Help Out a Struggling Rising Junior!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi!
So I just finished my sophomore year, and I do a lot out of school, but my grades aren't all A's. I was wondering if any of you could give me a good idea if I'm striving too high or what I should do to improve to get into any of these schools. I'm stressing out because I feel like I'm slacking and I could be doing so much better and I want to go to a school I would love. I was wondering if any of you guys might be able to guide me and help me out to get into Vanderbilt.
(I'm a MA resident)
I want to major in Bio-medical Engineering.</p>

<p>The schools I was to apply to:
Top choices: Cornell (It'll never happen, but a girl can dream right?) UC Berkeley, Georgia Institute of Tech, UCLA
Others: Purdue Univ, UConn, UMass Amherst, UC San Diego, Univ. of Michigan, NYU, Boston Univ.</p>

<p>I know my 9th grade grades aren't the best, it was mainly because I tore both my MCL and Achilles tendon that winter and spent a lot of time a physical therapy and so my grades dropped. </p>

<p>My Grades:</p>

<p>9th:
Java/ntwking (Reg): B
World Hist (H): A-
Alg II (H): B+
Geometry (H): B
Biology (H): A-
English (H): A-
Drawing&Painting (Reg): A-
Latin 2 (Reg): B</p>

<p>According to my school, my unweighted gpa that year was 3.54 and weighted was 3.84</p>

<p>10th:
CAD&Web Design (Reg): A
European History (AP):B
Pre Calculus (H):B
Chemistry (H):B-
Biology (AP):A-
English (H):A-
Latin 3 (H):B</p>

<p>I don't know what my gpa is this year, but I think it's roughly the same as freshman year (I have no clue why they didn't tell me)</p>

<p>Junior Year course load:</p>

<p>Advanced CAD
AP US Hist
Honors Calculus
Honors Physics
Honors English
AP Studio Art
Honors Latin 4
(AP World History and Environmental Science out of school)</p>

<p>AP Exams I plan to take:
AP Bio: 3
AP Euro: 4
APUSH (jr yr)
AP Art (jr yr)
AP World History (out of school)
AP BC Calc (sr yr)
AP Literature (sr yr)
AP Gov (sr yr)
AP Latin (sr yr)</p>

<p>Test Scores:</p>

<p>I took a practice SAT and got an 1810, but hopefully my whole summer's worth of studying can bring it up to at least a 2000. Originally my scoring was M(600)Rdg(610)Wrtg(600)</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests: Math2 (750)
BioE(690)
I'll be taking the US History and Physics ones too next year :)</p>

<p>EC's (as of now)</p>

<p>Girls Varsity Basketball (2 yrs) (this was my last year on the team)
Latin Club (2009-present), 2nd Vice President (2013-2014), 1st Vice President (2014-2015)
I also have a state leadership role in the state Latin Club but I won't say it exactly for security purposes :)
Drama Crew (2013-present)
ACYOA Youth Organization (2011-present)
I work as a Swim Instructor (2013-present)
I work at an Art Museum (2013-present)
I plan on doing Speech and Debate at school until I graduate starting next year.</p>

<p>Community Service:
65 hours at an Art Museum
I've been a math tutor at school as a sophomore and will continue doing that so hopefully I'll have ~60 hours total by the end of junior year
I've done volunteering at my church and will continue to do so, that'll be about another ~45 hours</p>

<p>Awards:
Magna Cum Laude on the National Latin Exam</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Middle Eastern-white</p>

<p>Potential Essay Topics:
Being an immigrant to the US</p>

<p>PLEASE HELP A FELLOW STUDENT OUT HERE. I FEEL LIKE IM STRIVING TOO HIGH AND I WANT TO BE REALISTIC. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT I NEED TO IMPROVE ON.
I know a lot of my schools might be reaches but that's why I'm asking for your help. I'd really appreciate it if you guys could tell me what schools are strive, match etc. And if you guys could suggest me some schools to look at! Thanks!</p>

2

<p>get your grades up. Honestly, I don’t see the immigrant story being interesting, however, if it has shaped a large part of who you are then by all means, go ahead. Yes Cornell is a reach even with a 2000 SAT score, however, since you are an immigrant , your score may discounted, not disregarded, but discounted. IDK tho. no outstanding ECs/ community service. Maybe UCLA if your grades improve significantly, try the ACT instead of the SAT</p>

3

<p>Get your grades up and practice for the SAT over this Summer. Don’t forget you will tale PSAT in a few months. Currently, your GPA and SAT scores are rather low for most, if not all, the schools on your list particularly for engineering. But don’t give up. Junior year is most important. If you work hard this coming year, not only it will bring up the GPA, it will demonstrate an upward trend. This may help your application at many schools.</p>

4

<p>Are you in state or OOS for the UC’s?</p>

5

<p>Thanks for all the feedback! For @mikey486 , I’m out of state :)</p>

6

<p>The biggest thing that precludes you is your §SAT score right now; think about taking the ACT, I know some people naturally score higher on one over the other. As billcsho said, if you work hard junior year and senior year first semester, you can show upward trend, which colleges favor a lot. Also, stick with your EC’s to show consistency and passion. You might want to consider putting UCSD among your top choices, they have on of the best bioengineering programs in the nation.</p>

7

<p>yep, as stated above, practice practice practice for those SATs this summer. And try the ACT, maybe its better for you?</p>

<p>why did you stop basketball, just wondering? colleges love an athletic varsity student who can juggle schoolwork and sports</p>

<p>plz chance back an anxious rising junior who doesn’t know what else to do to improve:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1670437-ivy-league-and-top-tier-school-chances-rising-junior.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1670437-ivy-league-and-top-tier-school-chances-rising-junior.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Thanks! Yup I really like UCSD, I really want to apply EA for UCSD, UCB and UMich. @brickthelegend I stopped basketball because freshman year I partially tore my MCL and Achilles tendon and so I went back to bball this year but at times my leg would hurt so bad afterwards for days on end and it just doesn’t seem worth it since I won’t be playing in college anyways.</p>

9

<p>chance me while I chance you- <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1670747-improving-chances.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1670747-improving-chances.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;