Chance Me for Top Schools! Thanks :)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am a high school sophomore (I know, I know) who is obviously looking to get into super competitive schools. Below is posted my resume. Please comment! I'd love to hear suggestions as to how I can improve (especially with extracurriculars) and hopefully get into the schools which I desire to attend. Thanks!</p>

<p>Just for reference, my currents schools of interest are the following (in order of interest):</p>

<p>-Harvard
-UChicago
-UPenn
-UC Berkeley
-Yale
-Swarthmore
-Pomona
-Stanford
-Dartmouth
-Cornell
-Northwestern
-Brown
-Georgetown
-Duke
-UCLA
-WUSTL</p>

<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2040 superscore (I’ll obviously be improving this; I’ve only taken practice tests thus far)
SAT II: probably taking Latin, don’t know what else
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.00
Weighted GPA: 4.76
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Definitely top 10, likely top 1 or 2 (idk, I'm a sophomore)
Sophomore Year Course Load: Latin 2 Honors, AP World History, Ancient Greek 1 Honors, English 2 Honors, Geometry Honors, Religion 2, Chemistry Honors
Predicted Junior Year Course Load: Latin HL 1 IB, APUSH, Ancient Greek 2 Honors, English A1 HL1 IB/AP Comp, Math SL IB, Philosophy HL 1 IB, Physics HL 1 IB
Predicted Senior Year Course Load: Latin HL 2 IB, TOK, Greek SL IB, English A1 HL2 IB/AP Lit, AP Calc BC, Philosophy HL 2 IB, Physics HL 2 IB/AP Physics B
Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):CSF, NHS (most likely), Carson Scholar?</p>

<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Model United Nations (Committee Chair, Leadership Board, Many Awards), Boy Scouts (Soon to be Eagle Scout, Troop Librarian, Historian, Webmaster, Patrol Leader, possibly will be SPL), Junior Statesmen of America (VP this year, president next), Literary Society (founder, president), school’s anti-bullying organization (class rep, more leadership next year), piano (I do CM), creative writing magazine, track and field, self-studying Spanish and Linguistics, photography, some less significant ones in my view: smile train, food4life, classics society,
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service: tutor for family literacy program (takes a significant amount of hours each week), crew leader for VBS, eagle project is a big one</p>

<p>Other:
State: CA
Race: Asian (Filipino), Caucasian
School Type: Parochial
Gender: M
Income Range: Well off</p>

2

<p>Too early, you are asking us to chance you on your freshman grades and practice SATs only. Come back next year.</p>

3

<p>As of the end of our first quarter, I have maintained all A’s in my classes, and I factored this into my GPA. But I understand what you are saying with my grades and scores.</p>

<p>Any recommendations regarding ECs though? Would you consider these strong?</p>

4

<p>They seem a bit scattered (though admittedly I am a hypocrite who has extremely scattered ECs). Also make sure to focus on quality over quantity. That being said yes, your ECs are good, though remember that your list is composed of extremely competitive schools.</p>

<p>I recommend narrowing down your list this year, generally the people who are attracted to top LACs don’t like top large universities. The schools on your list are geographically scattered, are known for different things, have drastically different sizes and have different values. Figure out what you want/don’t just look at top 10 lists. An example of how they are scattered, I visited UPenn and Swarthmore just a day apart, loved Swarthmore, hated UPenn, I know several people who have had the same reaction of loving one and hating the other.</p>

5

<p>thank you! i have been enlightened already.</p>

<p>my reason for scattered ECs is my diverse interests, which i’m sure is an excuse invoked by everyone who finds themselves in the same boat as us. but i will strive to become more focused.</p>

<p>also, i am increasingly interested in linguistics, so my list is currently composed of schools that actually have linguistics departments. but i will certainly work on eliminating some schools. i have not yet visited most of them, but once i do, i am sure some will be coming off. i do find myself in love with quite differing schools though, for example, I am absolutely in love with Harvard and Berkeley at the moment, though they are two very different schools in many respects… and i didnt care for Stanford…</p>

<p>anyway, thanks again! you’ve given me lots to think about</p>

6

<p>bumppppppppppp</p>

7

<p>seems good so far
remember depth not breadth in extracurriculars
and also try to get as many 6s and 7s as possible on those IB Exams
good luck!</p>

8

<p>bumppppppppppp</p>

9

<p>bumppppppppppp</p>

10

<p>I’m only a sophomore; I’m looking for advice on what to do in these next 2 years…</p>

11

<p>You are too young to judge, but if you keep up the work and EC’s there is no telling what you can do. Your scores for a freshman are promising, just make sure to pad your resume with more leadership positions and community involvement.</p>

12

<p>Thank you! that’s really encouraging and helps so much</p>

13

<p>CHANGE ON MY RESUME:</p>

<p>I actually just became the President of the JSA club at my school which is cool. I forgot to write on here that I organized a mock-presidential debate (sorta) for my school and am finishing up a mock election which will take place this Tuesday on election day!</p>

14

<p>I would definitely say try to find your focus and concentrate on a few things. That is something I regret not doing earlier.</p>

15

<p>my issue is that i love everything that i do and have so many interests… do you think anything i listed stands out above the rest?</p>

16

<p>You have an excellent future course, keep it up! Just as these other people have mentioned, concentrate on certain aspects. Also, I would recommend doing practice essays! That way you can identify your strengths and weaknesses before feeling the actual pressure of application essays. There is always room to improve :)</p>

17

<p>Great idea! Lucky for me I love to write and consider myself a better than average writer, but as you said there’s always room to improve!</p>

<p>Thanks again!</p>

18

<p>2040 SAT superscore…on practice tests.
That’s funny.</p>

<p>Keep up the strong academic work!</p>

19

<p>yeah i know… i didnt prepare for either of the practice ones i took and felt crappy for the second one, not that that’s really a justification for such low scores. i have a lot of work to do on my SATs…</p>

<p>but thanks! i definitely will</p>

20

<p>Make sure you apply to schools that are a good fit for you, rather than just picking ones based on their prestige. Right now you basically just have a list of the most famous/prestigious schools in the united states. Swarthmore is completely different from ucla, and uchicago is completely different from northwestern or brown. Too many kids on cc pick schools that are not a good fit for them and end up going somewhere they hate. Good luck!</p>