Chances? First gen Asian male (Caltech, UCB, UCLA, Cornell, etc)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>*Gender: Male
*Race: Asian
*First generation who came to America during 6th grade (6 years ago).</p>

<p>*School: ranked 8th in my state; public school of 1800 students
*Graduating class size: 440
*Rank: School does not rank</p>

<p>*GPA [4-point system]: UW 3.97, W 4.19
*One B+ throughout high school career in a Spanish class; rest are As
*Out of the 25 classes I would have taken by graduation, 18 are honors or AP</p>

<p>*SAT: 2140 (M770 CR610 W760) - single sitting
*SAT II: Math II (800), Biology M (750), US History (720)
*AP: Euro (3), Lit (3), Bio (4), US History (5)
*Senior course load: AP Gov, AP Econ, AP Lang, AP Physics C, AP Chem, AP Calc BC</p>

<p>*Honors
- AP Scholar with Honor
- 7th in State in a State-wide math competition
- Science Olympiad (10, 11, 12) - my team was state champions for 2012 and 2013
- Mu Alpha Theta (11, 12)
- Nominated by the school to apply for a full ride scholarship to my state school (each high school at my state can choose one nominee every year, and I was chosen)</p>

<p>*Extracurriculars
- Research Internship (Summer before senior year) - competitive internship at 25% acceptance rate. Interned 300+ hrs at a University Laboratory where I conducted research, made and presented a research poster to the public
- Tae Kwon Do Martial Arts (9, 10, 11, 12) - 3rd degree black belt, few medals and awards
- Math Club (11, 12) - founder and co-president
- Leader of Demonstration group at my Tae Kwon Do school (11, 12)
- Chinese Academy (9, 10)</p>

<p>*300+ Volunteer hours
- Weekly volunteer instructor at my Tae Kwon Do school (10, 11, 12)
- Services at my church (9)
- NHS (11, 12)
- Tutoring (11, 12)</p>

<p>*Miscellaneous
- Fluent in Korean and English
- Artist blogger with 150,000+ hits</p>

<p>*Colleges I'm applying to:
- CalTech (early action)
- MIT
- My state university, which is my safety - probably free ride
- UC Berkeley
- UC Los Angeles
- Stanford
- Cornell
- Duke</p>

<p>I realize my efforts are futile for many of these colleges; nevertheless, chances?</p>

2

<p>Where is your home state? Did your parent ever go to college in their home country? What schools consider is first generation college student, not first generation immigrant.</p>

3

<p>Arizona. Lol looks like I had the misunderstanding of the century - yes my parents both went to college in their home country. Seems unfair if you ask me, though, because most standardized testing (especially SAT) is negatively biased towards students who don’t have English as their first language…</p>

4

<p>I agree that foreign students and first generation immigrant may have difficulties in the reading and writing test. I had experienced that myself. However, they are using these test scores to evaluate students that will study here using English as teaching media. On the other hand, most foreign students and new immigrants are bilingual which may give other advantage.
From the school list, it seems you are intended to major in engineering. The schools on your list except your home state public are very competitive. Your current SAT score is a bit weak that it is near the 25% for most of them (except UCLA). In particular, your CR score is very low. For these schools, try to bring your CR+M to around 1500 for a better chance. You are currently at 1380.</p>

5

<p>Your chances aren’t great at UC Berkeley, MIT, Cornell, Duke, and Stanford. Your SAT is below average for applicants. Good GPA. Low AP’s. Mediocre EC’s. </p>

<p>CalTech: Reach
Stanford: Reach
Cornell: Reach
MIT: Reach
UC Berkeley: Reach</p>

<p>Saying that standardized tests are negatively biased toward students who don’t speak English well is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard, no offense. The tests are designed for native speakers. This means that it is YOUR responsibility to bring your level of English to their standards. You shouldn’t complain about them not being on your level.</p>

6

<p>Caltech: reach
Stanford: reach
Cornell: reach
MIT: reach
Duke: reach
UCLA: high match
UCB: high match</p>