<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Rank: Unweighted, 1/635
Weighted, 4/635 - (This is because I took an unweighted World History class the summer before entering Freshman year, got an A, but it pulled me down - I have a more rigorous class schedule than anyone else at my school - but how would I go about telling schools about this?*)</p>
<p>ACT: 35 Composite, 36 English, 36 Math, 36 Reading, 31 Science, 10/12 Essay (Missed the last section in Science, worst essay I've written in my life, died towards the end - recommend retakes?)</p>
<p>SAT: 2360 - 800 Critical Reading, 760 Math, 800 Writing, 11/12 Essay - (Studied two days and one night for this, definitely retaking after more practice)</p>
<p>PSAT: 234, 80 Critical Reading, 77 Math, 77 Writing</p>
<p>SAT IIs: 780 Math Level II, 770 Math Level I, 720 Literature (Had no time to study for any of these, unfortunately - definitely taking Literature over again, should I retake Math Level II as well? I probably won't put Level I on my applications unless something goes horribly wrong with the other Subject Tests I'm planning to take, such as Physics, and possibly Biology or Chemistry (definitely at least one of the two, I hope), and maybe a few others)</p>
<p>AP Tests: US History (5) - sophomore year
Microeconomics, Macroeconomics (self-studied), English Language, Psychology (dropped out after first semester, virtually self-studied all of it, class sucked), US Government, Physics - junior year</p>
<p>I'm fairly confident I'll get 4 or 5s on every AP test this year (results due back third week of July) save for Physics, in which I'll most likely receive a 2, because as I said, our school sucks. I will be studying over the summer and taking the SAT II Subject Test in Physics to prove that I am indeed well-versed in the subject and not a complete failure. Do you think schools will buy this?</p>
<p>AP Classes taken:
US History
Microeconomics
US Government
Physics
English
Psychology (half of the course, dropped out, doesn't show that I dropped out on my transcript, only that I was only enrolled for the first semester - gym is required in Illinois, so I only get 5 courses full-year courses each year, I took Early Bird gym to add Psychology into my schedule, just makes it look like Psychology is a one semester course at our school...which may work to my disadvantage, if I do very well on the AP Psychology test and it looks like it wasn't just because I self-studied well)</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Founded a humanitarian organization, Project: Human, at our school junior year, very active, will be much more so next year.
Captain of Chess Team, and have been all three years
Varsity Member of Scholastic Bowl, and have been on the team all three years, won Conference this year
Member of Forensics (speech) junior year - attended state to perform in PIR (Performance in Round, group performance), made finals
Member of Math Team freshman and sophomore year and planning to be again senior year (this year unfortunately wasn't, terrible shame, it really helped me do well on the PSATs, may have helped my math score on the SAT had I continued...one of the things I'm a little sad about not having enough time to do) - attended state sophomore year
Member of Cross Country junior year
Member of French Club freshman and sophomore year
Peer Tutor sophomore and junior years
Middle School "at-risk" student mentor junior year
Member of NHS junior year
Member of Tom Cross (Illinois House Majority Leader - went down and visited Springfield for two days, rather nice) Youth Council
Member of NASA INSPIRE Online Community</p>
<p>I would say Project: Human and Forensics consume most of my extracurricular time (Speech involves a gross amount of time commitment), followed by Cross Country, and the rest of the events.</p>
<p>As stated earlier, took a summer school class in World History at our school with the best teacher in our entire district (who is now unfortunately Assistant Principal of Academics at another school) the summer before Freshman year - I was an introverted shy nerd loser back then, so I didn't do anything incredibly exciting Freshman and Sophomore year. Entirely changed my personality and attitude Sophomore year, on the extreme opposite end of the spectrum now, incredibly extroverted and assertive, amiable, popular, etc.</p>
<p>Volunteered at the Museum of Science and Industry between Freshman and Sophomore years.</p>
<p>Attended the University of Chicago to take two undergraduate courses (one in Cell Biology, Immunology, one in Philosophy, Ancient Philosophers) for three weeks between Sophomore and Junior years (these classes were both part of a bigger 9 week program - I only took the first part out of three parts in both, couldn't possibly afford 9 weeks, price was about $3000 I believe, after financial aid was given to us) - Received A in the Cell Biology Immunology class, A- in the Philosophy Class :(, the teacher (she was a ****ing graduate student, they deprived us of the real professor they said they were going to give us) didn't like me, we differed a lot in opinions.</p>
