Chance me please

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Here is information about myself and I would love any input.</p>

<p>Race/Ethnicity: White- European/Middle Eastern Asian- Pakistani</p>

<p>Gender: Male</p>

<p>School Type: Public</p>

<p>GPA: 3.87 or 97% (unweighted) and 4.64 (weighted)</p>

<p>Rank: 6 out of 676 students in the class of 2010</p>

<p>Tests:</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]ACT: 34 Composite
[</em>]SAT: 2050 (am taking it again and aiming for 2200) Math: 730, Reading: 690, Writing: 630
[<em>]SAT IIs: US History: 760, Math level II: 700 (retaking), Chemistry (taking later)
[</em>]AP: European History: 4, US History: 4, Calculus BC: 4 (AB Sub-score: 5), Chemistry: 3
[li]IB: Scores not yet available[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Class Rigor:</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]Full IB Diploma Programme
[</em>]All Honors/MYP Classes Freshman Year
[<em>]All Honors/MYP Classes Sophomore Year + 1 AP Class
[</em>]7 AP/IB Classes in Junior Year
[<em>]6 AP/IB Classes planned for senior year
[</em>]Junior year class rigor were the hardest classes available to juniors at our school- IB Theory of Knowledge, IB English A1, AP USH, AP Calculus AB/BC (in 1 year), AP Chemistry 2, AP Spanish 4, IB Art Design.
[/ul]</p>

<p>Extracurricular:</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]M.E.S.A- [9, 11, 12]- 2 awards at County level
[</em>]F.B.L.A.- [11, 12]- 2 awards at County level
[<em>]Mock Trial- [11, 12]- Elite 8 at County Level
[</em>]M.S.U.- [11, 12]- Vice-President
[<em>]Link Crew- [11]
[li]Science Fair- [9, 10]- Two years competing at California State level[/li][</em>]History Day- [9]- Competing at California State Level
[li]Gaming Club- [9, 10][/li][li]Forum Administrator for a Gaming website- <a href="Don't%20know%20if%20I%20should%20include%20this,%20the%20site%20is%20very%20large%20with%20an%20average%20of%20700%20people%20active%20at%20one%20time-%20this%20just%20comes%20from%20my%20hobby%20of%20playing%20video%20games">11, 12</a>[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Sports:</p>

<p>[ul]
[li]Soccer- 11 years played, made the school team in my freshman year, started, and then quit the next year to focus on school since I was already on an outside team. I continued outside of school, made All-Stars every year, and plan to retry for the Varsity team this year.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Community Service:- Well over 200 community service hours</p>

<p>[ul]
[li]Tutor at school [11, 12][/li][li]Tutor at Library [9, 10, 11][/li][li]Hospital Volunteer [11, 12][/li][li]Soccer Coach [9, 10, 11, 12][/li][li]Soccer Referee [9, 10, 11, 12][/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Recommendations:</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]Hospital
[</em>]Counselor
[li]Two teachers[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Honors:</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]National Merit Commended Student
[</em>]Junior Honor Court (for the top 32 junior students- allowed to attend senior graduation with honorary robes)
[<em>]On track for Valedictorian
[</em>]Honor Roll Student [9, 10, 11]
[/ul]</p>

<p>Summers:</p>

<p>[ul]
[li]COSMOS Summer Program at UCI- Attended for a month and worked with two other students under the supervision of two UCI professors on a long-term research project. The project was on The Effect of Anisotropy on 12-Sided Snowflakes and Cobaltite and including research done in UCI science labs.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>I know my SAT and my extra curriculars are not that strong compared to other people but what do you guys think about my overall shot, especially if I improve the SAT scores? I plan on majoring in Biology.</p>

<p>List of Schools:
[ul]
[<em>]Johns Hopkins (ED- #1 Choice)
[</em>]UCLA
[<em>]UC Berkeley
[</em>]Washington University in St. Louis
[<em>]University of Pennsylvania
[</em>]University of Chicago
[<em>]Northwestern
[</em>]Dartmouth University
[<em>]Brown University
[</em>]Cornell University
[<em>]Columbia University
[</em>]Yale University
[<em>]Stanford University
[</em>]Georgetown
[li]UCSD (Safety Net?)[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Are my aims way too high?</p>

