Chance Me, Regular Decision

<p>BACKGROUND:
Male, live in NY, born in South Asia, moved to U.S. when almost three yrs old, English was my third language, household income is around 85,000 so about 55,000 net, I have two older siblings, both of whom went to college. Father is a pharmacist. Mother is a housekeeper.</p>

<p>STATS:
GPA: 103 weighted, 95 unweighted (weighting system: honors = +10, AP = +12)
Class Rank: 6/300
SAT Reasoning Test: M: 710 Cr: 670 W: 670 Total: 2050/2400 and 1380/1600
AP: Last year I took 3 APs, and got two 4s and one 3. This year I am taking 5 AP classes (6 if you count economics as macro and micro as separate since tests are separate) + engineering research class + phys ed + a graduation requirement class.
SAT II: Phys: 800 MathIIC: 800 Literature: 700
Essays: Good, meaning not super because I am not an extremely creative writer and I rarely use SAT words, but good in the sense that I feel I successfully expressed my personality
Letters of Recommendation: One of them was really good, and the other two were average good.</p>

<p>AWARDS/EXTRACURRICULARS/WORK EXPERIENCE:
--AP Scholar
--Varsity Tennis Team: 3yrs (I made counties once)
--Varsity Excellence Award (received twice)
--Two-time scholar athlete
--Distinguished High Honor Roll student
--Mathletes: 4yrs (county champion last year, captain this year)
--Science Olympiads: 2yrs, ever since it was offered (I entered all the physics and chemistry competitions)
--SWEEP (an environmental club): 2yrs
--Key Club: 20 hrs community service
--School Radio: 2yrs (head journalist)
--Have been working hard at a convenient store 30hrs/week for 3yrs. I have been sales manager for 1.5 years. This is big for me since it took up a lot of my time on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
--Even though I am an atheist, I have been helping every year, for five years, to help set up the food and dining preparations during the four weekend community feasts in the month of Ramadan. My counselor told me this is community service. So it took at least 3hrs/day<em>2days</em>4weekends<em>4yrs(high school yrs)=96 hours.
--I volunteered to tutor two students, on math and chemistry during junior year, after school every day, 1 hr each session, for 32 weeks. So 1</em>5<em>32 = 160 hours.
--I gave tennis lessons to a couple of persons at my tennis club during sophomore year, once a week, three hours a week, for six months. So 3</em>4*6= 72 hours. Afterwards, she became my girlfriend, which indeed was the ultimate payoff!
--I completed a geology course at a state university and received an A-. I also received 3 (potentially transferable) college credits.</p>

<p>RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:
--I have completed original research on two projects, one involving chemistry with a professor at a state university, the other involving a bit of physics, environmental science, and biology—mixed—at a prominent national lab. I will be sending my abstracts for both research projects. Neither project was published, but I am entering the second one into ISEF. All this research stuff is perhaps my biggest “hook.”</p>

<p>MISCALLENOUS:
--I have been privately tutored for Arabic twice a week, for about 2 years now.
--I speak four languages fluently: Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, English; I know there are some conflicts about whether Urdu and/or Punjabi are languages or dialects, it’s acknowledged.
--I have taken part in civil protests against the war in Iraq as well as against the Patriot Act for twice a month, for two years.
--I trained at an international tennis academy in Texas for 1 month. (But please note, I do NOT wish to play college tennis)
--I regularly play tennis at a local club
--I love to play chess with my friends; I tried to create an official club, but my school’s board failed to pass it in time to make it official this year.
--My favorite album is War by U2
--As subtly mentioned above, I am taking an engineering research class. This year is the first year ever that my school is offering it, and it is very unique. I doubt many other schools have it, so this may catch a second glimpse.</p>

<p>PERSONAL QUALITIES:
--Mathematically and scientifically inclined
--Extremely politically active (I’m somewhere between liberal and libertarian)
--Very outgoing, I love my closest friends with all my heart, and I like most everyone else (except for the cocky jocks, for they are so annoying).
--Theologically open-minded
--I like to get personal with small groups of people, rather than lead a huge pack, as evident in my tutoring and tennis-lessons providing.</p>

<p>ACADEMIC INTERESTS:
--Economics
--Philosophy
--Mathematics
--Physics</p>

<p>You'll be fine.</p>

<p>I honestly wouldn't be worrying so much, but I just recently fell in love with this college after like EVERYONE recommended it to me, and now I really want to get in, but I think my SAT Reasoning score is going to hurt me big time, especially since I'm a middle class South Asian from New York, putting me in the worst possible background position possible.</p>

<p>Plus I lack leadership ECs, don't I? I mean I blame my job, it took up a lot of my time so I couldn't really devote enough time to other clubs, at least not enough to gain sufficient leadership. But I'm planning on writing a stellar essay on my job experience, so hopefully that should compensate.</p>

<p>Why Oberlin? None of your academic interests are strong there? Don't get me wrong, Oberlin's a great school-- just wondering why it's on your list.</p>

