Chances at UC, USC & Stanford - Thanks!

<p>Hi there,</p>

<p>Thank you for reading! I've been a lurker of CC for around a year now and finally got around to registering an account a few months ago. I'm amazed at all the talented students in this community. It's both reassuring and disconcerting! Anyways, I'm nearly done with my applications and thought it would be helpful to know my perceived chances at the schools I'm applying to.</p>

<p>----- Schools -----</p>

<p>UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Davis, USC, Stanford (Super Reach?)</p>

<p>----- Quick Snapshot -----</p>

<ul>
<li>I'm a Chinese male attending one of the most competitive public high schools in California. It doesn't do a class ranking system.</li>
<li>9-12 GPA: 4.08W, 3.82UW, 10-12GPA (for UCs): 4.14W</li>
<li>SAT I: 2120 (720 Reading, 720 Writing, 680 Math)</li>
<li>SAT II: Math IIC (740), World History (650), Literature (640)</li>
<li>Honors/AP Courses Taken (most rigorous class schedule available since 9th grade):
9th grade: H English-9, H Geometry, H Integrated Science 1, H World History-9
10th grade: H English-10, H Algebra 2, H Integrated Science 2, H US History-10, AP Computer Science AB
11th grade: H European Literature, H Pre-Calculus, AP Physics, AP European History
12th grade: AP English Literature, AP Environmental Science, AP American Government, Calculus 150A/B (at Cal State Fullerton)</li>
</ul>

<p>I also took Accounting 101 during the summer of 11th grade at Santa Ana College and received an A. As an additional note, our school doesn't allow freshmen and sophomores to take AP classes in the core subjects, which means that I was not able to receive weighted GPA averages during 9th and 10th grade, leading to a slightly lower GPA than many other applicants. I believe this is all factored in the admission process though.</p>

<p>I do understand that my academics (especially my test results) are very weak compared to many other students applying to the schools in my list. I finished 9th grade and the first semester of 10th grade with straight A's in the most rigorous schedule possible in all honors classes, but stumbled slightly in my second semester of 10th grade (3.67W in that semester) as I had trouble managing my time with my activities outside of school. It took until the beginning of junior year before I got my GPA settled again, but the damage had been done already. </p>

<p>----- Passion ------</p>

<p>I have a passion for creating and managing businesses, an interest that evolved from my web development experiences since I was 8 years old. This is something that I've taken and transformed into real-life experiences through the creation of two legally registered companies since 2007 - more information to follow. My intended undergraduate major at my list of schools is in the Business Administration and related fields.</p>

<p>----- Important Activities ------</p>

<ul>
<li>Chief Executive Officer at VectorLevel LLC - Grades 11, 12 / May 2008 - Current / 49 hours/week</li>
</ul>

<p>I founded VectorLevel LLC (VectorLevel</a> LLC - High Performance Hosting Solutions), a website hosting company, in May 2008. Essentially, what this company does is provide the resources for websites to be online. I manage all aspects of daily operations with server/network management, support & sales departments, employees, and more. Our company is profitable with a growing customer base around the world, has a payroll of 3 employees, and we’re becoming a reputable startup in the website hosting industry.</p>

<ul>
<li>President / Vice-President of GreenLift, Inc. - Grades 11, 12 / Nov 2007 - Current / 15 hours/week</li>
</ul>

<p>I co-founded GreenLift, Inc. (GreenLift</a>, Inc.), a non-profit corporation in California in November 2007. GreenLift was founded on the basis of providing crucial assistance to a number of charities in a variety of areas through monetary donations and the raising of public awareness. I started off as President, but I currently serve as Vice President so I can focus more time on VectorLevel.</p>

<p>Our focus is on allowing people to donate to a large list of partner charities and entering all donors of $100 or more into monthly drawings for prizes. Through this, we hope to raise public awareness for charities and reward donors for helping our world as a whole. We are currently waiting on the IRS for our 501(c)(3) tax-exemption status before publicly operating so donations can be tax-exempt for the donor. </p>

<p>Some other notable activities that I feel are relevant to my passion are located below.</p>

<ul>
<li>Community Guide at Web Hosting Talk - Grade 12 / Sep 2008 - Current / 50 hours/week</li>
</ul>

<p>Web Hosting Talk (Web</a> Hosting Talk - The largest, most influential web hosting community on the Internet) is the largest, most influential web hosting community on the internet with over 200,000 members and represents a huge aspect of the hosting industry. WHT is owned by iNet Interactive, a social media company operating prominent online communities for technology professionals and technology enthusiasts. As a staff member (Community Guide), I work with other staff on regulating all aspects of the community and promoting free discussion. This position requires a clear understanding of how the web hosting industry works.</p>

<ul>
<li>Linux System Administrator Grade 10, 11, 12 / 42 hours/week</li>
</ul>

<p>For 2 years now, I’ve worked for many individuals such as employees of Cisco and many other hosting companies as both a freelancer/salaried employee doing systems administration tasks involving hosting servers, network management, etc.</p>

