Chance a Sophomore?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey.
I know this is kind of early, but I just want to see if I'm on track, so here are my current stats.</p>

<p>Race: Asian
Gender: Male
Location: MA</p>

<p>Courseload
Grade 9
H English 9
H Geometry
H Alg 2
H Precalc
H Biology
H World History
Spanish 2</p>

<p>Went to summer academic program (CTY) to take a course in game theory.</p>

<p>Grade 10
AP Calc AB (school doesnt have BC)
APUSH
H English 10
H Chem</p>

<p>Taking Calc 3 and College Physics at community college over summer.</p>

<p>Anticipate Grade 11 Courses
AP Bio
AP Chem
AP Compsci
H English 11
H Spanish 3</p>

<p>Class Rank: 1/~250
GPA: 3.96 UW, 4.93/5 W</p>

<p>Testing:
PSAT: 195 (retaking next year)
SAT 2 Math Level 2: 800</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
math team (captain, regional awards)
robotics team (president, team competing at international level)
local astronomy club</p>

<p>violin-10 years of playing.
regional youth orchestra
district orchestra
all state orchestra</p>

<p>community service:
supervised public library summer reading program
volunteer work at science museum
will volunteer this summer at hospital.</p>

<p>I know my ecs are a little weak, and i have to work on my psats. With that in mind, am I currently on track for these schools?</p>

<p>Harvard
Stanford
Columbia (maybe an ED?)
MIT
Cornell
UPenn
UChicago</p>

<p>I appreciate any input.
Thanks.</p>

2

<p>bump....
i'm kinda in a similar situation</p>

3

<p>Everything looks good except your PSAT scores. What was the breakdown? I doubt you'll get into all those schools and I would definitely add in at least one back-up, but if you get your scores up and keep up the hard work you should be on track to get into at least a few of the schools on your list. I'm no expert though, for I am just a sophomore like yourself.</p>

4

<p>PSAT scores: 75 M, 62 V, 58 W...
I'm applying to several backup schools, just didnt list them here.</p>

5

<p>Your ECs are not that weak, the only thing that's bad is the PSAT, and that doesn't really matter for college. (Just do well on the SAT) Honestly, look at you. You're going to have calc 3 done when most 'normal' kids are starting Algebra 2 or Precalc. You'll be fine. </p>

<p>One question, do you only have 4 classes this year? That could be a problem.</p>

6

<p>Yeah I only have 4 academic classes this year which is not good. My school uses block scheduling (ap class=2 honors classes), so it's very easy for guidance to screw me over. That's why I'm taking physics/calc 3 this summer...i'm kind of trying to compensate.</p>

7

<p>Since you are in calc AB and taking calc 3 over summer, are you self-studying the BC part? If so, that's good, mention it somewhere.
If not, how will you be ready for calc 3 then?</p>

8

<p>yes, i'm self studying the bc part.</p>

9

<p>How did you take 3 maths in one year?<br>
I'm a 10th grader and I'm taking pre-cal; I thought I was advanced :)
I also have block schedulng and have problems with only 4-5 classes a year, because of APs .... usually you take AB and BC right?</p>

10

<p>Actually, spratleyj, BC includes AB and a few more chapters, so taking AB then BC is not worth it because you'll repeat for most of the year.</p>

<p>Most people that can will take Precalc, then BC.
I'm in awe that the OP didn't even take precalc. :)</p>

11

<p>During freshman year, I realized that geometry was a joke so I decided to do a self study of Alg 2 at the same time. I finished alg 2 with a couple of months to spare, so i wanted to see if i could do precalc (as a joke at first.) So I'm not really advanced, I just had nothing better to do.</p>

<p>At the end of the year, the school evaluated me by giving me finals and other tests and such. They eventually gave me credit and those courses appear on my transcript as if i actually took them.</p>

<p>And yeah kevmus is right there are only a few extra topics in BC calc, so its not worth taking ab then bc.</p>

12

<p>any other advice?</p>

13

<p>Work a lot on your writing score for the next PSAT and the SAT. Use basic comma rules and agreement and/or take a grammar intensive english class and you should see that 58 improve. I went from a 61 PSAT W to a 690 SAT W just by looking over the rules (the ones tested are all in the blue book).</p>

<p>Your math is fine, math score that good means you just need to be lucky on test date.</p>

<p>For V, try reading some tough books. Something that will make you think hard to understand, like Chaucer or Shakespeare. Are you low on time? Try learning to read faster (don't bother with special classes/courses/programs, just do a simple "I bet myself I can read this page in a minute." Then go for 55 seconds on the next page, and so on. Learn to read quickly, not get involved with the story (That's what I did a lot of the time), but also make sure you understand what you read. Try reading a dry technical manual as well, to prepare yourself for a boring SAT essay.).</p>

14

<p>Yeah, I would definitely bring this "self-study" strategy over to writing. I don't know about you but I've never been taught anything about grammar rules except the definitions of parts of speech. If the same goes for you, I would expect your writing score to increase dramatically.</p>