<p>Hi. I'm really freaking out. I'm a junior in California.</p>
<p>What are my chances of: Purdue (West Lafayette), Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech., Cal Poly SLO, UCSD/SB/Davis/Irvine/LA, Caltech (It's a stretch, I know.)</p>
<p>Possible Majors: Biology or Engineering, probably Bio</p>
<p>GPA (10th & 11th unweighted): 4.00
weighted (so far; still in middle of junior year): 4.44</p>
<p>Courses: all honors classes and AP Bio, AP Calc AB
Senior year I'm planning on taking AP Calc BC and AP Econ/Gov. or AP Physics C</p>
<p>SAT: still awaiting my results. I got a 2100 (math: 730, CR: 680, Writing: 690) on a practice but I think I did worse on the actual test.</p>
<p>Extra: tennis team (4 years)
tutor math at school (10 hours and counting)
volunteered at library during summer (18.5 hours)
want to volunteer at hospital next summer</p>
<p>ALSO, WHAT SHOULD I DO TO IMPROVE MY CHANCES? And what are some good matches for me (preferably in a warm climate)?</p>
<p>Purdue is an extreme safety assuming you applied reasonably early. </p>
<p>Rose hulman is a low/high match again depending on if you applied early enough or not.</p>
<p>dont know the whole cal system, im from the midwest. But you look like a very strong applicant.</p>
<p>Other suggestions(all fairly warm and very possible for you to get in): University of Florida, Georgia Tech, UT-Austin, Clemson, Auburn, Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>I decided that going to school in the Midwest would not be a good idea because I'm from So Cal and the coldest it gets is 40 degrees (and even that's rare).</p>
<p>In easily everywhere except CalTech. If I were you, I'd get some warm cloths and apply to some of the lower tier ivy's like Penn and/or Cornell. Stanford MAYBE.</p>
<p>How many hours? What kind of question is that? You should have known by now that college don't exactly count your hours. </p>
<p>Do you have impressive EC's that show talent and leadership? Did you take the initiative? Can you show passion? Can you be devoted to something?</p>
<p>Then I guess I've been misinformed by my peers. Is there anything you can recommend? I'm a very shy person, so it's hard for me to show leadership and to socialize... you might not realize how hard it is for me. </p>
<p>But I feel that I'm very devoted to the things that I love. I've been playing tennis for 7 years and I practice up to 3 hours a day. I've also painted since I was very young, so I feel I have a creative perception of my surroundings. Plus, I study from the time I get home to the time I go to bed. </p>
<p>I admire the people who can do all those things and more and I don't know how they can handle it. I know that I can't do too much because in the past I've had heart palpitations related to stress.</p>
<p>And also keep in mind that I don't really plan on going to any of the top schools. Ideally, I would go to UCSD or Cal Poly SLO for undergraduate and I'll worry about grad school when the time comes.</p>
<p>Is there anything you recommend I do during the summer? I appreciate your input.</p>
<p>Also, I was curious about something. Right now I'm taking all honors and two APs. For senior year, my school doesn't offer honors English or Social Studies, so I'm taking regular. (The English teacher is amazing, though.) I'll also take honors Physics and AP Calc BC. I was wondering if this would look bad to the colleges (not challenging enough). I've never taken a regular class, but my only other option would be to take APs. That would be too much for me to handle. What do you think?</p>
<p>with your current list, you can probably take regular classes and be ok. if you're shooting for penn/cornell/caltech, take the APs. they're reaches anyway without more ECs. they also require SAT IIs, i think.</p>
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I've never taken a regular class, but my only other option would be to take APs. That would be too much for me to handle. What do you think?
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<p>I think you should go for it. I've heard that an A in a regular class isn't any better than a B in an AP class since colleges prefer that you take AP classes anyways and know that AP classes are more challenging.</p>
<p>Also, you have a 4.0 unweighted G.P.A and a >2000 SAT (almost certainly). Just based on that, I think you'll be able to "handle it." :)</p>
<p>I talked to my history teacher and he said it's not worth it to take AP gov/econ if I have little interest in the subject. Plus, it's two AP tests because for my school microeconomics is one semester and government is another. Also, my coach teaches AP government and he said I should do it if I'm passionate about the subject. Since I'm a math/science person, I don't know if I'd do well.</p>
<p>For English, I have a really amazing teacher and I want to take his double period next year which is regular but it's at an honors level so I'll still be learning. (All of the students in his regular class who have taken the AP exam have gotten 4's and 5's).</p>