<p>HELLO THERE.
Well, as you can see, Im hopelessly new at all of this, but utterly dedicated to the defeat of my prior mediocrity. </p>
<p>If you find introductions tedious, just scroll down.</p>
<p>Im a junior. For my first year and a half of high school, I had myself convinced I was going to be a guitar wielding goddess and spend my life on smelly buses and in the boiling summer heat on Warped Tour. Granted, when I realized that I couldnt actually play guitar and I couldnt pull off emo hair, I decided college merited another look. My GPA had suffered a bit, and my bangs were fried from excessive bleaching and dyeing, but I was otherwise intact. And here I am, a year later, posting on a board full of obsessive applicants. Does anyone else sense the irony?</p>
<p>I realize its hard to chance someone with a little less than a year left before application time, so Im not going to necessarily ask you to chance me.</p>
<p>Instead, offer me some ways, in your infinite wisdom, that I can improve my resume and scores. Coming from an area with not that many intelligent students (or for that matter, teachers) and not that many opportunities, I often dont hear about national contests or competitions I can throw my hat into the ring on. And I cant necessarily afford to go to Uganda and nurse emaciated children back to heath, or whatever it is you folks do. And Im hopeless at anything STEM related, which appears to be ninety percent of the extracurricular activities of the posters on this site.</p>
<p>So- whats a girl to do?</p>
<hr>
<p>Objective:</p>
<ul>
<li>PSAT: 224 (80 CR/ 64 M/ 80 W) Likely National Merit Semifinalist? </li>
<li>SAT I: 2290 (800 CR/ 690 M/ 800 W) Planning on retaking and shooting for at least a 2310.</li>
<li>ACT: 32 (36 E/ 36 R/ 27 M/ 30 S) Ditto. Shooting for a 33.</li>
<li>SAT II: US History (760); Planning on taking World History and Literature</li>
<li>Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.88 (likely 3.92 at the end of the year)</li>
<li>Weighted GPA (out of 4.0): School doesn't weight GPAs</li>
<li>Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School doesn't rank officially until mid-senior year, but by GPA alone, 12-10/250 (top 5%-ish). Once ACT and strength of schedule are added in, I'll go up to Valedictorian.</li>
<li>AP (place score in parenthesis): AP English Language (self-studied; 5), AP US History (5), self-studying and taking tests on AP Euro, AP Art History, and AP English Lit and Comp; taking AP Chemistry in the spring (likely a 3 or 4)</li>
<li>Junior Year Course Load: Pre-Calc H, AP English Language, AP Chemistry, French III H, NJROTC, Advanced Art, Duel Enrollment Sociology, Duel Enrollment Speech, AP Euro (virtual high school class)</li>
<li>Senior Year Course Load (likely): AP Calculus, Duel Enrollment English (no senior AP English offered), AP Biology (real class) OR AP Physics (self-studied), AP US Government/AP Macroeconomics (virtual high school), French IV H, Duel Enrollment Psychology (no AP offered)</li>
<li>Major Awards:Local/regional writing contests; numerous NJROTC academic medals, awards, and honors at the regional and national level; National AP Scholar; regional 4-H public speaking awards; All State Chorus; picked to participate in the Tennessee SCOPE conference (Student Congress on Policies In Education)</li>
</ul>
<p>A NOTE ABOUT APS: I've taken all the ones my school offers, plus some, and aced them all so far.</p>
<p>Subjective:</p>
<ul>
<li>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
NJROTC (Academic team captain, officer, and awarded numerous medals and honors),
City Council Member (Im a full member who got in on a bit of an age loophole, and is technically unelected),
Student Government Association (Vice president of junior class),
NHS (Vice President),
Russian Club (President),
Member of competitive show choir (participated in competitions in New York City, Atlanta, Charleston, and Basel, Switzerland),
Sings in church, school, and community choirs
Varsity Tennis
Fashion blogger and assistant editor of an online zine (not sure if this even counts as an extracurricular, but what the hell!)</li>
<li>Job/Work Experience:
Intern with the Center For the Study of War and Society at the state flagship university;
Youth director of the Community Recreation Commission (glorified babysitting with civic responsibility)</li>
<li>Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer with the Center for the Study of War and Society (interviews veterans, helps in writing grant proposals and keeping things running smoothly, transcribes and archives interviews); coordinator of Toys for Tots Christmas gift drive for my NJROTC unit;</li>
<li>Summer Activities
Duke TIP Summer Studies,
NJROTC High Adventure Boot Camp,
Volunteering at the University of Tennessee,
Accepted for 2011 Governors School for the Humanities,
Applying to (and possibly, hopefully attending) TASP</li>
<li>Essays: Probably excellent. Ive won many writing contests, and as long as I can avoid cliché writing topics, I will be fine. And (going by my TASP essays) I dont think clichés are going to be much of a problem. xD</li>
<li>Teacher Recommendation: My APUSH teacher, who considers me one of the most intelligent students he's ever had, etc, and who really respects and cares about me. A very intelligent fellow who can write like nobody's business and who was formerly a professor at West Point.</li>
<li>Counselor Rec: Very impressed by me, and likely to be extremely positive.</li>
<li>Additional Rec: Director of X department at the state flagship university, who happens to be a U Chicago and U Penn alumni</li>
</ul>
<p>Other</p>
<ul>
<li>State (if domestic applicant): Tennessee</li>
<li>School Type: Rural public school; my school is truly terrible, though decent for the area. Most of our students are on free or reduced fees/lunch, and we have a <60% graduation rate. About 40% of graduates go to college, and most of them to state universities or community colleges. In thirty years of existence, one graduate has gone to Duke, one to Emory, and ten or so to Vanderbilt. No one has ever gone to an Ivy.</li>
<li>Ethnicity: Caucasian</li>
<li>Gender: Female</li>
<li>Income Bracket: Upper-middle</li>
</ul>
<h2>* Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Perhaps an underrepresented area? I'm from rural, impoverished Appalachia, and I live on a farm. If theyre just looking at the demographics of the area, it would certainly seem like they need someone like me there at their fine institution! xD My family is pretty well off, but I suppose I can work the gimmick if it would help...</h2>
<p>Im planning at this point to apply to:</p>
<p>**University of Chicago <a href="my%20first%20choice,%20and%20one%20true%20love!">/B</a>
Yale
Princeton
Duke
University of Pennsylvania
College of William & Mary
Northwestern University
Emory University
UNC Chapel Hill
University of Virginia
Rice University</p>
<p>University of Alabama and University of Georgia are my safeties.</p>
<p>Intended major = Russian studies, Russian Language & Literature, or Slavic Languages & Literature
Intended minor = Sociology</p>
<p>Anywhere else that merits a look? What should I do as a step in the right direction to these places?</p>