I'm a shoe in for the Ivy League. :D

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>-------> JUST KIDDING. DON'T BEAT MY SELF ESTEEM INTO THE GROUND<----------</p>

<p>It's definitely not guaranteed that I'll get into a single Ivy. Annndd my top choices are currently Rice or Northwestern.</p>

<p>But now that you're here... Chance me? ;)</p>

<p>By the way, I'm just a junior now, but I need some constructive criticism on how to strengthen my application.</p>

<p>[li] SAT I (breakdown): CR: 650 M: 650 W: 540 <--- Took in 7th grade, so not exactly an accurate representation</p>[/li]
<p>[li] ACT: 34 R:36, Math:32 English: 35 Science: 34 <--- Took in 8th grade, and haven't taken since, but I can only assume(hope?) that it will go up when I take it in the spring.</p>[/li]
<p>[li] SAT II: World History: 800, Planning on taking Chem and US History this year</p>[/li]
<p>[li] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0 currently (hopefully it stays that way), School doesn't weight</p>[/li]
<p>[li] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School does not rank.</p>[/li]
<p>[li] AP (place score in parenthesis): World History: 5 , Calc AB: 5 , Currently taking Chem, US history, and Calc BC. Should have 9 or 10 AP's total when Senior year rolls around.</p>[/li]
<p>[li] IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A</p>[/li]
<p>[li] Senior Year Course Load: [/li]Junior Year (current schedule): British Literature, Science Research Honors Seminar, Symphonic Wind Ensemble (band), APUSH, Calc BC, AP Chem, Online French III course</p>

<p>Senior year (probably): AP Bio, Calc III/ Differential Eq at the University, AP French, Symphonic Wind Ensemble, AP English Lit, Computational Physics or AP Government</p>

<p>[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Hoping for Intel or Siemens from my research project[/li]Most Likely NMSF, unless I do worse than last year (knock on wood)</p>

<p>Other than that, I guess my 8th grade awards:</p>

<p>Northwestern Midwest Academic Talent Search: 1st place ACT Reading (36), 2nd place ACT Composite (34). </p>

<p>3rd highest score in the Midwest for ACT Composite, if I'm not mistaken? I was tied with some other guy for 2nd.</p>

<p>[li] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Research (7.5 hours a week, every week), Varsity Football( 40 hours a week in the Summer, 15 hours a week during the School year), Quiz Bowl (Captain), Marching Band (15 hours/week in summer, 3 hours/week during the school year, Clarinet Section Leader), Mentoring at risk kids, Wikipedia Editor (4500 or so edits, 5 articles I wrote featured on main page under DYK section, hopefully will be an Administrator by the time I'm a senior), JV Track- 2 years, Student Council (elected 9th Grade Representative), Relay for Life (Captain)</p>[/li]
<p>[li] Job/Work Experience: Research?</p>[/li]
<p>[li] Volunteer/Community service: Mentoring at risk kids, National Honor Society activities - Food drive, etc.</p>[/li]
<p>[li] Summer Activities: Research. A lot of research. Last summer, went to Northwestern's CTD program to learn Chemistry. Football, marching band as well. </p>[/li]
<p>[li] Awards: State/Local awards for Quizbowl[/li]State/Local awards for Solo and Ensemble (clarinet)
Mid Michigan Youth Symphony- Certificate of Merit</p>

<p>[<em>] School Type: Public, ~1400 kids, According to Newsweek it's in the Top 10 for my state (Michigan)
[</em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Income Bracket: 200,000+ I think
[li] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): uhh...only thing that makes me stand out is my 8th grade ACT score hahah. But other than that, nope.</p>[/li]
<p>Colleges I'm interested in:</p>

<p>Rice
Northwestern- Maybe HPME
UMich(instate)
Michigan State University(instate)
Penn- LSM
Brown-Maybe PLME
Yale
Princeton
JHU
University of Chicago</p>

<p>Things I see as weak points in my app:</p>

<p>Leadership
Community service
Lack of medical/business EC's if I want to apply to PLME/HPME/LSM
Not any national awards
Not involved in a ton of clubs.
Not well rounded enough?</p>

