<p>I am an African-American female at an urban public highschool (in the highly gifted magnet) in Los Angeles but I am from an upper middle class family. My stats are:</p>
<p>Academics:
-ranked 9/779
-mostly A's with the exception of two B's (in Spanish first semester freshman year and an indepedent study life skills class)
-SAT I
<em>first time: 1340 (680v, 660m)
*second time: 2250 (790m,790v,670w)
-SATII
*Biology: 730
*US History 770
*will take math 2c
-APs
*Spanish 2 (oops)
*US History 5
*Eurpean history 5
*Biology 5
*English Literature 4
*to be taken:
*</em>AP Calculus AB
*<em>AP Economics (will take two AP tests)
*</em>AP Physics
*<em>AP Government (will take two AP tests)
*</em>AP English Composition
-Honors filled the rest of my schedule with the exception of Spanish (not offered in honors) and my PE classes</p>
<p>ECs
-captain of the soccer team 2 years (only freshman on varsity since freshman year)
-Jack and Jill (cultural/service organization)
*member since age 9
*treasurer 2 years
*parlimentarian 1 year
-Science Bowl
*on team 3 years
*captain 2 years
-member California Honor Society
-member California Scholarship Federation
-Mentor 2 years</p>
<p>Summers:
-before 9th grade Traveled through Europe playing with soccer team
-before 10th grade Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth summer program in Maryland
-before 11th grade UC COSMOS summer program at UC Davis
-Before 12th grade
*job as office clerk 2 days a week
*internship at USC Keck School of Medicine assisting with research 3 days a week</p>
<p>Volunteering- 250 hours
-Test Sucess Tutoring underpriveleged youth
-Cooking for homeless
-Ronald McDonald House
-many small projects with Jack and Jill</p>
<p>Awards Received
-national merit commended student
-national acheivement semifinalist(as of now)
-Who's Who Among American High School Students (know it doens't count for much)
-Second All-League Soccer team (2 years)</p>
<p>u have excellent shots at all the ivies...ur a URM with excellent stats and good EC's just make sure u write a good essay, get solid recs and u shud be fine</p>
<p>Not to sound HORRIBLY racist..but you are exactly the kind of ethnic minority a college wants- the kind that is not poor. You are sort of the best of both worlds for the colleges in the sense that you would up their stats (adding an African American student) but they wouldn't have to shell out as much money as they would in the case of a less fortunate student. I think you stand a decent chance at all of them. A good friend of mine who is a middle class African American with similar stats received almost a full ride to Duke, even though his family really didn't need the money.</p>
<p>Apply to some of the lower UC's as an asbsolute back-up. Your scores are so high (esp. if you take out the writing) that I think you will be in at many of your schools. Your 1580 M+V may be close to the highest for African Americans in the country and possibly the highest for an African American female (girls score lower for whatever reason). I can't confirm those figures but the bottom line is...you have a great shot (I'm jealous!) :)</p>
<p>Actually, those of us who are URMs from upper middle class families and good high schools are not a priority to top colleges. Down play the affluence as much as you can.</p>
<p>You have a shot at HYP but your financial aid will be exclusively based on your family's income because those top schools do not offer merit money. If your family income is too high to qualify for aid there, you may want to apply for merit scholarship at Emory or other schools just a step down. I think it is automatic at Duke. Just check out the early deadlines for these merit applications. For instance, to be considered at Emory for Merit Aid, you have to apply early in November, as early as you would ED or EA at other schools. The info is on their website. So, check it out and GOOD LUCK. These are all wonderful schools. Each has a culture of its own, so I recommend that you go visit!</p>
<p>If your family earns say 100k a year you should still expect a significant financial aid contribution from HYP. The bottom line is this: even if your family is earning 100k a year; 40k a year on college is still very expensive. HYP are not going to expect your family to spend 40-50% of yearly income on college. As a result, I wouldn't worry about finaid if I were you as they'll cover that. </p>
<p>"Actually, those of us who are URMs from upper middle class families and good high schools are not a priority to top colleges. Down play the affluence as much as you can."</p>
<p>This is one of the biggest misconceptions on the CC boards. This is just plain false on all counts. The reality is that there are so few URM's around with ivy-calibre stats that HYP are not going to have the luxury of picking and choosing between them.</p>
<p>There's no reason to downplay or deemphasize your affluence SEWcurious, because the bottom line is that it doesn't really matter. Now if you were from a less well-to-do family then you might want to emphasize that since all colleges love the rags-to-riches story. As it currently stands though, income is not going to be a factor in your admission chances.</p>