Chance an Asian into Top universities?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>What are my chances for tops colleges such as the Ivies and MIT, etc?</p>

<p>I dream school is Princeton or MIT.</p>

<p>I am currently an incoming senior. For the class of 2009 who have already gone through the pains of college acceptance and rejections and for others who have college app experience, I was wondering if you guys can give me some advice? Here is me in a nutshell (includes the important stuff)</p>

<p>Class of 2010
GPA 9th-12th (unweighted): 3.97
GPA 9th- 12th (weighted): 4.71</p>

<p>GPA 10th-12th (unweighted): 4.0
GPA 10th- 12th (weighted): 4.89
Yes our school has two GPA systems</p>

<p>Class Rank:
9 - 12: 5 out of 566
10-12: 3 out of 566</p>

<p>Sophomore Classes:
AP World Hist
AP Biology
Algebra Trig 3/4 Honors
English 10 Honors
French 102 (city college)
Engineering 1/ Computer Science 1 (non weighted ****!)
Math 138 (Pre-calculus at City college)</p>

<p>Junior year:
AP Computer Science A
AP English Language
AP Physics B
AP Calculus BC
AP Environmental Science
AP Macro and Micro Economics</p>

<p>Senior Year (both semesters):
AP Chem
AP Literature
Advanced Engineering Physics
ROP FIRST Robotics
Political Science 101 (city college)
Multi-variable Calculus and Linear Algebra
IB Economics HL</p>

<p>SATII's: Bio/m:780 (I need two more which will be done in June), expecting 800 in Physics and 800 in Math II</p>

<p>SATI: CR: 750 Writing:720 Math: 790
SAT total: 2260 (scores not that great, hoping to score 2300+ in october :'( )</p>

<p>ACT: (unknown, but taking it in June as well) I am aiming for 36, but if I get 35, I am DEFINITELY doing SAT again in oct. Not to sound cocky or anything but I had two friends take ACT without studying at all and for the hell of it and both got 35's.</p>

<p>APs : Biology 5 World History 5 (I took 6 more APs this year, I am expecting all 5's in those too) AP Calcu BC, AP Physics B, AP Environmental sci, AP Macro econ and AP Micro Econ, and AP English Language.</p>

<p>Awards/ EC:
Westmont High School Math Competition:First place team for the Team Written Test in years 2008 and 2009. Overall team winner in 2009. Math Team member ftw!</p>

<p>California State Economics Challenge Championship (of 200 participating schools): First Place team in Adam Smith Division for state of California. It's an academic competition for economics, kinda like Science Bowl. </p>

<p>Economics Challenge West Regional (next level after state): Second Place Team for Adam Smith Division in the west region of the United States(out of 7 States). Highest written team score. If we had won, we would have gone to Nationals :'(</p>

<p>Capital Markets Contest (a state wide contest sponsored by the California Council on Economics Education)- ever team gives a presentation after six weeks of economic analysis. We got first place! and won $500 each and a trip to New York, where we will ring the bell at the Stock Exchange floor and get an interview with NY Mayor Bloomberg! :D</p>

<p>Kern County Regional Science Bowl: First place team out of 32 competing teams. First team to ever win out of Kern County. It was an epic win. We then qualified for nationals. </p>

<p>National Merit Semi-Finalist : got letter for possible eligibility in may (got 219 in california which qualified last year so hopefully next year too! ) </p>

<p>National AP Scholar: (hopefully if I get mostly 5's which I think I will) </p>

<p>National Science Bowl: Third Place on Team Challenge of Bromery Division. Year 2009 Alumni
We got killed, people at nationals are insaneeeee. But I am a proud alumni</p>

<p>Certificate of Merit (2006,2007,2008,2010): Piano thing, yes all Asians play piano.</p>

<p>School of Modern Language Certificate of Excellence: awarded from Santa Barbara City College for performance in French Course 2008. not that great, but notable</p>

<p>Play on HS tennis team for 4 years: Most Improved Player for years 2007 and 2008.</p>

<p>Student of the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy: Part of the FIRST Robotics Team (only seniors)</p>

<p>President of a Sustainability Club. Treasurer for Math club. Vice President for Science Bowl Club. Vice President of Ping Pong Club (yes I know very asian). Vice president for Science Bowl Club.</p>

<p>I think I am gonna start a new club with friends next year for Science Olympiad. I am not really doing it for college, more just because I loved the competitions and science in general.</p>

<p>Over 250 hours of community service for Cottage Hospital. not a big deal </p>

<p>I am interning with a High Tech firm this summer and I am also trying to intern with a UC Santa Barbara professor as well.</p>

<p>For now, my AP Environ teacher will probably write a letter of rec for me, but I doubt he is a good writer. My Econ teacher will fro sure write an awesome one for me. I think I can get my physics teacher to write one for me as well (hopefully better than my environ teacher). If all goes well, I could get a letter of rec from mentors during my internship voer the summer.</p>

<p>I have a lot of other minor stuff, such as writing Op-Eds for newspapers and promoting sustainability in my club, but I don't think they sound that good.</p>

