New and updated from my 2 month old thread that no one knows about.
Freshman Classes: Ancient Civilizations H, Chinese 2, Algebra 2H, Biology H, English 1H.
3 A’s and 2B’s for both semesters: B’s were in Algebra 2H (2), English 1H (1), and Biology H (1).
Sophomore Classes: AP World History, Pre-calculus H, Chinese 3, English 2H, Chemistry H
First Semester: 2 A’s, 3B’s (A in World History and A in Chinese)
Second Semester: 4A’s, 1C (In Pre-calculus H - it was a C+) This one’s sucker punching me now and will forever do so
Junior Classes: AP US History, Calculus BC, AP Physics, Chinese 4H, English 3H
Currently (1st semester not even close to ending, so these are probably going to change)
AP Physics 1: B
APUSH: A
Chinese 4H: A
English 3H: A
Calculus BC (AP): A+ (only two quizzes entered, is why; I expect it to drastically go down)
(Assume 1st semester Physics will go to A [started off poorly due to neglecting homework; the actual content is trivial] and Calc will go to B or B-.)
Overall GPA for sophomore+freshman years was:
Weighted: 4.32
Unweighted: 3.63
Feeling good about the SAT, which I took 2 weeks ago: results have yet to be seen.
Got a 35 composite score on the ACT.
Extra-Curriculars:
L.I.T. volunteering for 3 years (about 200 hours of community service)
Participated as juror in my county’s Peer Courts at its Superior Court (~25 hours of community service; look peer court up on google if you don’t know what it is)
Had oil paintings featured in my school’s art magazine/newspaper and also in my county’s cultural highlights event
(if it matters, I live in Orange County, CA, which has a bigger population than 21 states according to wiki)
Black belt in Taekwondo, 2nd degree, but really, everyone has a black belt these days and it doesn’t mean much in a community of Asians. Same with my playing the piano.
I’m in my high school’s marching band, and we’ve marched in the Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Los Angeles and also the National Cherry Blossom Parade in Washington, D.C.
Joined JSA, MUN, and Poetry Slam. Have yet to see what I’ll achieve/not achieve in those organizations
I’m an Asian living in Irvine, which is around 40% Asian and 40% white with a mixed 20% of Latinos and African Americans. Compared to most of my fellow AP and honors classmates, I feel that my academic scores are rather underwhelming and un-Asian (since that stereotype of overachieving Asians is true in my neighborhood. With a aim at politics, I feel more white than Asian in this regard)
Now that you’ve read all that jargon, here are/were my goals for universities. I plan on majoring in either history or philosophy with a career in law/politics or business.
I’ve seen and currently like: UC Los Angeles, University of Southern California, New York University, Boston University, Cornell University, and Duke University.
The updates were: ACT score, clubs, and change in major (philosophy sounds appealing to me right now), along with an update of junior year ending 1st quarter grades.
The major change was the 35 on the ACT, I’m quite excited about that. Where would that open doors? Would it significantly increase my chances in entering my goal colleges of UCLA/UCB/Cornell/Duke? Also, what if I applied for ED at Duke/Cornell? Would that raise my chances?
P.S. I’ll probably update/repost this first with SAT scores, then with junior grades and ECs. This is NOT final; chance only based on this. Thanks for any feedback.