Chances for an Above Average Slacker

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Here are my current stats (I'm a junior right now).
I want to go into Investment Banking. Here are the schools I'm considering:</p>

<p>UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, UPenn (Wharton), Columbia </p>

<p>Please evaluate my stats and be brutally honest. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>

<p>BASICS:
Chinese American male
Currently a junior
California resident
Middle - Upper Middle class (anywhere from $60k-120k income bracket)</p>

<p>Might have decent recs from teachers. I will try to play the role of a studious idiot who works extremely hard, but struggles in a class. Hopefully, it will convince my senior year teachers to write a decent rec for me. Junior year teachers have caught me sleeping in class too much. </p>

<p>My essays should not be too bad. </p>

<p>GPAs:
Freshman year: 4.0 UW
Sophomore year: 4.0 UW, 4.5 W
Junior year: 4.0 UW, 4.333 W
Cumulative (10-11): 4.0 UW, 4.42W
School only gives A,B,C,D,F. No pluses or minusess.
School doesn't rank, but I'm in the top 10% of a graduating class of 450.
The school's somewhat competitive. We had 6 people get into Stanford this year; a few others get into MIT, Harvard, etc.; at least 20 in Ivy leagues and at least 60 in Berkeley and one into Northwestern HPME.</p>

<p>Not the most rigorous curriculum available at competitive public school.
Our school has only Chemistry,Precalculus, Japanese, Spanish, and French as honors classes. Currently taking AP Biology and AP Calc BC. Not taking APUSH. I plan for 3 APs and 1 honors for senior year.</p>

<p>TEST SCORES:
SATI: 800 math, 800 critical reading, 790 writing (studied from the blue book)
PSAT: 213 as a junior, 220 as a sophomore
SAT Subject Tests:
MathIIC: 800
Chinese: 800
BIO: 800 (Took it May, expected score)</p>

<p>AP Comp Sci: 5
Took the AP Calculus BC and Biology tests in May. </p>

<p>Community College Classes at De Anza College:
Political Science 4 credits A
Introduction to Java 4 credits A
Elementary Statistics with Probability 5 credits A
Intermediate Problem Solving with C 5 credits A</p>

<p>Will take (Expecting As from all of them):</p>

<p>Summer of 2006
Calculus 1c
Principles of Macroeconomics
Principles of Microeconomics</p>

<p>Senior Year
Physics 4a, 4b, and probably 2-3 more</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULARS:</p>

<pre><code>* Peer tutor at school - around 30 hours
* President of the Go Club (usgo.org for info on go) member (9-10)
* Participated in several local go tournaments.

* Volunteered at library for 2 hours a week for the past year - around 60

hours
* California Scholarship Federation Club - member (10,11), hopefully an

officer position next year.
* Volunteered at community center sorting cans, bagging food, crush
boxes, taking out trash, sorting rotten food, cleaning for 1.5 hours a
week some of last year and this year. -around 60 hours

* Member of the National Forensics League (Speech and Debate)
* Cross Country as a senior
</code></pre>

<p>WASTING TIME:</p>

<pre><code>* Watched over 120 series of anime in the past two years (obviously not
an EC, but explains my lack of ECs. I naturally will not tell colleges this)
</code></pre>

<p>AWARDS:</p>

<pre><code>* AP Scholar (grade 11)
* National Merit Commended ( Should have prepared so that I would get

Semifinalist, but I did not know it was important)
</code></pre>

2

<p>Amazing numbers, poor ECs</p>

<p>UC Berkeley--match
UCLA--match
Stanford--reach (poor ECs)
UPenn (Wharton) --reach
Columbia--reach</p>

3

<p>Holy ****!!!</p>

<p>You're my idol.</p>

4

<p>u need more honors classes... lik i kno a girl at my school whose salidictorian, and she had like a 4.98 weighted plus amazing ec's, and she got defferend from UPENN, however anything can happen...</p>

5

<p>I took everything my school offers.... except for APUSH and AP Music Theory and AP Spanish and AP French and AP Japanese.</p>

