Junior from PR

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys, I'm a junior from Puerto Rico that is currently interested in applying to NYU, UCLA, Tufts, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, Swarthmore, Haverford and Harvard. Here are some of my basic stats:</p>

<p>GPA: unweighted around 3.7/3.8, weighted prob at around 4.3</p>

<p>Freshman year, A/A- average:
World History 1
English 9th
Honors Geometry
Physics
Spanish 9th (equivalent to AP Lit.)
Health
French II</p>

<p>Sophomore year, A/A+ average:
World History II (straight A+ in this class, outstanding achievement)
Chemistry (outstanding achievement award)
Honors Algebra II
English 10th
Spanish 10th
French III (outstanding effort)
AP Psychology (5, outstanding achievement)</p>

<p>Junior year, A- average:
Biology
Spanish 11th
English 11th
AP French language (A-)
AP US (B+/A-)
AP Human Geo (A+)
Honors Pre-Calculus</p>

<p>Senior year course load (if schedule permits):
AP Chemistry
AP English lit
AP Calculus
AP Spanish lit (still considering, won't take it if it's a summary if previous years)
PR History</p>

<p>Since Chem and Calculus are double blocks I can only take one elective. There are a few courses that interest me, namely Musical Appreciation and AP Economics (Micro + Macro), but I'm considering having a free block just to dedicate it to college applications. Would this be wise? Are college apps really that time consuming? </p>

<p>EC's:
Model UN - since 8th grade, third year going to NAIMUN and will prob be VP next year
Film Club - 9th, VP this year and will prob be Pres next year
Youth in Action (community service club) - since 9th grade, VP last year, Pres this year and prob next
Environmental Awareness Club
Project H2O - water crisis awareness club
NHS - first year, might run for board next year</p>

<p>SAT - Haven't taken it yet, sophomore PSAT had me at 88th percentile compared to juniors
SAT II's - Spanish (800), Physics (620, fail), Chemistry (630, another fail), World History (750), plan on taking Bio, Math level II, and US History in June</p>

<p>High School Summers
2009: CAA at Easton, Pennsylvania, took Legal History of the US.<br>
2010: Spent a week and a half on an ecological project in the Galapagos. Oxford Tradition summer program, took International Business as major and Literature and Psychology as minor.
2011: Prob going to take a course on Human Rights at CTY, Princeton. Might travel to South America with school group, comm service opportunities. If not might partake in National Geographic trip through India. </p>

<p>I know it seems like I haven't taken too many AP's, but the way it works in my school is that you can take maximum two AP's in 10th grade and these are limited to AP Physics B, AP Psychology,AP Human Geo and AP French. AP Euro and AP Chem weren't available this year, so the above were broadened to include AP US history and AP Calculus AB. Senior year you can take AP Spanish Lit., English Lit. and Bio. I know that even then I haven't exactly taken the most rigorous courses, but are colleges aware of such limitations? </p>

<p>I know that Harvard is a reach, but I would like a good idea of how to arrange the rest in and am open to suggestions of similar colleges that I can prob get into.</p>

2

<p>Just to clear up some possible confusion, AP Econ is available to juniors and seniors, AP Chem and AP Bio alternate every year and one can’t take either without having taken the basic course first. Also, the only honors classes available are those of math. My school is considered among the top in Puerto Rico and is very competitive, I know people from the senior class of this year that have gotten into schools like MIT, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Williams and Georgetown.</p>

<p>Will chance back if link provided.</p>

3

<p>Your gpa and extra curriculars are very impressive, but your SATs and standardized testing are kind of lacking. Idk how well of an indicator the PSATs are for you (everyone i know generally did better on their actual SATS) but 88th percentile is a little low. If you work hard on that, and really emphasize all ure EC’s and how well you used ure summer, you have a great chance at say NYU and a decent opportunity at the others.</p>

4

<p>You’re gonna need a 2250+ to have a shot at most of those schools since they’re all reaches. I’m gonna assume that they look at you as a stateside applicant since you’re from Puerto Rico? If so, you’re chances greatly increase. Good luck!</p>