<p>Me:
African American female
small town in NJ
going to be a senior in fall 2014</p>
<p>Classes:
4.1 gpa weighted(i believe unweighted it is still about a 4.0 but im not 100% sure)
salutatorian(2nd out of almost 200)
AP Chemisty(junior)
AP Language and Composition(junior)
AP Literature and Composition(senior)
AP Spanish(senior)
AP Calculus(senior
the rest are honors</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
5 years marching band(4 as trombonist, 1 as drum major)
4 years musical(2 leads so far, hopefully another come spring)
4 years concert choir
4 years concert band
4 years vocal ensemble
5 years jazz band
3 years tennis(2 jv, 1 varsity)
3 years student council
2 years astronomy club
2 years indoor percussion</p>
<p>Awards/Honors:
President of National Honor Society for my school's chapter
Spanish Honor Society
Math Honor Society
2013 All South Jersey Chorus(probably 2014 as well, haven't auditioned yet)
2012-13 All State Womens Chorus
2014-15 All State Mixed Chorus
many marching band awards</p>
<p>Standardized Test Scores:
2100, first SAT(730 reading,710 math, 660 writing)
2100^, second SAT(receive scores in a few days but projected to be higher than previous because I had a bad essay day before and I usually score a lot higher on writing in the practice tests)
-also going to take 2 SAT Subject Tests(possibly chem and english, or english and math), im not sure how im going to do as I have not received my AP Test Scores yet either :(</p>
<p>How do you guys think I'll do???? I'm very nervous because I really want to go to Penn but I know the acceptance rate is so low. I've really tried to make myself a desirable student but I know I can only do so much and a lot of very qualified students get rejected all the time. It's stressing me out so much! I need an opinion from someone other than my mom, who believes I'll get a full ride to the university of my choice, no problem. I'm afraid I'm going to give myself a stroke, I think about college so much. Please help me out!</p>
<p>P.S. Idk if this helps, but I am planning on possibly double majoring in Creative Writing and a more practical science. Know any other universities with good cw and science programs that I might have a shot at???</p>
<p>Wow, lots of music and vocal ECs! It really shows passion when you have such breadth and depth to an aspect of your life in your ECs, if I were you music would definitely be the subject of at least a couple of my essays. Now obviously many of these schools are reaches for everyone, but I think you’ve got a shot! NYU and CMU seem to be good matches, and the rest are low to high reaches.</p>
<p>Thank you @gauravk306 that was very encouraging and I’ll definitely write about music lol!</p>
<p>@eFlick yes, I know, I am a little worried about this. I’ve seen a lot of people on here with 10-20 AP Classes, but my school only offers 8 in-class (5 of which I’ve taken. I’m taking Spanish so no AP French, I’m wanted to take physics before college and the highest level offered is honors, so no AP Bio. and I really don’t like history so I didn’t take AP US History.) Now, my school does have a virtual high school option that includes a few other AP Courses but it is supposed to be almost impossible to do well in them because of the limited interaction with the teacher and it being online. Do you think my number of AP classes will hurt my application since I was given access to online options? Compared to the other schedules of those in my school, mine would be among the most rigorous.</p>
<p>@eFlick Don’t colleges look at students in the context of their own school? </p>
<p>I don’t think your AP classes will harm your chances, especially if you are salutatorian.
I can’t really chance you; I am only a student applying to schools in the Fall (just like you). What do I know?</p>
<p>What I will say, though, is that your SAT is probably okay. What I noticed is that your Math + CR score is pretty high relative to your 2400 score, so that should really help (many colleges on your list toss the Writing. Those that look at it don’t care about it as much (or so I have heard).</p>
<p>@sallymeno11 Thank you! I’ve heard that too about colleges taking your school’s offerings into account, so I hope that’s true. I hope you’re right about my SATs too lol. Best of luck to you too with applying!</p>
<p>@muzzyhoss I don’t think it will hurt you in “context” of your school, but cyberschooling isn’t at all bad. If you need a teacher by your side to learn material, I think you shouldn’t take any more APs. </p>
<p>btw, I hate history too; I’m taking regular honors US history junior year and psych senior year.</p>
<p>@eFlick I am now considering taking AP Economics online. I have not had any experience with online classes but some of my very smart friends have had a really terrible experience with it which is why I’m cautious. I don’t want to bring down my gpa senior year.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats That’s what my guidance counselor told me. I think our school has had problems with grade inflation in the past but they recently implemented a new program that was supposed to fix it. Now we have a scale out of 100, where I would place in the 99.something range I’m guessing since it does not allow someone to go over. I gave the 4.0 scale though since that’s what most people are used to.</p>
<p>Okay, so far I’ve gotten some positive and negative feedback. Please, if you don’t believe I will be able to get into a school on my list could you suggest something I could do that would better my chances? That would be very helpful!</p>
<p>@ We’re pretty much applying to all the same schools except for NYU (I’m iffy) and CMU (is that carnegie mellon??)</p>
<p>And were in the same boat, well I’m Nigerian, and I’m not as great as music as you are ;). But considering we are on par with each other aside from the number of AP classes (i took 4 this year) taken I’m just going to regurgitate what my chances were to those colleges percentage wise since we have basically the same profile. </p>
<p>BTW: your chances might be higher than mine considering I just did for EC: Deca, Project X, NHS, 3 years of varsity track (as of now), Spell Bowl, Spanish Club, Best Buddies (so really nothing compared to you). </p>
<p>Also, I went to UChicago to visit 2 weeks ago and my guide was a creative writing major and let me just say that college is amazing!! Everyone is really nice and accommodating and if you like coffee there is a coffee shop in every building. And they have a great science program. Enrico Fermi (physicist) actually went to school there and the physics boys duke it out to have his room each year. Also, the admission counselor mentioned that the students had created a nuclear energy generator on the campus for one of the scavenger hunts but the gov’t shut it down a day later. </p>
<p>But don’t forget to have some back-up safety schools. </p>
<p>@tola2015 wow, thank you so much, that was very helpful!! I am also Nigerian lol. I hope my extracurriculars make up for my lack of AP classes too because there’s not much I can do, considering I have one year left. How did you calculate these numbers though, if you don’t mind me asking? If they’re accurate for me, I’d be very happy lol.</p>
<p>@muzzyhoss I think I just found my soul sister lol. And I’m stressing out too, I’m like I’m never going to get in. And my mother is just like your mother ever the optimistic about my chances of acceptance while some of us have to be practical. </p>
<p>@tola2015 exactly lol! This whole situation is just surreal honestly, I’ve spent years thinking about college and what I need to do to go where I want to go, and now I actually have to apply lol. It’s really weird and soooo stressful. Glad I found someone who understands so well lol!</p>
<p>I’ve been looking at like UChicago and Upenn’s supplemental essay’s since they released them early and I’m just like :(( :(( why do I have to write an essay, just accept me for me. I honestly don’t even know what I’m doing with my life anymore except for freaking the **** out. </p>
<p>@tola2015 ■■■■■ yes yes yes yes yes! If there wasnt enough pressure already to apply and hope that the last quarter of my life impresses universities enough that they accept me and thereby guarantee my future happiness, I also have to painstakingly craft a beautiful essay that will make the admission officers shed tears of either sadness or laughter or both. It’s just cruel. I’m not that miraculous a human being; I just want to sleep.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse I am a US citizen. And I am planning on applying for aid; however my mom recently got a promotion and our financial situation has gotten significantly better, so I’m not very optimistic about receiving a lot. :/</p>