<p>Hello all! I'm a junior this year and really interested in CMU's SCS department. I might try for CFA as well, but not sure -- as there seems to be better art schools in other areas.</p>
<p>Here are my stats, they aren't amazingly sparkly and outstanding.. which is why I'm asking if I should even bother.</p>
<p>I will be applying ED.</p>
<p>SAT: m/v is only 1390.. though it ought to be at least 1440, I'm pretty sure I'm better than that in math. (and my writing skills are pretty much pure EHHH.)
SATII: to be taken.. US hist and Math II
GPA: ~3.7 (I know, its really low.. I slacked in fresh/soph year, and I pulled it up to 3.9 this year.. Really really really really worried about this.)
Rank: 30ish/550ish</p>
<p>Courses this year:
- Academy AP US history
- French 4
- Academy AP Eng/composition
- Painting
- Adv Physics
- Academy Pre-cal
- Chinese 1 and 2 from nearby college</p>
<p>I'm supposing Academy is like Honors.. The academy classes generally are a little more fast paced and give more homework than advanced classes.</p>
<p>Senior year courses:
- AP Comp sci
- Academy AP Eng/lit
- Microbiology/heredity - argh, its required, I'd rather take something else <em>not a big bio fan</em>
- Academy AP calc
- Chinese 3 and 4 from nearby college
- Either AP psychology or AP studio art, still debating</p>
<p>all A's in sci classes, only B in math was soph year's alg2.. most Bs fall in history and french... argh, those classes aggravate me.</p>
<p>ECs:
boring stuff:
- Academy - whoo, junior Academy has about 38 kids. (Apparently everyone drops out during senior year.. this year's senior Academy class only has like.. 20 or so students)
- Beta club (I go to the state conventions every year :D so fun!)
- NHS
- STLP</p>
<p>I don't hold positions.. these are mainly nondescript besides that 'wow I got in good for me ok now what?'.. mostly volunteer work.</p>
<p>slightly interesting stuff:
- Culture club - I hold a position, doesn't really have a title.. But its important, I promise haha. We have a big annual Culture Fair and most of our work goes into preparing that.
- Crafts and Design club - Treasurer.. We're the group that sells delivered candy bags during Halloween, Christmas ('winter season' to be more.. correct), and other holidays.
- Math tutoring - tutor students in my class and other classes.. as well as some middle schoolers. Around 10+ hr per year since high school.
- Immex club - I just do computer graphics and test pages for this right now.. the seniors are handling most of the important stuff. Get to do more stuff next year.. (further explained below)
- Re-designing (yeah I do some graphic design too) and helping maintain the Academy website.
- Self-learning a buuunch of computer programming this summer.
Self-learned HTML and a bit of CSS and ASP. I'm good at using programs like Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, etc etc</p>
<p>slightly more interesting stuff:
- I've won several local and state art competitions, some pieces are going national as of now.. will probably be entering more (and hopefully winning) competitions.
- I do digital/commercial art as well as traditional media. I sell my works for moneeeys.
- Served as an art teacher at the city's Chinese school for elementary aged kids for about a year. Counts as leadership, work exp, and volunteer?
- My senior mentoring project is creating my own computer game.. both the programming and the visual components. Getting head start now - learning Java by myself.. Project must be completed no later than April 07, but I think I should be done slightly earlier.
My mentor is an engineer/developer working at Lexmark.
- This summer I will be working on Immex problems with some other students (3 chosen per high school) for 2 weeks. We're creating online (kind of interactive) science problems for high school students. (I think its mainly targeted towards physics problems)</p>
<p>Volunteer hours should pass the 100 hour mark by senior year.</p>
<p>Sorry if I blabbed more than needed. Sometimes I get too into what I do rofl.</p>
<p>Other stuff:
I'm asian. (came to America at 5, forgot how to speak it, which is why I'm taking classes haha.. I fail at being Chinese..)
I'm female.
I play a lot of computer and video games.</p>
<p>I come from Kentucky.. which is like.. one of those semi-hick states harhar.
Large public magnet school ~ 2200 students this year (we're actually overcrowded now.. supposed to have only 1800 students)</p>
<p>I'm really interested in computer science / programming / blah blah.. but if I'm not bright enough for it, I guess I'll pursue the arts!</p>
<p>I'm just really worried about my crappy SATs and GPA.. as well as my notfocusedoncomputerstuff course. What do you all think? I've still got the summer to do stuff..</p>
<p>And bribe teachers! Kidding of course.. I know at least two teachers that will give me good recs.
I tend to write humorous (sometimes sarcastic) essays.. is this wanted or no?</p>
<p>Thanks ahead of time, everything is appreciated. :D</p>