<p>Im a white, male junior...
Unweighted GPA: 3.97
weighted: 4.12</p>
<p>SAT I: Math 790 Verbal 770 writing 720
APs:
Last year:
AP euro (4)</p>
<p>This year:
AP US history
AP Junior English
AP Chemistry
AP physics</p>
<p>ECs:
Viola (7 years)(4-6 hours/week)
Virginia southeastern senior regional conert orchestra (10,11)
School string ensemble and playing a weddings (9-11)(1 hour/week, 10 weeks)
Tidewater intergenerational orchestra (10-11)(8 hours/week, 3 weeks)
Williamsburg youth orchestra (9-11)(2 hours/week, every week cept in summer)
Shenendoah summer music camp (9)(2 weeks)
Pit orchestra for school play (9-10)(6 hours/week, 4 weeks)
Tri-M music honor society (10-11)(3 hours/week, 2 weeks)
Varsity Tennis (9-10)(10 hours/week, 10 weeks)
Varsity Sailing (9)(10 hours/week, 10 weeks)
JV JETS team (10, Team captain)(45 minutes/week, 4 weeks)
French club (10-11)(45 minutes/week, 5 weeks)
Virginia Science Bowl (10)
Great Computer Challenge for Visual basic (10)
colonial virginia aeromodeler's club (9-11)(4 hours/week, 4 weeks)
Several poems/essays published in the Creative Communictions Young Poet's Contest (10, is this worth anything?)
Stanford EPGY Summer Institutes for Geometry (11)
Peer Tutoring (11)(3 hours)
Volunteering at the Virginia Living Museum Observatory (11)(30 hours)
Battle of the Brains (11)(2 hours/week, 4 weeks)
FIRST Robotics (11)(4 hours/week)</p>
<p>Awards:
9th grade geometry award for top freshman in geometry
1st place in Alliance Francaise french speaking competition (9th grade)
Highest honors (9-10)
7th place on national french exam (9th grade)
4th place on NFE in VA, 5th in U.S. (10th grade)
1st place at JV JETS competition for our division (10)
USAA National Science Merit Award (10)
10th grade award for top sophomore in English
10th grade award for top sophomore in Honors Physics
10th grade valedictorian award
Tri-M music honor society master musician award (10)</p>
<p>Stuff like JETS, peer tutoring, tennis, Science Bowl, etc. i will do again this year and next year. Pit orchestra was the only thing i could not do this year again since the musical did not have string parts. Ill prbly be the captain of the varsity JETS team this year as well. My GPA will stay pretty strong. I got an A- in AP US and AP English and an A in everything else for 1st quarter. If rankings are done with weighted GPAs, I will almost certainly be valedectorian. I recently tried starting a computer programming club at my school, but nobody joined, so that prbly wont work out. Later in the year, I might also try the Phyics or Chemistry Olympiad, maybe both. Soooo...what do yall think?</p>
<p>Well u're EC's look promising, but u don't seem to have many things for all 4 yrs, also it looks like u just picked up a lot of stuff to bulk up your application this year. It may really hurt you that you only took 5 AP's unless your school didn't offer any more. Also, why is your GPA so low but yet you are still valedictorian and have such high SAT scores? The musical instrument seems to be a very strong point, they like people who play strange instruments. A friend of mine got into MIT and Caltech as a junior partly because the played the basson for the florida youth orchestra (he also had tons of AP credit and courses at the local college).
Hey! I sail too!..but just a point of curiosity, how does your school have a varsity team, all the schools i'm aware of just sail through ISSA and practice at the local yacht club, the schools don't own boats or anything so it isn't an actual team, like a varsity sport, its a club sport, and as far as i'm aware club sports don't have varsity and junior varsity. I would highly discourage bending the truth.</p>
<p>well one thing is i moved here to VA just before 9th grade, so i didnt exactly get into too many clubs quickly. What do u mean my GPA is low? I thought a 3.97 was pretty good. Anyway the reason im validectorian is because most ppl in my grade are kinda lazy and/or stupid, so im basically the only person that is taking 4 APs right now, and one of the few people managing straight As, so that plus the bump will put me at the top. And dont forget, im a junuior. Ill prbly load up on another 5 or 6 APs next year. As for sailing, im not too sure what you are talking about. But yes, there is a varsity and a junior varsity team for the competitions we sail in, and we compete against other schools, its not just a club thing. I just did it in 9th grade for one year though so that id have enough sports credits. I like it and everything but i just suck so much lol.</p>
<p>oh and speaking of florida....dont schools there get paid by how many kids take AP classes or something? I heard a ton of people take APs in florida and they do so bad that it brings the curve way up.</p>
<p>Good point about the AP's i forgot about that, that will also help raise your GPA. The valedictorian at my school has a 5.0 GPA and we don't have IB and she's only taken 11 AP classes. ...Wait a second, are you on a 4.0 scale? because i'm on a 4.5 scale, maybe thats the difference</p>
<p>Actually i go to a private school so my school doesn't get paid for how many AP's i take, they take my money anyway. Also, i don't have a clue about how everyone else does. I've gotten 5's on all of my exams.
haha, its refreshing to hear that someone thinks 11 AP's are a lot, we aren't even allowed to take any AP's sophmore year, so she took 5 junior yr and 6 senior year. But its always important to keep in mind that these are the type of kids you are competing against to get into these places.
I went to this crazy hard summer program and i met a ton of people who are applying to MIT and CalTech, most had over 11 AP's, my one friend by the time he graduates will have 22 AP's (I'm pretty sure thats the number, i'm really not exagerating, some ppl are just insane), (he's on block scheduling so he can take 8 classes a year and also takes many AP's online). But this probably isn't really helping you any so i'm going to stop commenting.
I still don't really think that you have too much of a chance of getting in, but you should always apply anyway, make your essays awesome! And don't wait till the last minute!</p>
<p>Don't let people make you worry that you haven't taken "enough" AP tests for admission to MIT -- Ben</a> Jones wrote a blog entry on this topic recently, saying
Based on the thousands of apps I saw last year both in selection committee and as a reader, I can tell you that the average # of AP's for admitted kids was 5 or 6 (that's total for all 4 years of HS - i.e. 1-2 per year if evenly distributed). Many admits (most likely the majority) had no college classes. The most common AP's taken were in math and science (no surprise, it's MIT). The overwhelming majority got 4's and 5's on all tests.</p>
<pre><code>I'll pause here to add that I frequently saw kids with perfect SAT scores and perfect grades and a gazillion AP classes get rejected. Why? Because often these kids knew how to grind, but brought nothing else to the table. And that's not who we're looking for at MIT. We admit kids who show genuine passion. Sure AP's can be one of many passion indicators - but I emphasize one of many.
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