<p>@fallenchemist Thank you for catching my grammatical error! My town/city has a population of 109k, which I consider to be a city, whilst others in metropolitan areas may consider it to be a town. I know of five 2400s from my city personally (not all from my year, see), and probably twelve? 2390s (also not all from my year). Word spreads when you get good scores - also, proud mothers can do a lot as well! While this is a far cry from 2400s thriving happily <em>with</em> abandon in one area, it has affected the local viewpoint (among the local Chinese population, specifically) to view high scores as a sort of normal occurrence. Thus, my 2310 is āpitifulā in comparison, and also something that my family tends to avoid mentioning in conversations, although I concur that pitiful may be too strong of a word in this case.</p>
<p>But an example of just how crazy students are in my town/city, Iāll give you a couple examples! Because their parents are researchers at the Mayo Clinic (now ranked best hospital by US News), many students (to clarify, I will personally say that I know around 37) are able to sneak in and start conducting projects in their labs - most start in 9th grade, although the super competitive ones can start as early as 7th grade. A few years ago, my city was ranked as the third highest city with the most number of ISEF winners. One of my friends has been to Broadcom Masters (the final one with 30 people), and the National Spelling Bee - twice! Five students this year from my city were accepted to Stanford. Another one of my friends is an internationally competitive pianist and nationally ranked in math competitions. I hope you recognize that when youāre surrounded by all this greatness every day (most of them are my very close friends, too), my own accomplishments can really pale in comparison!</p>
<p>I do now realize that my original post included many errors, which has truly invited lots of ridicule from multiple users that I was not expecting. Unfortunately, it is past my ability to edit my original post. I truly apologize for any misconceptions, and I will work on not stretching the truth. I do hope that other posters may be able to see this before they respond - Iāve gotten a few more nasty PMs than I would have liked to!</p>
<p>But I will definitely add WUSTL to my list! I actually thought qualifying for one of their merit scholarships it was out of my league, but I will reconsider it after your statement! Thank you for your insight!</p>
<p>@DoctorMD Thank you very much for the sympathy ^.^ Itās pretty crazy with all of the amazing people around you, eh?</p>
<p>@Wimbus1233 GREAT ASIANS THINK ALIKE! Haha I wonāt send 6 letters to one school! Someone else actually commented on that. No, I heard that you should send different recs to each school, so I have six <em>total</em> that I can count on being good. Of course, I have two that are the best, which I will send to my top choices. And STS and Siemens are my last hope! Plus Iām trying to see if I can get something publishedā¦ Will be hard though :</p>
<p>And why does everyone think this is a ā ā ā ā ā ? What defines a ā ā ā ā ā ? Why does my post contain the attributes of a ā ā ā ā ā ? Is it just because Iām new to this discussion topic and donāt know how to accurately post stats? I aint no ā ā ā ā ā yo!</p>
<p>@anniesunshine OMG sometimes its so frustrating. I got a perfect score on all three of my state tests and now everyone expects me to do it again >.< </p>
<p>I have a big academic reputation in the family and if i am somehow below or behind my other relatives, then all of hell will break lose and I will never hear the end of it from my brother. (the other relatives will talk behind my back >.<) Just going behind is a no no and just puts a lot of pressure on me.</p>
<p>@DoctorMD same! Except all of my relatives are still back in my homeland (my family is the only one that came to America), and Iām the oldest of two. Buuuut we do have a very big church community which Iām pretty sure is quite similar! XD</p>
<p>@anniesunshine half of my relatives are here. My uncle went to harvard as a foreign student and is now one of the top architects in his country. Im also the oldest as well. I have a cousin in med school (whoās more like my sister), and parents and aunts and uncles who have like a ton of degrees. One of them got 3 PhDs within 12 years! my dad has 3 masters. Everything revolves around school. So as you can see, the standard are high :/ā¦</p>
<p>@DoctorMD Wow, I donāt think I can compare with that! My parents both went to Nankai University, which was pretty decent during their time. They came to US and went to Iowa State, both changed degrees and now both have two masters. But yeah, no PhDās in this [immediate] family, although I know of an uncle who taught at Stanford and an aunt whoās a pretty good piano teacher back at home.</p>
<p>Lucky Iām not you, then! And props to us for incessantly bumping this thread, heehee.</p>
