Chances! Much appreciated.

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>I'm middle class, half asian, and female, from an extremely competitive public school in southern California with around 3,000 students. The school was ranked top 10 in the nation earlier (I honestly don't know what rankings were based on), and last year sent 8 to Harvard, 15 to Stanford, 6 to almost everywhere else, and at least a 100 to UCLA, so it's been recognized. Class ranks aren't offered -even if colleges just say to estimate a percentile on counselor recs, they just have a "do not rank" stamp.</p>

<p>But I'd probably be top 10%, although not top 5%. I have no idea where in between.</p>

<p>As for me:</p>

<p>GPA (unweighted): 3.8
GPA (weighted): 4.5
SAT:
first try: 2150 - Math 720, Verbal 710, Writing 720 (essay 9)
second try: 2250 - Math 780, Verbal 760, Writing 710 (essay 9)
PSAT: 225 (National Merit Semifinalist/Finalist)
SATIIs: Math IIC 780, U.S. History 770, Biology M 750</p>

<p>APs: Biology, U.S. History, Economics, Government, Calculus AB, Environmental Science, English Language</p>

<p>Essays should be most excellent. Or I hope, I'm writing it on the Red Power Ranger.</p>

<p>My courseload is slightly lacking -while I'm taking all the APs and honors classes available to me in most areas, I'm only doing three years of a language, and three years of math. I took Latin. But I won awards in nationwide/statewide competitions, so hopefully that covers it.</p>

<p>On math, however, I'll have taken calculus by the end of senior year, but I'll only have done three years in high school. No math junior year. But I got a 780 on the SAT, did the AMC and AIME fairly well, and got an 80 on the PSAT, so hopefully that helps, too.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<ul>
<li>Founder of the Palos Verdes Youth Organization, community service. I also created, pay for, and maintain the website. I organize year round events and fundraisers, and work with numerous needy families in the area (work with as in help out financially, with appliances, with setting up people with jobs. I managed to set 50 homeless people up with employment -a year later, 40 still work there, and 20 have a house). This is a large part of my life.</li>
<li>Internship at LTK Consulting, with computers and programming. I only spent one summer there, but put in over 100 hours.</li>
<li>I work for a Japanese translating company, and cleaned up and edited English translations. Paid work.</li>
<li>Junior Varsity tennis freshman and sophomore year.</li>
<li>Varsity cross-country and track junior and senior year. Running is extremely important to me, pretty time-consuming.</li>
<li>Model United Nations, I've won a lot of awards.</li>
<li>Math Club. I'm not ranked in the nation or anything, but I've done pretty well.</li>
</ul>

<p>Awards:</p>

<ul>
<li>National Merit Semifinalist</li>
<li>NHS</li>
<li>I'm not entirely sure if this counts, but the community service organization I created was featured in magazines, newspapers (not large, local) and such in my area.</li>
<li>Model United Nations, numerous Outstandings and Gavels (top delegate in the entire conference, at large conferences)</li>
<li>Math club, I'm not sure what the award is called, but I did well on the AMC and AIME, I think. Scores of 115 and 6, respectively, three years in a row. I did not improve.</li>
</ul>

<p>Both my parents went to Stanford for undergrad, my mother went to UCLA for graduate school, my dad stayed at Stanford for grad, so I have a strong legacy there. But they have never donated, and just joined the alumni association yesterday.</p>

<p>I also did the summer program (SSP) at Harvard last summer.</p>

<p>The schools I'm interested in are:</p>

<p>Stanford (SCEA), Yale (dream school, but no legacy), Princeton, Duke, Harvard, Michigan, Chicago, Swarthmore, UVA, UCBerkeley and UCSD</p>

<p>Thanks so much.</p>

<p>Bump. My apologies, any advice helps, even if there are so many other chances threads at the moment.</p>

<p>Moving this back up. I've honestly been a little angry when people have bumped too much in the past, so this'll be the last one.</p>

<p>Thank you in advance.</p>

<p>Hey np99, my opinion probably doesn't mean that much but....
Well, you've got excellent scores, activities, awards, and grades: just like anyone else trying to go to Harvard or Yale. Obviously, you would be an excellent candidate for any of the schools you mentioned, but your decision is going to come down to your personal side (essays, etc). The Power Ranger essay sounds interesting on the outside, but (at least I think) you're going to have to give it a unique spin, without just relating childhood memories to your present-day character.
AP's, honors, etc all look good.
Being a Stanford legacy will definitely help you stand out
If would say:
Stanford - reach to high reach (as opposed to impossible)
Yale - random, like it is for anybody else
Princeton - ditto
Duke - reach to high match
Harvard - random
Michigan - match
Chicago - match, but only if your essays hae the typical Chicago "quirk factor"
Swarthmore - not familiar, so i can't judge
UVA - match, despite the 30% OOS quota</p>

<p>Best of luck with everything, and thanks for ""chancing" me!!!</p>

<p>Thanks much!</p>

<p>The essay should be unique, although I'm sure everyone thinks that. Definite Chicago quirk; even if I only got 9's on the SAT essay, I ran out of time pretty early. Which isn't an excuse, that's not something to be proud of, but I'd imagine there are worse grades than a 9 for getting halfway through and quitting.</p>