Chance me and I'll chance back!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Background: I'm a junior in high school in a family of 4 and go to a competitive high school in San Jose, California. I honestly haven't been able to do as much as I wanted to this year, and in high school in general. Partially because when I was a freshman, I started unintentionally hanging around some slackers at my school and some of their habits inadvertently rubbed off on me. Even when I wanted to do more, I have an older brother w/ autism and two younger siblings that I often have to take care of because both parents work late. Both parents are immigrants (Dad from Canada, Mom from Mexico) and I spent a lot of time struggling with moving around a lot in my life, battles with ADD and Depression and overall, I just feel like I really didn't do as well as I could have in high school, some things were beyond my control and a lot of just stupid mistakes/slacking probably have seriously cut into my chances at some college I wanted to go to. Furthermore, my school doesn't offer any AP's for sophomores/freshmen and my teachers intentionally tried to scare some ppl off from them since we at one point had too many ppl signing up at our school, even though we really don't offer that many. But I don't wanna waste your time, just alittle background before we get to the good stuff, so here goes;</p>

<p>Current Grade: 11
Unweighted 10-12 GPA: 3.62
Weighted: Unknown (No idea how the weighting system works, if someone could explain it in detail that would be lovely)
Ethnicity: Hispanic/Mexican
SAT: 2100 first time, taking it again Oct. Senior year
Crit. Reading: 720
Math: 640
Writing: 740
Essay: 11</p>

<p>Advanced Classes taken: 5 (Accl. English/History and Honors Chem sophomore year, APUSH and AP Eng. Language junior year)
Advanced Classes taken by graduation: 9 (the aforementioned ones plus AP Calc AB, AP Gov/Econ, AP Lit, APES all senior year)
Total AP's I plan to take by graduation: 6 (possibly 7 if I can do AP Psych/Comp Sci online)</p>

<p>School-related Extracurriculars by graduation:</p>

<p>Cross Country team 3 years, Varsity one
Wrestling Team 3 years, Varsity three
Track team 2 years, Varsity one
Journalism 2 years, Page editor for two sports pages
Paid internship/job as a sports writer for prepsportsdok.com
Speech and Debate one year
Peer Tutor: Will hopefully obtain junior peer tutor award for 30+ hours by first semester senior year.
School clubs: Surf and Board Sports club, hip-hop club, rock n' roll club 3 years each
School Jazz band bassist, 1 year
Non-school related Extracurriculars by graduation:
Internship at local church in media/video department
Independent Bassist, guitarist and pianist
250+ hours of community service at Special Olympics, Angels on Stage, College of Adaptive Arts and other special ed-related organizations, 6 years serving at these organizations, started in middle school
Will be a student director at Angels on Stage next season.
Will get president's award for community service next year.
Took summer classes Academic Connections at UCSD and got A's</p>

<p>This summer:
Summer Classes at De Anza Community college (still waiting to see what I can get)
young scholars program at Santa Clara University (ditto)
Church internship
Congressional Youth Leadership program at Washington DC
Asian Youth Leadership Foundation program at De Anza College
Job at Maximum Health organization for special needs children
Volunteering at Middle School wrestling camp</p>

<p>Next Year's schedule:
Spanish 7-8
AP Gov/Econ
AP Lit
AP Calc AB
AP Enviornmental Science
Media Arts 3-4
Sports
Journalism
Jazz Band
And I'm taking AP Comp Sci over the summer and online, and taking the test independently
Also founding two clubs and will be president of both</p>

<p>Schools applying to:
Santa Clara University
All UC's
USC (Somewhat unrelated by my uncle Manuel P. Servin was a Mexican History professor here for 7 years, could that help?)
NYU
De Anza
Foothill</p>

<p>Something you can probably tell, I was alittle bit scattered. Except for my community service involvement, one of the stupid mistakes I made is that I tried to diversify myself by trying a bunch of different things rather than sticking with one or two. Hence why I'm trying to make up for it by doing a bunch of stuff this summer/first semester senior year.</p>

<p>So wadda ya think?</p>

2

<p>I think you have a good chance at all all of them considering you’re family situation. Make sure to reflect upon it in ur essay. So:</p>

<p>SCU: almost 100%
UC’S: 75% of them u shud get in to (Im making my judgement off of what I have heard)
USC: 50% ?
NYU: could be a toughie
De Anza: really good chance
Foothill: really good chance</p>

3

<p>Also, unrelated, but I’m taking my subject tests on June 2nd and my ACT on June 9th</p>