2

<p>Everything looks solid.</p>

3

<p>Hmm. Only M.S.U.- [11, 12]- Vice-President Link Crew- [11] stands out for me as Leadership roles. And I’m assuming you did it for two years or less? College admission officer wants commitment. As for the other community services, they are great. 4.64 is outstanding but as for the schools like Yale, etc… I think that’s gonna be a challenge. Most valedictorians do not get accepted to Ivy League schools unless they are REALLY something. You ask yourself! =) But you’re in good condition for getting into basically all the UC’s.</p>

4

<p>Your ACT score is very good. I would recommend you sending only that if you have the option - research schools and check if the SAT is not required and if you have score choice. Then just send in your ACT score and don’t take the SAT.</p>

5

<p>I’d assume that coaching and refereeing would be a leadership role. But I’m mainly aiming for Johns Hopkins, what about my chances for that? Also MSU just started last year anyway and Link Crew is for juniors + seniors so I couldn’t have done that before.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, if you have the option, send in the ACT. I see John Hopkins and the Ivy Leagues as a reach, but you should be able to get into Berkeley and UCLA easily.</p>

7

<p>Is there a specific reason why Johns Hopkins and the Ivy Leagues are reaches for me? And if I raised my SAT score to 2250 do you think I’d have a better chance? I am pretty certain I will have excellent letter of recommendations and essays.</p>

8

<p>ACT and gpa are very solid. class rank and rigor are both obviously good.</p>

<p>id say you need to hammer the SATIIs. im not sure retaking the SAT is wise. i think they’ll take the higher one anyways and 34 should be fine. </p>

<p>ECs… nothing really stands out, but there seems to be some diversity. were the awards you won individual btw? and were they competitive placement awards (1st place, 3rd place, etc. versus an award for showing up/participating)?</p>

<p>id suggest cutting ECs that dont mean much to you or ones that you didnt devote much time to. filler makes it hard to see what you are really interested in and how you could potentially add to the universities you plan on applying to. what are you interested in pursuing in college? that should help you decide what to keep and what to remove.</p>

<p>if you put a great deal of effort into your essays, specifically drawing from your EC experiences/talents/aspirations, you should be fine. at least, i dont see any glaring deficits that would make you an easy rejection. the problem is i dont see anything that would make the schools really want you over other students with great stats (i.e. ECs dont really grab my attention). </p>

<p>take the time to identify how you think you’d fit into Hopkins [or w/e school] and enhance the community as well as gain from its resources (classmates, faculty, research, clubs, opportunities to serve, etc.).</p>

<p>GL!</p>

9

<p>yes all the awards were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place and individual competitions. For the state competitions my partner and I placed 1st place at our district and county levels. And thank you for the input. Anyone else?</p>

10

<p>Johns Hopkins (ED- #1 Choice): Match ED
UCLA: High match
UC Berkeley: High match
Washington University in St. Louis: High match/low reach (demonstrate interest)
University of Pennsylvania : reach
University of Chicago : high match/low reach (ESSAYS ARE KEY!!!)
Northwestern : High match/low reach
Dartmouth University : mid-reach
Brown University : mid-reach
Cornell University : low reach
Columbia University : mid-reach
Yale University : High reach (ECs not spectacular, SAT IIs little below average)</p>

<p>Overall, I think you have a great shot at Hopkins ED. Only retake the SAT if you are sure you can do better than the previous time, as your ACT is very good (around a 2280 on the SAT 2400 scale). Best of luck!
Stanford University
Georgetown
UCSD (Safety Net?)</p>

11

<p>Hey, thanks for chancing me.</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins (ED- #1 Choice) - high match to low reach.
UCLA - match
UC Berkeley - match (because extracurriculars aren’t vital, only scores), possibly low reach
Washington University in St. Louis - not too familiar with the school.
University of Pennsylvania - Low reach
University of Chicago - Low reach, maybe high match
Northwestern - High match
Dartmouth University - Reach
Brown University - Low to mid reach
Cornell University - Low to mid reach
Columbia University - Reach
Yale University - Reach to high reach
Stanford University - Reach to high reach
Georgetown - Not sure. Is it beneficial to apply here to do bio? I thought Georgetown was only renowned for polisci and similar majors.
UCSD (Safety Net?) - I wouldn’t call it a safety net; UCSD’s bio program is pretty intense. I’d call it a match.</p>

