<p>Asian Male from upstate NY, competitive pub school</p>
<p>3.3 uw GPA :O( </p>
<p>SAT I: 620 CR 720 M 690 W (2030), plan to retake, hopefully I can get upper 1400s.. I've improved a lot in CR, and for Math there's always the chance that I can ace it.. I put my ceiling at about 1550.. although that doesn't mean anything</p>
<p>SAT IIs: Math I:730, USH:690, Math II:670</p>
<p>AP: USH - 5, Lit and Comp - 3</p>
<p>10 APs by graduation, and all honors courses ==> really hard course load in our school</p>
<p>Senior Course Load:
AP English
AP BC calc
AP Chem
AP Macro
AP American Govt
AP Adv Studio in Art
AP Spanish
Health.. required
Self-study for AP Micro</p>
<p>ECs
Indoor Track 9th
JV Golf 9th, 10th
Varsity Golf 11th, 12th - Team Captain
Cinema Lit. Club, Co-Founder
Teaching Assistant at an elementary summer school, 9th - 50 hrs
ROAR program (helping elementary kids at magnet schools) - 50 hrs, 10th
Math League - 12th
Amnesty - 12th</p>
<p>Recs: should be quite good</p>
<p>My sister graduated from chicago in 2001, will that help me at all?</p>
<p>I've started to write my hopefully kick arse essays :)... I don't think I have a strong chance, but you never know.</p>
<p>How is he in?? He has a 3.3 unweighted GPA and a 2020 SAT score to boot. None of his EC's and awards even come close to covering the poor academic background and to top it all off, he's Asian. Chicago is a massive reach for you unless your essays are mindblowing. Good luck!!!</p>
<p>Now, that I think about it, his GPA is a bit low. And when you talk about your SAT score, take out the writing section, Chicago doesn't care about that, that leaves you with a 1340. But Chicago doesn't care oo much about test scores. But to say his only chance is a mindblowing essay is ridiculous. He has an unbelievably hard course load, which Chicago will love and has good ECs on top of that. He has a great chance.</p>
<p>IMO, you have a decent shot with good essays, but you need to make sure that the rest of your list is pretty solid. Your first semester senior grades are going to be important for Chicago as well as your other schools. Improved SAT scores would be nice - but you don't want to compromise your senior grades because of it. What are the other schools to which you are applying?</p>
<p>My first semester senior grades should be very strong.<br>
Most of my reaches depend on whether or not I do stellar on October 14th.
As I said I didn't think my chances were strong anyway so... heh</p>
<p>Just a word about UVA - it is very difficult out of state - might be feasible instate, but would still be a reach.</p>
<p>Ok, so here is my pre-med spiel. If you are thinking seriously of applying to med school, you will need grades, GRE's, recommendations, hopefully research or service hours. If you are accepted at Chicago or Cornell, you will have to work <em>really</em> hard for the grades... harder even than you will be working senior year. Some kids thrive on this, which is fine. </p>
<p>Remember, though, that WSham0 now is not quite the same WSham0 as you will be in April. So that you have a good range of options, let me suggest that you think about adding a LAC or two - something along the line of Skidmore, Beloit, Centre or College of Wooster. Wooster sounds a bit out of place, I know, but it is at the top of the line for the places that professors in the Ohio college consortia send their kids - and a pretty intellectual place. Also, being a male will give you a bit of a bump at LAC because they tend to have too many woman. Always look at the male/female acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Yep I know how hard it is to get into a good medical school from Chicago because of the grade deflation. My sister went from U of C to UCLA med with a 3.6 or something like that (dunno her MCATs), and she told me how hard the classes were. I see college as the means to expand my intellect both socially and mentally as I never could have in high school, so wherever I go I will work extremely hard. </p>
<p>I figure if I don't get into any of my reaches (which I hope will become slight reaches after the SATs), I would probably go to Binghamton because of financial reasons. I've thought about Skidmore, but I don't like the proximity to home; I live about 35 minutes away from Saratoga.</p>
<p>WSham, Please compute your UC GPA before considering applying to the UC's. The UC's require a 3.4 GPA for out of state residents as a MINIMUM. Your UC gpa will be based solely on grades in certain classes taken during 11th and 10th grade, and only 8 courses can be weighted. If your UC GPA is below 3.4, your application will be tossed in the garbage bin. Even if it is over 3.4, or you qualify to be considered based on test scores alone (assuming your OCtober scores do rise to that level) to have ANY shot at UCLA and UCSD as an out of state resident your GPA needs to be SIGNIFICANTLY over 3.4. You can find out how to compute your UC GPA at <a href="http://www.ucop.edu/pathways%5B/url%5D">www.ucop.edu/pathways</a>.</p>
<p>I second Ohio-Mom's suggestion that you still need some match and safer bet schools in your mix, as a 3.3 unweighted GPA is low for nearly all of the schools on your list, regardless of your test scores or the difficulty of your curriculum. </p>
<p>I would not count on even a perfect score on the SATs next week to overcome what is basically a transcript full of B's. The schools on your list will not be fooled by an AP-heavy senior year - they will focus on the fact that you are a "B" student, even though you may have taken multiple AP/honors classes. In comparison to the "A" students with similar or higher test scores that the schools on your list will receive applications from, you have an uphill battle. </p>
<p>Again, I'm not saying you shouldn't apply to the schools on your list, and don't mean to sound harsh, but right now you have no real foundation for those reach schools. Even SUNY Binghamton is not a safety for you. Put a foundation in place, and then you can rest easy.</p>
<p>carolyn -
thanks for the link to the university of california site - makes it a little more intelligible. Am I correct in assuming that for a non-resident, eligible does not equal auto-admit?</p>