<p>im currently a sophomore who needs to know what NOT to screw up and where i need to become more involved if i'm aiming for places like tufts, ucla, usc. what do i need on SATs etc. thanks in advance! ..and yeah i realize cal is up there but w/e im a sophomore, i can dream!</p>
<p>Current APs/honors
-AP Spanish Language
-Honors English II
Planned APs/honors
-Honors Biology
-AP Spanish Literature
-AP French Language
-Honors English III
-AP Statistics
-AP English Literature
-Honors Advanced Topics in French: Renaissance
-Honors Advanced Topics in French: Romantic
-AP Environmental Science</p>
<p>Extracurriculars
Journalism: Yearbook Concentration (Reporter year 10)
Advanced Journalism: Yearbook Concentration (Assistant Photography Editor year 11/ [prospective] Sports Editor or Assistant Editor in Chief year 12)
National Honor Society ([prospective] inducted year 11)
Spanish National Honor Society (inducted year 10) (will def be in leadership position in jr and sr year, probs president. i am literally the only mexican person in my grade)
French National Honor Society (inducted year 10) (can probs get leadership position sr year)
Tutoring Club (4 years, [prospective] PR Manager year 11 and def something big year 12)</p>
<p>Other
State: CA
School Type: Private VERY competitive. 2 AP national winners, intel finalists like no other type of competitive
Ethnicity: Hispanic (in a <em>largely</em> asian school)
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Less than 30,000
Hooks: First generation, low income</p>
<p>Looks good. Obviously you need SAT scores, and you haven’t given your grades yet. But, and I’m going to be brutally honest: you’re Hispanic. If you do really well on your SATs/GPA is high, you should consider Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton. If you get the affirmative action boost, you should ABSOLUTELY take advantage of it.</p>
<p>Your extracurrics could be more impressive, though. You’re doing the whole “join a bunch of clubs and not do that much in them.” Focus on one specific thing, like political activism, or pre-med, or whatever, and do something really cool with that, like do one of those research internships at a hospital or join a political campaign. It looks a lot better than “she was the treasurer of 15 different clubs!”</p>
<p>^I totally agree. The OP has a better chance to get into Harvard or Standford (than Cal) since she is LATINA.</p>
<p>thanks for the tips, guys! the thing is, most of the kids who get into harvard at my school took their first APs in 8th/9th grade, perfect SAT, 4.65 GPAs, etc. USC, UCLA, Cal, etc are AVERAGE around here. i’m not particularly outstanding… except for being the only hispanic (lol) and idk maybe taking 2 foreign languages simultaneously is out of the ordinary (?). I think i can do fairly well on the SAT (gonna kick my ass all summer). The highest my GPA could be if I do really well jr and sr year with there courses is around 4.11. (pretty good, but there are kids who have ALL honors/APs and A+s). as for clubs and such, im actually pretty behind on the joining a bunch of crap stuff (ridiculous, i know) but yeah, i’m looking for internships and stuff! thanks again :)</p>