Chance an underachieving student at a plethora of schools in California?

<p>If you can't sleep, why not create an edited chance me thread? Please tell me my prospects at some of the higher end schools im considering right now.</p>

<p>junior, male, below 30K income</p>

<p>Class Rank: 1/438</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 unweighted, ~4.2 weighted UC style</p>

<p>SAT I:
2270
(800 writing, 770 reading, 700 math)</p>

<p>SAT II:
800 Chinese
took Math Level 2
thinking of taking physics or bioE</p>

<p>AP's:
World History 5
Calculus AB (waiting for score)
Physics B (waiting for score)
English Lang (waiting for score)</p>

<p>APs next year:
English Lit.
Calc BC
Spanish
Biology</p>

<p>EC's:
(I think this is my weakest point, I really wasted a lot of my froshsoph years by not applying myself to anything... lesson learned.)
3 years Tennis
1 year Math Club (secretary)
3 years CSF
3 years Key Club
2 years MUN
1 year Spanish Club</p>

<p>Award(s):
Second place in guitar competition held at local college</p>

<p>Summer:
Got a job at a tutoring center
volunteering at local library (thanks poi)</p>

<p>Other Stuff:
Played in a band for 4 years, performed 30-40 shows</p>

<p>Colleges I'm looking at:
UC San Diego
UC Berkeley
UC Los Angeles
UC Davis
University of Southern California
Caltech (likely high reach)
Cornell (ditto, my only out of state choice)</p>

<p>any other schools that I should take into consideration? Should I even bother looking at those HPYS types or Ivy leagues?</p>

<p>Very good applicant.</p>

<p>You have a GREAT shot at all the UC’s. </p>

<p>Not gonna comment on Cornell on Caltech.</p>

<p>Have you considered applying for QuestBridge? It’s a scholarship program aimed at low-income, high-achieving students. The criteria are here: [National</a> College Match - Selection Criteria](<a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/cmp/criteria.html]National”>http://www.questbridge.org/cmp/criteria.html)</p>

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<p>Additional schools you might consider: Claremont McKenna/Pomona/Harvey Mudd in Claremont, CA, which are small liberal arts colleges, each with slightly different focuses. HMC is pretty sciency/techy; if you’re considering Caltech you might be interested in Harvey Mudd.</p>

<p>On the off chance that you’re interested in physics, consider this post by interesteddad:</p>

<p>These one hundred colleges and universities produced the highest percentage of future Physics/Astronomy PhDs per graduate over the most recent 10 year period. Obviously a lot of tech schools are represented, but there’s something for just about everybody (different sizes, different locations, different selectivities):</p>

<p>PhDs and Doctoral Degrees:
ten years (1994 to 2003) from NSF database</p>

<p>Number of Undergraduates:
ten years (1989 to 1998) from IPEDS database</p>

<p>Formula: Total PhDs divided by Total Grads, multiplied by 1000 </p>

<p>Note: Does not include colleges with less than 1000 graduates over the ten year period</p>

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1   California Institute of Technology  96
2   Harvey Mudd College 64
3   Massachusetts Institute of Technology   29
4   New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology   20
5   Reed College    13
6   Carleton College    13
7   Princeton University    13
8   University of Chicago   13
9   Rice University 13
10  Case Western Reserve University 9
11  Harvard University  9
12  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute    9
13  Swarthmore College  9
14  Haverford College   8
15  Stevens Institute of Technology 8
16  Whitman College 8
17  Grinnell College    7
18  Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 7
19  Colorado School of Mines    7
20  Yale University 6
21  Williams College    6
22  University of Rochester 6
23  Amherst College 6
24  Goshen College  5
25  Cornell University, All Campuses    5
26  University of Dallas    5
27  Wabash College  5
28  Stanford University 5
29  Beloit College  5
30  University of California-Berkeley   5
31  Carnegie Mellon University  5
32  Johns Hopkins University    5
33  Hastings College    5
34  Lawrence University 5
35  Illinois Institute of Technology    5
36  Columbia University in the City of New York 4
37  Oberlin College 4
38  Monmouth College    4
39  Bryn Mawr College   4
40  Gustavus Adolphus College   4
41  Kalamazoo College   4
42  College of William and Mary 4
43  Earlham College 4
44  Worcester Polytechnic Institute 4
45  Pomona College  4
46  St Olaf College 4
47  Georgia Institute of Technology, Main Campus    4
48  Rhodes College  4
49  St John's University (Collegeville, MN) 3
50  Bates College   3
51  Macalester College  3
52  Brown University    3
53  Wesleyan University 3
54  Bethel College (North Newton, KS)   3
55  Brandeis University 3
56  Kenyon College  3
57  Hope College    3
58  St John's College (both campus) 3
59  Franklin and Marshall College   3
60  Bowdoin College 3
61  Washington University   3
62  Walla Walla College 3
63  Middlebury College  3
64  University of Missouri, Rolla   3
65  Drew University 3
66  Guilford College    3
67  Southern College of Seventh-Day Adventists  3
68  Moravian College    3
69  Clarkson University 3
70  Polytechnic University  3
71  Hamline University  3
72  Tougaloo College    3
73  Vassar College  2
74  Andrews University  2
75  University of California-San Diego  2
76  Lehigh University   2
77  College of Wooster  2
78  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  2
79  Wake Forest University  2
80  Duke University 2
81  Albion College  2
82  University of Virginia, Main Campus 2
83  Trinity University  2
84  University of Alabama in Huntsville 2
85  Benedictine College 2
86  University of Puget Sound   2
87  Michigan Technological University   2
88  Dartmouth College   2
89  Cooper Union    2
90  Pacific University  2
91  Florida Institute of Technology 2
92  Xavier University   2
93  Northwest Nazarene College  2
94  South Dakota School of Mines & Technology   2
95  Hendrix College 2
96  Bucknell University 2
97  Millsaps College    2
98  Southwestern University 2
99  Bethel College and Seminary, All Campuses   2
100 Wofford College 2
101 Wellesley College   2


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