Asian girl who’s lived in 4 countries due to my dad’s job. I got 2320 in my SAT (800 reading, 760 math and writing) on my first try, junior year; 770 in both Sat2 lit and USH. I also got something like 220 on my PSAT but I’m not an American citizen so wew no National Merit Scholar benefits!
Before listing my GPA, let me just say that my schools grading scale goes something like 88~93 is a B; 94~95 is A-; 96~ is an A. And no, it’s not because it’s easy to get good grades. I heard that some colleges consider this factor and recalculate our GPA but I’m not sure which ones do and which ones don’t. I have a 3.8 GPA, but got above 90 in all my classes except 1 for all 4 years. Our school allows us to take 2 APs maximum with 3 allowed only to those with permission, so I’ve taken 2 APs junior year and 3 this year. AP Lang / 5, APUSH / 4, taking AP euro history, AP stats, AP lit
My extra curriculars go something like:
-All years XC varsity & captain this year. Got chosen to go to a conference XC tournament at Guam for two years.
-head department editor at a magazine for english-speaking teens in my country; legit and funded
-speech & debate 3 years, 1st on duo etc.
-first place out of high schoolers in an english essay competition in my country hosted by a newspaper, university, the british embassy etc.
-finalist for ayn rand essay comp (top 3% out of 2000+ applicants)
-did vocal (like opera singing kinda stuff) for 7 years; am in Tri-M (honour music society), school advanced choir, and am trying out for national honours choir
-4 years @ literary magazine in our school; treasurer junior year
-4 years @ volunteer club in our school; secretary junior year
-mock trials 1 year – Team A and 1st place in conference (but prob not going to mention this in common app cus 1 year)
-took classes at local uni for intro to psych and intro to marketing
-interned at a book publishing firm that translates english books into korean; weaves in my interest in marketing and literature, as i got to learn and participate in the marketing process behind it. also, translating stuff = bilingual yo
-school service trip to thailand dealing with prostitution @ junior year, wrote pieces on it
-volunteer at disabled home for 4 years
-volunteering in translating korean traditional storybooks into english to send to kids in Laos
i want to pursue majors in the fields of journalism, communications, english lit or psych. i also want to try to mention how english was my second language that i picked up in 4th grade, but fell in love with the language and ended up taking – and acing – ap lang and pursuing ap lit this year. my interest / ability in languages (took and finished both spanish and french throughout high school to highest level class & can speak conversationally in both) also boosts my global childhood? idk
i’m waning between EDing to:
-northwestern (more realistic than others, although yes i know still hard esp. cus GPA / leadership in school),
-brown (dream school… my heart aches when i think about how i probs won’t ED here bc i stand so little chance haha)
-columbia (cus journalism in nyc yo! and also they allow musical supplements).
OR EA to UMich, UChicago, maybe notre dame
regulars mixed between BU, northeastern, maybe claremont mckenna, emory, UCLA, UC berkeley, USC.
so yas! first ever chance post and feeling conscious cus anyone i know could so easily identify me through this ahaha. yeah, i wish i couldve done better on my GPA, school leadership positions, more ‘wow damn dude’ worthy stuff in my field of interest but yakno this is what i got. bracing myself for the “lol wake up u aint good enough” comment tbh! but yeah seriously i’d really appreciate any realistic inputs. thanks so much!