Chance Me (BC, Lehigh, BU, W&M, UVA, UIUC, NYU...)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello, I am currently a junior in HS, and I go to a small Christian private school in VA
Will anyone chance me for BC, BU, William&Mary, UVA, UIUC, NYU, UMich, Lehigh, Emory?
or suggest me some match schools?

Major: Accounting or Finance

SAT: 2100 (CR580 M800 WR720)

I have only taken once, and I am planning to take it again this month,
but I do not really think my CR score will go up… so maybe I will try ACT in the Spring or Fall.

SAT2: planning to take Math and Chem at the end of the year

GPA: 4.15 Unweighted-4.0

APs: school doesnt offer AP I do not know what to do about this. Should I self-study for some AP exams?
I am thinking about self-studying AP stats, Psych, AP Calc but I am not sure if I have time to do so.
Also, I am an international student and because of Eng proficiency, I did not take many honors courses
during Freshman and Soph years… This year I have H Chem, College Math, H SP3, but that’s all.
(Btw there are few college classes offered but beside math and bio, other classes are like woodworking, inft…etc)

Class Rank: top 10%

In Senior Year, I am planning to take:
Either College Biology or Honors Physics
Finance
College INFT
H Calculus
C English
Government
Bible (required)

EC:
10-12 Marching Band- Section leader
11-12 Piano Tutor (I get paid)
9-12 Short term mission trip to Guatemala
11-12 National Honors Society
11-12 Beta Club
9-12 Korean School TA
9-12 Christmas Community Project
11-12 Nursing Homes Outreach
9 School Orchestra
10 Christian Theater competition accompanied pianist

-I know I do not have much leadership experience… :frowning:
Being an introvert, I honestly do not know how/ what leadership position I can have…

Ethnicity: Asian
Financial Aid? Probably not going to apply for it

Thank you all
& Happy NewYears

2

For umich, you have a shot at getting into LSA. I’m not sure about Ross pre-admit, but if you apply Ross pre-admit, you will receive separate decisions from Ross and the unit you applied to (e.g., LSA, engineering). You have to first be accepted into the unit you applied to before your application gets forwarded to Ross. If you don’t get into Ross pre-admit, you can try again freshman year.

I personally found the ACT to be a bit easier especially if critical reading is not your strength. Do not wait until this fall to try the SAT or ACT again. By then, it can be too late. Get it done this spring or this summer. If you want to try the ACT for the first time, do it this spring. That way, if you are unhappy with your score, you still have another chance. Luckily for the SAT and ACT you have the option to select which scores you want to let colleges see.

Not having AP courses won’t penalize you, but those who take AP courses can receive bonus points. If you think you can handle self-studying for an AP exam, by all means go ahead. Taking honors courses is good.

Being a marching band section leader is considered leadership. Leadership does not necessarily mean you have to be president of something. What matters is how you acted to demonstrate leadership. A president of a club who didn’t handle their responsibilities very well will not be looked favorably upon.

With regards to your ECs, the most important thing is that you have something meaningful to say about each of them. Quality is more important than quantity. It is better to have four or five and really be able to talk about with substance, rather than have 20 or 30 where you don’t have much to say for the majority of them. For example, think about the difference between “during this mission trip I did this, and that…” and “I showed up to this club’s meetings once every other week for free pizza”. For your activities, you should be able to write a meaningful paragraph for each of them. There should be roughly two where you can really talk about in depth. That is, for each of those activities you should be able to write at least half a page single spaced to discuss how they helped to shape you.

3

@umcoe16 Thank you so much for ur adivce!! :slight_smile: I really appreciate it!

4

I would think you would be good to go for Lehigh for business. I dont believe you can take AP test unless you have the course. it is given at the school where you take a class. How about taking a college class at a local college instead? Good luck.

5

@mainlinemom you don’t need to be enrolled in an AP course to take an AP test

6

I’d say you have a good shot at getting into BU, especially with your class rank and test scores. Being full pay as an international doesn’t hurt either. I think if you write some thoughtful essays, you should have a good admissions package for a lot of schools.

7

Thank you guys!
Oh and I have one more Q… haha
isn’t there a section in an application for the awards?
Do they count any kind of awards that u received during HS years
or just the ones u received at some kind of competitions outside of school?
For my freshman&soph years, I got a lot of highest honor awards
for having the highest grade in each class. Can I put this in my app or no?
I feel like this question is kind of stupid, but I was curious… (:

8

There is a space on the common application for awards, the only restriction is that it take place during the four years you were in high school. It doesn’t matter whether it happens in school or out of school. Colleges will not count what you don’t have at your school against you as long as you have taken the most rigorous schedule offered by your own school. Only self-study if you want to get college credit for those classes, not if you want to impress the college. Think carefully though if you really want to do this. For instance, if you are thinking of taking higher level math in college, you may want an actual year of calculus in college rather than skipping the class because of an AP credit you hastily studied for.

Leadership also does not have to be a formal position. It can be something you took an active part of and got a great deal out of it. For instance, have you taken on greater responsibility with the volunteering that you do or taken initiative in some project? That still counts. I am an introvert as well and I have found that playing to your strengths is really important. For instance, I really like writing, so I became the editor of my school’s publications. In any case, it looks like you are already taking an active role in your community, which is good. Colleges want to see someone who is active and will take full advantage of the opportunities offered.

Your application otherwise looks pretty solid. The only thing I might be slightly concerned about is that critical reading section, but that might be able to be offset with strong grades in english classes or a recommendation by an english teacher. Keep in mind for certain schools like W&M, they primarily consider the reading and math sections

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Thank u for the advice! @shawnspencer