Come fall, will I be in Cali?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I have watched this forum at a distance for some time now, and I just felt like posting my own chances thread to have a little fun.</p>

<p>White Male - Long Island, NY
Competitive Public HS - sends many, many students to top 25's.</p>

<p>First Generation College Student
Single Parent, Low Income Family (<21k)</p>

<p>SAT: 1320 (690M,630V)
SATII: 710 WH
SATII: 700 Math IC
SATII: 630 Writing</p>

<p>GPA: 4.16 W, 99th %tile <-- 99% appears on my transcript
Class Rank: My school doesn't rank, yet I was able too look at a ranking sheet from last year that was created for National Honor Society, and I was 11/666.)</p>

<p>APs:
AP World History 9th
AP World History 10th (4)
AP Computer Science (5)
AP US Histroy (4)
AP Physics B (3)
AP Physics C
AP Calculus BC
AP Environmental Science</p>

<p>ECs (shorthand and cut):</p>

<p>-National Semi-Professional Paintball Team - use to compete (had to stop due to financial reasons with loss of sponsorships) in national tournaments; farthest being in Los Angeles in March of last year. 7th at LA Open. Ten 1st place and two 2nd place finishes in 03-04. (Note: This isn't woods paintball done as a simple recreational thing.)</p>

<p>-Varsity Badminton (10-12) - All-County, Captain, Ranked 2nd on Long Island</p>

<p>-Varsity Gymnastics (12) - All American Team Member</p>

<p>-Started my own computer company in 9th grade - repairs, network installs, maintenance, webdesign, server management, etc. (divisions in like every field of computing).</p>

<p>-National, Spanish, Math Honor Societies (Vice President of Spanish and Math, Webmaster of Math and National).</p>

<p>-Student taught a computer science class in high school in 10th grade.</p>

<p>-Habitat for Humanity (11-12)</p>

<p>-YMCA Leaders Club (10-11)
Total community service hours from above activities is around 300 hours</p>

<p>Recs: One of them was from a 30-year teacher that I have had for all four years of my HS career (APCS, APCalc, CS1, CS2, Prog for Web). We have a strong relationship, and I am almost certain his rec talks about how I helped him create a web server (out of school) and student teach the high school's computer science course.</p>

<p>Essays: I took a risk (with topic choice: "Personal Dilemna/Force that has changed me") and wrote about how I don't know my father and how I've had to live on my own for much of HS, as a result of my mother's working hours.</p>

<p>Opinions At: (* indicates number of choice: ie ** = 2nd choice)
USC* - I will go 100% if I am accepted, and I am so stressed hoping for an acceptance letter.
Cornell University** - close behind USC in liking
NYU
Boston University
UC-Berkeley*** - note: I am aware of difficulty of UC acceptance OOS. It was just a whim.
UC-San Diego
UC-Santa Barbara
UC-Davis
RIT
Lehigh</p>

<p>Already Accepted: SUNY Binghamton, Adelphi Honors College (Full-Ride), Penn State UPark</p>

<p>Interested in what you all think. I'm dying for USC, and I guess this post is really just me seeing whether or not I will be there in fall (although I am aware this is all pretty much simple opinions).</p>

<p>Sorry for the long post.</p>

<p>Thanks! :D</p>

2

<p>You're an incredibly strong applicant.
Perhaps, the tiny inflict on your SAT score may or may not hurt your chances, but not really sure about that.</p>

<p>Many of your EC's are good. However, there might be that thing about "At least a 3-year commitment" etc. etc.</p>

<p>But its hard to find many errors in you as an applicant. As I've said before, you're one of the stronger ones.</p>

<p>Also, I'm just a person on CC. None of this is valid. So just apply, and hope for the best.</p>

3

<p>Wow, thanks for your compliments, Tami.</p>

<p>I know what you mean about the commitment thing.... I did paintball for like 4 years, and most other things for like 2. Sometimes I just got unlucky, such as my local YMCA closing down :(</p>

<p>I just hope the lower side test scores don't make that huge of an impact.</p>

4

<p>Just curious, even if you get an absolutely free ride to those California schools, how are you going to pay for the significant costs of transportation and basic goods and services associated with going to school in California.</p>

5

<p>haha.. I should really go do HW ;P</p>

<p>But yeah, I was expecting that question. </p>

<p>Um, in all honesty, I don't have much of a base here as a normal family might have. My mother may just move with me to California, or if she doesn't, I don't really plan to come back too often anway (only during required breaks).</p>

<p>As for other expenses, friends of my family have said they will help me out and I have other savings to work with/summer job $$.</p>

<p>But, yes, it will probably still be very tight. Unfortunately it is just how things are :&lt;/p>

<p>Incase things don't end up working in the end, I do have the option open of staying close for the early years, then transferring later. I would just love the idea of expanding beyond this local context.</p>

6

<p>I hate bumping it, but I'll do it just this once.</p>

7

<p>Just remember that UC's don't take letters of rec.</p>

8

<p>ur essay is not a risk at all, and i think you have a decent shot at most of your schools, cornell/usc/berkley will be the reaches, the rest are matches/safties..ur main problem is your writing sat ii score and your verbal sat score...both of which colleges do rely heavily upon, but then you have some good ecs and of course your essay...its shaky man but good luck i hope you the best</p>

9

<p>Thanks for your opinion. Yeah, I am actually hoping that my essay and recs can outweigh my lower end SAT scores ;d</p>

10

<p>USC is really not that hard to get into. I think you're definitely in. You should have done early notification!</p>

11

<p>they dont have an early action/notification program :(</p>

<p>Otherwise, w00t haha.</p>