Chances please

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>-ACT: 36 (1st person in history of my high school)
-SAT Math 2c: 800
-SAT physics: 800
-SAT Bio-m: 800
-SAT chem: 790
-AP National Scholar (11 AP's only one 4, only had classes for 4 of them)
-National Merit Semifinalist (possibly finalist) psat 236;
-3.4/4.0 unweighted, 3.7 UC gpa, top 25% of class (junior year gpa is 3.9/4.0 unweighted)
-High school is ranked #1 in california by AcademicPerformanceIndex
-highest score for chem olympiad at my high school
-most demanding course load</p>

<p>-did some intensive bioeng research on cancer this summer, doing siemens, intel, isef;
-engineering intern at boeing senior fall semester;</p>

<p>-Black Belt and instructor tae-kwon-do; director of activities martial arts club - organized program to teach local elementary kids tae-kwon-do afterschool;
-MUN for 4 years; went to New York World Mun Conference this year, won rappateur (best delegate) in my committee; spoke on the floor of the general assembly;
-100 hrs of service at local library over two summers.
-President FBLA- I like finance & economics, especially financial mathematics and modelling. i've read every issue of Harvard Business Review from Feb 1999 onwards, enthusiatic subscriber to The Economist. i can lead people.
-Programming nerd: condensed all of 1st semester of physics mechanics into a handy-dandy program for my ti; director of computer science, electricalEng & compSci club; pre-professional .NET visual studio programmer, will get a few projects before college admin; made wesites for dad, MUN, and other clubs, webmaster at a few clubs; love playing and modifying Civilization 4 and YS Flight Simulator in phython, c++,c#, java and xml code; i make little programs for fun, like 4D tic-tac-toe (it's more complicated than you think ;D);
-Modern Physics nerd: started Superstring Theory Society to educate my lesser-minded peers about the nature of the universe; started phy olympiad team for 08, we didnt have one previously; met 2004 physics nobel laureate by chance this summer and spoke with him on what i read in elegant universe, fabric of the cosmos, cosmic landscape for 2 hours (life changing experience, now i'm definately having one major in physics :D); i spend my time learning undergrad math so that i can understand quantum mechanics and relativity mathematically (i took calc bc test this past year, even though i was in calc A, and got a 5. i then went to community college and tested out of multivariable calc & diff eq this summer);
- i am a polygot (speak 6 languages) and lived in 2 other countries for 8 years before i came to america.
-relatively strong letters; letter from head of my research lab also;</p>

<p>prospective major: math, physics, econ (my ap credit should do it)</p>

<p>can't think of anything I left out. so go ahead and tear into me and be critical. ivy,mit,stanford,ucb,chicago,ucla?</p>

2

<p>your gpa is a little iffy, but you did say you go to a very challenging school so whatever. </p>

<p>other than that, you're obviously really outstanding so i say you'll get into many of your choices</p>

3

<p>bump bumpety bump</p>

4

<p>bump. please chance me!</p>

5

<p>gpa.......a bit iffy. except that one can't get better stats than urs! what's ur class rank?</p>

6

<p>unweighted class rank: 41/180</p>

7

<p>hmmmm...........ur ECs rn't extraordinary..u may wanna work on those. Ivies....a lot of them possible. Other collges u've listed r high matches for u! :) </p>

<p>if u r thinking of physics....don't forget abt UNC!</p>

8

<p>"unweighted class rank: 41/180"</p>

<p>-ouch...your GPA/rank is going to hurt, but I think the other parts of your application may make up for that..</p>

9

<p>UNC = University of North Carolina?</p>

10

<p>Yeah...since u r OOS it'll be quite tough to get in even for u! But it never hurts to apply! :cool:</p>

11

<p>"my lesser-minded peers" - I hope you'd never use this phrase in real life, especially on your application or in front of officials.</p>

<p>I like your chances. I actually think your ECs are very decent. You're just lacking some awards to back up your passion in some of them.</p>

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<p>of course not. actually it was the nobel laureate's phrase =D. it stuck in my mind..</p>

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<p>haha, I have no trouble imagining someone like that using the phrase.</p>

14

<p>bump... any more??</p>

15

<p>bump bumps</p>

16

<p>Okay, let's talk a little bit here before I do chances.</p>

<p>Apparently, your ability to get stuff done that you want to do is unmatched--as evidenced by your taking 11 AP exams despite having classes for only 4 of these subjects--and by your 800s on everything math, sciences--and even a perfect 36 on the ACT.</p>

<p>So how, exactly, did you end up with only a 3.4 UW GPA in high school?--and only 41st in a class of 180 (barely top 25%).</p>

<p>Here's the good and the bad--</p>

<p>I don't see the top Ivies (except for Princeton--see below) giving you a shot with the (relatively) bad GPA. If it were one or two classes only--or if you had one bad semester it might be explanable--but apparently you only got serious about going to a top college during the last part of your sophomore year and in the junior year.</p>

<p>As far as the schools in California--you can apply to UC Berkeley and UCLA using the "test scores only" option and should get accepted to both with your 500 points achieved out of 500 possible points.</p>

<p>Here's the link to that:
<a href="http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/exam_eligibility.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/exam_eligibility.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Instead of applying to only to MIT, Caltech, Chicago etc., I'd consider applying to someplace like Penn State Scheyers Honors where they might overlook the GPA somewhat and rely more on the SAT/ACT scores, or to a place like John Hopkins or Georgetown or Michigan where they might not be so demanding on the GPA considering the test scores. I'd also consider your chances at Stanford and Princeton to be much better than at the other top schools, since these schools will throw out your freshman grades in their deliberation.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>