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Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I really should be doing homework, but its so easy to waste time here...I feel dirty for doing this again but...I made a final list of colleges. Frankly, I do not feel confident about over half of them, so I would just like to see if other people will agree whether or not my low confidence about these colleges is justified.</p>

<p>Just two quick questions before I begin:
1. Is it true that SAT really measures academic potential? I always thought it favored the rich or the experienced (besides a select few) and that there were studies which showed there was no correspondance to actual college gpas.
2. What are your thoughts on these college's grade inflation. Although I do value the learning experience, I do hope to go to graduate school (medical possibly) in the future, without drastically damaging my chances in that process.</p>

<p>Schools applying:
UCSD, UCBerkeley, USC, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Williams, Amherst, Pomona</p>

<p>Background info:
Asian male
Single parent family/ qualifies for fee waivers, etc/ first generation college student</p>

<p>Academics:
Academic GPA (10-12): 4.37/4.0 (2 Bs in Freshman)
Senior schedule: AP Euro/Art History/Calculus/Govt/Lit (no science, unfortunately)
AP Biology, Chemistry, US History, Eng. Comp: All 5's.
SAT II Biology Molecular: 780; SAT II US History: 750
SATS: 2200 (780V, 710M, 710W)
Rank: 4/520—top 1%</p>

<p>Awards/MISC:
QuestBridge Finalist
QuestLeadership Finalist
Venture Scholar
Coca-Cola Scholar Semifinalist
Amherst Diversity Open House Visitor
Williams Multicultural Visitor
Honor Guard, Many School Departmental Honors </p>

<p>Extracurriculars (I spend a lot of time in a few):
1. Debate (around 15 hrs/week): 1. Helped found the Policy Debate team, NFL Qualifer Finalist, Various High School Invitational Quarterfinalists and College invitation Quarterfinalists, Qualified for States, On scholarships (work-study, etc) spent the past two summers at debate institutes, Co-lead an Elementary Outreach Project with GATE students in local area teaching debate and speaking
2. Church (around 5 hrs/week): 1. Various officer positions for the youth council, co-directed an actual home retreat, volunteer a lot of time in service and projects
3. NHS: Vice President, Co-Headed committee chairs: Lead in Christmas Fundraising project, Ronald McDonald Projects, Adopt-A-Family Projects, lots more projects this year.
4. Art History Club Secretary/ Multicultural club Organizer
5. Research at local university and hospital: Earned a grant from a Research training program; NIDDK research training program
6. Tennis: JV and Varsity levels </p>

<p>I put a lot of passion in my essays, but frankly, I do not know how my teacher recommendations are turning out, besides my supplemental recomendations from my extracurriculars which are fairly good. </p>

<p>Thanks for reading thus far. I really would appreciate your input--but no flaming please.</p>

2

<p>sonyvaio:</p>

<p>UCB: Safe Match
UCSD: Safety</p>

3

<p>UCB: Safe Match
UCSD: Safety</p>

4

<p>thanks flopsy and batman...
anyone else?</p>

5

<p>I think you are fine at the UCs, USC, and probably Johns Hopkins. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are major toss-ups because you don't have EXTREMELY strong ec's. Don't get me wrong. I think your debate is great, but aside from that there isn't much, so the upper-tier of the ivy league schools will be hard. If your essays are as good as you say then Pomona is a good possibility. Amherst and Williams are similar to the ivies, but may be more responsive to your high GPA and rank. I think your stats are great, but for the highest of high it will be hard to separate yourself from the rest of the masses with good grades and strong test scores.</p>

6

<ol>
<li>Is it true that SAT really measures academic potential? I always thought it favored the rich or the experienced (besides a select few) and that there were studies which showed there was no correspondance to actual college gpas.</li>
</ol>

<p>They were originally made to measure the likelihood that someone would graduate college - the higher the score, the more likely to graduate.</p>

7

<p>redbutton33:
--what do you mean by "separate myself"? Do you mean you have to probably win like national awards and be really crazy at what you do? I guess that would make sense--do you think its a waste of time (as in although there may be a chance, its not very strong) to try still?</p>

<p>Qualifer: I dont think my essays are THAT good.</p>

8

<p>ack. any other comments please?</p>

9

<p>hate to do this but...bump</p>

10

<p>i think you should try. not everyone that gets admitted to the top ivies are national award winners. having those nat'l awards just makes acceptance a little more likely</p>

11

<p>last time--
and...quick question: should I think about retaking my SATs in January?</p>

12

<p>don't retake your SATs</p>