Chance an Alaskan for USC and a few other West Coast schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Asian male from a public school in Alaska, rising senior.</p>

<p>Grades:
UW GPA: 3.9
Weighted GPA: 4.22
Class rank: 4/450 [Might be different now but still top 10]
Course load: Honors English 9/10, Honors World History, AP US History, AP Chemistry, AP Spanish, AP Macroeconomics, AP English Language
Senior year AP classes: AP English Literature, AP Psychology, AP Calculus AB, AP Microeconomics</p>

<p>I've only ever had one B, and that was in the second semester of AP Chemistry. That's it though, and I don't plan to get any next year.</p>

<p>Tests:
ACT: 30
SAT: 1930 -> 1950 -> retaking in the fall one last time
SAT II: US History (760), Math II (taking Saturday)
I didn't really take AP tests seriously since they don't play a huge part in admissions, Macro was probably my only 5.</p>

<p>Recs:
1. AP Spanish teacher, now a principal at a German charter school
2. AP Calculus teacher or AP Economics teacher (a Harvard grad)
3. Guidance counselor</p>

<p>EC's:
National Honors Society member
Key Club member
Alaska Teens Against Cancer member
Senior class vice president (possibly next year, depends on the elections)
Yearbook editor/business manager
Varsity football [Freshman team -> JV -> Two year varsity starter]</p>

<p>I know my stats are low and my ECs are lacking, but everyone at my school expects me to go to a top school, I'm just a bad test taker when it comes to the SAT I guess, since I thought I would be getting at least a 2100. USC is my dream school, but I wouldn't mind attending any of the other schools on my list too.</p>

<p>Planning to study business/international relations at any of these schools:</p>

<p>University of Southern California
UCLA
Cal
University of Texas at Austin
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
NYU</p>

<p>Long shots but applying for fun: Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Penn, Princeton, Columbia</p>

<p>Any input is much appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Try to do a bit better on your SATs in the fall and (being from Alaska) you should be in great shape for the first list and you should apply for some of your longshots. Also, if you want to do econ/international relatiions, check our Pomona or Claremont McKenna. Good luck, Jackuk</p>

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<p>Anyone else?</p>

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<p>Being from Alaska is unique and will help. If you can get 2100 on SAT i think you would be good. Have you considered taking a test prep class? They are expensive but may help get you more familiar with the test and teach you useful strategies so the stress of taking the test for real is less.</p>

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<p>Also, if you really want to major in interntional relations, you should definitely check out Middlebury, Williams, Georgetown and William & Mary. If you can get your SATs up to 2100, you should have an excellent shot at all of these schools.</p>

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<p>I considered taking a test prep class, but I feel like it would be a waste of time for me since I’ve already taken the test twice and know what to expect. I just keep missing questions, I know I can do a lot better. And thanks for the help guys, but I don’t think I’m considering some of those smaller schools. I want to go to a large school with good sports teams that I can root for.</p>

7

<p>GPA is good, and you’ve challenged yourself as far as APs. You seem to know about improving your scores and ECs. What I’d say about applying to schools like these is that they want you to be more personal. Being from Alaska is unique but they want to know about you, what makes you tick, what you really love, and why you want to go to their school. “Everyone wants me to go” probably isn’t going to be enough because everyone has dreams for their friends/kids/etc. They want to know that YOU want to go to the school, and why. Of course, on your application you want to talk more about yourself and less about “this school is awesome and has cool benches and is just perfect in every way”. They know who they are. Tell them who you are.</p>

<p>Good luck with everything! :]</p>

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<p>^ Most definitely, thank you man. It’s not that I was saying I only wanted to go because everyone expects me to, USC has been my dream school since I was a kid. I believe that it’s a perfect match for me, but I was iffy on my chances on getting in due to the low test scores.</p>

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<p>SDTash23 - While USC is a great school, there are much better schools, academically, than USC that have large Division I sports programs, such as Duke, Stanford, Notre Dame and Northwestern (although NU’s sports teams are usually fairly weak) plus schools like Georgetown which are big basketball powers. You need to consider the tradeoffs.</p>

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<p>Can anyone tell me which schools are matches/reaches?</p>

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<p>I am no expert, but here is my 2 cents worth:</p>

<p>University of Southern California - match
UCLA - slight reach
Cal - slight reach
University of Texas at Austin - match
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - match
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill - reach (from the experience of a couple of friends, I have heard that UNC is very hard to get into from out-of-state and you might not get much advantage from your Alaska residency)
NYU - safety school (why would you want to go here? This school has nothing in common with the rest of this list and what you have written elsewhere in the post. If you want to go to school in NYC, then focus on Columbia).</p>

<p>Long shots but applying for fun: Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Penn, Princeton, Columbia
(Your long shots are all reaches, due entirely to the low acceptance rates of these universities. In other words, they are reaches for just about anybody these days!)</p>

<p>Also, check out some other top public universities which are known for a good mix of strong academics, sports success and fun, such as Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, Wisconsin and Penn State.</p>

<p>Again, I am no expert of this, but once you figure out your top 3 or 4 choices, get up to speed on which of these schools have early decision/action dates and rolling admissions, as if you can get some early acceptances, it can save you lots of time and money on not having to apply to schools lower down your list. I do know that Penn likes applicants who really want to go there.</p>

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<p>NYU would be for Stern, and I loved NYC when I visited and I don’t think I could get into Columbia. Thank you so much!</p>

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<p>Your low test scores will hurt you at Cal and NYU Stern (which I think are low/mid reaches for you) and UCLA (high match)</p>

<p>Long shots but applying for fun: Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Penn, Princeton, Columbia: I don’t think you will get into any of those, but you might as well try… there is a tiny possibility</p>

14

<p>Just being from Alaska helps you out. But you are Asian… So, you are in the same boat I was in last year.
Raise your ACT!</p>

<p>University of Southern California - low reach. ED if you really want to go here
UCLA - reach
Cal - reach
University of Texas at Austin - low reach, i think
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - reach OOS is always harder
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill - reach
NYU- reach
Stanford - very high reach
Harvard - very high reach
MIT - very high reach
Penn - very high reach
Princeton - very high reach
Columbia - very high reach</p>