Chances for HSM and others?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Colleges looking at: Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Stanford, Rice, WashU, UCB, UCSD, UCLA and UCD. </p>

<p>Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese)
Gender: F
School: Competitive public school in CA. Sends many students to top schools
Rank: Top 4%
GPA (UW): 3.97
GPA (W): 4.24 (4.37 if I get all As for first semester Senior)</p>

<p>Courses
Freshman (school doesn't offer honors for frosh): Literature/Writing, Geometry Enriched, Biology, Spanish 1, Electronics, Drama, PE 9
Sophomore: World Lit, World History, Algebra II/Trig, Chemistry H., Spanish 2, Oral Composition, PE Dance.
Junior: American Lit/Writ H., US History, Pre-Calculus H., AP Biology, Physics H., Spanish 3, Lab Assistant
Senior: AP Lit, AP Econ, AP Gov, AP Calc BC, AP Chem, AP Physics, Spanish 4 H.
College courses taken: Psychology, Statistics, Music, maybe also a marine bio /physio class later</p>

<p>SAT: 2350 (770 CR, 800 M, 780 W) This is from two tests. Best single sitting:2290
SAT II: 800 Biology E, 800 Chinese, 800 Math IIC (Will Also take Chem and Physics)
APs: Bio, Chinese, Stats, Psych, English Language (all 5s) I will also take Gov, Chem, Econ, Lit, Physics by end of senior year.</p>

<p>ECs
Biology Club-Co-president
MUN Club-Co-founder
Speech and Debate Team-Member
California Scholarship Federation-Life Member
Octagon Club-Member
Firebird Youth Chinese Orchestra-Second Chair (May be section leader next year)
Pipa Player-6 years
Work at Veterans Hospital-Volunteer/Research
International School of the Pennisula-Work</p>

<p>Awards/Recognitions
National Finalist-USA Biology Olympiad
National Merit Scholar Commended (Probably will be Semifinalist/Finalist)
Wondercup Semifinalist
AP Scholar with Distinction
Top 4%-UC Recognition-State
National Society for High School Scholars (Is this even valid?)</p>

<p>Volunteer: around 250-300 hours from Octagon, CSF, and Veteran's hospital</p>

<p>Recs: Projected to be pretty good. My bio teacher knows how much I adore bio and how much effort I put into it and my history teacher wrote in my year book that I'm a strong young woman and asked why couldn't all her students be like me.</p>

<p>Essays: Projected to be good. I have two versions right now but I'll pick the one that I like best XD</p>

<p>Other things: I plan to organize a fundraiser to raise money for either orphanages or research institutes and also start a tutoring program. (Any advice for this?) I may also write for a science magazine newly formed at our school next year.
Thanks so much! I know I wrote a lot of stuff >_>"</p>

2

<p>What do you mean by program recognition for National Merit? That's unclear. Do you mean commended? Because if you're commended you're NOT a semifinaist.</p>

<p>National Society for High School Scholars is nonsense. Ditto with AP Scholar. You're also member of a lot of things instead of holding positions.</p>

<p>You're in to all the UCs and admission to Rice and WashU is likely (minus a waitlist at WashU for being too competitive).</p>

<p>The rest are reaches with Harvard/MIT/Stanford being the biggest.</p>

3

<p>Yes I mean commended, sorry if that was unclear.</p>

4

<p>Average ECs and Great grades/scores make you a competitive applicant. Leave it up to the fickle nature of ADCOMs to decide your fate.</p>

5

<p>Read this board alone, your post just melts into so many others. Asian, female, California, biology, MUN, youth orchestra. There is room at the ivies for just a few. How will you set yourself apart? That will be anything. You could do fine at any school like sooooo many others.</p>

6

<p>^ ... soo many others on CC. the rest of the application pool isn't like us.</p>

7

<p>Don't kid yourself, there are some jokers applying, but 80% of the ivy pool is qualified and would do great at any ivy.</p>

8

<p>damnit why are there so many of us 2300+ asians....no wonder it's so hard for us to get into HYPMS.</p>

<p>anyway, good chances anywhere with amazing essays. EC's that stand out are the volunteer stuff and Bio olymp</p>

9

<p>
[quote]
but 80% of the ivy pool is qualified

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Define qualified.</p>

10

<p>ADCOMs expect asian's to score 50+ more points than whites to get accepted, and asians know this, so they work hard accordingly. Someone once called asians the 'new jews' of college applications. not in an insensitive sense, but in the sense that there are so many qualified ones that 'melt into the same or similar mold' as collegekid100 said.</p>

11

<p>Berkeley/UCLA: match
UCSD: safe match - safety
UCD: safety</p>

<p>You have a good shot at the rest, but the tippy top schools are going to be a little difficult; your ECs/awards are unfocused and show little passion.</p>

12

<p>The Biology Olympiad Finalist is definitely something that stands out- top 20 biology students in the country.</p>

13

<p>yeah, that Bio Olympiad is impressive. Makes me wish that I'd prepared for the qualifier test haha. (I didn't study because the teacher made it seem like a normal AP-level test, meh - stupid)</p>