<p>I go to a boarding school in New Jersey that uses a 6.0 scale. 6.0 is virtually impossible to get and is equivalent to an A++ or a 4.0++, 5.5 is A+ or 4.0+, 5.0 is A or 4.0, etc. Getting above a 5.0 is pretty difficult.</p>
<p>Anyway…freshman year I had a 5.0 GPA, sophomore year I had a 5.3 GPA. Took all the honors I could. Junior year I studied abroad in China on the SYA (School Year Abroad, based out of Phillips Academy) program…lived with a host family, became fluent in Chinese, took classes at a Chinese high school but classes were taught by American prep school teachers (except Chinese, which was taught by some of the best Chinese teachers, 12 periods a week). This was the best year of my life, I learned a LOT, and I’m trying to emphasize this in my apps and write my essays about my experience in China.</p>
<p>Anyway…I got a 5.4 GPA this semester. The valedictorian in my class had a 5.7 and he got into Yale. I’m in the top 5% or 10% of my class of 128 (my school won’t give us our actual ranks). As for SATs, I have a 2290 on the reasoning test (760V/760M/770W) and 770 in Chinese, 720 in Literature, and 640 in Chem (A+ in the class, but we all seemed to do not that great on the SAT II).</p>
<p>I do ECs like the school paper, literary magazine, model UN…and I have some activities like film production, after school chemistry, rec squash, cross country, basketball. I also started playing guitar half a year ago. I don’t have any really big leadership/community service things.</p>
<p>I’ll have two outstanding recs, one from my Chinese teacher and one from my Asian Studies teacher, whose classes I got 6.0s in. They love me and they think I’m one of the best students they’ve ever had.</p>
<p>I think my essays were pretty damn good, interesting, and original. I’ve been told I write well.</p>
<p>I think that’s basically it. We don’t have any academic competitions or really big clubs and societies that bigger public schools have. I regret not doing more freshman and sophomore years, but I can’t change that now.</p>
<p>Do you think I have a chance? I’m applying to Berkeley, Georgetown, George Washington, Princeton, Penn, Tufts, Harvard, Columbia, and Northwestern.</p>