<p>Chance me, criticize me, but please don't flame me too hard :]</p>

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<p>ayyy whaddup fellow MATS ACT reading winner (36 in 8th grade too!) we probably shared the stage at pick-staiger!
now for your academics. your grades are excellent, and you have a great shot at a really high standardized test score–don’t be surprised if you have a 2380+ SAT with those 8th grade scores. your ECs are interesting, but not remarkable. if you think you could play football at the FCS level–Ivy League–definitely contact a coach with some videos/stats ready. your grades and scores would make it easy for them to get you in.</p>

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<p>Whoa, I’ve never run into a fellow MATS honoree! That’s a pleasant surprise. I’ve always wondered where all of those bright minds went and were doing now. Haha, and no, I don’t think that I really want to play at the next level, nor do I have the talent to do so. Yeah, my extracurriculars and leadership are definitely my weaknesses. I’m hoping for an excellent ACT score, I like its style better than the SAT.</p>

<p>Now, your application is extremely impressive. Are you class of '12 or '11? I hope I’m not competing against you :]</p>

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<p>we can’t chance until you retake those tests</p>

<p>you look like you have a good shot though</p>

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<p>Well, for the sake of chances let’s say that I’m expecting a 34+ , optimistically, a 36.</p>

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<p>Chances/Constructive Criticism on stuff I need to work on? Anyone?</p>

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<p>It’s shoo-in.</p>

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<p><em>Sigh</em> Yes. Yes, I suppose it is. -_-</p>

<p>So, other than my spelling skills, what do I need to work on?</p>

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<p>You think “Asian” is URM? Boy, do you need a reality check. . .</p>

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<p>just out of curiosity, why haven’t you taken the SAT/ACT since middle school? Redeem yourself soon! you’re kinda running out of time. senior year will come quick.</p>

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<p>Wait, where did I say that asians were an URM? If I did, I certainly didn’t mean it.</p>

<p>Well, my school offers a free ACT this spring, so I didn’t really see the point of taking the ACT until then. If all goes according to plan, the score from that test should be fine to submit. Are there not many ACT test taking dates in the summer and fall or something? I figured if it came down to it, I could just retake it before my senior year.</p>

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<p>I think kellybkk misread. I’m kinda surprised you didn’t remove the parenthesis and the examples in them when you posted. It really turns your post into a wall of text lacking clear organization…something an 8th grade 34 ACT should know better not to do…
Just kidding, I’m jealous of your hook.</p>

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<p>Yeah I’m not sure it’s even a hook, seeing as I don’t know if I can even put it on my app, because I did it in 8th grade. Does anyone know if colleges will get irritated if I put my 8th grade stuff in the box they give you for extra info? I don’t know how strict they get about only including 9-12th stuff, I feel like they just did that so they don’t get a bunch of pretty much meaningless middle school awards?</p>

<p>Haha, yeah, and organization isn’t my strong point…I’ll fix that later if I get the chance.</p>

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<p>Just go score your 36/2400. I think it would be slightly conceited to force that information onto your app if you don’t find a place to put it.</p>

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<p>On the common application, in the awards section, the only options you can bubble for when you received an award are (9, 10, 11, 12, Post-Graduate).</p>

<p>Therefore I don’t think any of your pre-high school awards will matter.</p>

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<p>Well, I’m not trying to be conceited, I’m just trying to stand out, like everyone else applying to selective is. I haven’t won any major awards, my grades and ACT/SAT scores will be a dime a dozen, so my 8th grade awards are the only things that can make me catch an adcom’s eye. If this has come across as arrogant, I sincerely apologize, but I just haven’t won any more significant or unique awards.</p>

<p>Yeah Nosike, that’s what I thought at first, but I think that since only a minority of even high caliber Ivy League applicants can claim similar awards, I feel like it’s significant to put in under the “additional qualifications” section. In my opinion, a strict cut off at 9th grade for awards and achievements would be a rather silly thing, because students don’t just start over with a clean slate as a person once they get into high school. Colleges are get a person with an entire lifetime’s worth of experiences and achievements, I don’t see why they would refuse to look at earlier qualifications.</p>

<p>Haha, but in the end, if they look at it as an additional qualification, great, if they ignore it, it can’t hurt me.</p>

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<p>So does anyone want to give me any input about the schools that I’ve picked? I don’t think I put dartmouth on my list, but I’ve looked into it, and it sounds perfect and exactly where I want to go. That being said, I’ve still got a lonnng time to decide. So chances for Dartmouth ED as well?</p>

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<p>Anyy chances/critique?</p>

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<p>A lot of looking, not a lot of chancing. Anyone?</p>

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<p>bump…</p>