<p>I am about to enter my senior year at a New York City magnet high school with a reputation for advanced math and science. My school limits me to ten colleges outside of NY state, city and UC schools.</p>
<ul>
<li>reach schools I am applying to:</li>
</ul>
<p>MIT, Caltech, Princeton, Yale, Columbia. </p>
<ul>
<li>schools I really like and I think are more likely for me to get into:</li>
</ul>
<p>CMU, Boston U, Northwestern, Cornell, JHU and UC Berkeley. </p>
<ul>
<li>safety schools are SUNY's, particularly Stony Brook Honors, UC San Diego and possibly U. Pitt. </li>
</ul>
<p>I am interested in studying molecular biology, bioengineering, and/or applications of computer science in biology. I am not pre-med and probably intend to go to grad school.</p>
<p>I am a bit scared that I didn't take enough AP courses as a junior. I took several honors electives that I was interested in. Back in 10th grade I wasn't even thinking about college and had no idea I would do this well. </p>
<p>GPA: 98.0 (out of 100, unweighted). School does not rank.
I can assume I'm probably in top 5%.</p>
<p>SAT: 770 reading/770 math/800 writing. </p>
<p>SAT subject tests: 780 biology M / 770 chemistry / 780 math II / 800 US history</p>
<p>AP tests: 5 European History / 5 Computer Science A (AB was not offered to anyone this year) / 5 US History</p>
<p>Unusual courses I have taken (other than the APs) are Molecular Biology, Organic Chemistry and three years of Mandarin Chinese (my cumulative average in Mandarin is 97, and I am one of only 3 Caucasians in the class, the others of which are struggling). </p>
<p>Next year I am taking AP English literature, AP Biology, AP Calc BC and AP Mandarin, in addition to an elective in Systems Level Programming, which required a 90+ average in AP CS. </p>
<p>extracurriculars:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Science Olympiad (3 years)
I am the captain of the biology division and teach new students as well as<br>
compete. Over the past two years I have won four regional first-place medals in biology events and one gold and one bronze in state competitions. </p></li>
<li><p>Piano (11+ years):
I have had classical piano lessons since I was five years old. I have played in recitals at the local college where I take lessons including one where only three students were selected based on merit. I have taught myself some jazz piano as well.
I spend a lot of my free time experimenting with electronic music, improvising on my synthesizer and designing sounds. more recently I have started to learn how to compose and produce electronic music, but I don't know enough to make a recording to send to colleges. I plan to submit a classical piano supplement.</p></li>
<li><p>National History Day:
I made a historical website on Jazz Pianist Thelonious Monk which won first prize in the website category in city and state History Day competitions.</p></li>
<li><p>Research (1 year):
I am currently working with a professor at NYU, developing computer algorithms for detecting protein crystals in electron microscope images. I hope to enter the Intel Science Talent Search, though I am not sure I will be able to finish in time. I can still submit a summary of my work, though. </p></li>
<li><p>Member of National Honors Society (1 year).
This year I'm tutoring in biology and chemistry.</p></li>
<li><p>volunteered at Chinatown Beautification Day (full-day leadership conference and cleanup activity)</p></li>
<li><p>college courses:
I have taken two college courses at City University over the summer. one was a bioinformatics course and the other was called "art of science" and focused on computer graphics for scientific and artistic uses. I got A's in both and received 3 credits per course.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Other info:</p>
<ul>
<li>I have a learning disability, officially diagnosed as non-verbal learning disorder combined with dysgraphia and impairment in executive function. I'm on the lower end of the autistic spectrum. for now I have decided not to write about this in my apps because I'm afraid some readers either won't believe me or think I might not be able to fit in socially at their institution. anyone have experience with admissions for gifted LD students?</li>
</ul>
<p>besides chances, I am open to suggestions for other schools. I would prefer small or medium-sized schools (like not over 10,000) though any school with strong programs in bio, bio-engineering and CS might be good.</p>