Hi, I’m currently a nerve wracked junior who would like some of your opinions on my chances of getting into the schools I plan on applying to. I know I don’t have the best extra curricular, a good hook, nor extraordinary test scores. I was looking through some of the discussions on here and got so nervous because I’m so average compared to everyone! I would just like some honest opinions. Thank you all for taking the time.
I’m planning on applying to the following colleges:
- University of Southern California - UC Los Angeles - UC Berkeley - Dartmouth (that’s quite a reach but I plan on applying nevertheless) - University of Virginia - Smith College - Boston College or University - New York University - Northeastern - Pomona College - Georgetown - UC Irvine - UC Riverside - UC San Diego - UC Santa Barbara
I go to a National Blue Ribbon awarded middle college high school which is basically a school with 437 students total located inside a community college. Students at my school take college classes starting from the ninth grade in order to prepare us to graduate from high school with both our high school diploma and one to three associate’s degrees.
School Type: Public middle college high school
Location: California
Race/Gender: Female Korean (Asian)
Prospective Major: Undeclared with various interests. (It ranges so far and wide from bio to film to journalism to foreign relations/political science)
Unweighted GPA: 3.82
Weighted GPA: 3.94
Class rank: Top 20% in a class of 125 students.
All classes we take are Honors, AP’s, or college classes.
- I know the GPA’s are quite low but I do have some background information about it. First semester of freshman and junior year, I received one B but picked up my act the next semester with straight A’s. The only semester where I received three B’s was the year that I met my biological mother for the first time in first semester of sophomore year. It really threw me for a loop and I was an emotional mess from November to December of that semester. I’m not trying to make excuses, sorry if it sounds that way. That’s just what was happening in my life at the time. However, the next semester I picked up my act and received straight A’s. I guess what I’m trying to describe is that I bounced back from the time where I felt my motivation slip away?
SAT Scores: nonexistent. I took the test for the first time two weeks ago and expect the results out next Thursday. I will update on here when I receive the score. However, I project the score to be around or above 1,300 since it was my first one. I plan to retake multiple times and expect the writing component score to be on the higher side.
ACT: Not sure if I should take it. Can someone comment below whether it’s a better idea to take both SAT or ACT?
Courses taken:
AP European History (3) I know it’s bad but that was a hard class for me.
AP US History (taking now)
AP English Language (taking now but projecting no less than a 4)
AP Environmental Science (taking now but am very iffy about)
AP World History (retaking but still feeling iffy)
College Psychology, Sociology, Health, Music Theory, Voice.
Three years of college Spanish taken.
Along with other standard A-G requirements.
Senior year courseload:
AP Literature
AP Biology
AP Stats
H. Economics
Possibly AP Computer Science
College Biology 3 or Chemistry 101
College English 102
College PoliSci
College Biological Psychology
College Calculus
Extracurriculars:
- Founder and President of my schools first Glee Club since sophomore year: Run meetings weekly and practices around once or twice a week after school for an hour and thirty minutes, search performances in the community like Red Ribbon Week and Christmas City Festivals. Performances for school honors assemblies as well.
- Founder and President of school Speak Up Club since junior year: Dedicated to spreading awareness about stigmatized issues in our society such as domestic violence, mental health, and homelessness. Currently in the process of organizing canned food drive/care packages for the homeless and looking into contacting city Mayors and other high elected officials to seek a way to address homelessness. We have also done outreaches where we created pamphlets regarding Domestic Violence and have passed them out in the community.
- Staff writer for Affinity Magazine since sophomore year (a nonprofit social justice magazine written by primarily teens): published articles addressing LGBTQ+ and Christianity, youth and social media effects, experiences as an adopted teenager who met her biological mother, social progression in the media among other things. Published around 15 articles so far generating a total of 7,000,000+ views.
- YMCA Youth and Government: Model delegate in my delegation from junior year. Participating in different areas of the model government and attending conferences. I was apart of Appellate court and mock court cases in Sacramento and Fresno conferences.
- Church Youth Group Praise Team Singer from eighth grade to present day: Lead the youth ministry in Fridays and Sundays worship by singing praise songs. Meet to practice at least around 2 and a 1/2 hours per week.
- Library Homework Helper Volunteer from sophomore year to present day: Instill a love of learning in kids of all ages who do not necessarily have access to homework help from their parents or others. Come to the library with homework questions and I tutor them. Every week for two hours.
- Mission to Promote Adoption in Kids volunteer since 8th grade to present day: This is the organization that got me adopted and I give back by helping with filmography and editing, taking care of little kids during meetings, and other volunteer tasks. I also document the annual galas to raise funds for aged out adoptees in Korea.
- Small and mediocre YouTube Channel: For singing, filming, and editing purposes since freshman year to present day.
- National Honor Society member since junior year.
- Teaching Project (freshman and sophomore year- one day event): Prepared a science based lesson of a third and fourth grade curriculum, went out to elementary schools in my community and taught it to them with activities, slideshows, and videos.
- Internship/Volunteer at an ophthalmology office with two doctors. It was brief during school semester but planning to do more over the coming summer.
- California Scholarship Federation: member since junior year.
- Key Club: service club/volunteering member since freshman year.
- Church Missions Trips to Mexico and San Francisco (6th grade to 11th grade): Spread the word and help communities out by sharing music, food, the Bible, and love with primarily children of all ages.
- APUSH Club Secretary of my junior class.
- Youth Ambassador of That’s Not Cool: Teen ambassador of a teen anti-domestic violence organization since junior year.
- Students Run LA: Participated in the 5k, 10k, and the 18 mile run races in freshman year.
- Yearbook Club: Member in sophomore year when it was a club instead of a class. (Couldn’t take it now because it didn’t fit into schedule)
Awards:
Honor Roll (consistently)
San Pedro Youth Coalition Local Poetry Contest winner (out of seven winners from Kindergarten to high school ages)
Honorary English Award
Summers:
I spend summers at church retreat camps and doing lots of filming and editing for parts of the time.
Last summer, I took part in an all expenses paid two week program at the University of Southern California called Mission engineering where I learned fundamentals of engineering while brainstorming with my appointed group.
*My personal statement essays would probably be around a 7-9 out of ten because I am somewhat confident in my writing capabilities.