<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I'm middle class and half Chinese, from an extremely competitive public school in southern California with around 3,000 students. The school was ranked top 10 in the nation earlier (I honestly don't know what rankings were based on), and last year sent 8 to Harvard, 15 to Stanford, 6 to almost everywhere else, and at least a 100 to UCLA, so it's been recognized. Class ranks aren't offered -even if colleges just say to estimate a percentile on counselor recs, they just have a "do not rank" stamp.</p>
<p>But I'd probably be top 10%, although not top 5%. I have no idea where in between.</p>
<p>As for me:</p>
<p>GPA (unweighted): 3.8
GPA (weighted): 4.5
SAT:
first try: 2150 - Math 720, Verbal 710, Writing 720 (essay 9)
second try: 2250 - Math 780, Verbal 760, Writing 710 (essay 9)
PSAT: 225 (National Merit Semifinalist/Finalist)
SATIIs: Math IIC 780, U.S. History 770, Biology M 750</p>
<p>APs: Biology, U.S. History, Economics, Government, Calculus AB, Environmental Science, English Language</p>
<p>Essays should be most excellent. Or I hope, I'm writing it on the Red Power Ranger.</p>
<p>My courseload is slightly lacking -while I'm taking all the APs and honors classes available to me in most areas, I'm only doing three years of a language, and three years of math.</p>
<p>The language (hopefully, please tell me if I'm wrong) should be okay, I took Latin 1, Latin 2, and Latin 3 Honors, when honors was available. I am not going on to Latin 4 AP. However, I achieved A's all semesters, and during frequent nationwide/statewide competitions, achieved numerous awards. Hopefully this covers it.</p>
<p>On math, however, I was placed one year ahead in math. So I took geometry in middle school, then Algebra II and Trig in high school. I'm not doing any math my junior year, then Calculus AB in senior year.</p>
<p>I got Bs every semester in algebra II and Trig, but should get A's in Calc. Is this really going to hurt? It's not that I'm bad at math -hopefully the SAT proves it, okys I got a perfect 80 on the PSAT math, and have a 780 on the SATII math IIC that I can raise. I've also done well in math competitions, like the AMC and AIME.</p>
<p>How much will that affect me?</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:</p>
<ul>
<li>Founder of the Palos Verdes Youth Organization, community service. I also created, pay for, and maintain the website. I've put in over 500 hours here, not counting the website, which has taken countless more. Here I've raised over $5,000, organize year round events and fundraisers, and work with numerous needy families in the area (work with as in help out financially, with appliances, with setting up people with jobs. I managed to set 50 homeless people up with employment -a year later, 40 still work there, and 20 have a house). This is a large part of my life.</li>
<li>Internship at LTK Consulting, with computers and programming. I only spent one summer there, but put in over 100 hours.</li>
<li>I work for a Japanese translating company, and cleaned up and edited English translations. Paid work.</li>
<li>Junior Varsity tennis freshman and sophomore year.</li>
<li>Varsity cross-country and track junior year (and definitely next year). Running is extremely important to me, pretty time-consuming.</li>
<li>Model United Nations, I've won a lot of awards.</li>
<li>Math Club. I'm not ranked in the nation or anything, but I've done pretty well.</li>
</ul>
<p>Awards:</p>
<ul>
<li>National Merit Semifinalist</li>
<li>NHS</li>
<li>I'm not entirely sure if this counts, but the community service organization I created was featured in magazines, newspapers (not large, local) and such in my area.</li>
<li>Model United Nations, numerous Outstandings and Gavels (top delegate in the entire conference, at large conferences)</li>
<li>Math club, I'm not sure what the award is called, but I did well on the AMC and AIME, I think. (Is a 115 on the AMC and 6 on the AIME alright?)</li>
</ul>
<p>Both my parents went to Stanford for undergrad, my mother went to UCLA for graduate school, my dad stayed at Stanford for grad, so I have a strong legacy there. But they have never donated, and just joined the alumni association yesterday.</p>
<p>I also did the summer program (SSP) at Harvard last summer.</p>
<p>The schools I'm interested in are:</p>
<p>Stanford (SCEA), Yale (dream school, but no legacy), Princeton, Duke, Harvard, Michigan, Chicago, Swarthmore, UVA, UCBerkeley and UCSD</p>
<p>Thanks so much.</p>