<p>Currently attending Harvard University for seven weeks to take two undergraduate 4 credit courses, Neurobiology and Psychology of Influence - Why People Change. Neurobiology is a very intensive "real class", Psychology of Influence is an awesome discussion oriented class, but the teacher pretty much made it clear everyone will get an A if they try. Don't know how that will play onto my record, but I'll hope to possibly get recommendations from these professors if I get on good enough and familiar enough terms with them. The discussion class will help more with that - the Neurobiology class has 200+ students. ~$9000 total, received $6000 in financial aid.</p>
<p>While here, I will be participating for pay in psychological studies as a subject and possibly volunteering at a homeless shelter and at a health center educating cute little children. Don't quite exactly know where I might put this on my application, but hey, it might help. I'm really just doing it because I love it and I want to bring the ideas back to Project: Human at home.</p>
<p>Ethnicity - Chinese Asian American. Born in America, 1992, in New Jersey, moved to Kentucky when five, then Minnesota after about a year, then Illinois, then from a very good district in Illinois to a very ****ty one in the middle of fourth grade, where I have unfortunately remained (someone save me...). I'm aware that Asians are disadvantaged in most forms of affirmative action, but I'm all for affirmative action, and I like the challenge. Just adding this in here to be complete.</p>
<p>Family Background: Parents immigrated from China in 1991, had me one year later. My sister is seven years older than me, born in China. Very successful. She had the good district in Illinois for high school, I had it in grade school. I would say the grade school was probably more beneficial for me than high school for her. She attended University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign as a Biology major, then attended University of Chicago for Law School, now working for DLA Piper.
Dad got a Ph.D at Rutgers, Mom works as very hard loving person and as a cashier at Home Depot and Kohls. Dad is currently self-employed and in debt about a million dollars trying to work out this new drug platform he invented in China, selling chemical products he makes on the side. Has been in China since 2003, haven't seen him regularly in about 6 years consequently, comes back about twice a year. Does this factor into admissions at all, does he still count as a money making factor? Doesn't really matter, cause he isn't making net profit whatsoever at all right now (like I said, totally in debt).
My mom makes about $25,000-30,000 maybe...my sister is making $160,000 currently, but given the current financial situation as a whole, she has already been subject to a temporary cut of ~10 percent to $145,000, and, being new, is very worried about the high likelihood of being laid off at any moment. Will her cash factor into my financial aid/admissions at all?</p>
<p>School Background: Plainfield North High School, 2007-2008 Mean ACT Score: 20.3</p>
<p>Schools I'm looking into:
1st/2nd choice (not sure yet, need to look into Columbia's academics more, UChicago was my first choice for a very long time due to its incredible unorthodox nature and small class sizes, need to learn more about Columbia's undergrad program and their core, etc. - long story short I love the core and the crazy professors and the crazy students and the very small class sizes, will Columbia satisfy me?) - Columbia, UChicago</p>
<p>3rd/4th (tentatively, need to know a lot more about these schools) - Princeton, Yale</p>
<p>Then in no particular order: Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, MIT, etc. etc.</p>
<p>Safeties - UofI, Berkeley, UCLA, Northwestern (but I really hate Northwestern, no offense, I don't know that much about it, I really should go on a tour sometime), Amherst? (I know nothing about this school except for the fact that it exists), Cooper Union (I know nothing about this school except for the fact that it is completely free and totally badass for that reason...and its name)</p>
<p>There are probably a few things I missed, but this covers the basics, I hope.</p>
<p>So, what are my chances?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance, everyone!
Ben</p>
<p>*Also, on that same note, I literally didn't know what AP classes were Freshman year, and our school offered none that we could take Freshman year, and only one Sophomore year (APUSH, which I took). However, it now offers a plethora of other APs (added about 20 or more APs between this year and next year), and that will show up on the informational sheet they attach to my transcript. How would you all recommend I go about telling the schools I apply to about this fact - the fact that I never had the opportunity to take all the "AP" (I put quotes because our teachers are highly unqualified in every way, shape, and form) classes that are offered now, and that I did indeed follow the most rigorous course schedule possible given my situation? Thanks!</p>
BUT you have a flawless GPA and SAT score, they’re to die for! 
and as for the rank thing, only send the UW rank, if your school lets you do that