Chance Me! Unusual circumstance

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi! I go a very highly competitive school in CA (sent about 50+ people to Cal, and about 15ish people to Ivies, MIT and Stanford total). Our school is kind of odd, in the sense that people move here for the schools, so there is intense competition here (even the middle people have sat score of above 2000). I hope colleges take that into account when looking at class rank. </p>

<p>So my unusual circumstance...I don't want to give away too much info, but I had a pretty bad medical condition that prevented my from going to school and doing much schoolwork at home for about 5 months. This affected both 1st and 2nd sem of freshmen year.</p>

<p>GPA
Freshmen: 3.4/3.0
Overall: UW 3.584, W 3.889
UC GPA (soph. & junior years only): UW 3.73, W (capped): 4.04, (uncapped): 4.155 </p>

<p>Class load: total of 5 APs, 6 Honors. Also took classes in local colleges</p>

<p>** SAT/AP **
SAT: 2240- 770M, 730 CR, 740 W (planning to retake)
Subject: 800 Math II, 780 B-E, 750 B-M, 710 Chem, 700 Lit
APs: Bio (5), Psych (5), Stats(4) still can't believe it...
Planning to take Chem, Calc BC, Econ (not class), Gov (not class), maybe Environmental Science</p>

<p>** ECs **
Blackbelt in TKD after a lot of physical trauma (doing since age 10)
National level awards ethnic folk dance (doing since age 4)
Classical Singing-lots of local performances (doing since age 7)
Tutoring kids in elem school, library, other (mainly math and science) (not paid)
Volunteer with a local organization raising awareness about bone marrow registry (office work & helping at drives)
Religious Organization (kinda like a church but not, since I'm not Christian) where we learn about our religions, other religions, great world leaders, and how to become a better person in general (its really inspiring)</p>

<p>Major: Biomedical Engineering, Biocomputing, Pre-med?
My List: Johns Hopkins, Stanford, WUSTL, UWash-Seattle, UMich-Ann Arbor, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, USC, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD</p>

<p>How much do you think colleges would take my circumstance into account? It was very serious and I learned a lot from it. I think I might write an essay about what it taught me/ how it changed my life.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>By the way, I’m Asian (not East Asian though). That probably just lowers my chances even more.
:(</p>

3

<p>I think as long as you have a major upward trend, colleges aren’t going to grade you to harshly on that - especially since it was a medical condition you couldn’t help (vs. I was addicted to crack and had to go to rehab). If anything, it will make you stand out.
That said, I think Stanford and Cornell are still reaches. Stanford a high reach. Your test scores are great, but nothing phenomenal, and your EC’s don’t help that much (although the national awards in folk dance are both impressive and unique).
Carnegie Mellon - Low reach
UWash - Match/safety
U of M - Match
USC - Reach/Low Reach
UC Berkeley - High match
UCLA - Match
UCSD - Match</p>

<p>Chance back?</p>

4

<p>Do you think writing about my circumstance is pushing it? I want to emphasize it because it literally changed my life a lot.</p>

5

<p>No, definitely not… I mean, what else would you say about it except by mentioning it after your grades? I think it would be, not only just a good topic in general, but a good way to show why you struggled so much.</p>

6

<p>This is a somewhat tough one to chance. I can’t really tell that much about your “ethnic folk dancing” from the info listed above. If you are legitimately a phenomenal “ethnic folk dancer,” that’s great (and send a supplement). But it bothers me a little bit that you didn’t list any school EC’s above.</p>

<p>Still, if you can weave all your activities together that paints a portrait of you as a passionate individual with an unusual circumstance, that’s great … and it’s better than someone who has a bunch of random generic club leaderships here and there.</p>

<p>Your scores are decent. I don’t understand why you took so many SAT II’s. the largest number of satiis that most colleges will ask for is usually 3. Your chem and lit scores aren’t so hot.</p>

<p>On that note:
Johns Hopkins = more likely than not, Stanford = that’s a stretch, WUSTL = maybe , UWash-Seattle = you should be able to get in, UMich-Ann Arbor = you should be able to get in, Cornell = more likely than not, Carnegie Mellon = more likely than not, USC = you should be able to get in </p>

<p>(i’m not super familiar with uc’s)</p>

7

<p>As long as you don’t include your medical condition in such a way that you turn off readers of your essay (not completely sure how, but there should be articles that mention how to avoid such a thing), it definitely should give you an opportunity to make your application stand out, especially given what seems to be a lack of any serious flaws.</p>

8

<p>Write a great essay about your circumstances, and I think they’ll look at that. If the essay stands out as well-written and explaining how it changed you and what you learned, they should consider the gpa issue. Also, about the class rank, if your high school sends their profile to the colleges, they will see how competitive the high school you go to is, and should take that into account.</p>

9

<p>Do they sell elevator passes at your school?</p>

10

<p>lol Altsustar. Not sure about the elevator passes. No ones ever sold me one. i hope i totally don’t give myself away to people from my school</p>