<p>GPA: upward trend: Freshmen year I had a 3.4 & 2.9, Soph year 2.9 & 3.3, Junior year I currently have a 3.95 and I hope to keep it around a 4.0 next semester and senior year - i go to a very prestigous, well known private school (number 2 in the bay area) so thats why my GPA was low..also I slacked off but I hope to explain this in my essays
Rigorous course load- French 2 as a freshmen, honors/accelerated classes and two APs so far
projected ACT score of 32
USH and Lit Subject Tests- 740 and 760
ECs- Crossfit, Art, and Piano for 4 years
Volunteer every weekend at Alzheimers/Dementia home
Leadership workshops
TA every semester so far
Various school clubs such as Model Un (Secretary) and Healing Humanity, a club that raises money for kids with cancer (Secretary as well), Econ/Stock Market club, Student Council for a year, Students Against Destructive Decisions, Fashion Club
On Rep. Zoe Lofgren's Student Advisory Board (we give her insight into what Gen Z thinks about politics to shape her policies)
Participating in Stanford's Brain Bee, a neuroscience competition this year and I'm hoping to win, also hoping to get a few Model UN awards. Also doing some speech contests
Doing an internship this summer, either in the University of Tehran in Iran with my uncle, with Congressman Mike Honda or a biology related one at UC Santa Cruz or Stanford
Compose my own music
Father didn't go to college</p>
<p>Theres probably some other points I'm forgetting but yeah..do I have a chance?</p>
<p>Oh and I want to double major or major/minor in Neuroscience or Psych and Poli Sci…hence the volunteering at Alzheimers/Dementia home and helping Zoe Lofgren </p>
did u hear back from any?
USC: High Match to Low Reach
Davis: Mid to High Match
UC Berkeley: Reach
UCLA: Reach
SD: High Match
Boston U.: Mid to High Match
UMichigan: Reach
NYU: Mid to High Match
Here’s the thing, you have great extracurriculars, but a subpar academic record for some of these schools that you’re applying to. Actually, I WANT to say that your extracurriculars are great, but the colleges you apply to might not think that they’re all that outstanding.
It’s because you said that you go to a prestigious well-known private school in the bay area. That means that you’re competing with other bay area kids and the bay area is notorious for its opportunities and academic excellence. This is going to play against you, but I don’t really know to what degree it will affect your application.
Your GPA is not looking too great. It’s really the main thing that’s bringing you down. Try to bring it up as much as possible and enroll in AP classes as well. When admissions look at your application and they see how great it is in academics they’re going to start questioning why you didn’t take advantage of the rigorous course loads available to you.
I don’t advise that you spend too much time explaining your lack of work ethic during those years that you did slack off. Instead focus on how you improved and how you changed. There’s no great way to really rationalize slacking off.
If you’re pursuing a major in Neuroscience, make sure that you take a Science SAT II or even just a SAT Math II. Great job on having already taken the USH one for your PoliSci. major!
Definitely definitely study for the ACT/SAT., whichever one you’re taking. You NEED to score well on those to try and compensate as much as possible for your GPA.
Also make sure to get a letter of rec. from that government official. You have a wide variety of extracurriculars, but make sure that you’re only pursuing the ones that you have a passion for. It wouldn’t make any sense to have a crapton because you only get to list so many anyways, when you’re applying.
Hope this helped,
Good luck!