<ul>
<li>Webmaster / Web Designer & Coding</li>
</ul>

<p>Since the age of 8, I’ve designed, coded, and managed numerous websites, several of which became large popular online communities with as many as 4000 members. This involves many skills involved in managing a successful business and I believe my experiences running these websites gave me the necessary background to move to real companies. Several large communities of mine have since been shut down, but a prominent one that is still online today is below.</p>

<p>--- ofallthedays (ofallthedays</a>) – ofallthedays, founded in January 2007, brings together communities around the world by providing people with a dynamic place to post details about their day. The goal of this project is to foster a connection between communities around the world with different cultures and beliefs. We have an active community of almost 200 members with over 40,000 posts.</p>

<p>----- Final Notes -----</p>

<p>I do have the usual awards such as AP Scholar, participation in various clubs such as Youth Action Team throughout high school, 100+ volunteer hours, etc., but I felt it would be helpful to separate myself from the pack by demonstrating the ways I have explored my passion and turned it into something concrete. As you can probably see, I spend a disproportionately amount of time working on activities (majority of every day) that are not related to school. Starting from sophomore year, I had to balance my involvement with the development of my websites, the various jobs I held in the web hosting industry, and most importantly my own businesses all with schoolwork in a rigorous and tight schedule. Time was very restrictive, but I believe that I successfully split my time between my education and real-life enrichment.</p>

<p>I believe my essays and letters of recommendation are excellent representations of who I am.</p>

<p>Do I have a chance? Thank you for reading everything - I know it's pretty long! If I missed anything, please let me know and I'll do my best to elaborate.</p>

<p>dude. don't worry about it. you're in at stanford</p>

<p>Your web-activities are clearly demonstrative of a genuine, applied passion for something. Even if your stats may not be the absolute best, the schools (especially Stanford) will see your ability to dedicate yourself.</p>

<p>youre in at all the schools you listed</p>

<p>Thank you guys! I'm a bit surprised at the positive responses, especially for Stanford. I assumed it was a high reach with my academic statistics.</p>

<p>But you should be in all those schools except Stanford because Stanford admission is not predictable.</p>

<p>Thanks! I've already turned in the UC & USC applications a few weeks ago, but I still have the Stanford application in front of me. I guess all I can do now is try my best and see how far I get.</p>

<p>Based on the stats alone, I wouldn't say UCLA and UC Berkeley are safeties, but if you did a good job emphasizing your EC's you should have a great shot.</p>

<p>Your application is freakishly similar to mine.</p>

<p>The only difference is while your into web hosting and business management I'm more into web development and business management. I'm hoping all this web stuff I've done helps me get in, but I'm really unsure because test scores are off (same as you). </p>

<p>What's your top choice?</p>

<p>Kinda of like me and i'm making 10k/month from my sites right now</p>

<p>Take all this advice from where it came: high school students who mean well but haven't a clue.</p>

<p>I think your extracurricular numbers may be a tad inflated. I would definitely reexamine those to make sure you have them right.</p>

<p>Currently you have 114 of extracurricular hours (Vector, Greenlift, Community Guide) + the 35 (7 hrs x's 5 days) assumed hours at school each week + a VERY conservative estimate of maybe 4 hours of homework a week = 153</p>

<p>Since there are 168 hours in the week, that leaves about just over two hours of sleep a night considering you do nothing else besides the activities I listed.</p>

<p>If I was an adcom, I'd think you're blowing smoke. You're basically saying that you held down 3 full time jobs + a part time. </p>

<p>Just a suggestion. You wouldn't want your stunning credentials to be overshadowed by a gross overestimate of what you do a week.</p>

<p>@bmwguy</p>

<p>Wow, that's really interesting. My top (dream) choice would be Stanford and then UC Berkeley more realistically. Best of luck to you!</p>

<p>@LostSymphonies</p>

<p>Many of those (especially VectorLevel & Community Guide) tie directly into each other as I represent my company on the forums so during those hours, I'm often doing work for both at the same time. I'm constantly multi-tasking and I'm pretty sure my numbers are relatively accurate. I didn't know that the hours couldn't be spent doing multiple things at the same time... the applications weren't that specific about it. I definitely did not want to inflate my numbers or anything like that. When you combine the numbers, I have school around the hours you stated and then usually spend 6-8 hours everyday managing a lot of things on that list at the same time. As for sleep, I don't get a whole lot either with an average of 4-5 hours on school nights.</p>

<p>I didn't mention this on my applications. Is there some way I can clarify this (for the applications I already turned in)?</p>

<p>i'm freaking jealous.</p>

<p>@JteH</p>

<p>Haha, don't be... I think there are many more spectacular applications here on CC than mine.</p>

<p>I'm getting a tad worried now about how my hours will be interpreted. I've already turned in UC and USC and did not make it clear that many of those hours were the result of me doing multiple activities at the same time online. None of those hours are inflated, but I can see how an admissions officer might confuse the hours as all occurring during separate time intervals. Would my best course of action be to call UC and USC and see if they can add a note to my file?</p>

<p>Thanks everyone. I really do appreciate it.</p>

<p>oh damm, I never thought someone could be this concentrated, I give you my early congrats and I hope to see you in the future, besides, I need someone to help me set up my server :P</p>