<p>Long list, but I hope you guys can read all of it and give me feedback!</p>

2

<p>First off, I’d like to say KERN COUNTY!!!</p>

<p>Anyways, I bet you already know this, but you sound like a stereotypical Asian math/science dude. Not necessarily a bad thing, but of course you’ll need to distinguish yourself. Your resume is fine, your test scores are fine [I personally wouldn’t worry about the SAT but do what you want (and also, the ACT is ridiculous, I don’t think they know how to add up subscores, either that or 18 + 18 does not equal 36 anymore)].</p>

<p>The only thing you need to do (and I can’t stress this enough) is WORK ON YOUR ESSAYS. That is what will set you apart. </p>

<p>Of course, at the Princeton/MIT level, it’s pretty much impossible to predict, I’d say you have a good chance, as long as you WORK ON YOUR ESSAYS.</p>

3

<p>Just a quick note on the ACT. Trying to get a 36 is stupid. A college is not going to reject you based on whether you got a 35 or a 36 on the ACT. A 36 on the ACT requires only 1 possible mistake which can only be made on the writing section. 23 out of 80,000 people got a 36. The difference between a 35 and a 36 has nothing to do with intelligence and the college knows that. It’s just luck.</p>

4

<p>write a unique, FUNNY essay!</p>

5

<p>your essay. Your essay, again, like everyone says, is either gonna get you in or get you out of their consideration. (the admin. com, i mean…)</p>

<p>btw, nice name. I loove tennis… though Fed ftw. :P</p>

6

<p>impressive. you definitely have a shot at princeton. MIT’s admission for guys is extremely competitive (9% admission rate) so i won’t predict; my dream school is MIT, hope we both get in :)</p>

7

<p>MIT is AWESOME. I really hope to see you there too, though I might apply for early decision :)</p>

<p>Shanghai?? I am from Guangzhou. :p</p>

<p>More comments will be appreciated!</p>

8

<p>Just remember to make yourself stand out, as you’ve already heard :slight_smile:
I think you have a better chance at MIT than Princeton, due to all your math based/econ stuff. They’re always much more merit-based.
I do have to disagree with ADHDFTL about the 36. Obviously if you can get a 36 it can only help you. Along with the fact that only 23 ppl can do it… I once read an article about a girl who got into HYPM because she got full scores on PSAT, SAT, and ACT.</p>

9

<p>You have a great chance. Don’t try to be that girl, if you’re NOT that girl. I would say get your SATs above 2300 for good measure, but stop there. Then make sure you write great essays.</p>

10

<p>i don’t know if it’s a typo but MIT only has early action not early decision. what do you plan on majoring in?</p>

11

<p>Your right, I meant early action. I want either Economics, or Engineering in Eletrcial or Biomedical. I have the ACt today! Wish me luck :)</p>

<p>More chances would be appreciated. Feel free to comment!</p>

12

<p>Being Asian will probably hurt your chances a little bit but you picked the right schools thats for sure. MIT is awesome and so is Pinceton, but I believe Princeton automatically gives their students any necessary funding they may need to attend. Good luck!</p>

13

<p>Stats look good. It’s all about the essays now.</p>

14

<p>:)</p>

<p>I have been hearing about essays a lot.</p>

15

<p>YOU ARE SURE TO GET IN! yes your essays hhave to be good but i think your set. Except for MIT, you can nver be good enough for them, no one is, who knows what they look for! but princeton for sure dont worry about it! youve done great!</p>

16

<p>haha, Thank you. I am not sure about 100% chance in Princeton… but I really want to get in :/.</p>

17

<p>guy… look at his EC more carefully. They are all team places. The student did not WIN ANY individuals. He gets glory from his teams. Putting his “team” won many awards will carry little to no weight. leadership is also a little rocky lol VPs of Pingpong.</p>

<p>Academically solid, no solid state recognition of EC.
This puts you in “above average” for EC according to What it really Takes to Get into Elite College by Hughes, significantly hurting chances due to ORM status.</p>

<p>Just my two cents.</p>

18

<p>True, most of my awards are team based, but that does not mean that I am riding off y team at all.

  1. I worked the hardest out of any of my team members, something that I can go into a great detail in when it comes to college apps. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>ALSO, the team is only 4 people each, making it nothing close to activities such as Mock Trail (which takes like 20 people instead). To tell you the truth doing well with only 4 people is hardly free-riding at all. The success of which we had over our competition is a testament to us all working hard together. It is NOT possible to do well with slackers on the team.</p></li>
<li><p>Face is CC’er, we are in a the real world. And to succeed in the real world you have to do MORE than just working by yourself. There are 6.5 billion other people on the planet, and if you are so focused on individualism, you will surely be on the road to disaster.</p></li>
<li><p>Most competitions are team oriented anyways.</p></li>
</ol>

19

<p>bump 10char</p>

20

<p>Djokovic, no offense to Asian students but not all of them play or have a passion for playing piano as you might believe.</p>

<p>I wonder if you got into Princeton, because I know someone who wishes to attend there in fall 2011 with similar extracurricular activities such as yours e.g. team-oriented competition participation. </p>

<p>Could I send you an PM?</p>