Hey there,
I’m wondering about my chances at some of my top picks for colleges, and if you think I have any shot whatsoever at scholarships for any of the schools I’m considering. I am a junior.
ACT: 33 (34 superscore)
SAT: 1310 (this was really bad and I’m purely focusing on my ACT now)
GPA: 3.8 (UW) and a 4.25 (W) --> I have a 4.7 weighted currently in second semester junior year, and my GPA has been on a rising trend since Freshman year.
AP Classes/Scores: USH and Computer Science (Soph year; got 3’s on both), Calc AB/BC (awaiting scores for this year and next year), European History (awaiting), Chemistry (awaiting), Physics (awaiting), French (awaiting), English Language and English Literature (awaiting), Statistics (awaiting). In total I’ll have taken 10 AP Classes.
Rank: Our school doesn’t do rank because it’s a small private school.
Major Awards: I placed 12th in the nation for the French Concours, and I got an honor certificate for the AMC (American Math Contest), but nothing special really.
Extracurriculars:
- Vice President and Director of Service of the Habitat for Humanity Chapter
- Co-Head of Programming on the Robotics Team, which placed first in state
- Academic Bowl - placed 3rd in state
- Mock Trial (Freshman and Sophomore years) - wasn’t special though, I was only on the B team
- Math League (A team)
- TEAMS/TSA National Competitor and first in state
- National Honors Society (Overall, Language, and Science NHS) - I may be an ambassador for NHS, still awaiting that decision
Job/Work Experience: Lifeguard for freshman and sophomore year summers. Applying for a tutoring job at Mathnasium.
Volunteer/Community Service: This one is a little rough on the edges. By the end of this year I should have around 100 hours or so through Habitat for Humanity. Over the summer we are launching a possible project over in Africa to build homes, as well as another charity project for disabled patients in hospitals and creating care packages for them.
Summer Activities: Well, I worked as a lifeguard the past two summers. I’m planning on getting a part-time tutoring job, as well as attending the NYU Summer At Stern Business program through their NYU Precollege Program (let me know what you believe colleges will think of this, I’m not sure what I’ll get out of it because it’s six weeks long).
Essays: My essays should be fairly strong. I’m guessing an 8-9 out of 10. We do a whole month in English after the AP exam of working on our essays, so it should turn out fairly well.
Teacher Recommendations: going to be very very good. I’m using my AP Calc AB teacher (went to UCLA) as well as my AP Chemistry teacher (went to UVA/Duke/MIT). They’re both incredible people.
Counselor Recommendation: Not sure how this will turn out, but I can’t see anything bad going into this recommendation.
Additional Recommendation: Getting it from a good family friend who’s a “big wig” over at a highly regarded financial firm, and has family relations to University of Michigan admission directors.
Interview*: Not sure where this is going to apply. I haven’t really thought about this part of the application yet.
Applying for Financial Aid*: Not sure what to do about this. Our family does well, but paying $70k a year for school is still a huge blow to the wallet for anyone.
State: Live in PA, go to private school in DE
School Type: Private Catholic
Ethnicity: I’m white, but I’m also 25% Portuguese (haha I don’t think that really counts for anything in terms of checking off that little Hispanic box on the CA).
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: I don’t know what to put for this. But my family is in the upper middle class. I’d say anything over $500k a year (this makes it really hard for financial aid I’m guessing). Parents don’t share that information with me.
Hooks: I have a very strong connection to University of Michigan with an admissions director over there. Other than that my Mom’s been deathly ill the past 5 years which has had a huge toll on my life; that’s more of an essay topic I believe.
SCHOOLS I WANT TO APPLY TO:
University of Maryland (CP), Purdue University, UCLA, University of Michigan, Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, University of Washington (Seattle), New York University, University of Pennsylvania (I seriously doubt I could get in here), Carnegie Mellon (same here), Georgetown (I’m kinda considering this), USC (Southern California), also considering Duke though I don’t think I have a shot whatsoever for Math.
My Top 5: NYU, University of Michigan, University of Maryland, Purdue, Georgia Tech. UCLA is also very high on my list.
MY MAJOR: I’m still currently deciding between Applied Mathematics and Quantitative Finance / Financial Engineering. I’m leaning more towards Applied Mathematics.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ANY ADVICE OR FEEDBACK YOU CAN GIVE ME, CHEERS PEOPLE!
