<p>-Ethnicity: Asian - Korean
-Came to Canada in grade 4
-Nothing really special..</p>
<p>Academics:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>GPA: 3.89 unweighted in a local public high school where nobody has ever gone to an ivy league school (or any top 25 US college for that matter..)</p></li>
<li><p>Rank: No exact rank, but approximately top 5%</p></li>
<li><p>SAT: 800M+670CR+720WR = 2190.. retaking October, but I dont expect any dramatic increases.</p></li>
<li><p>SAT II:
Math IIC - 800
Chemistry -760
Biology - 750
World History - 680</p></li>
<li><p>AP:
Biology - 5
Chemistry - 5
Psychology - 5</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Extra-Curricular's:
- Leader & rhythm guitarist of a hard-rock band. Have recorded an album and sold quite a few copies. This is my main EC that I entend on elaborating it on my essay.
- Biology lab assistant at a local university (150 hours?)
- Volunteer at an internet service provider for seniors and the impoverished (200 hours)
- School District Student Leadership Council (80 hours?)
- Student Council ( Grade 11 representative )
- Part-time job as a softball umpire (100 hours?)
- and other various EC's that are not worth listing on my app</p>
<p>I guess my essay will be alright, but nothing is for sure.
Recommendations will probably be good, but I'm not sure since none of my teachers have ever written a recommendation letter to US Colleges (Canadian universities don't require any recs)</p>
<p>What are my chances for:
Cornell ED
U of Chicago EA
U of Michigan RD (applying in a couple weeks)
Northwestern RD
UPenn RD
JHU RD
Swarthmore RD</p>
<p>If I dont get into any of the schools listed above, I'm gonna apply to Canadian universities, which have a later deadline, so I won't need any US matches or safeties, as Canadian schools are my safeties.</p>
<p>I go to a mediocre local public school in Canada. No AP courses are offered, so I had to self-study all 3 in my junior year. And I am planning on self-studying a few more this year as well. Thanks for your opinions.</p>
<p>Also, do you guys suggest that I apply to CAS or CALS? As I'm an international.</p>
<p>Your chances at Cornell are decent since the school is one of the weaker Ivies. However, that fact that you've only taking 3 AP's and your unweighted score is already a 3.89 could hurt your chances. Nonetheless, apply ED because there's still a chance that you will be accepted.</p>
<p>Wow you self-studied all 3? I think you will get into both schools no problem (just get that CR score up over 700, then you are solid). They are the same curriculum except in CAS you take more liberal arts courses. Cornell also offers need-blind admissions to Canadians</p>
<p>I want to self-study bio... Could you please tell me which courses you took before and during while you studied bio and chem? (just the science courses). Thanks a lot</p>
<p>My GPA is 3.89 because I received 2 B's in my freshman year. From sophomore year and up, it is 4.00 unweighted. Does that make it a little better?</p>
<p>In my grade 9 year, I took Science 9. During the summer of the grade 9 year, I took Science 10 through distance-ed. During my grade 10 year, I took Chemistry 11, Biology 11 and Physics 11. During my grade 11 year, I took Chemistry 12 and Biology 12 and took AP Bio in May.</p>
<p>I'd suggest that you get your hands on as many released exams as possible. I think there are 3 exams that are released. You can buy them through the CB site or ask an AP teacher for a copy.</p>
<p>one more thing, did you think the bio 12 course is necessary for me to study ap bio? I'm only going to be able to take bio 11 this year.. how much harder is AP bio from bio 12? just a couple of terms or whole new concepts?</p>
<p>Biology 11 deals more with different organisms and classifications. Biology 12 deals with different systems in the human body and various aspects of cell biology. I had forgotten most of my biology 11 concepts for the AP tests and almost all my reviewing consisted of biology 11 concepts (plants and invertebrate stuff). For you, you can review the biology 12 concepts extensively and spend less time with the plants and the invertebrate section.</p>
<p>Basically, AP Bio = Biology 11 + Biology 12 + a little more depth and detail into each chapter.</p>
<p>So yes, biology 12 is pretty much a necessity for you to take AP Bio, so you might want to start learning the bio 12 stuff now.</p>
<p>I gathered the email address of professors in the biology department at various universities and emailed all of them with my resume in the hopes of getting a professor interested. A few professors contacted me and I ended up working for a phD student in the lab.</p>