Chance an asian with a low gpa! (really specific resume)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>I am a rising senior and Im trying to thin out my college application list to about 10 schools out of the following:</p>

<p>Caltech
Northwestern
MIT
Uchicago
Pomona
Rice
UVA
William and Mary
Duke
Vanderbilt
Georgia Tch
Notre Dame
Georgetown
Johns Hopkins
Wake Forest
Carnegie Mellon
Brown
Columbia
Dartmouth
Princeton</p>

<p>Obviously, im not going to try to apply to all of these schools, but I especially want to go to Uchicago and want to apply to at least one ivy league. I am currently thinking about which school I want to early decision on, and right now I think its between JHU and Dartmouth. If you have any suggestions for schools, don't hesitate to tell me!</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Asian
Sex/state: Im going to leave out my state/sex to make it harder to track me, as my ECs are pretty specific...
Major: I haven't decided on polysci/bio/physics... will probably state polysci on app
School: I think we're top 100 public schools in the country? </p>

<p>SAT: 2400
SAT2: 800s in chem, bioE and biom, math2, and physics
APs: 11
GPA: 3.75(uw)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RANK: comes out in October, top 10% at least</p>

<p>I realize my gpa is extremely low... I had straight As up until junior year,
and one of my close friends passed away, which really screwed up my first semester junior year grades (I got a C+ in BC calc and Bs/A-s in the rest of my AP classes (5). I ended up improving, but I still had 2 A-s, a B(chem), a B-(calc) and a B+(bio) for final grades... HOW MUCH WILL THIS HURT MY CHANCES?!?!?!</p>

<p>My Recs will be great, both teachers have known me for over 3 years and love me <3 One will be given to my math teacher, the other to my history teacher/debate coach</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULARS:</p>

<p>Karate (12 years)
-black belt 3rd degree
- now work as an instructor (I teach little kids)
- "Captain" of the demo team (kicks and flips and stuff)</p>

<p>ORCHESTRA VIOLIN/VIOLA (8yrs)
- First chair of school orchestra (3yrs)
- First chair of county orchestra (2yrs)
- First violin regional orchestra (1yr)
- First violin state orchestra (1yr)
- Started my own orchestra at school that plays contemporary music ( I conduct it)
- Violinist in a quartet, we play for money (at malls and stuff)
- Teach as a job
- Wrote duet music for guitar+violin/Viola</p>

<p>VOLUNTEERING (1200+ hours) :
- Presidents Volunteer award gold, 4 years
- President of Key Club for a year, VP for 2
- raised over $15000 for causes for charities</p>

<p>-Volunteer for special needs kids since 8th grade (over 1000 hours)
- Coached sports (tennis and basketball) for these kids
- Created a club at my school dedicated to raising money for special needs programs
- Interned for a psychology practice dedicated to helping children that could not be taken care of by the public school system (2 yrs)
-Tutor math to mentally handicapped children at my school (alg+ geometry)</p>

<p>POLITICS:
- President of MUN at my school
- Created school newspaper dedicated to international and national politics
- President of JSA/Young dem/rep (they're all rolled up into one "politics" club at my school)
- Given public speeches to my school about political issues
-placed regionally and locally for MUN and JSA (not that big a deal)</p>

<p>DEBATE (4 years):
- State Champion (2 years)
- Regional Champion (2 years)
- District Champion (2 years)
- Captain
- Qualifed for the TOC
- Qualified for CFL(s) twice (barely didn't break this past year...)
- placed semis, quarters, octos and won a ton of national level debate tournaments
- Made a camp for upcoming high school debaters (20 students, $250 per)
-Coach for local middle school policy debate and pofo (what a joke haha)</p>