4

<p>You should be able to get into all the UCs…UCB and UCLA maybe not, but you should be able to get into: UCR, UCSC, UCD, UCI, UCM, UCSD, UCSB</p>

<p>I think you could get into NYU…but I’m not 100% positive. I’d say you have a 75% chance getting in.</p>

<p>I am from San Jose as well! </p>

<p>Chance me?
I would like to know my chances for the following universities: UCSD, UCLA, UCB, NYU</p>

<p>-GPA: 3.6 uw, 4.0 weighted
-SAT: 630CR, 670M, 800W (2100 total, only took it once)
-Will be taking SAT II’s in fall of senior year</p>

<p>Extra Curriculares:
-CSF officer 2012-2013 (also a CSF life member, been in club for most of high school)
-Red Cross Club Secretary 2011-2012
-Red Cross Club Vice President 2012-2013
-Leadership since 9th grade
-Inter-Club Council President/Supreme Court Chief Justice for 2 years (2011-2012 and 2012-2013)
-American Red Cross International Services Co-Coordinator on Youth Executive Board (1 year, 2012-2013)</p>

5

<p>Hey thanks for the chance! :D</p>

<p>Anyways, it looks like the two of us have a lot in common, and to be honest, there are probably gonna be a lot of applicants with similar scores to ours. So based on what I’ve heard from a college panel I attended recently, it will ultimately come down to your essay, what makes you truly unique (for me special ed involvement, for you, it looks like Red Cross stuff) and how well you sell that.</p>

<p>For you and me both, I think UCSD might actually be a bit of a reach but definietly doable if again, you kill it in the application essay. Also, kind of unrelated but UCSD is HUGE on life sciences and pre-med, so if you are interested in that type of major, you could easily link it to your involvement with the Red Cross and use that as a major leg up on the competition if you sell it right, provided of course that is what you are interested in (at the very least you could use it to get in then always transfer to another major).</p>

<p>UC Berkeley and UCLA are gonna be tough for you and me because, well let’s face it; they’re UC Berkeley and UCLA. But don’t loose faith! Again, it’s ultimately gonna come down to two key things; your (possible) major, your essays and how they intertwine or have made you a better person. Specifically, I know two people who are going to UCLA from my school. What’s crazy about them is that neither was a 4.0 valedictorian with a million sports and membership on every club. One was a guy going in as a theatre set design and production major with zero AP classes and a girl going into cell biology with only 2 AP classes. While you haven’t specified how many AP’s you are taking/plan to take, the point is that sometimes you just don’t know. Again, both stressed the essays because that was what made their personalities shine and allow them to express how different they are from the norm, that ultimately got them the spot. No school, UC or otherwise, wants a population of robots.</p>

<p>That being said, UCLA, while still one of the most competitive schools in California, wasn’t always that way, and with a lot of art programs and unusual majors, I think is alittle bit more likely to open the door to underdog applicants like those two. Berkeley admissions on the other hand is HEAVILY based on grades/GPA. Not that we don’t have a chance, but the odds aren’t exactly in our favor either.</p>

<p>As for NYU, based on what I’ve heard, it’s primarily based on your choice of initial major. While obviously, being a private school (and an expensive one at that), it’s got a pretty flexible curriculum that from what I’ve heard, can let you switch out and try new things, it’s important to remember that there are a multitude of colleges specifically suited to very specific majors (ex. NYU Stern is for buisness majors, NYU Ticsh is for film, etc.)</p>

<p>From my school, I know three people who got into NYU, one for Stern and one for Tisch. The guy who is going to stern is (no offense Tim) the stereotypical Asian/Applicant with like 5+ AP classes in one year, years of dedication to martial arts, club memberships, etc.</p>

<p>The other is going to NYU Tisch and couldn’t be any more different. She’s a hispanic female whose of all things, a comic book geek with a huge dedication to film and made an amazing short film her junior year that she submitted. Her dedication to film helped Tisch overlook the fact that she only took one AP (Eng. Lang.) and her only extracurricular was Journalism as the photo chair, but I’m not sure if the same application would work with any of the non-art departments.</p>

<p>Long story short, these are tough schools and we live in tough times. There are a lot of applicants better qualified than us and a lot who are worse, but don’t give up! Again, something that (from what I’ve heard) colleges love almost more than grades is diversity. If you have an interesting background, story, experience or quality, TELL THEM. Who knows, maybe you might just be different enough for them to send an acceptance letter in your direction :)</p>

<p>If you don’t mind me asking, what school in San Jose do you go to? (Leland for me) maybe we can stay in touch to help each other out and worry about college together lol.</p>