Junior (Class of '09) Going to Apply this Fall

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I should be studying for AP US right now but anyways here it goes.</p>

<p>I am Indian (this plays a part later on) and I attend a public school in California (a renowned school near Monta Vista/ Palo Alto). My father went to MIT so I have some pressure to go there but I would rather stay here in California. I am very strong in Math and Sciences but I have a lot of interest in International Relations and Economics; my dream as of now is to be a part of the United Nations! :)</p>

<p>I am basically looking at the following schools in order of preference (not necessarily difficulty/selectivity):</p>

<p>Stanford
MIT
Harvard
Princeton
London School of Economics
Yale
Columbia
University of Chicago
(UC Berkeley)
(UC LA)</p>

<p>now for the "stats":</p>

<p>PSAT: 205
I got owned but somehow I still got National Merit, cutoff was 200 so not too proud about it.</p>

<p>SAT: 2160 / 1440 W: 720 R: 640 M: 800
SAT: 2300 / 1510 W: 790 R: 710 M: 800</p>

<p>SAT II:
Chemistry (June 07): 770
Math II C (June 07): 800
Chinese w/ listening (Nov 07): 690 -> 10th percentile :)</p>

<p>Biology E (June 08): TBA
US History (June 08): TBA
Chinese w/ Listening (Nov 08): TBA [aiming for 750+]</p>

<p>AP:
US History: TBA
Biology: TBA
Physics B: TBA
Calculus BC: TBA</p>

<p>GPA (including freshman year): 4.48
GPA (without freshman year): 4.73
GPA (unweighted): 3.95</p>

<p>Honors classes I have taken:
Algebra 2 Honors
Chemistry Honors
Trigonometry/ Precalculus Honors (rather than alg 2/ trig)</p>

<p>Current Schedule:
Biology AP
Calculus BC AP
US History AP
Physics B AP
Chinese 4 Honors
Tutor for ELD (english language development) class
English 11 Honors</p>

<p>Next years:
Econ/Gov (taking it over summer at community college)
Mulitvariable Calculus / Physics C: EM/M
Chemistry AP
European History AP
Statistics AP
Chinese 6 AP (Lang)
English Language AP</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
President of Interact -> Area Rep, District Officer
-raised 8K from our school to build a school in ghana this year
- hopefully going to go to Ghana to help build the school this summer!!!
President of Model United Nations
-hosted a conference at my school in addition to attending Stanford & Berkeley MUN
President of Mandarin Club
-organizing a trip to go the China next year with some other schools
Junior Varsity Tennis :/
-Team Captain
WASC Student Representative
- the most useless organization I have ever been in
ASB School Site Council
Tutor Outside of school for free and pay (I prefer free though)
Link Crew Commissioner
-organized the entire freshman initiation/orientation
Safety and Improvemnt Commissioner
- use 200K to rebuild/improve beauty of our campus
Head Traffic Commissioner
-regulate the traffic every day, pretty fun actually :)
learning Arabic, Farsi, and Swahili on my own
know how to speak Hindi from birth
I can write/read Simplified and Traditional Chinese (traditional looks better though :P)
Last summer I spent a few weeks in Chile and lived with a host family while helping them renovate their home.</p>

<p>Hobbies:
I love playing piano but I haven't won any awards or anything like that but I have played in a concert for an Indian band. (yeee!)</p>

<pre><code>I love drawing, which had an influence on my decision to learn Chinese and Arabic.

I have more interest in the politics of other nations than in that of the U.S. (which leads into my whole UN thing)
</code></pre>

<p>In my opinion my main weaknesses are that I have no awards and maybe I have more weaknesses. I am not too stressed about going into college but I would definitely prefer going to a private school. :)</p>

2

<p>You have an impressive profile. No need to be worried</p>

3

<p>Yeah, you're pretty impressive. I was going to say MIT is a reach, but then I saw that you have a legacy, so you're fine.</p>

4

<p>wow thanks for the encouragement... If you read this, please "chance" me!!</p>

<p>I myself have no idea where I stand but I believe in myself.. Also, could you guys please give me suggestions for my essays (like topics)?</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

5

<p>you do have a very impressive profile, and i would say you have a good chance at any of those schools. However, make sure to balance those out with safeties. there was a girl at my school last year who was similar to you with a 4.0uw GPA and 35 on ACT. she got 7 rejections (top schools) in one day. Just remember that nothing is certain, and you should plan to apply to other schools as well.</p>

6

<p>yes definitely.. thank you for the advice!</p>

<p>I will probably apply to UC SD (my dad taught there) , and UCSC</p>

7

<p>you do have a nice profile there... but I'm actually going to chance.</p>

<p>@sak: MIT doesn't really consider legacy at all, from what I've seen.</p>

<p>Stanford - High Match/>>Low Reach<< (they like to see direction in ec's more)
MIT - Reach
Harvard - Reach
Princeton - Reach
London School of Economics - not sure...
Yale - Reach
Columbia - High Match
University of Chicago - Match
(UC Berkeley) - Match
(UC LA) - Low Match</p>

<p>IMO (I could be wrong)
good luck in your endeavours!</p>

8

<p>wow you are talking **** about me, when the onlything you have over me is your gpa, I have crap like Link Crew, but its called SMAC at my school, I am executive of that, I am the district Treasurer of FBLA, I am the City representitive of Leadership Initiatives, so please, the point is, the half of the things you mentioned are useless. I don't see anything you have to brag about either</p>

9

<p>Let's be nice!</p>

10

<p>I didn't say i have more than you.. I have nothing compared to you, but the difference is that I spend a considerable amount of time on fewer things</p>

<p>also, last time i checked, unless you have awards and national/state recognition for what you have done, you need a benchmark GPA and SAT score for some time of consideration.. I could be totally wrong about this though..</p>

11

<p>LSE and other English schools are highly dependent upon AP or IB scores, because those are the closest equivalents to the A-Levels. If you score 5s on the majority of your AP exams, you stand a chance.</p>

12

<p>that seems good for me except i might have gotten a 4 on US History.. today didn't go as well as i had planned :/</p>

13

<p>@ IM handsome: the fact that even you feel Link Crew is "crap" shows that you aren't dedicated to what you do..</p>

<p>I know it isn't the biggest achievement, but helping freshman is something I am passionate about</p>