<p>Hello raca1111!</p>
<p>Testing</p>
<p>I think your testing is fairly strong… It puts you in the competitive range. Being Lebanese still counts as being Caucasian (sadly), so it won’t give you much of an advantage. As a result, you don’t have the benefit of being labeled a minority by college admissions. In this light, I think that your reading and english scores are on the low side… Top colleges get a lot of students who are incredibly strong in math and sciences, but not in english and reading. They don’t get as many students who are strong in english and reading, but not in science and math. And they get even fewer who are strong and both. I don’t know how many times you’ve taken the ACT, but if you have the chance to take it one more time, and if that would be only your 2nd or 3rd time (no point in taking the ACT four or five times… that probably won’t help much), take that chance, and see if you can get English and Reading up to perhaps at least 32’s or 33’s.</p>
<p>If not, that’s okay. It’ll just mean dedicating a little more work to making powerful essays.</p>
<p>And SAT Subject Tests look good!</p>
<p>Academic Background and Awards</p>
<p>You have a pretty strong GPA going for you, and admission officers will appreciate the fact that you’ve challenged yourself so much with AP classes. But once again, with a GPA that’s not spot on perfect, you’ll be swimming a little bit of an uphill battle, so essays will need to be strong. Try to get recommendations from teachers and a counselor that can really speak to your intellectual curiosity, participation in class, leadership in the classroom, etc… Colleges like the Ivies LOVE these traits, and to them, having those traits (as evidenced in recommendations) will compensate for a few B’s on your transcript.</p>
<p>The math awards are great. What was the one about getting 1st place in the state? When you have a statewide award like that, play it up. List it high up on your awards list on the common application. Give it some importance. You do this, and admissions officers will see it as a strong accomplishment as well. You should rank awards on your list on the common application (or in any list you may attach) in order of importance. Put high-level awards (like statewide awards–the calc award and statewide piano honors) higher on the list to signify to the admissions committee that these awards mean a lot.</p>
<p>Also, if I were you, make sure you definitely give some priority to the math awards you’ve garnered (just as a GENERAL rule… Use common sense… Don’t bump a statewide piano award off your list because you want to put a schoolwide math award in its place… Just, on the whole, highlight math accomplishments). My reasoning for this is that you want to do engineering, and a math background will certainly be something engineering schools will be keeping an eye open for.</p>
<p>Activities/Extracurriculars</p>
<p>12 years of Piano is great. And you’ve done well with piano as well. I would list piano near the top (if not at the top) of your list of extracurricular activities, especially if you dedicate a lot of time to it (which I assume you do). 12 years shows a lot of commitment… The common application has a small, ~150 word space for a statement on an extracurricular activity of your choice. You may want to consider writing about piano in this space (or writing an essay about piano on the other hand). However, if you choose to do this, don’t list your accomplishments or conquests in that space (they will see those under the honors/awards and extracurricular sections of the common application). Rather, write about what piano means to you… The calming tune wafting up the keys… Or the powerful storm you conjure when playing Beethoven’s Ninth. Be descriptive. Show why you LOVE piano. Admissions officers love passion… So in this short statement (if you choose to write about piano… You don’t have to…), tell the admissions officers why you love to play piano: not what accomplishments you’ve garnered from it (unless, of course, it seems suitable to mention an accomplishment in trying to describe why you love piano).</p>
<p>I also like the tennis awards, and those would be good to mention. Your commitment to Tennis seems strong (I mean, 5 years! That’s a good stretch of time!), which is good, and being a captain will give you some good leadership to put down on your application!</p>
<p>As for clubs and the sorts, the student council commitment has been good. Make sure you definitely prioritize (on the common app) listing clubs that A) you have been committed to the most and B) that you have had leadership in. You definitely have some great accomplishments in Spanish, and your commitment to and leadership in the Spanish club will be rewarded by admissions officers. Of the activities you could write the short statement about, I would choose either piano, tennis, or Spanish club (since you’ve been pretty dedicated to those three). However, if you feel you’ve been incredibly passionate or dedicated to another one of your clubs, always follow your heart. Show admissions officers what you love to do… what you love to learn and explore.</p>
<p>The initiative with clubs like the math club is good, but it is coming kind of late in the game, so try to avoid seeming like you’ve only initiated those clubs to get into college. If you attach a separate list of activities that lists what you have done with each club, maybe briefly mention your fascination with math when speaking about math club. You don’t want to give admissions officers the idea that you are a late bloomer who just chose to start math club to get some sort of initiative on his resume.</p>
