<p>Ethnicity: Vietnamese
Location: Southern California
Intended Major: Pre-med related (Biology, etc.)
Rank: Top 1%
UW GPA: 3.98 (1 B Freshman year, which was an 89.7% as well..)
W GPA: 4.7</p>
<p>SAT: 680/800/680 (CR/M/W)
Composite: 2160 <-- I'm retaking it, definitely with 2250+ in November.
SAT II:
Math II - 800
Physics - 790
Chemistry - 750</p>
<p>Senior Courseload: AP Calculus BC, AP Biology, AP Macroeconomics (and AP Government & Politics next semester), AP Environmental Science, AP Spanish Language, AP English Literature, and my two sports.
AP Scores:
5 - Statistics, Physics
4 - US History, World History, Chemistry
3 - English Language <--- I took it without a course and no self-study. I mentioned this in the add. info page.</p>
<p>Extracurriculars
Cross Country (9-12)
Track & Field (9-12)
JV Captain for 2 years, and Varsity Letter 12th grade for both sports.
Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America (9-12)
Taekwondo (9-12): First Degree Black Belt
Etc. Clubs (9-12)
Over 300 hours of Community Service</p>
<p>Awards/Honors
AP Scholar with Distinction
Scholar with Distinction
Scholar Athlete
3rd place - Physics Bowl 2009
10th place - Chemistry ACS Exam 2008</p>
<p>Essay/Teacher Recs: I think the essay will be decent and the teacher recs will be extremely good.</p>
<p>I know that this likely won't mean much since it's not credible advice, but I just am really curious what you guys think. I think my academic honors and my SAT score are bad. I'm really hoping for a 2300+ in November. Does admission take into consideration the AP scores as well? My 4s are ghastly, but I plan to get a ton of 5s this year since I saved many of my favorite courses Senior year (probably a bad decision now that I think about it).
I'm applying to HYP (Harvard as my #1 since age 5), and Penn/Johns Hopkins for my safety schools mainly. I'm also applying to a couple UCs if I get rejected from Penn/Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>I hope this doesn’t rub you the wrong way (as I have this tendency of being overly frank) but chances are extremely slim. As an Asian Californian (I sympathize with you, man) you’re from one of the most difficult applicant pools in the nation. Even if you break 2300+ chances barely improve. I don’t see any standout ECs, and they seem very “stereotypically Asian”. </p>
<p>You do have a shot if you write SPECTACULAR essays, though.</p>
<p>By the way, when you say Penn is your safety, do you mean UPenn or Penn State? My sister got into/is attending Harvard right now but was waitlisted at Wharton.</p>
<p>UPenn. I’m not trying to get into Wharton, which is for business majors I think. Its requirements to get in parallel Harvard and etc, I think. Thanks for the opinion by the way.</p>
<p>edit: I know I should probably have focused on a major EC like music, art, photography, etc., but sports really take away that opportunity. It ends up consuming a ton of time, practically 2-3 hours on school days and 5-6 on Saturday for meets.</p>
<p>I agree with James that as you fit into the more “typical Asian” pool (not intended to be a racist remark), it may be very difficult for you. The ECs are not bad, APs are ok, rank + GPA is very nice. I think HYP would be a reach, but its worth the effort, Upenn may be mid-reach/high match, Hopkins + Stanford may be matches, UC Berkeley could be a great safety.</p>
<p>stanford is never a match. it is actually, imo, more variable than HYP. hopkins is a match, UC Berkeley is a lowmatch, and HYP are reaches like they are for everyone.</p>
<p>I would never call Stanford a match for anyone. Especially with CR and W in the 600s. Penn wouldn’t be considered a “safety” with those stats, either.</p>
<p>Strange. I didn’t mention Stanford. Don’t know how kid1992 made that connection, but yeah, Stanford’s definitely in the HYP range. It’d be a high reach if I was applying there. I was just wondering if I even had a chance for HYP. That’s all I could hope for, haha.
For the SAT in November, I’m focusing on getting my Writing to 800 and CR to 750 for a superscore of 2350ish. I know I can do it on the Writing because I’ve scored consistent 780+s even when I got that 2160 (I was actually baffled when I saw that 680 the first time). As long as I get my CR to 700 (which will be manageable imo since I studied all summer), I’ll have a superscore of at least 2300.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys.</p>
<p>EDIT: Oh, I also have a question regarding APs. Is it better to get a 3 on an AP test or to not have taken it at all? Like I said about my English Lang&Comp test, I did it without a formal course. Did the score end up hurting me, or does it help because it’s another passed AP test?</p>