<p>So i know how everyone wants to go to princeton and how ridiculously hard it is to get into, but i really want to get in there (financial, educational, etc. reasons)
im still only a junior right now, but i just want some input.
i have over 4.0 weighted gpa, but im not sure what it is unweighted.
my high school stopped doing class rankings a year ago, but i heard i was the valedictorian.
im in ap chem, ap spanish, ap english, and most likely taking all three ap tests.
im planning on taking ap calc, ap english, ap history, probably more aps
ive been in all honors classes throughout high school, except band, and ive been getting straight a's also
im layout editor for the school newspaper, academics editor for the yearbook,and flute squad leader for the marching band
ive been in math league for three years, science league for two, marching band for three years, and piano accompanist for the choirs for three years
i have over 100 hours volunteering at a dental office, over 70 at the hospital, 20 at the local library and over 40 with the salvation army and red cross combined, in addition to a couple hours in the annual parade and memorials
i have a grade 8 certificate with merit from the royal school of music for piano that i got in 8th grade
im in nshss, but im not sure if that does anything
so yea, im not in any school sports, and i know that might hurt me, but idk
and i only got a 1960 on the sat, but i hardly prepared for it. i have a 720 on the sat ii for chem last year, but im retaking it, after finally learning everything with a teacher, and im probably going to get much higher
oh and im chinese, which sucks. much more competition, but two asian girls also got into it from my school, they were sisters.</p>
<p>anyone??asdfasdf</p>
<p>Aim for 2200+ SAT and you'll have a decent shot.</p>
<p>yay! thanks</p>
<p>Nothing is stellar here, I would say you're the average princeton applicant. Get a better SAT score. Definitely a reach, but doable.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you use the remaining time to find something that is uniquely you. By that I mean pick one of your activities that you love most and write an essay about it now. Then over time keep editing it and editing it until it becomes great. That way you will have a killer essay.
Also REALLY use this summer. Whatever EC you pick try to do some summer program that you can put on your app.
Definitely try the ACT, I got a 2070 on the SAT but a 34 on the ACT. So 100% try this before you retake the SAT.
Also could you list any awards that you have recieved? I ask bc it will add more clout to your application if the one EC that you focus own has accompanying awards to go with it.
And there is a stigma about math/science inclined asians that you may want to avoid by highlighting a non-typical Asian EC.</p>
<p>right now it seems you have no chance, but with higher Sats, maybe 10%-20%.</p>
<p>
[quote]
"i have over 4.0 weighted gpa, but im not sure what it is unweighted.
my high school stopped doing class rankings a year ago, but i heard i was the valedictorian.
im in ap chem, ap spanish, ap english, and most likely taking all three ap tests.
im planning on taking ap calc, ap english, ap history, probably more aps
ive been in all honors classes throughout high school, except band, and ive been getting straight a's also"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Grades only matter as a cutoff, basically everyone has nearly straight As so you have to have it, but once you do have straight As it really does not matter.</p>
<p>
[quote]
"im layout editor for the school newspaper, academics editor for the yearbook,and flute squad leader for the marching band
ive been in math league for three years, science league for two, marching band for three years, and piano accompanist for the choirs for three years"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>From your list of ECs it seems as if band is the most extensive, particularly marching band and piano which follow almost through all of high school so that is a definite plus. Many times there are numerous opportunities to win awards with band, so you may want to list that on your app. Unfortuantely there are many flute players so in order to distinguish yourself you may need to be exceptional. </p>
<p>
[quote]
"i have over 100 hours volunteering at a dental office, over 70 at the hospital, 20 at the local library and over 40 with the salvation army and red cross combined, in addition to a couple hours in the annual parade and memorials"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Your volunteer hours seem to be capriciously distributed, and so don't show alot of focus. So you may want to focus in on volunteering at one particular place to show that you volunteered out of intrinsic will and not for college applications. I noticed that 100 hours was done at a dental office, is your dad or mom a dentist? Bc if so it may look as though you were just helping your dad at work. If not, then put more time into the dental volunteering and combine the dentist and hospital under "health-related" volunteering so then you have 170 relatable hours of volunteering. </p>
<p>
[quote]
"i have a grade 8 certificate with merit from the royal school of music for piano that i got in 8th grade"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This looks interesting, but i think colleges only care about what you do 9th-12th grade.</p>
<p>
[quote]
"im in nshss, but im not sure if that does anything"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It depends which honor society it is, what does nshss stand for?</p>
<p>
[quote]
"so yea, im not in any school sports, and i know that might hurt me, but idk"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You don't have to play sports to get admitted.</p>
<p>
[quote]
"oh and im chinese, which sucks. "
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It does suck to be chinese bc there are so many qualified asian applicants, so the principle job that you have to do is identify what makes you unique from all the other chinese girls who want to go to Princeton. Find that unique trait and then build your entire application around it.</p>
<p>thanks. these comments are giving me my focus again.
