
Brown - reach
Vanderbilt - slight reach
Colby College - match
Pomona - slight reach
WUSTL - slight reach
Washington and Lee - match</p>

<p>if your overall GPA ends up being 3.7 or higher unweighted, i think you could get into most of these and some ivies :D. if i were you, i’d apply to these ivies: princeton, yale, dartmouth, brown. they’re all reaches, but you never know if you don’t apply.</p>

4

<p>Charles, sorry if I came up as arrogant calling it that. But I truely do mean that, I mean, it’s friggin Harvard, the most selective academic institution in the US, if not the world! My GPA isn’t bad by any means, but it isn’t the top notch 4.00 GPA + 2400 SAT + 800 SAT IIs + 36 ACT + varsity sport captains + national <em>insert here</em> winner that Harvard accepts. I don’t think I’d consider it though, the level of elitism and stuck up snobs would be over the roof.</p>

<p>North_face: err…IDK how my school does my unweighted GPA, but I think full IB Diploma students receive an unweighted GPA from their junior and senior years (because “pre IB” isn’t actually IB, it’s just prep, kinda like honors), and IDK what our unweighted is out of. As for my current GPA, to be honest, IDK what it is. But I do think I’ll end up with an unweighted of 3.7-3.91. And I don’t know about rank either, I think we only rank top 10% (as in, top 10%), val, and sal. And thank you for the praise, but as a whole I don’t think most of the schools you named are for me.
Princeton- I don’t really like the majors they offer.
Yale- same
Dartmouth- same
Brown- I am interested in some of the majors, so I am applying.</p>

<p>And for the dual major/special program ones, do you mean reach for the program, or for the school as a whole?</p>

5

<p>First Generation college student + URM + 2320+ basically everything else in your package= possibly any college including HYP. I think you can get into HYP, and would not be surprised at all if you did. DO NOT write a “joke” application to Harvard, write a real one as you have a very good chance at getting accepted. I would apply to more ivies if I were you.</p>

6

<p>Oh, you’re Latino. That helps. Don’t be surprised if you get into Harvard.</p>

<p>And dude, how BORING would Harvard be if everyone fit that profile? Above 2250 SAT, 750 SAT IIs, and several leadership positions, it all boils down to how unique you are and what stands out in your application.</p>

7

<p>Once again, thank you, but I don’t think many of the ivies are for me. Nonetheless, HYP+S. I want to go to a school which offers majors they I would like to pursue, and offers no loan/need blind financial aid. Harvard has one or two interesting majors to me, but that’s it. And to be honest, I kind of hate affirmitive action/ethnic preference, what would my chances be if I didn’t conform with an ethnicity?</p>

8

<p>Poseidenj:</p>

<p>check the box for latino/hispanic and first generation! playing the game, whether you agree with it or not, will help you. you’re a remarkable student regardless, but take pride in the fact that colleges want diversity :D. </p>

<p>i also find it hard to believe that Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and Dartmouth don’t have a myriad of majors that you’d be interested in…</p>

9

<p>haha, ok, maybe one day I can help rally against it though :stuck_out_tongue: Or, rally for AA with economic status.</p>

<p>Harvard- Ok, it has a few majors I’m interested in, mostly all the different kinds of biology
Yale- I have looked at it’s majors, it doesn’t really offer anything eye popping for business/law/medicine, mostly just standard classes akin to a liberal arts college, except for it’s engineering majors (which I am not interested in)
dartmouth- see Yale
Stanford- Stanford I am a bit confused on, do you just apply to Stanford and then you can take any class at any of the schools, even the graduate? If I would be confined to the colleges that offer undergrad [engineering, humanities, earth sciences) I wouldn’t be too interested.
Princeton- it really does have few majors!</p>

10

<p>UW Seattle -> 90% For honors?
U Penn -> Not familiar with programs, but very good chance considering it’s an ivy… maybe 3/5?
CMC -> 85-90%?
Brown -> Maybe 4/7ish?
Vanderbilt ->
Colby College -> Basically in if you show interest.
Pomona -> 3/4?
Washington and Lee -> Basically in if you show interest.</p>

<p>I don’t want to be too liberal in my chancing but a lot of colleges are going to want you, you’ve made yourself a great applicant.</p>

<p>Chance me back?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/718879-junior-chance-thread-mainly-lacs-sunys.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/718879-junior-chance-thread-mainly-lacs-sunys.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>65% in at harvard. You’re a hispanic with a 2320 SAT score dude apply to all the ivies and expect to get into atleast 4-5 of them.</p>

12

<p>haha, once again thank you everyone. I will have some time though to consider whether or not I want to subjugate myself to AA. As for the ivies, the only ones which I am currently heavily interested in are ones which have interesting majories beyond the normal ones. Also, need blind and no loan policies are most important to me.</p>

<p>U Penn- it has some amazing dual degree programs which I’d love to do
Brown- PLME sounds amazing, but insanely competitive. Although I wouldn’t mind doing a dual degree program as they have some very unique majors.</p>

<p>Harvard- it has a stem cell biology majors, as well as some other interesting biology-branch majors. However, it doesn;t have a no-loan policy that coincides with my family’s income.
Cornell doesn’t have a no loan policy, but they have some very cool majors!
Dartmouth/Yale/Princeton/Columbia don’t have any unique majors which interest me</p>

<p>Stanford has several schools, but none of them offer any interesting majors to me.</p>

13

<p>doesn’t social fit matter to you? that’s the real reason i recommended yale, princeton, dartmouth, and brown. from what i’ve seen, they tend to have the happiest students of the eight ivies, and you’d undoubtedly get a great education, no matter your interest. furthermore, they offer unparalleled connections and prestige. anyhow, it doesn’t matter too much where you go for undergrad if you plan on medical school (i don’t think, ha). just a thought (because if i were in your shoes, i’d apply to those four and stanford)! granted, i don’t know your interests enough, nor have i done significant research, i just find it hard to believe they wouldn’t have what you want academically. financially, i also thought those schools had crazy aid :O. maybe i’m wrong. gl regardless ha.</p>

14

<p>Yes, social fit does matter alot to me. But, from what I can collect, as long as the school isn’t U chicago, MIT, caltech, or a math/science college, social life is pretty good.</p>

15

<p>APPLY TO HARVARD.
my sister had the SAME stats as you, and she wasnt latino and she got in.
aim for the stars.</p>

16

<p>Well, I don’t see why you would have a difficult time getting into any of those schools. I think you would even have a decent chance at Harvard. Your stats are good, your EC’s are good, and you’re Hispanic.</p>

17

<p>geez, you are a VERY strong candidate. your SAT scores are phenomenal, grades look great, and great ECs. (Also AA/1st gen !) Definitely apply to more ivies. It seems like you’ve worked really hard–you’ll never know if you don’t apply :)</p>

<p>Hahah I’m debating using AA as well…I actually wrote a persuasion speech on it earlier this year on how much I was against it. Meh, it’s society’s fault I guess. Those who use it shouldn’t be blamed !! The whole system should be.</p>

<p>But yes, to reiterate, it looks like you have a great chance. Freshman year may be a problem, but if you explain it or something it will likely be “overlooked.” Luckily it’s the least important year (unfortunately though it still matters).</p>

<p>Chance me please? For freshman year it looks like we are in the same situation :stuck_out_tongue: Any help would be appreciated. Thank you! <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/717572-another-one-those.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/717572-another-one-those.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

18

<p>Well you are a URM AND and first gen student with a 2320 sat and a good enough gpa and a lot of EC’s. Apply to Harvard god damn it.</p>