Chance a totally embarassed junior for out of range schools!

Test Preparation
1

<p>***ACCIDENTALLY POSTED IN SAT/ACT FORUMS, CAN A MOD MOVE IT TO "WHAT ARE MY CHANCES" SUBFORUM? </p>

<p>Just felt like measuring where I stand.... </p>

<p>I feel like SUCH a failure compared to people here. It's really quite depressing. </p>

<p>Anyway-
Ethnicity: Chinese Male (Yeah whatever I'm screwed, I know) </p>

<p>School: Spruce Creek High School, 92nd best HS in the country. State: Florida, baby. </p>

<p>Rank- 36/670 (Yeah we're HUGE! And chock full of geniuses, doesn't mean I'm lazy though, we just have 35 straight A AP class-whoring students :]) </p>

<p>GPA- 3.97 (Or at least it will be) UW- Only B's In Freshmen Year.
Weighted- Don't know</p>

<p>SAT I's- 1580/2230 *Only took once
800 CR (Go me!)
780 M
650 W (Boo hiss... Wondering if I should retake... Writing isn't weighted much right??) </p>

<p>SAT II's
Expecting 770-800 in Biology, Chemistry. 750-800 Math IIC, and probably Literature... Especially the two sciences, since I am a God at memorizing horrifying amounts of random information. </p>

<p>Freshman Year- (Was totally lazy and unmotivated, my only B's in this year)
Geometry Pre-IB- A/A
English I Pre-IB- A/B (Slacked off)
Computer Programming (A class I enjoyed, but UNWEIGHTED!! :[)- A/A
Bio Pre-IB- A/A
Spanish II Pre-IB- A/B (Same...)
Beginner/Intermediate Weightlifting (I LOVE it, and won't give it up for anything)- A/A
Inquiry Skills/American Gov't (IB Required)- A/A</p>

<p>Sophomore Year- All A's
Pre-Calculus IB
English II Pre-IB
Computer Programming II (Still UNWEIGHTED! Gah!)
Spanish III IB
Chemistry Pre-IB
Advanced Weightlifting/Beginner Powerlifting
World History Pre-IB </p>

<p>Junior Year- All A's (I can safely assume; I am motivated as hell now)
Calculus SL
English SL
Biology SL
Chemistry SL
Intermediate Powerlifting/Advanced Powerlifting
Spanish IV (SL?)
U.S History SL
***Online Course--- AP Computer Science (Yes I'm taking it while doing regular classes)</p>

<p>Senior Year- Most definitely all A's (I'm motivated as hell and the master of time management =]... Freshman year I didn't care)
<em>Testing out of Spanish 4, it's my weakest area and going to Physics SL. Bumping everything else to HL.
*</em>*Depressingly enough, I do have to give up weightlifting class this year, because the miserable, unloved people who make IB think we need to learn "where knowledge comes from", A.K.A Theory of Knowledge.
Calculus HL
English HL
Biology HL
Chemistry HL
Physics SL (!3! sciences for the win...)
U.S. History HL
Theory Of Knowledge (IB Required) </p>

<p>Summer Classes:
All taken at ERAU (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical U., where my dad teaches)</p>

<p>C/Unix Programming- B (It was a frikkin' JUNIOR level class that had a JAVA pre-requisite that I didn't have! Of course I struggled like hell.)
Calculus I-A
Trigonometry- A
Physics- A</p>

<p>EC's - I'll keep the laundry list nice and short for you guys. Hopefully you can tell my passion is community service and working with the elderly. </p>

<p>Eagle Scout.
-Project: Used rented cherry picker and trimmed low oak tree branches for 10 acres of my church, cleared the overgrown brush in front of the church that obstructed view from roadside, demolished unused wall, and re-graveled the road. Lot of work/planning. (-Around 150 hours total service through all of Boy Scouts) </p>

