<p>I'm a white (Persian/Iranian=Middle Eastern) female from California, planning on going into neuroscience, so I would major in neuroscience, which all these schools have (in order of interest):</p>
<ol>
<li>Cornell (early decision)</li>
<li>UC Berkeley</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
</ol>
<p>10-11th grade GPA: 4.2 weighted
Total weighted GPA: 4.1
Total unweighted GPA: 3.6</p>
<p>I know, I know, it looks bad. I took way too many AP's at an extremely competitive school and I got a bunch of B's. (I took 6 AP's my junior year: French, English, US History, Biology, Physics, Calc B/C, 6 APs was a stupid decision, I know; I've also taken AP Chemistry (700 on subject test for chem, I'm not sure if that's good or bad to be honest) and World History (4 on AP test), and a weighted Pre-calc Honors course, plus Algebra 2/Trig Honors and two years of English Honors - the honors except for pre-calc are not weighted at my school.) I'm predicting 5's on my English and Calc AP tests, 4's on Biology and French, 3 or 4 on US, God knows about Physics. I have an upward trend in terms of weighted GPA (3.83, 4.0, 4.33).</p>
<p>SAT: 2200</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:</p>
<p>-Speech and debate (usually placed top 3/4 out of 60-70 students; captain of Impromptu speaking)
-French club (vice president since beginning of junior year)
-National honor society
-California scholarship federation
-Key club (community service)
-Library volunteer (~100 hours)
-Medical office volunteering (~50 hours), hospital volunteering (~100 hours)
-Hospital internship
-Founding member of the iGEM team at my school, a fairly intense synthetic biology club (has both high school and collegiate levels) that participates in an international competition at the end of the year - last year we won best experimental design
-High-level figure skater
-Volunteer assistant figure skating coach
-Student member of the International French Alliance (I speak pretty fluent French and don't have any French background/never been to France)
-Taught myself a decent level of German and some Icelandic (I know the Icelandic is weird, I probably won't include that in my app)
-Editor's choice multiple times on writing websites like TeenInk, so I was published twice in their monthly magazine (I know that's not that impressive, just thought I'd include it for now)
-Finalist for multiple poetry anthology competitions
-Started playing piano about 1.5 years ago, made 4 years' worth of progress in that time</p>
<p>My two letters of rec will be from my AP English teacher, who really likes me, and my AP Physics teacher, who writes pretty bomb letters (I've had one from him before for an internship that he let me read, it was really good.) I've done well in both those classes, too. I know UC's don't take letters of rec, this is for the other schools I listed.</p>
<p>Would it help if I started an organization this summer (before senior year) to help underprivileged kids with their creative writing? I was thinking I could have some classes, writing competitions, and/or a writer's night for them to read their work and feel accomplished (this is not just in the interest of college, I feel like I finally have time to do something meaningful like this, and I did something similar once as a child and still remember it fondly.)</p>
<p>I've been told I sound eloquent and well-read, I think I could do very well in an interview and write a good essay (I'll be having a fair amount of help from a college counselor and have been told I am a very good writer.) I don't mean to sound boastful at all, I am actually extremely crushed and depressed over my own stats at the moment and any advice would help. I've been feeling sick with anxiety over the past few days that I won't be able to get into any prestigious schools.</p>
<p>Can you chance me for these schools I listed? Thank you so much.</p>