<p>so...i've been stalking this forum for a while and decided to finally post~</p>
<p>i have some schools in mind but i want to see where you guys think i belong. i'd prefer to go to a school in/near an urban area, and i'm leaning towards an engineering major (most probably biomedical).</p>
<p>asian female, rising senior, public school in texas</p>
<p>GPA: 4.64 W
rank: 8 of 643
SAT: 2160 (720 in all sections, i'm planning on retaking this most likely lol)
still waiting for sat subject test (ush, math2), ap (stat, ush, eng lit, compsciA), and act scores.</p>
<p>ECs:
jv tennis
orchestra (for freshman/soph years)
book club (co-founded, vp)
international cultural society
MUN
french club</p>
<p>volunteer work:
project c.u.r.e. (basically a program that gathers and packs up medical supplies to send to underdeveloped areas around the world)
office aide at the attorney general's office
volunteered at the local library
volunteered with the local audubon society </p>
<p>employment:
banana republic during my junior year, maybe 8-12 hrs/wk</p>
<p>awards:
this is where i have the most problem lol. i screwed up on my psats and idk got lazy? so i have zero awards of importance D: i only have this french award from freshmen and junior year and some random local awards for orchestra and tennis. i'm also in nhs if that counts for anything.</p>
<p>i probably missed some things, feel free to ask questions :)</p>
<p>your stats aren’t so bad at all, though a national merit scholarship wouldn’t hurt much</p>
<p>your SAT scores are outstanding, but if you raise them by a hundred points or so you would be even more competitive (which is necessary)</p>
<p>all in all, your GPA is amazing, ecs are not so bad, and if you got 34+ on the ACT I could see you getting into some very competitive schools</p>
<p>So far I think you could get accepted into Vanderbilt or U of Mich</p>
<p>I have a hunch that Columbia would be an excellent reach school for you, although I don’t think it would be TOO much of a reach.</p>
<p>You’d be a good candidate at Duke and Hopkins if you raise your scores just a bit, and a great candidate for UCSD-3 top biomed schools, all urban.</p>
<p>StrangeIndianFoo: i would hardly call my GPA “amazing” considering most of the other posters on this forum haha…and yeah i’m hoping for that 34+ on the ACT!!</p>
<p>newyorka: wow awesome, jhu is definitely on the top of my list 
i’m considering duke, but haven’t really looked into it quite yet. </p>
<p>i was also wondering if there was anything i could do (in the few months i have left) to up my chances and make my stats look more impressive?</p>
<p>Personally I’d go to Duke before JHU. It’s about equal for your major but Duke is overall a better school IMO and certainly much more fun!</p>
<p>Don’t worry about your lack of awards. Few awards mean anything anyways, so this won’t really affect your chances of admission.
I would say go for UMichigan, JHU, WUSTL, an Ivy or MIT if you like (and if you score higher on your SAT), and Duke (throw in Boston University if you want a guaranteed safety).</p>
<p>^lol that makes me feel really good. i was worried about the awards because everyone on cc seems to have a bajillion national/international awards plus an impossible list of ec’s D: how do they handle it all?</p>
<p>i was thinking about applying to some ivies but i was under the impression that most of them don’t really concentrate on engineering (other than maybe cornell and columbia)? HYP is more economics/social sciences, i thought.</p>
<p>Columbia has an amazing engineering school, so that would be an excellent reach if you wanted to attend there. HYP is more economics/social sciences, with the natural sciences in the mix as well.
Also, CC isn’t exactly an accurate sampling of students. It is more of a grouping of angst-filled over-achievers stressing about their chances of attending HYPSM, IMO lol</p>
<p>hahaha, yourself included ;D</p>
<p>i hope i’ll be forced to make a choice between harvard and princeton next year XD</p>
<p>
^lol
and true.</p>
<p>well, the thing is, many ECs and awards look impressive to people on the outside. sometimes you don’t realize that what you’re involved in is already amazing. feel good about your ECs, they look good to me ;)</p>
<p>as for awards, don’t stress too much. pick up one or two along the way, they don’t have to be amazing. for example, an AIME qualifier would be nice.</p>
<p>grades and SATs are great. if you’re rewriting SATs, I would focus on math, but 720s all around leave little room for improvement in any particular section haha.</p>
<p>engineering at Princeton is pretty good I hear…</p>
<p>Yeah, I do admit that I include myself in that group. But seriously, though, you have an awesome shot at some great schools next year!</p>
<p>parasouls:before coming to this site, i didn’t even know people WON these types of awards…this was my face—> ='[[[ lol</p>
<p>and i agree, i can’t stand these pretentious over-achievers!! UGH.</p>
<p>zephyravatar: princeton’s engineering isn’t too bad but i’m not really interested in any of their departments. however i do hear it is advantageous to apply to princeton as a girl with a major in engineering heh.</p>
<p>smarteeangel101: i know what you mean! i didn’t even realize it was possible to hold so many leadership positions on top of winning so many national awards and still have time for a job and some community service T_____T</p>