<p>ACT - 36 Composite; 7 on writing :( -
SAT I- Not taken
SAT II - Physics 800; Math 2 800
GPA - 4.0 UW
Class Rank 1/600+
3 APs Junior Year - USH, Physics, BC Calc (Assuming all 5s)
Senior Year courses - AP French, AP Eng Lit, AP Bio, AP Euro, MV Calculus, and an elective.</p>
<p>Main EC's
Tennis - 4 years
Community Service Club - 4 years (Chair 3 committees.)
Peer Jury - 4 years
Math Team - 4 years</p>
<p>National Semi-Finalist - Physics Olympiad
PSAT score high enough for National Merit Semi-Finalist</p>
<p>can u give me more info about ec’s such as exactly what you did, how many hours it took out of the week, and how did you contribute to the organization?</p>
<p>Your EC’s are pretty weak. They don’t show much depth or diversity in what you do. Your scores/academics are stellar, but your EC’s really bring you down.</p>
<p>I have other ECs (Obama campaign, tutoring, science club, violin etc) so the ECs won’t look so skimpy on the application, but the ones listed were the main ones. Not too much on leadership outside of community service where I’ve done a lot, including organizing fundraisers and other events. I’ll also probably be VP or Pres of science club next year.</p>
<p>I see other peoples ECs on CC and I’m blown away. I know my ECs aren’t spectacular - if they were I wouldn’t be worried - but do I still have a decent shot at the top schools given my academics?</p>
<p>Cubsfan65, you should not worry about your academics at all. Your EC’s are the biggest problems.</p>
<p>Colleges have a saying: The thicker the file, the thicker the applicant. It’s, to an extent, pretty true. Laundry listing EC’s won’t cut it. If they are done IN SCHOOL, like everthing (except Obama Campaign), then it literally IS NOT an EC.</p>
<p>EC stands for EXTRA-Curricular. Translation: Outside of school! This means something. The only way you can get into these schools is if you do things outside of your school. Otherwise, how can colleges be certain you will continue them in college if they accept you? THEY CAN’T, because you clearly can’t participate in Science Club if you’re at Yale. Extra-curriculars are things that can be done at most all places over the country. They should be applicable to any major city, in general.</p>
<p>Example: you can continue a research project at most any large university around the country. You CANNOT continue Community Service Club.</p>
<p>Chemwhiz - I understand about showing colleges that activities should be tranferable beyond high school. It is a point well taken. I would, however, disagree that active involvement and leadership in a school community service organization does not fit this bill. It seems to me that colleges would be interested in people who gave back to their communities - whether it involved going to serve meals at a homeless shelter or raising money for Haiti.</p>
<p>That might be the only exception, but don’t make it the centerpiece of your application. Just know that there are TONS of schools with organizations just like that. Colleges will tend to overlook the specific details of WHAT THE CLUB DID, and rather, they will just see: “Kid is president of club.”</p>
<p>I believe chemwz is mistaken in his definition of extracurricular. The term means outside the curriculum, not outside school. Playing a varsity sport at your school is an extracurricular activity.</p>
<p>When you apply to colleges, you’ll have a chance to expand your description of your activities. For example, you might have played tennis at your family’s club a few times during the summer–or perhaps you were captain of your high school’s conference-winning varsity tennis team and coached underprivileged children during the offseason. You could choose to expand on the details of your ECs on this thread as practice (although I am generally doubtful about the ability of other high school students and their parents to predict your admissions chances based on what we can see in a thread).</p>
<p>Your EC’s are probably okay, I won’t add anything to what’s all ready been said. Retake the ACT or take the SAT to get the essay score up. A 7 is not good. While it may not be a make or break, don’t have any excuse to have that happen. Perhaps the SAT would be better because you take the essay first, not last so you’re fresh when doing it. Hopefully you had a bad test day, because remember you need to write essays for the college application!</p>
<p>The 7 on the essay really bothers me. I just lost focus and didn’t write enough (the only comment from the reviewers was that I should have given more examples). It’s especially annoying as I consider my writing a real strength. I was hoping my teacher recs and a couple of school writing awards would allay any concerns. </p>
<p>I am leaning against taking the ACT test again as my composite score could certainly go down.</p>
<p>As for the SAT, while I think you’re right that having the essay come first will help (as well as the fact that I’ll be really focused on the essay this time), I wonder if it’s worth the risk of not getting a perfect score. I’m still debating this one.</p>
<p>But it is kind of cold there, and the surrounding area’s not that attractive, and you have to deal the Core… anyway, I’m glad you still love the school though :P! Happy college search.</p>