<p>Because it's a school with quirky people, the school is politically active, and I feel that the school will also allow me to be a more well-rounded person as I study my academic interests. Essentially, my extreme interests are economics and philosophy, and Oberlin doesn't have a weak philosophy department by any standard, while it's economics department is fair--not weak, not strong. Plus, I have a friend at Oberlin, and he can't stop yapping on and on about how much he loves it there.</p>

<p>Plus, quite a few people recommended that I look into Oberlin, they must have had a reason for doing so.</p>

<p>A similar school I'm applying to for similar reasons is Brandeis. I've heard I have better chances at Brandeis than at Oberlin though, but if I get into both, I would probably go to Oberlin, though I'm not quite sure yet.</p>

<p>Those aren't poor SAT scores by any means. And while Oberlin aims to get a well-rounded incoming class, they don't limit the number of people they accept from any area, even from any one school- I know 3 people from one high school, 4 people from another, all of whom now attend Oberlin.</p>

<p>Hope you get into Oberlin and choose to go there over Brandeis.</p>

<p>^Wow, that's pretty cool Fanatic517. Our valedictorian is applying to Oberlin since he likes that Oberlin is very liberal and politically active, but he's also applying to most of the Ivies and has his heart set on Yale. I already know he's going to be accepted most his schools, and Oberlin is probably his safety, since not only are his statistics stellar (2370 SAT, 750+ SAT II's, etc) but so are his essays, I read two of them and they were amazing, all the teachers were thoroughly impressed. And he has founded three clubs in our school, and is president of four. I'm so insanely jealous.</p>

<p>I'm trying to get one of my best friends to apply with me, but he has financial troubles, so even though he is well-qualified, he is applying to mostly state schools. But I've heard that everyone at Oberlin is real tight, so I shouldn't have much trouble fitting right int there. I'm really excited I've found this gem of a college.</p>

<p>You're good!</p>

<p>Just wondering why you didn't apply ED to Oberlin?</p>

<p>^Since I was taking the SAT Reasoning Exam in November, I did not apply ED anywhere.</p>

<p>Late reply, I know, but I guess I should comment that our econ department isn't half-bad. It's small, but a lot of our professors are pretty good. You might want to check out a blog of one of the profs: Macro</a> Madness</p>

<p>Also, your stats seem totally fine.</p>

<p>please chance me too!
International freshman applicant (regular decision) require aid for attendance</p>

<p>SAT1
Verbal- 670
Math- 780
Writing- 630</p>

<p>SAT2-
Math2-800
physics-780
chemistry-770</p>

<p>Languages spoken- Hindi, Nepali, English, French(with difficulty)</p>

<p>Personal Essay- I don’t know (does anyone want to go through it and comment?)</p>

<p>Teacher's Recco- dunno!
G.Cs- I guess its generic
Got 4 As in A-levels( phy, chem, math, further math- arguably the toughest combination offered by my school, AP and IB is not offered) but a "d" in one AS level paper -general paper( it is basically english)</p>

<p>Top 5% in all academic courses but 10~15% overall ( bcoz of GP:-<
But then I got 112 in Toefl-ibt with 30/30 in writing</p>

<p>Overall high school transcript sloping upwards.</p>

<p>Current interest- Physics and math</p>

<p>ECs-
Established a library in a rural village of Nepal( had to walk for almost a week to get to the village!)
Many participations in plays
Won Inter House One Act Play
Vice president of a social service club(ssc)
Executive Member of science club(sc), mathematics council(MC), environment club(EC)
Deputy cultural captain of my house
House prefect
Won debate comp, elocution comp
Participated in 6th International Conference on Student Quality Control Circle, ICSQCC(india)<br>
Participated in 4t International Young Mathematics Conference (india)
Appeared on principal's merit list- once with 1st honors and once with 2nd</p>

<p>Activities organized-
• Para – Olympic for the Disabled ( SSC )
• Temple Cleaning Program ( SSC )<br>
• Cultural Program at Khagendra Nawa Jyoti Kendra, for Disabled children( SSC )
• Art Competition ( SSC )
• Regular Visits to Old age home ( SSC )
• Adolescents Health Training ( Science Club )
• Inter -School Competitive Science exhibition ( Science club )<br>
• Choyu House Cultural program
• Guru Purnima Celebration
Tree plantation program in landslide prone area(EC)
Math Quiz and publised Math journals( 1st of its kind in Nepal as far as I know!)</p>

<p>Volunteer works outside school:</p>

<p>Helped in the official works of a human rights organization
Taught basic English and Math to Adult illiterate women through Nari Jagaran Kendra (NGO working for the welfare of women</p>

<p>great stats . u will be fine.</p>

<p>pratik....don't mock me!</p>

<p>anyone???? plz comment!!!!!!!!!!</p>

<p>anyone??????? plzzzzzzzzz leave some comments!</p>

<p>hey swetaaa
I am not mocking you.ur stats are really nice.
perhaps your stats would get more comments if it were in your own different thread.</p>

<p>swetaaa:
At Oberlin,
if u r a ED candidate, you're in.</p>

<p>if u r a RD candidate, you're...
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in :-)</p>

<p>by the way, is your first language Hindi or Nepali?</p>

<p>thank-u din-na! i wish the admission officers at oberlin would also think like that.
My 1st language is Nepali. what about yours?</p>