Hey-o friends!
I’m a rising senior that wants to finalize her college list ASAP so I can getting work on those (painful) essays. I’m not the 4.0, 2400, varsity athlete, but I’m also not failing anything (yet), so I’m the awkward middle. (:
I’m hoping to get advice on how to strengthen my stats for Stanford and UCB, but mainly predictions of whether or not I’ll be accepted. I appreciate any and all comments/suggestions/pointers/anything. You all have other things to do, and I value any input given. I’m open to additional suggestions of schools to add to my list as well.
Shortlist
Safeties: SeattleU, University of Washington (Seattle)
Really hard match: UC Berkeley
Insane reach: Stanford
Demographics
• Female
• Indian
• Seattle, WA
• English isn’t my first language, and I taught myself it by reading Harry Potter and watching Spongebob with subtitles when I was six or seven.
• I also speak Punjabi (native), Hindi (intermediate), Urdu (intermediate), and Spanish (less-than-intermediate-but-better-than-beginner?)
• Finances are difficult to explain, because we own a small business, which inflates our income on taxes ($120000), but we only have two full time employees, so it doesn’t get counted in FAFSA or the CSSProfile
• First generation American
• Intend to major in Poly-Sci (preferred minor in International Relations)
• Hope to have a career in law and politics
Academics
• UW GPA: 3.98
• W GPA: 4.3
• **UC GPA:/b 4.00, (W) 4.31, (W+Cap) 4.25)
• Will have taken 9 APs (including WH, USH, and Gov) upon graduation
• 3 Honors Courses
• 2 years of University of Washington’s Spanish courses (taught at high school for credits)
• Our school used to put out a rank list, but it wasn’t included on the transcript, so it was unofficial, but now they’re changing it to a Latin Honors system, where I’ll be ranked ‘summa cum laude’
• Probably in top 5-10% of 320 students
Scores
• SAT (Single highest): 740M, 780R, 770W (2290)
• SAT (Superscore): 740M, 790R, 770W (2300)
• AP Scores: WH - 4, Lang - 4, Environmental - 5, Stats - 5, USH - 5
— Taking Psych, Lit, Gov, and Calc AB this coming year
ECs
Clubs:
• KEY Club (2013-Present) - Became President of this service club as a junior, organized multiple volunteer events, helped raise $1210 for Relay for Life
• JSA (2014-Present) - Became President of this debate/political activism club as a junior, helped coordinate a mini convention, led an anti-apathy campaign for a week at school, and volunteered for a voter registration drive.
• Math Club (2013-Present) - Been Vice President since sophomore year, helped club get to state competitions
• School Newspaper - I’m the Global News and Political Affairs Editor for the school newspaper. Aside from classtime, we spend about two extra hours a week working on the paper, with five to seven additional hours once a month the night before we get it printed.
Volunteering:
• Case Management at Healthcare Agency - I collect data for research on the effects of increased healthcare accessibility for certain groups (minorities, Medicaid patients, and the underinsured). I contact clients of the healthcare agency (which connects people to specialists and pays their insurance premiums), collect data based on a phone survey, input it into spreadsheets, and hopefully, I’ll be able to see some positive trends in the results. I’m getting in 30-50 hours a month.
• Church Services - I’ve been volunteering at my local temple since I was in sixth grade. Since freshman year, I’ve been helping cook dinner, clean dishes, and sweeping and mopping. I also babysit and tutor children at the church during the weekdays, and on Saturdays, I lead middle-schoolers in cleaning the parking lot, picking up trash from the roadside, planting flowers, and digging holes to plant trees. I also organized a shoe drive there, and once a month, we go and volunteer for 10 hours at a soup kitchen. I spend about 5 hours a week (every week) there.
Employment
I don’t know if this counts as employment, considering that I’m not officially on the payroll.
• My parents own a small business, and I call clients, schedule projects, place bids, and make invoices. I file affadavits and intents, I go to estimate appointments, and I travel with my dad to big projects. I’m basically the secretary/clerk, but unpaid. I’d like to call it an internship, but I’ve been doing all of this since I was 7 or 8. It’s a pretty long internship. All in all, I work about 10 hours a week during the school year, but in just this summer so far, I’ve been working about 25-30 hours a week.
Awards
• 1st place Historical Paper for National History Day Regionals (2 years running)
Rec. Letters
I’ll be getting one from my AP Stats teacher, and one from my APUSH teacher. For the former, I’ll say it’s 9/10, and for the latter, it could be anything. I really respect him, and I worked insanely hard in his class, and I got an A and the 5, so I’m proud of my accomplishment, but I don’t know if he’ll give me a glowing rec., or the standard “fill-in-the-name” positive one.