<p>5 (Yes, 5) Mission Trips. (Since the beginning of high school, of course)
-To Hurricane Katrina Disaster Area in Biloxi, MS, and Bay-Waveland Area, MS... Built houses in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity. 1 full week each. (350 hours service). </p>

<p>Steady Job: Server at Local Nursing Home- All of Junior/Senior Year.
16-17 hours a week (Every week- It gets tough to manage my time now. I have no time for ANYTHING... but the people there are so nice! I have like 40-50 grandmas now!) </p>

<p>Volunteer BINGO Manager
-At aforementioned nursing home. I take care of BINGO every Thursday night for all the residents of that nursing home. (110 hours) </p>

<p>Weightlifting Team: 10,11,12. J/V 10, Possible Varsity 11 or just J/V, don't know. 12 will be too late to report if I win any awards/letters, so whatever. (2 hours a week, 30 weeks in a year while in season. While off season, 1 hour a week, the remaining 20 weeks. The only time we get a week off is Christmas/New Years)
-Our weightlifting team is... to put it bluntly, beastly. In the state of Florida we're almost undefeated in our conference.
-Awarded J/V 5 Star Conference Championships Runner Up (2nd Place) for my weight class. </p>

<p>Other Insignificant EC's-</p>

<p>Mu-Alpha Theta- 9,10,11,12.
Team B- No big awards, our region is dominated by two genius schools that smoke our school everytime. There are only 4 positions and 80 people in the club... Fun. But I'm active and go to all the competitions. </p>

<p>Nation Merit Scholar. (Blah blah blah)</p>

<p>Chinese Christian Fellowship Webmaster- 11,12
Run the website for a small Christian fellowship of Chinese that our family is ardent about. Spend about an hour every week or so to keep it up-to-date. </p>

<p>Church Youth Group- 9,10,11,12
There are no "positions" here- Just a time to have fun and learn about God. Nothing more. </p>

<p>NHS-
-How embarrassing to even consider it an EC. It's stupid as hell, the president is an organizational failure, and we do nothing but pay hundreds of dollars in "dues and obligations" while getting absolutely nothing done. The grand culmination of twenty "officers" working together to create a "notable community service project?"... Oh, a canned food drive. Who would of guessed it... sigh. All these useless clubs. </p>

<p>***This summer I'm going to spend my time working my job mentioned above, and volunteering at the local hospice (sort of like an extreme nursing home where everyone is incapable of managing themselves) through reading books and entertaining the elderly. Should get 150 or so more hours. </p>

<p>Essay: Will be on my experiences in the nursing home that I pretty much live in now, and/or my experiences on the mission trips I went on. (Seriously the best times of my life... hard work, cooperation, and a hella' lot of fun.) </p>

<p>Intended Major: Chemistry/Biology/Biochemistry</p>

<p>So in total, the only things I have going for me are my (kind of mediocre) SAT's, a decent courseload, and a lot of community service, eagle scout, and a 17 hour job. </p>

<p>Schools- (I NEED money! My family can only give me around 20,000 a year, I have to get scholarships for the rest!) </p>

<p>University of Florida
University of Central Florida (I'll kill myself if I'm stuck here... seriously)
Wake Forrest
Grinnell
Davidson College (Top Choice- It's Presbyterian affiliated)
Furman</p>

<p>And here's my "For the LULZ" list, i.e. dreaming never hurt anyone: </p>

<p>Dartmouth
Swarthmore
Columbia
Duke</p>

2

<p>You sound like a really smart, nice guy who has touched many lives through your community service. That far out weighs perfect scores and all A’s. What’s the word I’m looking for? Oh, that’s right – “CHARACTER”.</p>

<p>Trust me when I tell you that “cookie cutter”, brilliant but boring students are a dime a dozen. After reading tons of postings on this board I would put your resume at close to the top of the list. Any university will be lucky to have you.</p>

