<p>I'm at the beginning of my junior year so I have a little time. If you have any tips for me please divulge.</p>
<p>Stuff that's not bad:
- 3.9 GPA
- 210 PSAT (sophomore). Will retake.
- 33 ACT (sophomore). Will retake.
- Class rank is 4/147
- Rural public school
- First-generation college student
- Female interested in math/science. Tested out of trig, physics, and calculus.
- Will fulfill all graduation requirements (honors diploma) by the end of junior year.
- Six AP classes, four honors.
- Taking all dual enrollment classes senior year.
- Recommendations will be good.
- Volunteer at public library,
- Cofounded book club at public library.
- Student of the Month (2)
- Teen Ink Editor's Choice Award (4). Worthless but I thought I'd throw it out there.
- Member of book club, quiz bowl, and science club.
- School musical ensemble.
- Piano lessons.
- Work at McDonald's.</p>
<p>Stuff that might hurt me:
- Only two years of foreign language.
- No honors classes as a freshman.
- I'm white. (Seriously, if I were any paler I'd glow in the dark.)
- 1970 SAT. (As a freshman and I didn't study.) Will retake.
- Just joined all my clubs this year. (Scared of upperclassmen when I was younger.)
- No leadership positions.
- I have played piano for seven years but the cats on YouTube are better than me.
- Not an awesome writer.</p>
<p>Colleges in no particular order:</p>
<p>University of California, Berkeley
Harvey Mudd College
Wellesley College
Reed College
Smith College
Case Western Reserve University
University of Michigan Ann-Arbor
Georgia Institute of Technology
Ohio State</p>
<p>You’re awesome! Just keep working hard and talking to your family about finances. Your ACT is great and you can probably bring your SAT up if you retake it. You have a great sense of humor, too, and are a much better writer than you think.</p>
<p>I’m guessing you will for sure get into Wellesley, Smith, Case Western, and OSU. Probably Michigan. Not sure about the others, or how they fit your personality.</p>
<p>I think Harvey Mudd will be the most difficult for you to get into, but you still have a good chance. Still in your Junior year you’ll have great opportunities to stick with the clubs you are in and show you are passionate about them as well as have 4s and 5s for AP stats. Plus, this decade colleges love the first generation types. I think you have a really good shot at all these places.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’re that bad whatsoever! Besides, if you got Teenink’s Editor’s Choice you can’t be a TERRIBLE writer…I’m not that knowledgeable of the schools you listed, but by your stats alone I’d say you have as great of a chance as the next person. Keep up the good work!</p>
<p>Bump, just to see if I get any more responses.
I’m also doing a mentorship with some kind of scientist (haven’t got placed yet) through my school.</p>
<p>Dude. **** you. People like you are the why people don’t like smart kids. You have a 33 ACT, you’re 4 in your class and you’re sitting here telling people that your stats aren’t good. Those are both top 3/4% and will put you in the range of getting into any schools. Don’t be that guy.</p>
<p>They aren’t good compared to a lot of people on here, at least the ones who are trying to go to top schools. This website is crawling with ridiculous overachievers, so I figured it was the best place to get a reality check as far as college admissions. It’s the ECs more than the test scores I’m concerned about. Anyway, if I said “chance me I’m awesome” people would tear that apart too. I always try to err more on the side of “I suck” so I won’t look like an arrogant moron, but I sometimes (read: frequently) do anyway. I’m sorry.</p>
<p>Those ECs for those schools are damn good. You just have to highlight them well. Make them seem VERY important.
You’re underestimating a few things:
JOB. JOB JOB JOB JOB JOB. When I filled out my applications, I did my best to highlight the fact that I had to juggle school AND helping out with the family finances. It doesn’t matter that this was “fudging” the truth. If you worked, then you can make the case to a college that you endured financial hardship and you “had” to work to help your family. They eat this **** up.
You FOUNDED a book club. That’s a really big deal. (Even if its some non-important, completely irrelevant piece of information, you can convince the school that it is a HUGE DEAL.) Tell them about how passionate you are about reading and how you feel that the creation of your book club will 1) help students find an outlet to fit in with other bookish students, helping improve their lives 2) demonstrate the importance of education and literacy throughout the community. You’re helping to make reading and books “cool”. (Once again, it doesn’t matter if you actually ARE.) To FURTHER demonstrate this commitment to this, you volunteered at the public library. You freely gave your time up to help little kids develop a passion for education and learning. Not only do you like to read books though, you also write. Not only do you love to write, you’re a damn good writer. You have received the national honor of being selected for 4 teen ink editor’s choice awards!
You have a strong passion for music. You’ve been playing the piano for seven years now, and you absolutely LOVE it. (Colleges won’t ask you to play the piano for them in an interview… if you even HAVE an interview. Don’t make yourself look any worse than you have to.) You can’t wait to get to college and play Mozart for anyone in the lounge willing to listen. You’ve devoted yourself over an extended period of time to learning something just because it enriches your life and is pleasant to you. As Aristotle says, the greatest actions are those which we do just to make us happy. You have a very demanding, stressful life between balancing your studies, your job and your commitment to promoting education in your community. Piano is something which you do to help relieve stress. It is your outlet. Of course, you don’t only LOVE playing piano, you also were in a school musical ensemble. This gave you the chance to explore your musical passion in a collaborative setting. You love music, and you shared in your love for music with others. The experience was a valuable one because it showed you how great an impact bright people with similar interests, yet different styles can have on you.
YOU ARE A FEMALE GOING INTO STEM. The stats that you see for STEM kids that are so scary? Those are the guys who get accepted into those programs. It is significantly easier to get into a STEM field as a female than as a male.
You got a 33 on your ACT as a sophomore… Even if you don’t increase that at all, it is in the top 2% of all test-takers. There are plenty of people at every top school that wished that they had gotten 33s. Not even Harvard or Yale would hold their nose up at a 33. It’s a damn good score. AND you have a whole year to increase that if you want.
You’ve really thought this STEM thing through. You aren’t just waving your finger in the wind, looking at the majors with the best job prospects. In fact, you already have experience in STEM… you’ve had a mentorship. This mentorship really brought home, for you, the fact that this is what you want to do with your life.
Conclusion: As a female STEM (with mentorship experience) with at least a 33 on her ACT and in the top 5% of her class who, by the way, had to work through high school to help her family stay afloat WHILE cofounding a book club, demonstrating her commitment to her community, being awarded for excellence in writing on the national level, AND finding the time to learn a musical instrument, entering into collaborative musical efforts at her school, is a good applicant anywhere.</p>