6

<p>Are you a prodigy or something? How the heck can you get a 2390 while well not trying at all. You are insane.... </p>

<p>My advice is work on ECs over the summer if you want to- a summer's worth of ECs and last minute positions in clubs can make a difference.</p>

7

<p>I'd say if you got all of those scores while also playing sports every season every year, then you would have a good shot. I don't think that trying to get a bunch of ECs right now would work, but I guess it would be worth a shot</p>

8

<p>Lol. Scoring high on standarized tests is not hard. I spent all of spring break studying for the sats. All that studying should be worth something. How much would spending the summer working as a kumon tutor help? or maybe starting an sat business with a friend who got 2400. There are a ton of Chinese SAT prep companies started by unqualified adults who have not even taken the SAT that rip people off. Shareworld is an excellent example. I never knew there were so many until people started asking if I took a prep class or not.</p>

9

<p>As did I, regardless a 2390 is insane. Even for people qualified to earn perfect scores...</p>

<p>I studied for about um 30 hours at least and ended up with a 2260 (6/12 writing...). I think CC fuels my inferiority complex... it's bad for me.</p>

10

<p>Despite the fact that your ECs aren't too spectacular, your numbers could very well carry you into all of your schools as long as your essays and recs show you as an interesting person that loves to learn and not just grade and numbers hungry. Apply to one more school that is just a tad safer just in case (UCSD should be fine), and maybe add some more reach schools as some extra ammunition against the randomness factor. Other than that, you should be more than fine.</p>

11

<p>I'd like to see a discussion about Asians and ibanking. Blacks and hispanics are still tokens on Wall St. and having worked there this summer, I must say that Asians are incredibly few and far between. What an old boy's network. Guys hiring guys from their frats still seems to be the norm. So many hurdles, get into great college, get through hordes wanting same few jobs.</p>

12

<p>If you studied all of spring break & have a 4.0, how are you a slacker? </p>

<p>Mmkay.</p>

13

<p>hikaru2005:</p>

<p>UCB/UCLA: Safe Match</p>

14

<p>At my school, a 89.5 in many classes is an A so I usually just get between 89.5 adn 91 in most classes. I only studied for sats during spring break, but well I guess studying 5 hours a day is pretty insane.</p>

<p>And another question, what would be soemthing I could use as a hook? I do play go a lot, but that is just a game like chess.</p>

15

<p>What's that about your "meager" EC's? They show that you're an interesting person, esp. with your playing go. I would write my essay on that; not many people play go, and if you could make it interesting and creative somehow, it'll only add to your excellent record. </p>

<p>lol I like your "Hikaru no Go" allusion. There's nothing wrong with watching over 120 series of anime...</p>

16

<p>yeah. lol. it is easy so I have plenty of time for playing go on kgs, an internet server.</p>

17

<p>what do u do for go club? participate in local tournaments? organize tournaments at school? really i've played go and there's not much one can do if it's just a club. No offense but ur ECs really r bad.
None of ur ECs seem to require much committment( but of course u can prove me wrong). </p>

<p>Stanford, UPenn (Wharton), Columbia
All of them high reaches.</p>

18

<p>-911miracle It is true that go is just a game and there really isn't much to do other than play go. however, is "playing" FBLA any better than playing go? FBLA is not something that can be applied to real life either. You go to "business" conferences, have pizza with a few buddies, spend a night at a nice hotel, and take home some trophies all at the expense of your own wallet. What I am wondering is if there is anything fun and exciting I could do to boost my chances? I really don't want to do anymore ECs just for the sake of putting it on my application. (volunteering at the library and slaving away at that community center is kind of a waste of time) although CSF is pretty fun. </p>

<p>Btw, you seem to say "of course you can prove me wrong" a lot. and chillaxin's ecs are pretty extraordinary in my opinion. they are by no means aeverage</p>

19

<p>Apparantyl, 1600 doesn't mean much to you people... 1600 with a 4.0? I wouldn't lose sleep over it. There are plenty of colleges DROOLING over applicants like you.</p>

20

<p>What did you get on your PSAT?.. just curious</p>