Chance me for HM!

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvey Mudd College
1

<p>I am a junior living in Shanghai, China, but not ethnically Chinese.<br>
My family moved here 7 years ago after we spent 5 months traveling together in Europe. So I have had a great chance to see much of the world already. </p>

<p>I have wanted to be a scientest or engineer since I was 5. I enjoyed visiting Swarthmore and Olin, and will probably choose a smaller school over the MIT/Berkeley size of school.</p>

<p>My stats are:</p>

<p>GPA - 3.78; no weighting at our school and no one in its history has ever had a 4.0. I am probably in the top 10% of our class</p>

<p>SAT - 2250; 780 Math, 750 Reading, 720 Writing; hope to improve to 2300 range taking the SAT one more time (3rd time) since i haven't taken any prep courses before.</p>

<p>AP - World History (5), Chinese (5); will take the AP Chem, Econ and SAT 2s for Math this year. I expect to do very well in my AP exams. </p>

<p>EC - 3 years in Chamber Singers which is a select performance choir, 3 years in Theater with roles in the major school plays;
Treasurer of the Theatrics Club
Co-Captain of Robotics team (finished 2nd in China last year, hope to do better!)
Co-Founder/head of the Technology Club
National History Day - our team won the best website award for China and went to nationals
MUN for 5 years</p>

<p>Master Scuba Diver, 4 years of Marine Ecology research in Thailand</p>

<p>100 hours of teaching English to Migrant School children in Shanghai
200 hours of service work in other community projects in China and the U.S.</p>

<p>I will have excellent reference letters from my teachers and other people i have worked with, and I will take a real job this summer and also do an intensive field program in either China or the US. </p>

<p>What love to know what the CC community thinks i need to improve to increase my chances to get into HM!</p>

2

<p>What is your citizenship status?</p>

3

<p>American citizen</p>

4

<p>It seems to me you would have a very good chance. You might want to put something in the additional info of the common app about having taken the hardest courses offered (if you did) and maybe something about your class rank; not sure how your college counseling is at your school, but one advantage that US students have sometimes is a college counselor who understands the US college application process better and can go to bat on those kinds of things. If you can’t count on your school to provide the context for that info, be sure that you do.</p>

<p>Your background is interesting and somewhat different, so that could help you. You could probably do some good work in your essays about your world travel experiences and how it differentiates you from other candidates.</p>

5

<p>thank you for the advice!</p>

6

<p>you should have your counselor and/or the people writing your letter to explain your GPA. Being in the top 10% is good, but students from most American high schools will have GPA’s in the 3.9+ range due to grade inflation. Having a letter or two explaining your school’s lack of grade inflation will put your “lower” GPA in perspective.</p>