Hello everyone, I have some serious questions I want to ask about my admission profile. Because I am from such a small city/school it is very hard for me to grasp where exactly I stand in terms of college admissions and how competitive I am. I planning to major in business administration / marketing or communications/media studies.
Let me give a quick background information about myself. I am came from South Korea in the 7th grade. The transition phase was very tough with my JH gpa being a 2.8 haha but I got through it. I will be applying as an international student.
I go to a private high school (#1 in County) with a student body around 700 and with a class of 120. I’ve been part of our schools international business program since freshmen year taking classes like (marketing, entrepreneurship, finance etc) and taken numerous honors and AP classes. Although freshmen year was a struggle for me, my grade each semester consistently increased.
9th
1st sem 4.23
2nd sem 4.51
10th
1st sem 4.74
2nd sem 4.91
11th
1st sem 4.78
2nd sem 5.0
Currently, my unweighted GPA is a 3.88 with a weighted GPA of 4.72. I am a top 9% student in my class. I’ve take 8 AP test so far and planning to 5 more my senior year → Comp Sci A, Macro, Gov, Stats, Lang with 3 other honors courses.
9th (APhug 3)
10th (APworld 5, AP Physics1 2, AP Psych 3 [self study]) / AP Scholar
11th (APCalcBC 4, AP Physics C Mech 4, APush 4, AP lit 3) / AP Scholar w/ Distinction
I understand my AP scores aren’t as great as others so I tried my best to show my academic capabilities in other ways.
SAT II Korean - 800
SAT II Math2 - 800
SAT II US history - 780
SAT II Physics (Might take it)
ACT - 33 (planning to retake for a 34+)
In terms of my ECs, here is a quick run down.
- Captain of nationally ranked Debate team —> Superior Distinction from the NSDA, 2x qualifier to the Tournament of Champions, ranked as high as 50th in the nation for public forum, top 10 in CA, coach middle school and novice students (9-12)
- CFO of my non-profit organization —> built portable libraries across the county, held a talent show to raise $7,000 to support mental health issues, working on a project with the USC's social innovation lab to develop a career kickstart initiative to end homelessness.
- Personal basketball coach/mentor for a 6th grader with autism --> successfully trained him to earn a spot in the local basketball team (9-12)
- Run an online business through ebay + apps to buy/sell/trade clothes and shoes --> made over $5,000 in profit.
- High school fellow for OCA-GLA —> worked to run voter registration drives at campus + civic engagement training sessions (11)
- Student Engagement Association (9-12) —> closing the barrier between international / domestic students.
- Founder of two clubs —> LaunchX (president) + Club for my non-profit (president) (10-12)
- Student Ambassador (9-12)
- Journalism —> layout editor, school news editor, editor in chief (9-12)
- 4 year varsity athlete —> basketball (9), Golf (10-12)
- NHS (11-12)
- Yale Young Global Scholars (10th), LaunchX at MIT (11th)
- President Volunteer service gold award, Certificate of Recognition Korean American President Chamber of Commerce, Certificate of Recognition from the City Mayor.
My peers at my school don’t really share any information about their ECs with one another so its very hard to understand how much I am doing. I just tried my hardest to put myself in the best position possible. I understand it will be very hard for you guys to tell me “oh you will get into x college because of this” since this isn’t a 100% reflection of my entire application — the essays, teacher rec, outside rec and more. I just want to know if I am in a good position going into the fall and what are some red flags you guys see in my application.
I am very outgoing person and would prefer to go to a decent sized school. I am looking at schools with great business and communication programs.