<p>Hello! I’ll try to be as brief as I can, which actually won’t be brief at all to most people, but at least it should help you better understand where you stand, step-by-step. This is the compilation of knowledge I have garnered from multiple college admissions books, as well as interning under a education writer.</p>
<p>In comparison to the number of AP classes taken by other CC-ers hoping to apply to the highly selective institutions, yours seem a bit low. Of course, I cannot be an accurate judge over this matter, due to the fact I have no idea how many Advanced Placement classes your school offers. In addition, you have not provided us with your ranking/percentile, which makes it hard to distinguish where you stand among your school’s applicants to similar institutions.</p>
<p>Athletics: JV soccer 2 years, Freshmen basketball, Freshmen track and field
Freshman Basketball Coach’s Award</p>
<p>Most of these are fillers. Junior Varsity sports as well as participating in sports for only a year will make you seem rather uninvolved in the matter of depth.</p>
<p>Your ECs make you one of the many in California. Your Key Club District, Cali-Nev-Ha has about 30,000 members, I believe, and the California Scholarship Federation has a high membership count as well. Keep in mind that there are literally thousands of Key Club Presidents, as well as District and International Officers within Key Club. In addition, you’ve only participated in the said clubs for two years, showing average commitment. Everybody does hospital work and volunteer work that it is slowly becoming a moot-point in many college applications.</p>
<p>Judging by your reading score, I am guessing that you are an immigrant South Korea, which is fine, because I am too, but not in the terms of college admissions. Consider the fact that about 4% of the American population is Asian and Asians also represent 18.5% of US’s collegiate population. In short, we are vastly overrepresented. In addition, over the last half-century, females have been making great strides in the realms of secondary education, meaning that the gender-to-gender ratio, in many schools, is rather skewed. In essence, you and I have the worst possible ethno-gender combination for admissions, especially considering your geographical location.</p>
<p>Your Bio and Math SAT-II scores are rather low. Although they have passed the 700 barrier, Bio and Math are notorious for their relatively easy curve. For example, according to the SAT Subject Test Percentile Rank released by College Board, your scores of 730 in Bio and Math-II puts you at a 79th and 67th percentile, respectively. Consider that 12 percent of Math-II test takers receive a perfect score, and perhaps you can guess where these results come from. The link, for your convenience, has been provided for you below.</p>
<p>In addition, considering your South Korean status, your Korean SAT will not be of any help. Some schools, like Harvard, automatically discount subject tests taken in your native language, meaning you’d still be one test short and will be automatically rejected based on an incomplete application.</p>
<p>Now I will move onto your list of school. This is a comment I make for everyone who requests “chance me for the general Ivies” and the like because I simply cannot/will never understand them. Consider that these institutions each have their weak and strong points and each specialize in specific subject areas. Therefore, coveting its “prestige” is a rather shallow indication of the applicant him/herself. I hope that you will undertake comprehensive research and actually find a school that fits your goals and aspirations, rather than taking the top-twenty colleges from a fallible ranking system ( which I suppose you mean the U.S. World and News Report, a system that I vehemently detest).</p>
<p>All in all, even if you do sufficiently increase your SAT/SATII scores, your lack of hook, the disadvantage of your ethnicity/gender, and the overall competitiveness from your area will keep many of these institutions at a very, very high reach. Although you have requested advice to better your resume, the reality is that the time to pad your accomplishments, especially through you ECs, are long past and the only things you could sufficiently improve are your standardized testing scores. Most likely, you will not be accepted into a majority of these “prestigious” colleges, but I strongly, strongly suggest that you let go of society’s (especially Korean ones) preconceptions that the only “good” college are the brand-name colleges. Instead, the best colleges should be a place in which you could broaden your personal and humanistic goal and grow as an individual.</p>
<p><a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;