<p>On the whole, admissions officers will pass over measly 1 hr/week commitments in small clubs and the sorts, so unless you have a true passion for one of your smaller clubs, don’t prioritize listing them over big commitments like tennis, piano, student council, spanish club, etc. on the common application.</p>
<p>Work/Community Service</p>
<p>Admissions officers love work experience. Your hours of working for your dad for the summer will look strong to the admissions officers, as will your work at the hopsital.</p>
<p>I also love that you’ve put in community service. Colleges aren’t a huge fan of 1 hr/week community service commitments, but if some of these commitments are a little longer, play them up as colleges like students who are passionate about community service. On the contrary, the dislike students who are simply doing perfunctory community service to bolster a resume. Hopefully you’ve been committed enough to tutoring and the sorts that you can put down doing those activities for a few hours each week.</p>
<p>Essays</p>
<p>On the essay… To sort of restate what I told someone else…</p>
<p>Write fantastic essays. Don’t write about how “dedicated” or “hard-working” or “motivated” you are. Give the admissions officers a slice of your life… A moment or activity or event… And show them (don’t tell them) what that moment says about you. Your writing and your choice of topic should highlight your personality… How optimistic, humble, passionate, intellectually curious, etc. you are. But don’t tell the admissions officer that you are those things. Show her or him through the story you are telling. Write descriptively, utilize the senses (“The sweet aroma of the pine needles caught my nose…”), use metaphors and literary devices… Write well. The essay is a chance to show 1) How well you can write, and 2) Your personality. </p>
<p>To show these, write about something that you would like to tell the admissions officers about; write about an experience that means a lot to you (while avoiding cliches like dying pets or grandparents, that trip/vacation that opened your mind, your heroic saving of a cat, autobiography of your life in 500 words, etc., unless you have a unique spin on one of those topics). Your style of writing (which should be informal, like your telling a story or experience to a group of adults) should display your personality: your quirks, your wit, your humor (though don’t use humor if you’re not a funny person), your maturity, how you think and react to situations… It should show how you are likable, but avoid trying to come across as blatantly attempting to flaunt how dedicated, hard-working, etc. you are… Even though those are good traits for colleges, the admissions officer are using your essay more to get a read on how much they like your personality… How much they, if they were a college student again, would want to live in a dorm with you and would want to hang out with you. Be lively and colorful, not dull and mechanical. And remember: show, don’t tell. Show how an experience felt and how you reacted through appeals to the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell) rather than make a mechanical statement about how you felt. Doing this is what makes writing interesting.</p>
<p>As a fellow math-lover, I know it is hard not being “mechanical” sometimes. But you have to avoid that at all costs. Too many smart students ruin their admissions chances by deciding to write an essay about traits like confidence and dedication. That’s not how it works. Avoid being that way. In your essay, show that you are truly passionate about something… That you have a love of learning… Give your essay to a few teachers to read to see if they A) find it interesting and exciting to read (keep it from being boring) and B) can detect your voice in it. Give the admissions officers something that will make them want to read to the end. A list of accomplishments or “vritues” will not do that.</p>
<hr>
<p>Anyways, I hope I haven’t bored you to death. I hope this advice helps… And I apologize for typos. I didn’t feel like scanning a post this long for typos, haha. Overall, you are in a competitive range for top schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia. It’s not impossible for you. You have fairly strong test scores, and you have a decent GPA. Your extracurriculars are like those of many kids applying to top schools (though your dedication to piano should help you a little more, methinks, if you can show your passion for piano). What you need now to stand out from a sea of students with 3.9 GPA’s, mid-high ACT’s, and a host of school club leadership positions is a way to display how you are not just another one of those students with 3.9 GPA’s, mid-high ACT’s, and a host of school club leadership positions. You need to be more than that. You need to be more than the monotonous high-school star. You need to be a student who is passionate, intellectually curious, and above all, interesting. Hopefully your essays and recommendations can display this.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, I am in your same position… A rising senior standing at the edge of the chasm of college admissions, gazing across towards the other side. I don’t know everything about college admissions: a lot of it is a crapshoot, based on minute variables that only the most acute eye–the eye of a college admissions officer–could detect. But I hope that what I’ve told you helps. And best of luck in this admissions process!</p>
Although definitely don’t rely on this to help you get into top colleges!</p>
Although if you’re looking at columbia or any other ivy, maybe bump up the ACT score? Not that a 33 isn’t wonderful already, but well the higher the better right? It can’t hurt anyway!</p>