<p>Read title above...also so overview of my ECs (only sophmore right now)</p>
<p>Secretary - Astornomy Club
Vice President - Philosphy Club
Math Team
Oceanography Team
Published Poet (I had my poet published in this poetry book)</p>
<p>possibly Crew for the upcoming Spring Season</p>
<p>My Course - hardest workload,
really balanced out, I'm takign hard humanities althoguh I'm a math/science geek.</p>
<p>AP World History
Hnrs Spanish
Forensics (Hnrs English class focused on public-speaking)
Hnrs Physics
Hnrs Trig
Bio/Physical Research (Possible Intel project)</p>
<p>My unweighted cumulative GPA is 96.77 and I go to the 20th Best HS in America (accoridng to a U.S. Weekly report)</p>
<p>this is the hardest workload my school offers, I know I only have 1 AP this year...</p>
<p>I'm sure that I can get excellent recs and do amazing essays and I'm very good at interviews of any kind because I love talking about myslef and my dreams/passion etc.</p>
<p>Also 1st generation immigration, first-person in fmaily to go to college</p>
<p>how can that be the hardest workload your school offers if it is a top 20 school as you say? those rankings are calculated by the average number of AP tests administered per student. Your ECs are ok, but we need to know your rank and SATs to get a better picture.</p>
<p>Yes. Just visit any of those schools and you'll see plenty of Asian males, so there is surely a way they get in.</p>
<p>Advice?</p>
<p>Work hard, be yourself, do what you enjoy, and don't fluff up your resume with BS. If you do these things you might get into HYPSM, but even if you don't you'll have many excellent opportunities from which to choose.</p>
<p>took SAT II Chem freshmen yr, winged it and got 790! woho!</p>
<p>rank-def. top 3-5% of my circa 500-600 class
since i only know one person in my school who has a higher avg. than me (I'm sure there's i don't know, but among those i kno, like 100 ppl, only 1 has high gpa than me)</p>
<p>westsidewolf- it really is, the onyl way kids take 2 APs soph yr if they OD at a language and take say AP Spanish, otherwise, onyl 1 AP, My schedule is considered rigorous in my school cus we get soem much work.
...
Maybe the Bronx High School of Science rings a bell?
the secondary school with the most Nobel prize winner alumnis in the WORLD (with 7)???</p>
<p>Yes it does ring a bell. I have a friend who attended that school and is now a chem engineering major at CalTech. i also didnt see that you were a sophomore... i thought you were a junior. just keep improving your involvement in ECs and stay on the academic path you are on now. And a 790 in Chem as a freshman is extremely impressive and will look great.</p>
<p>lol thanks westsidewolf, i seriosuly WINGED that SAT II Chem , I kid you not, I started sutdying the week before the test and I was like whatever and when I got my results back I was like ***?? a 790? me?!!, lol</p>
<p>anyways, do colleges see that u took it in freshmen yr??</p>
<p>IvyCrazyPerson - have some fun. Honestly. Be a teenager. If you are truly a wild and crazy person, do something fun. Not of course driving too fast or anything like that but think about your self, not your college stuff.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Published Poet (I had my poet published in this poetry book)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>just so you know, unless you're referring to an actual literary journal (which is different from those Poetry.com buy-this-great-anthology-with-your-poem-in-it deals), that counts for absolutely nothing and makes you look a bit gullible. in general, online "contests" that profess to offer huge prizes and then ask you to buy a volume are just trying to rip you off. it's a waste of your time, and participation is certainly unworthy of mention to the kind of universities you're looking at. </p>
<p>you've been posting a lot of threads on and how to be different as an Asian male... it's not so much trying to appear different just to play the admissions game, imo, but a matter of taking your personal strengths and character, however "stereotypical" they may be, and making the most of it. I have an Indian friend who's hardcore science; he won't pretend otherwise, and he knows that being a science-focused asian isn't fresh at all. but the point is that he has great research credentials and is focusing exactly on what he's good at to make the most of his life and his resume, regardless of how "unique" it may be.</p>
<p>There are tons of asian male's in the top colleges. That's one of the reasons it's harder often for asian males to get in. If you're an asian male, and you want to get in, then you have to first stop asking how hard it will be because you're an asian male. Instead, assume the key to admission is to be smarter than all the other asian males applying. You don't have to be THE smartest, but you need to be damn smart, and able to give them a run for their money.</p>
<p>Remember, when you get into college, you don't want to be happy that you just barely got in. You want to know that your application kicked ass and there was plenty of room left to spare for you. </p>
<p>Personally I would recommend only doing a few EC's (maybe 1-2), perhaps a sport, and then studying/tinkering with extra things in your spare time. Try to get through HS's dumb courses as fast as possible since those are generally retarding your education, and then start mastering foundational coursework in whatever field you want to go into. If you don't know what field you want to go into, just pick something that seems interesting, and pretend its the field you want to go into. It's better to know XYZ random subject really indepth then to just sit their with a dumb look on your face and say I have no idea what I want to do, so I do nothing in particular (this advice his heavily biased towards elite math/science schools).</p>
<p>Example: Kid A and B walk into MIT wanting to do EECS. Kid A kinda just went about HS doing w/e, following the norm, etc. Kid B spent a lot of time at home programming and building circuits in his spare time. Kid B has a big advantage, and it will take Kid A a few years to catch up (I have seen so many examples of this right before my eyes that at MIT). </p>
<p>I also suggest you don't participate in EC's that don't actually DO things. If you have a club that meets once a month and just sorta waddles around and doesn't do much of anything, drop it.</p>
<p>In absolute terms, your chances of getting in as an Asian male are higher than any other race of males in this country, so relax. Apparently, more males of other races do not have the credentials to even apply, let alone be admitted to HYPSM, so you are in a better position than they are.</p>