<p>SCIENCY STUFF:
- 2nd place at astrophysics olympiad (went to Europe)
- Competing this year at an astrophysics olympiad, only 5 are chosen from the nation to compete
- Was chosen for a highly selective aerospace program that interns you with NASA
- Interned at NASA multiple times
- Built a reactor at my house in order to do experimentation on renewable energy
- Done a ton of research on satellite communications and fusion, Was invited for a tour of the CIA for my work on satellite communication technology, presenting my fusion research this year
- Was invited to a state-sponsored program for physics, very competitive (50 people in the state I think?)
- Was invited to a summer program at NASA that had us do modules and simulations of Space (100 people were invited)</p>

<p>There is a boatload of stuff that Im forgetting, which I'll update as I remember them</p>

<p>Mostly, im really worried about my junior year grades, I feel like I've done everything else to the best of my ability, and I'm afraid that my grades are going to be the chink in the armor thats going to kill my admission chances!</p>

<p>Thanks in advance</p>

2

<p>That is not a low GPA by any means. Your one of those super try hard kids aren’t you? Furthermore, who is going to track you? You’ll be fine.</p>

3

<p>First, take a deep breath.</p>

<p>You are going to melt into a puddle of goo if you go through the college process with this much anxiety. First, realize that Harvard rejected a ton of 2400’s this year who probably also had 4.0’s. Realize that people will have HIGHER GPA AND SAT scores. Realize that they too will be rejected! This whole thing is a crapshoot. Then, factor in the hundreds (HUNDREDS!) of rich kids from boarding schools like Exeter and Andover and snooty NYC private schools which are getting private interviews with the Dean of Admissions to places like Brown and Yale, insider info on how to shape their application, don’t have to worry about F.A., and oh yeah, are legacies.</p>

<p>RELAX. THIS IS A CRAPSHOOT.</p>

<p>Once you internalize that, ESPECIALLY for the schools you’re looking at, you’ll be much better off. Of course a 3.75 puts you in the running at any school. The only bad thing is a downward trend in junior year which can be explained if you send your school an additional essay telling them what happened and how you were affected. Adcoms aren’t robots and I’m sure they’ll understand.</p>

<p>You have barely any safety schools on here which is what you should really be worrying about. With your fantastic extracurrics and good GPA – even if you don’t want to believe it – I assure you, shoot for the stars! Just keep in mind that you need backups in case anything happens, FA doesn’t work out, etc. Do not make the mistake so many people make and apply to only Ivies and their equals. Really. Don’t do it!</p>

<p>That being said, let me break this down…</p>

<p>Caltech – off the bat, this is impossible. The 2 kids I know going to Caltech knew they were going to Caltech. What I mean is they had 4.0s, jacked to the max SAT scores, and huge Science wins. The Science stuff you have is great and will definitely boost your chances at any school but Caltech and M.I.T. which are basically looking for little prodigies. And Caltech (unlike M.I.T.) really does not take ‘risks’ in their applicant admits. Because of the rigor of the school, they’re only admitting the people who have proven tenfold they can handle it. Don’t take this as a negative thing! You are Harvard/UChic/Pomona/school of your choice material – just maybe not Caltech. At least not for ED.</p>

<p>M.I.T., Carnegie Mellon, Princeton – HIGH, HIGH reach</p>

<p>Pomona, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke – with a letter explaining your B- in junior year, you have as good a chance as any at these places. Obviously no one is “in” at an Ivy and they’re reaches for everyone, but you’re certainly in the running at all of these schools.</p>

<p>Georgetown – honestly, Georgetown gets its own little category because even though it doesn’t get ranked as well as Columbia/Princeton/etc it’s HEAVILY weighted towards Catholics. If you aren’t Catholic, props to getting into Georgetown. The admissions office is much harder on those apps, so this school certainly isn’t a “target” or “safety” for anyone who isn’t Catholic or Catholic-affiliated.</p>

<p>Northwestern, UChicago, Rice – excellent schools, low reaches.</p>

<p>Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, UVA – targets, you should expect FA from UVA as well.</p>

<p>William and Mary, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Wake Forest – safeties</p>

