<p>Grade: 11
Class Rank: School does not rank (competitive prep school, top 50 high school according to USNEWS and top 20 according to Newsweek)
State: TX
GPA: 3.81 UW (poor freshman GPA, but all As junior year)
SAT: 2290
Freshman Course Load: hardest possible
Sophomore Course Load: hardest possible
Junior Course Load: Full IB Diploma
Senior Course Load: Full IB Diploma</p>
<p>Leadership/ECs:
- Treasurer of Student Council
- President of HOSA
- Secretary General of Model UN
- Chairman of JWAC
- VP of Robotics
- VP of FBLA
- Lead Attorney at Teen Court
Many awards in all of my Clubs</p>
<p>Non-Profit Work/Volunteer:
- Established my own non-profit and set up medical camps in Asia
- Public Relations at an established non-profit (managed 10K annual budget, not my own)
Over 500 Volunteer Hours
- 200 at Rural Asian Hospitals
- 300 at Local Hospitals
- 70 as Teacher's Aide</p>
<p>Awards:
- National Merit PSAT
- Presidential Service Award
- Published articles in various national Asian newspapers
- Editor of an online medicine magazine
- UIL Speaking / Debate at State Level
- Regional Science Fair
~ National AP Scholar (Will find out in July)</p>
<p>Work:
- Paid Internship at Biomedical research company
- Internship at Health Minister's Office (Head Minister of Asian Country)
- Translator at International Rescue Committee </p>
<p>Basic Info:
-Ethnicity: Asian
-Gender: Male
-Family Income: ~$200,000</p>
<p>I apologize if this is an excessive amount of information. I would just really like to know what are the basic things I can do (besides write a strong essay, which is in the works) to improve my chances of getting into UPenn, etc.</p>
<p>UPenn: low reach/ high match
Brown: low reach
Duke: high match
WashU: high match
NWU: high match
Emory: low match/ high safety
USC: low match
SMU: safety
UT: safety</p>
<p>Your GPA is lacking but very impressive SAT and VERY VERY impressive EC’s. Write a good essay and get good recs and Upenn & Brown might be matches hypothetically, but with the IVYs you can never guaruntee a match, their acceptance rates and decisions tend to be a crapshoot! </p>
<p>I think @GahhOP may be underestimating the power of your EC’s. But, I am not familiar with the weight that UPenn & Brown & WashU place on EC’s compared to GPA–the rigor of your curriculum should prevent these from being total reaches still. I know Northwestern favors EC’s.</p>
<p>Thank you. I appreciate your opinion. I guess Ivy League schools are just luck and can’t be guaranteed. I know I’ll receive excellent recs from my teachers, but are you allowed to submit recs from non-teachers? Also, I haven’t really faced hardships so I’ll just take about my ECs helping me become a better person and overcome bullying.</p>
<p>Depends on the school. You want a counselor forsure. Then some schools (Duke for example) only want 1 rec. some want up to 3 but allow for as many as you want. You can submit coaches or principals but they will not be given as much priority. (No family forsure). Make sure your teacher recs are from Junior or senior year and that you have them from an English/science/ and math teacher.</p>
<p>I think you’re in at any college you want to. I don’t know what these people are thinking, setting up your own nonprofit is a pretty damn extraordinary EC.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, how do you establish a nonprofit? I was under the impression that it’s close to impossible to do as a kid.</p>
<p>It was the same process as starting a business. However, the only hard part about it is getting tax exempt status. My parents helped me out with the legal proceedings, but I couldn’t hire a lawyer so I was never tax exempt. Essentially, I filed taxes and did everything like a business but I never pocketed a penny. Only difference was that I filed a 990N which is only for non profits and not businesses. I raised ~10000 and reinvested by opening medical camps in rural South Asian communities</p>
<p>Hate to hijack you thread, but this process fascinates me and it’s hard to get a teenage perspective on it</p>
<p>I was thinking of establishing a nonprofit in my area dedicated to promoting literacy and redistruibuting books to ronald mcdonald houses, boys and girls clubs, hospitals, etc. Since it doesn’t require international travel or too much in the way of funds, could I do this without rich lawyer tiger parents? ;)</p>
<p>@Ianflan: It’s fairly simple, I did it as well. File your 990N and get the tax exemption to legitimize it. Reach out to your entire region with anything that correlates with the premise of the non profit. Hit up the most executive people you can find for your interviews and pitches. Expand, expand, expand and then when you’re done expand a little more! Did I mention expand? haha my point is, make it known. It shouldn’t be some neighborhood wide donate your newspapers for the special Ed kid down the street and collect 7. You know what I mean! Good luck!</p>
<p>Don’t do just for the sake of your resume though. It’s quite a lengthy process and requires a lot of dedication. I only started my nonprofit because I noticed various medical problems in Asia that weren’t receiving much attention during my visit their during my Freshmen summer. I gave it 110% and got some of my views and work published in that country’s national paper and got an internship at the Health Minister’s office.</p>
<p>@IanFlan Much like @0utofthenormal, I did it for true passion. Not only because of my love for soccer, but because of the joy that soccer brought to the children in Costa Rica. You could see it in their eyes. And they played on dirt with no shoes. Starting ReCleats not only allowed me to express my passion for the world’s favorite sport, but to help saturate the lives of these needy children with the sport they love also! Make sure whatever you do, colleges don’t think you’re doing it out of the desire for college acceptance. Good luck mate.</p>
<p>@VHSgrad @out of the normal: how was the international part of it? Ideally I would like to do the same program but use it to bring books to rural Mexico, how feasable is this? How do you establish connections in a foreign country?</p>
<p>I would say that you have a good chance at all those schools given your ECs that are not only great but coordinated on mostly one thing which is fantastic. I would say that you have as good or better chance than those with a 3.9+ GPA and 2300+ SAT because you were an outside the box thinker and started things which really impresses admission officers. Things that work against you are your race and high income bracket. Alot depends on successful your charity was and if it was recognized by media.</p>
<p>@IanFlan: definitely feasible, I would just warn you that Mexico is the host of alot of these non-profit aids. I’m not saying it won’t better your odds, but it might not look as strong as maybe Haiti/Uganda/Bolivia (You get the idea). Either way it will be beneficial. As for the international side of things, it is best to do this with places you have been–have you been to Mexico?</p>
haha my point is, make it known. It shouldn’t be some neighborhood wide donate your newspapers for the special Ed kid down the street and collect 7. You know what I mean! Good luck!</p>