dbate
im lacking in the awards category but im working on it. i am not related to the dentist. he was the husband of my piano teacher who was just getting started and so i helped out. nshss is national society of high school scholars thats supposedly founded by one of the nobels. and im in the whos who thingy but i heard thats just a scam so i left it out.</p>
<p>Oh, then the NSHSS thing does not matter at all, I would venture that you may not even want to include it on your app. It is good that you are not related to the dentist, so DEFINITELY get him to write you a recommendation. And when he does instead of giving him a resume about yourself, give him a story about a time in the dentist office that you made an impact. Particularly the fact that he met you through the piano teacher and that you were helping him out. I think it will show a side of you that could not be easily conveyed through other parts of your apps. </p>
<p>The purpose of additional recs is to see a diffferent side of an applicant, and I would venture to say that an anecdotal story holds a lot more clout in the admission office than a letter that basically lists you stats. Try this for all your recommendations as well. </p>
<p>If you don't have awards don't worry, plenty of people get accepted without awards. So in order to get accepted you need to focus on the soft factors of passion. I suggest you read this thread it certainly helped me alot when I was doing the application:</p>
<p>Really read through it and pay attention to what the admissions officer states, and also though the advice is from a Stanford admission officer it probably can be applied to any top school.</p>
<p>Something else that I would advise you to do when you finally have your application done, is to sit down and write a 1 page summary of yourself based entirely ONLY on the things you included on your app. Do this, bc at top schools the way the system works is that two readers review your file and write a description of your entire application. They then present that summary (THAT IS IT) to a committee who then votes on whether they should accept you or not. So if you write a honest summary and it is bad then you know how they will react. </p>
<p>Also be honest and talk about any hardships you have overcome and anything else it will particular add clout to your app if you had a hardship in music (like you weren't really good but stuck to it bc you loved it) or something to make the admission people see that you have devoted your time to something.</p>
<p>I don't really give chances at top schools when I respond to the "What are my Chances" threads I just give advice about how to make the application better, so hopefully it helps.</p>
<p>If you don't mind could you list the classes you have taken so far and the prospective classes you might take next year?
The reason is because if your classes show a general area of passion (which is just self-embellished jargon for hobby) then it makes your application that much more focused.</p>
<p>9th
hon bio
hon english 1
hon world cultures
concert band
hon alg 2
(generic required)</p>
<p>10th
hon chem
hon us hist
hon geometry
hon eng 2
wind ensemble</p>
<p>11th
hon physics
ap chem
ap spanish 3days/wk but kinda doing bad, skipped a year
hon economics
ap eng
hon trig
i dropped wind ensemble but was able to work out doing just marching </p>
<p>12th
ap calc
ap eng
ap ush
maybe ap bio
maybe ap stat
not sure about human anatomy and phys. heard it was a joke</p>
<p>the classes dont really show my passions. too many grad requirements and aps so it kinda obscures it
im hoping i can self study psych in time though</p>
<p>Geez....</p>
<p>Princeton is a true crapshoot, and for such ahigh school your extracurrics are a little weak, but that's way easy to fix. What you shuold do first, though, is take the ACT and SAT before May, nad buy some guides. Do abt. 7-8 practice tests for each, and then also try to get an internship at a major corporation or somewhere. Maybe do a brainy 4-H project or Science Olympiad, and do your best. It will pay off BIG.</p>
<p>Also come chance me at <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/635063-small-town-junior-looking-advice-chances-big-name-schools.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/635063-small-town-junior-looking-advice-chances-big-name-schools.html</a> thanks!</p>
<p>would a hk summerbridge internship help enough? its rated one of the top 10 best by princeton review. i retook the sat in jan. scores arent back yet. im about to take a look at act.
annd i joined science olympiad this year. but theres madd competition in my region. impossible to place, like our physics/school genius that got into stanford only got 5th
oh and i got a 207 on my last psat. dont know if it shows i can improve enough though</p>
<p>And I thought applying for aninternship at the local AFB was a good idea...</p>
<p>You didn't need my advice, did you? Your track is absolutlely PERFECT! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.</p>
<p>The things OHKID mention are only good if it naturally extends from part of your application. If you were math/science bent then Sci Olympiad would be good, but joining junior year will more than likely look as if you were doing it to get into college.
If it is something that you are genuiely interested in, then by all means do it, but realize that doing a lot of random things won't help in your admission decision. </p>
<p>I stand by my inital advice which is to find something that is idiosyncratic to you and make that shine in your application. I mean there are thousands of ppl with profiles like you, what will make you stand out is YOU. </p>
<p>Oh and instead of human anatomy and physiology try joining wind ensemble or just taking a class that you geniuely enjoy. Chances are that you (and about 20,000 other people) will be rejected and life will go on, it is much more enjoyable to find a nice match academically that you would genuiely want to go to. Bc likely (just from a pure statistics standpoint) you won't get into Princeton, but that is okay bc there are thousands of other colleges out there that offer great educations.</p>
<p>Oh I am not saying that to be pessimistic, I mean you could get into Princeton, but from a realist standpoint it is unlikely (which is true for about everyone else who applies).</p>
<p>You have a good shot, just like everyone else, but try on working to make yourself stand out! :)</p>
<p>yea. i know about the stats/pessimism. i just wanted to see if i had some chance, so i wouldnt waste my time and money applying. its just that princeton is the best place in nj, close to home and everything.
is it smart to go back to wind ensemble instead of taking a challenging course? not just for princeton but maybe jhu u penn or wash u in st louis?</p>