chance a worried Californian

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
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<p>I am a junior from California, reasonably competative high school; probably top 4%</p>

<p>GPA: around 4.6 weighted (using only 10th/11th, tell me if they do 9th too), 4.0 or 3.98, unweighted, depending on if 9th is used</p>

<p>APs: 10-AP Euro; 11-AP US, AP Lang, AP Chem; 12-AP Physics, AP Calc AB, AP Comp Gov, AP Music Theory; is all this enough, especially since most of them are senior (due to misinformation by school administration....)?</p>

<p>SAT: 2150, will retake, with hopefully a 200-250 point increase (but is this already enough?)</p>

<p>SAT IIs: 770 math, 790 chem, 800 us</p>

<p>ECs: -section leader in school band
-coprincipal oboist in major youth orchestra, play English Horn as well
-Part of 2 county honor bands
-jv/varsity track for two years
-3 years of robotics (including FIRST events)
-Cofounder of Dissenters Club, club at school to discuss and extoll virtues of political dissent/debate (3 years in a really convoluted way)
-NASA online community, a selective program where NASA experts teach and lecture online to admitted students (2 years)
-CSF (5 semesters)
-May get a job fall of senior year, though not guarenteed</p>

<p>Leadership: -Founded private charity and website to raise concern for humanitarian and social issues
-As mentioned, bunch of leadership for oboe (instrument)
-Again, cofounder of Dissenters Club
-Probably will start another club begining of senior year</p>

<p>Community Sercive: -400+ hours peer tutoring
-100 hours volunteering at local thrift shop to provide affordable mechandise to the underprivileged (profits </p>

<p>Other- Some other random things such as a few music and academic awards and that I translated a book from my native language into English.</p>

<p>I know compared to all of the people who have internships, intel awards, etc, my stats are nothing too special, but there have been certain familiy obligations that have prevented me from entering too many contests, etc...a summer internship or job would have been impossible....Additionally, my current ECs do in fact take up almost all of my free time. </p>

<p>Rice is probably my 2nd/3rd choice, so I was wondering if it would be reasonable to keep it there. Also, will race affect/hurt me?; I am East Indian ethnically.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

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<p>I have to say your ECs are quite scattered. There isn’t much focus except music.
I like how you are starting clubs, but what are your reasons for starting the club? Are you starting them just for you college apps? I mean I’m not saying that’s your reason but the admissions officers can tell if people are forming clubs or joining clubs just to “pad” their resume. I personally have never heard of a “Dissenters Club” but that is only me. And also if you were to start another club, (IMO) you shouldn’t do it beginning of senior year, you should have done it during junior year because colleges don’t care much about what you do during your senior year.</p>

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<p>to add to what cdz says, starting a club isnt a big deal. forming a startup company is kinda the same way… its like yay? </p>

<p>what matters is making that startup into google or the equivalent.</p>

<p>That being said, you have pretty good stats. I think you should apply. I do agree with cdz that your efforts should be towards boosting your SAT score and making sure you have good recos and essays and not towards starting clubs… because despite best intentions, barely anything happens in a single year</p>

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<p>@ OP:</p>

<p>Why are you worried? I’m never participated in an Intel or Siemens contest, nor did I ever hold an internship, and I got into Rice. </p>

<p>Your academic stats are fine. Personally, I think that SAT score is fine (you appear to near the median SAT score at Rice), but it won’t hurt to try and raise it.</p>

<p>Now, as Antarius and cdz512 have said, your extracurriculars do look scattered. It appears as if you pursued them to boost your resume… you need to find some way to tie some of them together in your application. Or, even better, just focus on the ones that are important to you in your application and your essays. One of my school’s counselors met with Rice admissions staff after I was admitted, and they said they really like to see a commitment to a certain extracurricular or two and see growth in that area. One possible area, in your case, could be music or politics.</p>

<p>Nevertheless, I think your chances are good… just be careful in how your portray your extracurricular interests in your application. Also, don’t start a club unless you sincerely want to… starting the club won’t help you for college applications, especially during senior year when you now have to dedicate a LOT OF TIME to applications.</p>

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<p>I get what you all are saying but music and science the two things I put the most passion into. Hence being in a youth orchestra, honor bands, etc for the music and robotics and NASA for science. Both of these take a tremendous amount of time, as I put full effort into both of them.</p>

<p>As for the political things, I do those more for fun. The Dissenters Club is not a nationally recognized thing, just something we made up. See this:<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/741378-difficult-ec-situation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/741378-difficult-ec-situation.html&lt;/a&gt; for a full explanation. I do it because it’s worthwhile, not to pad, although I can see how it could be construed as such, definitely.</p>

<p>Track, I admit was more because I had nothing to do with sports, so that may be tinged with some calculation.</p>

<p>The club will have to do with classical music, which in all honesty, I know will not have a big impact on anything. I just want to do it for the fun of it.</p>

<p>But yeah, I see how this cursory list could be seen as scattered and unfocused. The things having to do with science and music though, I assure you are quite focused, I just wanted to give a brief overview here. I’ll be more detailed on my app.</p>

<p>But would you say the ECs would be enough as long as I don’t make them seem scattered, as I have done here?</p>

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<p>i guess? either way there isnt anything you can do about the EC’s now. As a result, apply and hope for the best</p>

<p>stress on your strongest achievements in your app. A long list of EC’s seems clutterred and not focused, so include the important ones</p>

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<p>You can try to make one of your EC experience into an essay topic, that might help reveal your devotion. (just an idea to help boost your application)</p>

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<p>dont they advise against that? kinda because half of the applicants do it and they want something original and interesting?</p>

<p>dunno</p>

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<p>Your resume is eerily similar to mine…</p>

<p>I’m from CA too, GPA is about the same, I took most of those APs, ECs are pretty close except I didn’t do music, and I did math instead of science. Overall I’d say you’re a much more impressive (at least) looking candidate I was.</p>

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<p>Also, the whole “ECs with a focus thing”… I’ve never really bought into that. Maybe because I have so many interests. I started a Recycling Club, a Philosophy Club, and a Karate Club. I did football and track, as well as Math Club. I did Academic Decathlon as well as Peer Counseling. I didn’t really have a specific focus or one thing I devoted all my time to, and I did fine.</p>

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<p>“dont they advise against that? kinda because half of the applicants do it and they want something original and interesting?”</p>

<p>Well it depends on how well you write it I guess, if you can write a great essay, that’s wonderful.
That’s what Rice Baylor wants you to do (but that’s Rice Baylor not Rice itself). I don’t know either you might be right that a lot of people do but then again, what else can your write about???</p>