<p>I’m not familiar with the specific policies of Duke or Chicago, but generally, you can apply to one ED school and several EA schools at the same time.* So if Duke has an ED policy and Chicago is EA, you can apply to both. The catch is that you must attend the ED (binding) school if accepted to both, whereas EA is non-binding.*</p>
<p><em>Invalid if a school explicitly forbids this on its admissions website, or if EA is SCEA.</em></p>
<p>Problem solved :)*</p>
<p>Next, chances.*</p>
<p>I’m not qualified to chance people in any way (as I am not an admissions officer and I doubt the ability of high schoolers to predict your chances because they are going through the process just as you are), but I will give it my best shot. Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I have a family member who used to worked in selective admissions, so my advice may be a bit unheard-of and unconventional, coming from the mixed perspective of a high schooler’s knowledge and an ex-adcom’s experience. However, I’ve done my best with putting the info you provided into the context, so my pointers will be specifically tailored to your case. Thus, the same tips might not be applicable to someone else’s situation. *</p>
<p>Where to improve:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Class rank is not looking well. Unless you go to a feeder school, this will work against you. However, to put your rank in context, do you know the W GPA of the current val?</p></li>
<li><p>Retake the Spanish SAT II if that is manageable for you. While you do have four other subject tests (all in good standing), a 670 is not goin to reflect positively unless you can withold certain scores when applying to Duke and Chicago.</p></li>
<li><p>Unless you have exhausted the curriculum at your high school, there is no excuse for taking a less rigorous courseload during senior year…in which case you should be doing more extensive college-level courses online (I recommend FLVS or EPGY) or through a local CC.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m no D1 athlete so I’m fluent with all the athletic jargon (sectionals, far western…anyone?) you wrote for swimming. Will you be captain next year? If not, try to show your leadership skills in swimming even without a rigid leadership title. Search and secure sponsors for your swim team’s travel expenses to those meets. Organize a car wash to raise funds and buy improved equipment for your swim team. …Whatever, just get creative. Innovation is always, always good.</p></li>
<li><p>Do you have any awards/honors in piano, particularly statewide or national? If not, be creative. Volunteer to play piano at the senior center, spend a day teaching inner-city kids how to play piano, etc. This will also be beneficial to your lack of volunteer hours.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Do you see a theme here? Yes, creativity. If you can’t be a national stand-out, be creative, because not many kids are going to be creative. How many Asian applicants from California play piano? A hell of a lot. But how many of them have used their musical talent to benefit their community with creative volunteer ideas? Aha.*</p>
<ol>
<li>Work experience is good, espeically if you’re interested in business/econ. However, a high-level job at business firm might be mistaken as a cushy job that Mommy and Daddy got you by pulling some strings and using their connections. As unfair as this may seem if you truly earned the job on your own, a plush office job might run the risk of sounding like the true work of family connections.</li>
</ol>
<p>This is specially true if you come from an upper-class, high-income family in a big city or expensive suburb in California…where both parents are well-educated with respectably-paying jobs. In this case, a “menial job” washing dishes or taking orders from a headset in McDonalds might be a option. As unfair and outlandish as it sounds, these kids of jobs will actually require you to expose yourself to a broader range of people and give you the real-world experience that lots of surburban kids lack. I am making lots of assumptions here (suburban/city kid with high-income and low exposure to the “real world”), so don’t take this advice too seriously.</p>
<ol>
<li>Can you find some teachers who will write stellar recs? Essays, recs, and interviews will provide a personality to the statistics on your application. If 2/3 parts of these “soft factors” are weak, I would suggest investigating some less selective schools. At least start crafting your essay now if you haven’t already, so you’ll have plenty of time to polish it before November 1st.</li>
</ol>
<p>Please note that I only pointed out the parts I felt were “weak” with the stats and ECs you mentioned. You do not need to be concerned with the things you are doing right as long as you continue the involvement (ACT score, DECA, etc.)</p>
<p>Again, I do not know your socioeconomic situation, so it is hard to provide accurate and meaningful advice. However, in the real application process, adcoms will have plenty of your information on hand, so everything will be evaluated in the context of your background.</p>
<p>To put a bow on it all, I’d like to say that while you are a very strong candidate for top schools, you will be vying for the limited “unhooked” (assuming you are not a legacy, 1/8th URM, or D1 recruited athlete) spots in Duke and Chicago’s class of 2015, specially amongst solid Asian candidates from California. Your best bet at this point is to be creative with what you’ve already got.*</p>
<p>Whew, that was an exhaustive list. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. **</p>