Hi I’m an asian male and I’m hoping to get into an ivy league school for either law or medicine (not quite sure yet). I’m only just a starting sophomore right now but I just want to get some opinions for what I should do in the future. Ok here goes. . .
Asian Male
10th Grade High School
Blue Ribbon Florida Public School
GPA: 4.12 (UW), 4.5 (W)
SATS: 2100 (740 Math, 660 Writing, 700 Verbal) -taken in May Freshman Year
{High School Classes:}
Almost all honors
{AP Classes:}
AP Bio-5
AP Java-5
Taking in 10th grade: AP USH, AP CHEM, AP CALC AB
{Extra Curriculars}
Black Belt Taekwondo
Academic Team
Mu Alpha Theta
NJHS
Latin Club
Webmaster for local Hindu Society
Founder Calculator TI-83+ Programming Club
Programming Basis in C++ and Java and Basic
State Latin Awards/National Latin Exam Gold Medals
(am working on getting a law internship and trying to get started in science research)
{Community Service}
30 hours-Library
44 hours-Hospital
10 hours-programming club (did more but didn’t log all of them)
NOTES: I am trying to beef up the extracurriculars and hope to log a total of about 15 AP classes.
<p>my sat was similar and grades were as high or higher, i had a 97 average out of 100, no weighting. I got into Cornell, the only ivy i got into, but i got into a ton of other schools such as JHU, Rice, Chicago, Northwestern, and Duke.</p>
<p>I want to throw up because you've only just completed your freshman year in high school.</p>
<p>PLEASE. Do yourself a favor. Colleges will see if you've just gone around stuffing your resume and schedule for them and they won't like it. They want to see genuine passion. Find things YOU like, and do that. That will help you way more than worrying about HYPS right now will. And for the love of God, ENJOY HIGH SCHOOL! Go to the football games! Go to a party! Drink a beer! Get laid! </p>
<p>You're only going to be in HS once. Don't blow it by spending the whole time worrying about college.</p>
<p>The extremely selective colleges including the Ivies really want the best of everything. They first look at difficulty of curriculum, then gpa/rank, and then standardized test scores (SAT/ACT and SAT II's.) After you qualify on these academic measures, they won't split hairs between a 1550/1600 and a 1600/1600 on the SAT's. They want applicants who are unique and stand out from the crowd. They want applicants who show "passion" and long-term commitment to one or two activities rather than to a long list of unrelated EC's with little involvement in any of them. The way you show this is with your EC's, essays, and recs. Ideally, you have recognition at the national/regional level. </p>
<p>Among the top 10-15 schools, they still have four/five outstanding applicants for every available slot. Some college guides have referred to this as a lottery or crap shoot, but this makes it sound as if everybody has a shot. Only the people with outstanding academic measures and unique EC's get to the point where they have a shot. Once there, however, there is a lot of luck involved. This is why people are accepted to some and not others, and why the waitlists are so long. Some colleges have waitlists that are longer than the list of acceptances. After an adcom has accepted someone, it is psychologically easier for an adcom to waitlist the person's clone than it is to reject them.</p>
<p>None of this is to discourage you from applying, but just to help you understand the process. Most people probably end up going to a school that they considered a reach. Don't get too obsessed with prestige, but rather try to find a college that is a fit for you personally. When you do think about prestige, it is better to not say "ivies". The prestige/selectivity among the eight ivies are all high, but other schools are higher than the lesser ivies. Look at the URNWR rankings to identify other schools.</p>
<p>You are off to a good start. Continue taking the most challenging curriculum possible. Your SAT's are way too low for the extremely selective colleges, but I assume this is because they are from freshman year. Try to develop one/two EC's that demonstrate "passion". Law and Medical degrees are post-undergraduate. You can go to any college and then apply to a prestigious Law/Medical school.</p>
<p>a 1440 is a verrrrry good score. wat ru talking about. Do you know how many kids would literally dream to get a score like that. Even for ivies, including cornell, penn, brown, columbia, your scores are FINE.</p>
<p>It's good that you're thinking ahead and trying to get an internship at a law firm/doing scientific research. But are you really interested in both law AND science? It might be better to stick to one and show commitment to it. A friend of mine was interested in business, but decided to do a summer research program in medicine to "boost his stats" to get into Penn. Didn't work out.</p>
<p>Some people have this elusive yet desireable commodity known as a 'life.' I would suggest trying to find one. Or making one. Trust me, you don't want to become an illustration of the all-too-true saying: "The mass of CC Users lead lives of not-so-quiet desperation."</p>
<p>yeah seriously. You are only going to be a 10 grader and you are already fretting over this?</p>
<p>Remember. College is only a part of life. Going to Harvard versus going to UCSD wont matter much a few years after you graduate. Later in the job market, its all about what work experience you've had. Dont kill yourself over college.</p>
<p>Also, if you just soup up your resume to impress adcoms, they can tell and will almost surely reject you.</p>
<p>I want to be clear about the 1440 score. It is a very good score. The 50% ranges for Harvard are V700-800 and M700-790. That includes the statistically lower scores for URM's, legacies, athletes, and ED applicants. The 50% ranges for Duke which I think is the #4 national univ at the moment are V650-740 and M670-770. If you are non-URm, non-legacy, non-athlete applying during RD, you have to be near the top of the 50% range in order for the college to be a match. You can apply and still get in, but it would be a reach school. Please save the anecdotes about a friend who got in with a 1350, but yes, people do sometimes get into reach schools.</p>
<p>If it's the middle 50%, then wouldn't the URMs, athletes, and legacies usually be in the 25% of the 100% not the 25% of the 50%? I don't know how the statistics are spread about but I find it hard to believe that half or more than half of the school would consist of URMs, athletes, and legacies. :confused:</p>
<p>Everyone competes within their own unofficial category. Categories that typically have statistically lower SAT scores are URM's, legacies, athletes, international students, development cases, VIP's, and ED applicants. It isn't unusually for whites/asians to make up only 60% of the class. Some colleges fill up 40% of the class with ED applicants. State schools like UVA and UNC are much harder to get into for out-of-state since they have to have 70% in-state students. The breakdown varies from college to college. (Asians are considered URM's at some colleges.)</p>
<p>All of this pushes the average SAT for white/asians applying RD from the 50% mark up to around the 75% mark. I am not saying that you shouldn't apply, but just don't think that you are a match because you fall inside the 50% range. You have to near the top of the 50% range for the school to be a match. If you are only in the exact middle of the range, then you are average for the entire applicant pool, and not strongly competitive in the white/asian category during RD.</p>
<p>Given the fact that you just finished freshman year, there's no way of really knowing. Your grades could easily nosedive, etc. Come back as a junior.</p>
<p>With respect to EC.s you look fine. Keep in mind that there are only like 8 boxes available for you to put down your activities so there's no significant advantage to having 20, because you can't even write them down.</p>
<p>A good book for you to read is "Acing the College Application" by Michele Hernandez. It is concise and relates everything to the actual app. She recommends using MS Word to create an activity-list chart similar to the one on the form so that you have more space for activities and to explain what was involved in each. The main thing with EC's is to have a focus with "passion" and long-term commitment on something rather than a long list of unrelated activities.</p>