"I've made a huge mistake..."

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>...any Arrested Development fans here??</p>

<p>Personal Info:
Senior at large PA school that usually sends maybe 1-3 to top schools (usually Penn) every year
White male
Hoping to major in bio (perhaps a bio/marketing double major)</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA: 4.0 UW, 102.71 W (not sure how that converts onto 4.0)
Rank: 1/488
Courseload: most difficult available, taken every AP of the 7 my school offers and all other classes are honors throughout all 4 years
SAT I: 760CR 710M 730W, 2200 total
SAT II: 740 US History, 690 Math I
APs: 5 US History, 4 Bio, 3 Chem (taking 4, possibly 5 more tests at the end of this year)</p>

<p>ECs:
--greatly involved in my church for my whole life and have racked up 1000s of volunteer hours in all sorts of activities--altar server, usher, volunteering at bible school, setting up for the church picnic, anything possible really--I have a great rec from my priest
--United States Senate page for Sen. Arlen Specter in summer 2007...I'm most proud of this, seeing as I applied and got accepted on my own merits and without connections
--internship at the World Aerobic/Hip Hop Championships in Los Angeles for three weeks two summers in a row (Hip Hop Championships will be featured on upcoming NBC reality series World Moves!)
--chosen as "Scholar of the Year" from my school, where each district in the area picks the most well-rounded student for a newspaper piece and radio interview
--Scholastic bowl team (12); my school does things backwards and ONLY chooses seniors...we won states and went to nationals last year, hoping to live up to that!
--National Merit Commended Scholar
--AP Scholar
--National Honor Society
--Spanish club (9,10,11,12)
--school golf team (10,11); nothing special here, just something I enjoy
--school bowling team (9,10,12); won most improved in the scholastic league in 10th
--won photography contest in our decently large local newspaper (100,000+ circulation)
--pretty extensive world traveler...don't know if this really counts as an EC, but it did help to shape my world outlook and thus my essay, which I think came out great!</p>

<p>Work experience:
--job as dietary aide at local hospital from Oct 2006-August 2007, about 15 hrs/wk
--job as dietary aide at nursing home from August 2007-present, about 10 hrs/wk</p>

<p>Recs are glowing!
I wrote my essays. I think they're good. Most others do as well...so we'll see!</p>

<p>School List:
Stanford SCEA
Duke
Pepperdine
William and Mary (OOS)
Davidson
Pomona
Rice
Vanderbilt
UNC-Chapel Hill (OOS)</p>

<p>Thank you for checking this out!</p>

2

<p>hey what hs you from if you dont mind me asking.</p>

<p>if too personal, what county?</p>

3

<p>Outstanding Grades/ranks. Stellar Sat's + II's. Stellar Ec's.</p>

<p>In at;</p>

<p>Duke
Pepperdine
William and Mary
Davidson
Pomona
Rice
Vanderbilt
UNC - Chaper Hill</p>

<p>And for standford, I do not know, but i think you have a more than decent chance of getting in than 85% of this board.</p>

4

<p>Stanford likes to see passion for something. I see a great application but no real drive for anything in particular. Not sure about the rest but good luck!</p>

5

<p>NO TOUCHING!</p>

<p>what a tv show that was</p>

6

<p>Stanford is the only school I see that would be the tough one, but the others you have good shots at.</p>

7

<p>fyi, have a look at some of vandy's merit programs. you might be able to squeeze out some money.</p>

8

<p>Borderline at Stanford
Borderline at Pomona (math scores are relatively low compared to Pomona's average of 730)</p>

<p>In everyplace else--and I think you'd be perfect for Duke in particular. They should love your profile as listed here.</p>

9

<p>Agree completely with Calcruzer about Stanford, Pomona, and Duke. You seem like a future Duke alum...</p>

10

<p>Thanks for the responses, everyone! Any positives about Duke are greatly encouraging, since it's probably my #1 school right now.</p>

<p>As for Stanford, I realize it's a crapshoot (as it is for everyone) because I don't have a really "focused" EC list. But I tried to address this in my intellectual vitality/why Stanford essays, mainly saying how I have a broad range of interests and tried to foster them. Paraphrasing everything, I basically said that I didn't want to limit myself during my extracurricular experiences, but instead used everything at my disposal to get a sense of the world. Whether Stanford admissions will buy that as an adequate excuse for a perceived lack of an obvious passion, your guess is as good as mine!</p>

<p>Anyone else want to throw something out there?</p>

11

<p>Quick bump?</p>

12

<p>I just blue myself.</p>

<p>Arrested Development fan at Duke? Someone with a sense of humour at Duke? (I live in North Carolina [Charlotte] and have mostly been exposed to obnoxious upper-middle class white Dukies that seem to take themselves too seriously.)</p>

13

<p>Well, there (clearly) aren't many Arrested Development fans out there unfortunately, but I really don't think the people at Duke are all that bad. I have a couple of friends who go there--and when I visited only had positive experiences!</p>

<p>Now UVA was another story...</p>

14

<p>One last attempt to save this.</p>