12

<p>Thanks for all the input guys I really appreciate it. And actually I will be retaking the SAT because I am certain I can get an 800 in the math and writing sections and around a 700 for the reading. So I believe after retaking it (if everything goes well and I make no stupid silly errors) I should have a 2200-2300 SAT score. I forgot to mention that I’m the founder of the MSU and we do community service in that club as well. I think that I should probably include that my science fair project was in the category of Mammalian Biology which I think would be a plus for Hopkins since I plan on majoring in Biology.</p>

<p>The clubs I am dedicated to are FBLA, MESA, Mock Trial (pre-trial attorney), and MSU. Also I spend most of my time in the fall/winter with soccer which means I have less time to pursue every single club like most students do. I tend to focus on these few clubs and work for the competitions which are held at the end of the year.</p>

<p>Also I left out that I did science fair last year as well and this year I am planning on working to create living human heart cells from rat cardiomyocytes under the supervision of a UCLA professor and Loma Linda Hospital professional. Should I include this as well?</p>

<p>Personally I agree with you guys that I have nothing that stands out considerably in the area of extra curriculars but I am hoping my community service, academics, sport dedication (11 years, coach, and referee), essays, and teacher recs make up for some of that. I am also planning on trying to get recruited to play soccer for Hopkins; I have contacted the soccer coach and am awaiting a response and I plan to fill out a recruitment form.</p>

13

<p>bumping for more responses</p>

14

<p>most of them are slight reaches imo because not even a national merit finalist is a shoo in. but i do think you have a strong chance of getting accept. well done with your stats.</p>

15

<p>Thanks, I know it won’t be easy but hopefully Johns Hopkins ED (Really want to go there) will prove to be good for me. ^^ Thanks for the responses guys. Anyone else?</p>

16

<p>bumping again…</p>

17

<p>Johns Hopkins-low reach
UCLA-high match
UC Berkeley-low reach
Washington University in St. Louis-low reach
University of Pennsylvania-low reach
University of Chicago-high match (essays)/low reach
Northwestern-high match
Dartmouth University-low reach
Brown University-reach
Cornell University-low reach
Columbia University-low reach
Yale University-reach
Stanford University-reach
Georgetown-match
UCSD-match (dont take this as a safety. UCs can be unpredictable)</p>

<p>ur a solid student. however, ur going for a lot of tough schools. i would put up some safeties (state) schools in there. u never know what can happen with these colleges…</p>

18

<p>I think in terms of numbers you’re fine…you shouldn’t waste time taking the SAT as you’ve already achieved a 34 on the ACT (Spend time on your SAT II’s instead!). I also took the SAT II Math and Chemistry at the last minute during senior year which was so hellish ><…I bid you good luck on that. In terms of extra-curricular activities, I think that you need to assume more leadership positions, but everything else looks pretty good…your essay/supplement is a large portion of admissions so work hard and be original on that I guess…also your research is pretty cool. </p>

<p>BTW…</p>

<p>I did research in high school too (for three years x_x), and if you really enjoy it/want to design your own experiment you should apply for the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Program. It’s an undergraduate research program that funds your experiment, (up to $10,000!) and you can conduct research in anything that interests you. When you become a senior, you present your research at a big poster session in the spring. </p>

<p>I applied for this program and I didn’t expect to get in but surprisingly I did! On the application I wrote mostly about my own research experiences, and since you have research experience as well, that will be most valuable on the application for this program.</p>

<p>I got into Northwestern as well but my acceptance into the Woodrow Wilson program decided Hopkins was for me. =) So I think this will be a great opportunity for you.
Good luck!</p>

19

<p>Thank you, I really appreciate the response =).</p>

20

<p>Update to my extracurriculars:
IBSA (International Baccalaureate Student Association)- [9, 10, 11, 12]- Senior Class Senator. Basically there are 3 senators for each class and I am one of them. These are like the “class” presidents for the IB students.</p>

<p>Would this possibly help me in my leadership/ec category?</p>