<p>I'm a Senior at an "excellent" public high school in Illinois</p>
<p>Course load:</p>
<p>Freshman year:
A Chemistry: A/A
A Alg/Trig 2: A/A
A English 1: A/A
A World Civ (first semester) and AP Gov (second semester): A/A
I Spanish 2: A/A</p>
<p>Sophomore year:
AP Chemistry: A/A
A Physics: A/A
A Pre-Calc: A/A
A English 2: A/A
AP US History: A/A
A Spanish 3: A/A</p>
<p>Junior year:
AP Macro/Micro Economics (one semester of each): A/A
AP Physics: A/A
AP Calculus BC: A/A
AP English 3: A/A
AP European History: A/A
A Spanish 3: A/A</p>
<p>Senior year:
AP Biology
AP Statistics
AP Psychology
AP English 4
AP Spanish 5
AP Computer Science</p>
<p>GPA: 4.0 unweighted, 4.87 weighted</p>
<p>Class Rank: 1 all three years</p>
<p>Test Scores:
ACT: 36
SAT Subject tests: Physics: 800, Math 2: 800, Spanish: 800
AMC 12: 138
AIME: 7
PSAT: 235
5's on all my AP tests so far</p>
<p>EC's:
Wrestling 4 years
Track 4 years (MIT track coach has given me a LOR)
Math Team/Club 4 years, 4 time state qualifier
Founded a charity that helps schools in poor areas develop their science and math programs
Piano 12 years (Haven't attempted any competitions, idk if it's worth putting down because of the five EC limit on the application)
Physics and Math Tutor at my school</p>
<p>Do I have a good chance of getting accepted? And are there any other top schools I would have a good chance at?</p>
<p>For the essays, they usually have a prompt that asks you to talk about your background or the biggest challenge you’ve overcome. Is it bad to answer this completely honestly?</p>
<p>“I’ve grown up in an all white town surrounded by opportunity and privilege, with many people who do not appreciate what they’ve been given, and as a result I’ve always tried to push myself and take advantage of the opportunities offered to me. Growing up in this type of setting has created a sense of superiority and laziness in many members of my community, but I feel it has had the opposite affect on myself. Unhappy with the large imbalance of the amount of opportunities in my community and surrounding communities, I began to work to become someone worthy of the life of privilege I have been given and I hope I can create a better world where everyone has the opportunities I have.” </p>
<p>Can being very honest help me stand out in a good way? Or is coming across as a spoiled white kid who “wants to change the world” bad. Just for the record I don’t think they would find that essay completely out of the blue, I started a charity/organization that raises funds for poor areas to develop their science and math programs.</p>
<p>How do people like you even exist? You’re like THE perfect applicant.
And no, being honest obviously won’t hurt you.</p>
<p>Consider applying to schools like Cornell, Stanford, Berkeley, UIUC (I think you’d get a loot of merit aid there but i’m not sure), Carnegie Mellon etc. I think you have a very good chance anywhere you apply. Just make sure your essays read well.</p>