<p>I have very good SAT II scores and am working on getting bettter at SAT I.
I'll tell you my sat II scores anyway and maybe you can chance me as well looking at EC
SAT Bio (E) - 780 (beginning of sophomore year. Took AP in junior year and got 5)
SAT chem - 780 (beginning of junior year. will take AP in senior year)
SAT math IIC - 800 (end of junior year)</p>
<p>EC...</p>
<p>some common ones:
Academic decathlon (north jersey regional) 1st, 3rd in math (sophomore and freshman year respectively)</p>
<p>3rd place microbiology award in North jersey regional science fair (very competitive)</p>
<p>1st place Chem olympic. catergory-teaching middle school student chemistry (not so much academic but more of community service i guess?)</p>
<p>regional math team... no awards given. purely for the enjoyment of math...lol</p>
<pre><code>FIRST Robotics (9th, 10th) - a lot of team awards
developing on the 1st place chem olympic, I set up afterschool tutoring activity for middle school students end of freshman year. I found it and been running it since. High school students help out middle school students in school & prep for high school.
worked with Rutgers University regarding molecular genetics program (Waksman Student Scholars Program. Somewhat selective regional program). Expertise in molecular genetics and published my DNA and protein sequences to National Center for BIotech information (NCBI)
worked with Penn state Univ biochem department regarding a project also on molecular biology
took classes at Brown univ regarding research in molecular biology
</code></pre>
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<p>i have more but i can't think of it now. I think the best and unique one is getting published to NCBI. Is that good enough to get into top notch colleges?</p>
<p>im top 5% of class (no ranks given) exact gpa unknown (meeting school tomorrow)
expecting to get min 2100 SAT I</p>
<p>hmm, I don’t agree with static. acadec is minor like scioly, regional science fair is crap next to intel and isef, no clue what you’re talking about for “chem olympic”, doesn’t sound like usacho. All your awards are in minor contests at regional levels, which is fairly weak. I would rank recognition in MAJOR contests (usa<em>o, i</em>o, intel, etc) as
<p>Your ECs are great. but sometimes admission depends on your background and where you’re from, a kid who is from a very well off family with lots of opportunities waiting for him is expected to do better/more than a kid from a very poor family and a less privileged background.<br>
That being said, if you’re doing ECs just for admission’s sakes (which you may not be) -DON’T. Once the admission process is over, your ECs will seem meaningless and thats not what ECs are for. Admission is important but its not everything.</p>
<p>I did Waksman my senior year and, personally, thought it was something of a joke. Was this the summer program or the during-the-year one? I wouldn’t really call either selective at all, though. Isn’t it just that 2 people from your school are nominated by teachers? Other than that, there’s no selection process.</p>
<p>im not doing these ECs just to impress adcoms
i want to be a researcher (in either universities or private companies) in molecular bio so all the ECs are prep to my career</p>
<p>Is a regional science fair considered weak? My county science fair feeds directly to internationals, and winning is fairly impossible seeing as the last girl who won got 2nd at Isef. I personally see your stats as very impressive. Clearly not everyone (or almost anyone) who gets into MIT won the international science fair.</p>
<p>Obviously, getting to internationals is better, but regionals are not <em>weak</em>.</p>
<p>(I had a couple of awards from regional science fairs.)</p>
<p>OP, your ECs look excellent to me. Now, having excellent ECs is no guarantee of anything, but it certainly helps. I suspect you’ll be in good shape for top-tier college admissions.</p>
<p>But those ECs show that you have a true passion for science especially for biology. This what colleges like to see in a person’s ECs. In your essay writing something about your passion along with your ECs to prove it will really help your chances.</p>
<p>Not every gifted student has the opportunity to participate in the “MAJOR” competitions. Some school districts have never heard of them. There is a world outside of east and west coast private and college prep high schools where kids still dream of being award-winning physicists and mathematicians and engineers.</p>
<p>IMO, no need to call another student’s activities “weak” if he or she is pursuing an interest in the best way possible in his school or community.</p>
<p>To be honest, your ECs are OKAY, but not really strong! However, since your SATs and SAT 2 are quite high, I think you have a good shot IF you can show your PASSION on your essay. Your ECs don’t reflect really much on what you’re passionate about since the number of things you did don’t STICK to an unique things AND you don’t have any “unusual” thing. Except your paper gets published is significant!! Definitely stress on that one in your app because within 1% of applicants, even international students, will have stuff published on National Journals(yes, I claim that 1%).</p>
<p>You have interesting ECs… but read the other CC posts to get a level set. There really is no profile that makes admission likely. There are lots of very talented students applying to a very few spots at top schools. In other words, use this year to explore a variety of options.</p>