Hi everyone! I’m new to this community and a sophomore in HS. i know that seems a bit early, but I was wondering if I some ratings/criticism on my stats/ECs and what i should do now to get to my dream schools, which are at the bottom. im mainly writing this bc i found out i got a ‘b’ in pre-ap chem so im scared itll hurt my chances a lot. ive been reassured that it wont, but doesnt really solve my stress still
Demographics: male, south asian american, upper middle class (dad is doctor), alabama
Intended Major(s): business or medicine
Standardized tests: took the preact and got a 28, didnt take any other standardized tests before though
GPA/Rank: 4.0 UW/4.22 W in 9th grade 5/701 class rank. first semester of 10th grade - 3.86 UW/4.14 W
Coursework: take most rigorous coursework offered at school for my grade. pre-ib english and history, pre-ap chem, advanced spanish, engineering, public speaking
ECs/Awards:
Founded a company where we teach kids ages 8-12 entrepreneurship + coding
have taught ~50 students
have been featured in some state/city news outlets
donate half of our profits to local library
leukemia and lymphoma society student of the year campaign candidate
havent finished the competition yet, but shooting for 30k earned. its a state/national award
Write a medium blog
working on growing this and getting featured in big publications
100 followers atm
I have a patreon for my writing projects
working on growing this, recently started
Taekwondo black belt
looking into doing some leadership stuff for this once corona ends/dies down
9 years
regional/national writing awards
have one regional award so far, still applying
Tennis
hopefully varsity tennis captain once im in 12th grade
Debate
hopefully captain once im in 11th/12th grade
robotics
kinda just a filler, might quit bc i havent really participated this year, nothing special
piano
2 years, another filler im being forced by my parents to do, nothing special
medicine summer camp
in 11th/12th grade, the summer camp offers research u can do w the state uni (you have to apply for it). hopefully ill get accepted
my friend started a tutoring business and im the “main/star” teacher of it
I think my stats are above average, but maybe not ivy league/t20 level. I think all of my ECs have a ton of potential, but I have to improve upon all of them and make them really good within the next two years of HS if i want to really stand out. i have some pretty good ideas on how to improve them. Can I please have some honest thoughts (ALL criticism appreciated!) My dream school is Brown. Other goals are yale, stanford, and johns hopkins. will my ‘B’ in pre-ap chem really hurt me? Thanks!
Your B will have absolutely 0 affect on your admissions decision. Most people who are admitted to Top 20s and Ivys also have a few Bs in hard classes, including Chemistry. I can assure you, your one B will have no impact on your decision. Keep on this track and you will be a very competitive applicant and will have a great shot at a Top 20 and the ivys.
My advice to you:
Get that ACT way up. Start studying the summer going into your junior year for about an hour 3 or 4 days a week using a prep book or on Kahn Academy. The best thing you can do is take practice tests. The more you take the better you’ll do. Try to do one a week and then spend the rest of your practice sessions reviewing what you go wrong and what you guessed on.
Continue taking the hardest classes at your school (if you can handle it). An A in an honors class will look better than a C in an AP class.
Get good grades to keep that class rank high to. In a class of 701, a class rank of 5 really stands out to an admissions officer versus a class rank of 1/190.
For your ECs - you’re off to a great start. Continue that company and use your free time to grow it, same with the leukemia project. Keep up the blog, start using facebook/instagram to market it if you don’t already. That will give you something to write about. Continue the patreon. Whatever awards you have are great as well. Debate is also great. My advice here would be to drop Piano, tutoring, tennis, and robotics if you don’t enjoy any of it. (Obviously keep doing it if you do). You have lots of extracurriculars which in theory is amazing but colleges would rather see continued interest and growth in a few ECs versus a light dusting throughout a bunch of them.
You will definitely have a fighting chance if you continue on this path, its just important that you don’t burn out.
hey! thanks for your response! should i focus on ACT or SAT (im gonna take both). we dont really have honors classes, just IB, AP, and regular. what do you think my “spike” is? also, may i ask how old you are/what grade you are in? i completely understand if you do not feel comfortable answering, but im wondering bc you sound very knowledgable on college admissions.
i really enjoy tennis, so im probably not gonna quit. i hate robotics. piano is fun, i might just do it to the side. i only spend 45 minutes a week on it since i dont really practice outside of lessons w teacher. about debate, isnt a stereotypical “indian” thing to do? im indian, so idk if it would really help me. i dont love it, but i dont hate it. i might just continue doing it for the skillset (public speaking, analytical thinking, etc). do you think you could please rank my current ECs in order of most significance to least significance?
about grades, how many Bs do you think i could get before it becomes a problem for t20 colleges/ivys? i know that question is very relative, but since im at a semi-competitive public school in Alabama as a south asian, i feel like i cant make as much Bs as others.
thanks again for your help! would you mind if i messaged you with some ideas on how to expand upon my current ECs and plans for the summer?
If you really don’t believe robotics is right for you, then drop it/convince your parents to. Since you are intending a business or medical path, not having robotics as an EC in your application won’t affect much. Besides, I know how much time is spent on robotics, with long after school hours and such. As an avid tennis player like you, I took the decision to drop robotics and free a lot of time for tennis and other activities that I actively enjoyed.
I would say keep doing debate since the skills you learn will help you in business, no matter how stereotypical people say otherwise. If you don’t enjoy it though, then drop it or spend less time on it and focus on another outlet to develop business skills in while enjoying it.
Your B grade for a single class won’t affect much, especially as you take more and more classes, one credit will barely budge your entire GPA/ total credits. lmk if you have other questions, I am a hs senior still but I can try to answer based on my experience and my classmates’ experiences.
Thanks for your response! I wish I started to use this forum earlier, I’ve already learned so much. Yeah now thinking about it, I’m definitely gonna drop robotics. Has nothing to do w my intended major, is a waste of time, and I hate it. Would you mind if I pmed you or talked to you through discord? Thanks again!
I’m a senior this year and have received a few college acceptances already from reach schools (no rejections yet) so I’m using what I’ve learned through that to help you out.
As far as you ECs go it depends on your major but for business:
Coding company for kids
Leukemia project
Blog/Patreon
Debate
Medical summer camp
(Keep in mind all 5 of these are almost equal in my opinion since they are career focused)
Tutoring
robotics
All of your sports/instruments/
The reason robotics is so low is because you don’t enjoy it and your coding knowledge and business provides the same kind of background as robotics. Colleges don’t care about what instrument you play or sport unless its related to your major. It really only serves to show you do stuff that YOU are interested in outside of academics. For background, I did not put any sports or instruments on my application. Your awards are not extracurricular, there is a separate section for them.
As far as how many Bs you can get the answer really is, just don’t. Don’t get Bs. Shoot for an A and if you get a B its not the end of the world. One every semester won’t hurt you because your GPA and class rank will remain high. Feel free to DM me with any questions.
There’s a lot of assumption here, verging on misinfo.
OP, make sure you’re doing enough of your own research into your target colleges, what they say and show about what they value, how they see their communities. For tippy tops, depth and breadth are important.
hey thanks for your response! wdym by misinfo? i also found my college list through school projects (we had to research a bunch of colleges for school and make a list). thanks for your advice though, ill start thinking about depth and breadth!