Holy ****, it's almost over!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>It's all done. Every test score is in, most of the applications are off, and there is absolutely nothing left for me to do but stew in my own juices. Speak comfort to me, friends.</p>

<p>I've had input before, but for the UCs I've heard little but "Well, I dunno about OOS..." so some input there would be nice. And apparently no one on CC knows anything about the UWashington Honors program.</p>

<p>Oregon (so out of state for UCs)
White Male, Senior
Suburban Public School</p>

<p>UC GPA: 4.23
UW GPA: 3.93
W GPA: 4.11</p>

<p>Weighted Class Rank 18/509, Top 4% </p>

<p>I took 4 full-year IB classes last year and am now taking 5. We have no AP or Honors courses.</p>

<p>SAT I: 760 CR 760 M 640 W 2160 Composite
SAT II Math 2: 780
SAT II Chem: 750
ACT: 34</p>

<p>Academic Honors:</p>

<p>National Merit Semi-Finalist (shoo-in finalist)
Outstanding Junior Math Student </p>

<p>E.C.s (look at the time commitment here...no typos...)</p>

<p>Marching Band (9-12) - 20hrs/week, 12/weeks/yr</p>

<p>Drum and Bugle Corps (11-12), 600-700 hours a year, school year and summer. Very hard to stick in boxes.</p>

<p>Winter Percussion (10-12), 20 hrs/week, 16 weeks/year</p>

<p>Ultimate Frisbee Team (10-12), 4 hrs/week, 36 weeks/year</p>

<p>Electric Band (10-12), 5 hrs/week, 10 weeks/year</p>

<p>Destination Imagination Improv Team (4-12), State Champions 2005, 2006, 2007
Private Music Lessons (Clarinet, Saxophone) (10-12)
Jazz Band (11-12)
Wind Ensemble (10-12)</p>

<p>Leadership Roles:</p>

<p>Head Drum Major for Marching Band (11-12)
Head Drum Major for Div II/III Finalist Drum and Bugle Corps (11-12)
Co-Founder, Captain for Ultimate Frisbee Team</p>

<p>I will probably enter a Business school or study Economics. I have absolutely no idea what I want in a career and am not devoted to any one major. I do plan to join a marching band if the school has one, and find myself pulled to USC for this reason...</p>

<p>I think I've refined my list now... chances at:</p>

<p>UCB
UCLA
USC
University of Washington Honors
Stanford
Reed College
Yale</p>

<p>I have visited UW, UCLA, USC, Reed, and Stanford... I'm not sure how much I like the USC environment... I think realistically UCB looks best and most reasonable right now, if I can get it, but we'll see. I am applying for financial aid, but we are upper middle class and will probably receive little.</p>

<p>Please, please, please help me out.</p>

2

<p>After your four years of college are over, it won't matter so much what kind of environment your had, as long as you liked it okay (but of the schools you name, USC's environment is the pits). Figure out where your heart is; if it's marching band, then go for it. USC and Stanford are famous for marching bands; USC for business. If you feel more academically inclined, then lean toward Reed or Yale. But relax for a while until decisions come in.</p>

3

<p>USC is my dream school still.</p>

<p>Looks like you do have the correct stats and motives for USC.</p>

4

<p>nice stats man</p>

5

<p>this is a quote from an old chance thread i made about the honors program at uw. it might be helpful for you:</p>

<p>


</p>

6

<p>Interesting.</p>

7

<p>Yay oregon! Westview for me. Your stats are really good. I know many kids with stats like yours or even lower who got into uc's. Write good essays and distinguish yourself.</p>

8

<p>Sunset HS here... I have some friends at Westview.</p>

9

<p>Ah sunset. Our rivals. I know some people at sunset too. Mainly juniors though, since i am also a junior.</p>

10

<p>You'll do fine, the ACT score is real solid.</p>

<p>Off-topic a little, but I keep noticing people on this forum with CR scores 750+, and W scores <700. What is the deal with that part of the test? It seems to score pretty rough. I got a 700 at the 96th or 97th (or something around there) percentile with 3 wrong (800R was 99th percentile), while my math 20 points lower was like the 90th percentile.</p>

11

<p>The writing score was the worst part of my ACT too (although I think it was a 32, not so low).</p>

<p>I don't know what it is. I've always considered writing my strongest trait in school. Go figure.</p>

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<p>It's not just you (or me), if you go through all the chance threads you'll see it's pretty common for people to have super high CR scores and "eh" W scores (but still at an alright percentile). It just seems to be curved so much different than math and CR which throws me off for some reason. I guess I understand now why so many schools say they don't consider the writing score.</p>

13

<p>Good GPA, great scores, good ECs, somewhat weak honors/awards. Since you're OOS, Berkeley is probably a reach, but you do have a good shot; you have a better chance at UCLA.</p>

14

<p>bump
..........</p>

15

<p>Since the Writing section is relatively new, I'm assuming that the SAT Prep courses everyone goes to does not go over writing in much detail.</p>

<p>On another note, I had 690 Reading and 740 Writing. It just goes to show that it's not pretty common. :)</p>