diverse student, boost chances???

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wake Forest University
1

<p>Chinese, 17 years old, CA resident</p>

<p>lived in china for a year (9th grade), attended private, international school</p>

<p>Acedemic:
SAT New: 560CR, 690W, 800M = 2050
SATII: projected 750 Physics and 750 for 2C</p>

<p>Senior (this year) schedule: (most rigorous courseload, except no AP language)
Biology AP
English 4 AP
Govt/Econ AP
Calculus AB AP</p>

<p>Got a 3 on the AP US History AP exam... sick</p>

<p>GPA: 3.4 UW 3.91 W (SO SO SO SO SO DISGUSTING, I KNOW!)</p>

<p>OK, extra curriculars:
Went to rural China for 3 weeks to teach oral English to English teachers there. It's one of Intel China's biggest community service things.. worked there for about 9 hours a day. I lived in the school and ate at the cafeteria, which is some kind of payment I guess. I had 24 students. Uh... I guess its only special because absolutely nobody else has it, otherwise its nothing worth mentioning.</p>

<p>Taught English in Shanghai for 3 weeks, not that its something in particular, either. Worked at an office. Primary duty was improve the workers' oral English, secondary duty was help out in the office doing clerical stuff. Got a really good review by the supervisor and that's about it. 8 hours a day. Was volunteer work but they gave me 1000yuan ($120) (and a Tshirt) at the end as a gift.</p>

<p>Went to school in Shanghai for 02-03 (freshman). Editor in Chief for newspaper and yearbook there.</p>

<p>Parents seperated. live with mom and she gets crap pay. (<60K)</p>

<p>JSA for 2 years, about 75 credit hours. no position held</p>

<p>Chinese National Honor Society 2 years, 50something credit hours, no position</p>

<p>Football Team 10th grade.</p>

<p>private tutor for half a year, got paid</p>

<p>scorekeeper for basketball games, got paid</p>

<p>basically a billion hours of community service</p>

<p>What more can i say? (i'm flippin doomed)</p>

<p>My essays should be pretty good My teacher recs should be mediocre since im planning on asking my senior year teachers. </p>

<p>ps, what major should i choose in order to have better chances?</p>

<p>thanks everyone!!!</p>

2

<p>Kenneth:</p>

<p>Could you take the SAT again and focus on the Critical Reading section - that score will hurt you if you don't bring it up - other scores are fine so really focus on the CR. You have a good hook in your volunteer efforst and I recommend that you focus on that in your application. Wake is certainly in need of diversity so maybe it will help but you need the scores and GPA as well. Nothing beats trying - good luck to you!!</p>

3

<p>sounds good</p>

<p>wake doesnt mix SAT scores, do they? as in composite....</p>

4

<p>yes they do</p>

5

<p>That CR, man. Otherwise, looks good. Also, less than 60k, doesn't look so crappy to moi.</p>

6

<p>could you please criticize more? whats a typical student there? is the minority presence accepted? are there many minorities? (specifically Chinese)? </p>

<p>thanks in advance!</p>

7

<p>Well, the GPA is kind of low as well. I came in with somewhat higher than a 3.5, I forget the exact number, and over 4.5 weighed. If I were you I'd take the SAT again and kind of blow off, though not completey, the other sections and pour all your energy into the CR section. If you're dead set on Wake, I would also recommend retaking the AP US History exam, I found it to be one of the easiest AP tests I took (I had a great teacher) if you want to prep, so that you can get credit at Wake. What are your first semester, senior grades looking like? These will be very indicative of your chances.</p>

8

<p>I would definitely not advise retaking the AP US History exam. AP US History doesn't even get you divisional credit at Wake, so unless you're a history major, you won't ever take the class for which the APUSH exam would get you credit. It's not worth putting yourself through another exam, in my opinion. Other than that, emsibdn's advice, as always, looks sound to me.</p>

<p>As for "minority presence," I would say that, yes, it is accepted, although you might want to take my comments with a grain of salt as I am not a minority. I can't tell you about the specific Chinese minority presence because Wake, as far as I could find only separates it as far as Asian, but I just looked in the Wake Forest Fact Book for last year and Asian Americans were the largest minority other than African Americans (for my incoming class, at least).</p>