<p>Stay real, brother, and the world is yours!</p>

3

<p>You know you can only take 4 HL classes for the IB Diploma, right? It’s the maximum.</p>

4

<p>Yes, for the DIPLOMA. But you’re free to take more if you wish as extra credits. All that happens is that I “test out” in Junior year, but I opt to keep going in that class.</p>

5

<p>If you’re serious about the “mediocrity” of this resume, then I’d suggest you see a therapist to resolve your personal struggle with unrealistic feelings of inadequacy. Seriously, the details you posted are of a well-rounded student who would be competitive pretty much anywhere.</p>

<p>I do have one question for you, though – how did you, reportedly a high school junior, become a National Merit Scholar?</p>

6

<p>he probably received his SAT and is certain he will be a finalist.
-points to SAT score-</p>

7

<p>I can’t tell if this is for attention or more views, but you seriously need a gut check. Calling your SATs and your ECs mediocre makes me shake my head in disgust.</p>

8

<p>Prep 8 is absolutely right. What are you are doing is not only sickening but obnoxious. If you really do think you are out of range for any of these school you are insane. So congratulations on getting validation that you are not mediocre and having people tell you that you should never say "I feel like SUCH a failure compared to people here. It’s really quite depressing. " However, you make other people, happy with their grades and scores, feel crappy in order to put yourself up. So on that note you are certainly a failure. But academically i think we all know (you do too) that you are VERY successful and impressive.</p>

9

<p>Dang guys chill out… I was just trying to be humble; I know I’m not in bad condition at all, although I’m certainly not anywhere near the best. </p>

<p>I don’t think you guys would like it if I headed my thing as
“Chance a superior student who is more qualified than your sorry butt will ever be”… Right?
(Not that I think that for a second, but you get my point) </p>

<p>And yeah, I’m almost certain I’ll be a NMSF, because I felt I did well on the PSAT, and the cutoff score for Florida is low.</p>

<p>And the only reason I consider myself “embarassing” for here: Have you ever taken a look in the “Chances” thread? Half the threads are for Ivy League applicants with an application that would be considered holy by most people.</p>

10

<p>Back off guys. He’s clearly new to the website and it’s not exactly “easy” to consider yourself outstanding when you read resumes of people with 2400’s and academic achievements. </p>

<p>I think you have a very good chance. You have an extremely good resume, and if you write your essays and recommendations very well, I’m sure you’ll get into a lot of top schools.</p>

11

<p>you can get into those schools no problem. you should shoot for some more schools because you are high and above their averages. which area of the US are you interested in? i can recommend some schools for you. dont beat down on yourself. my gpa is much lower than yours (3.2) and a decent ACT score (31). im at one of those overachiever schools (Walt Whitman HS #44 in the nation). but dont worry about it. keep up the grades and dont stress yourself out. its much to early for that. do the stressing out when waiting for college letters.</p>

12

<p>What were your PSAT scores? Did you qualify for National Merit Finalist? If so, there are many schools that will give you a full ride scholarships (out of state tuition, room and board, books, some even through in living expense and travel abroad semester). Very little out of pocket needed. Look into that, if its an option.</p>

13

<p>Ivy League don’t necessarily mean the best education. In the end, a degree is a degree, no matter what school it is from. It’s what you do with the degree (and your time in college) that matters the most in your life. Many great private and state schools. Just because everyone else is going to Ivy League doesn’t mean it’s right for you. I went to a small state college, got 2 degrees in 4 years. Now I’m making what the rest of the “Ivy League” grads are making, have a great career, family, and working towards a PhD.</p>

<p>Pick the school for the type of program you’re interested in and the environment you’re looking for. You’ll get much more personal attention at a smaller school. You might not make Harvard Law Review, but if school is stressing you out that much now, Ivy League schools will stress you out even that much more.</p>

<p>Just find what works for you, get the scholarships, get the degree and move on with your life.</p>

14

<p>You did your part. All you can do now is wait.</p>