<p>Whew! That took some time! Remember not to stress or freak out during the process and definitely remove some of the schools on this list! There’s no way you can apply to all of them and do a good job on each supplemental application. I would work on adding to your “target” schools and really deciding which reach schools you want to go for – don’t be too “top heavy.”</p>

<p>Chance back!!! <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1377327-first-choice-brown-chances-ed-will-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1377327-first-choice-brown-chances-ed-will-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>^ Do not listen to this post. </p>

<p>You have pretty good chances at all the top tech schools and obviously some of the schools on your list are safeties.</p>

5

<p>There is no way this is real. “built a reactor at my house” and right after that, did “fusion research”? Did you happen to build a fusion reactor at your house? Some kid tried to build a nuclear reactor at UChicago a few years back. FBI stormed his house and it did not end well for him.</p>

6

<p>If your 3.75 gpa is still in the top 10% I think you should be okay especially since you can explain why your grades for 1st semester jr year were low</p>

7

<p>^ I invented the atom bomb, created nanoparticles that cure cancer, and developed a genetically altered mosquito that wipes out Malaria. Do you think I could get into ITT Tech? Please be honest, I know my gpa(4.0 uw) is really low. I have been studying all summer to improve my SAT score(2400) too. I don’t want to become a hobo on the street…</p>

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<p>^ idk lol! ur graids look perty good 2 mi! i hope u get in2 itt tech, its a really cool skool! lol!</p>

9

<p>Bookmarking great stuff.</p>

<p>" That being said, let me break this down… Chance back!!! "</p>

10

<p>Thanks for all the replies!</p>

<p>@ptontiger
I realize that it might seem like bs, but its really not that hard. My uncle has a background in energy research and I got a lot of help from a local university’s physics department, and of course, online forums. Its not like a self-sustaining powerplant by any means, its just for data. Its really not as impressive as it sounds, and it took 1.5 years to do. There are people in my county who did stuff thats ACTUALLY crazy, like research on quantum somethingorother and nanotechnology (I couldn’t explain it if I tried). Im trying to do research on He-3 isotopes now, not going too well ^^
@Juanitarebel
I realize your post was supposed to be sarcastic, but I was sincere in my question. My SAT score is great, but I actually am really worried about my gpa. Looking through the accepted numbers on CC, the amount of people who got in with below 3.9s I could count on my fingers… and many of them were URM or athletes. Being neither of these and having a subpar GPA is worth being worried dont you think?</p>

11

<p>Then you’ve piqued my interest. What kind of reactor is it? It can’t be a nuclear reactor and you can’t initiate fusion without expending a whole lot of energy, so what kind of reactor? Also, He-3 is not common - where are you getting this He?</p>

12

<p>@JuanitaRebel- lol you have no chance at even the local community college. that app is a joke. you should have a 30000 SAT and a 10.0 UW GPA. Have fun flipping burgers. lol.</p>

13

<p>@ptontiger16
I was going to answer you question here, but it ended up being long, so I just posted it on your wall (or whatever you call it)</p>

14

<p>What do you want to major in?</p>

15

<p>wow, although your GPA is on the lower side, your EC’s certainly stand out and are extremely impressive! honestly, i feel like your amazing EC’s make up for the meh GPA. how did you manage all of your EC’s???</p>

16

<p>Your GPA is not low, and even if it were, I think everything else would make up for it.</p>

17

<p>3.75 ugpa is not bad.</p>

18

<p>Wow I do the same thing, 3rd degree black belt, teach, and am captain of the demo team in my city, only I do tae kwon do. Im a freshman now so when I get to become a senior hopefully I will be a 4th degree. BTW have you competed in any tournaments?</p>

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<p>LOL sorry, I’m asian so i get stereotyped for a lot of things concerning education. That and manhood. But mostly education and my friend you are hitting every stereotype on the head. I think you’ve got a solid chance buddy for most of the schools and a good chance for some of the ivy leagues. Let your passions decide your major and your major decide your school, not the other way around.</p>