<p>@anniesunshineā - Thank you for the clarification. That really does explain a lot, I am glad I hung in there that you were ārealā. So the issue actually seems to be that you are getting a very warped view of the world because of your environment. You will just have to take my word for it (and the word of many others as well, I am sure) that in aggregate and outside of your microenvironment (although 109K isnāt so micro, but clearly you are in an area where there is a disproportionate population of highly educated, high IQ professionals. If you havenāt already, read up sometime on the children of the scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratories in the 1950ās and 1960ās), your performance to date is outstanding and puts you very high on the list of achievers.</p>
<p>Admittedly being Asian doesnāt appear to help your cause at many schools, from what I read on CC and what I see in the reported demographics of many superselective schools. But you cannot control that, so just plow ahead and worry about what you can control. But definitely you need to know that compared to the country as a whole, you are indeed among the best and brightest. You will get into a very fine school and you will do well. If it doesnāt happen to be UPenn or MIT or a similar school, you will just have to prepare yourself for the reaction in your family and/or community, knowing in your heart that this kind of ābrand blindnessā is just that. Although I think you have a decent shot at UPenn, and certainly Northwestern. I just worry about affordability of those schools for you, and the last thing you want to do is take out loans since you are targeting med school. IMO, you would be much better off at a school that is still highly selective but where you have a decent shot at full tuition. Hence my WUSTL recommendation. There are others, which we can discuss if you want. Miami is one of them though, and they are already on your list.</p>
<p>I think Ga Tech is an odd choice though, compared to your other schools. Why them?</p>
<p>Also, if you continue to get nasty PMās, you can copy and paste them into a PM to me. Civility is expected in private messages as well, and at the very least harassment of any member of CC is absolutely forbidden. You donāt have to put up with that.</p>
<p>@anniesunshine Iām actually thinking Iām lucky to not be you! The standards for test scores arent that high for me but I have to become either a doctor, engineer, or have at least 3 mastersā¦ I canāt be anything less than my parentsā¦ I think you know where iām heading hehe</p>
<p>Sure, pick one activity and spend a significant amount of time on it. Make it so you donāt want to go to Penn, but Penn wants you to come you know?<br>
Also you have 2 good subject scores no need to waste time taking a third one. Not much of a differentiation factor after the 2 scores they ask for.</p>
<p>@fallenchemist Thank you for understanding and the reassurance! And from the outside it may seem like Iām a little big headed, but honestly itās so insane to be stuck in this little āMayo Clinicā bubble. Iāve assumed that my city is probably more skewed towards higher test scores and achievement, but since Iāve grown up here, Iām really just started to believe that itās an accurate SRS representation of the nation as a whole. So hereās hoping that it isnāt, and Iām on the right track to success in life! And Iāll make sure to look up about the childrenā¦ What happened to them? Did they all turn out to be super brains too? :)</p>
<p>And Iām actually trying to lightly persuade my parents out of pushing me toward going to the Ivies/elites. Iām afraid that once I get there, Iāll feel out of place and no longer near the top of the class, which Iāve been used to (Iām wroried that no longer being a top student may make me lose faith in myself, and drag my studies down overall). Iām also trying to propel myself towards New York City as I also want to get a start on my modeling career, which is definitely something out of the ordinary in our little Chinese community!</p>
<p>I will definitely send you any future PMs that I receive that may be nasty. Hopefully they end soon - I definitely am not a ā ā ā ā ā , and I hope my explanations prove that I am not so!</p>
<p>One last serious question for you, as I feel you have quite a bit of experience with colleges: is there a noticeable difference between a student who has graduated from U Penn and one who has graduated from a less elite but still good school, like USC? Specifically (as this is where I see myself going), is it better to be an average student at an elite school or a great student at a good school? I have asked many people, and have never received an answer regarding this. My mom is convinced that an Ivy League education is the only way to go to succeed in life, which I readily disagree with.</p>
<p>@DoctorMD Letās trade places! Iād love to be in a family where test score standards arenāt that high, plus I already want to be a doctor anyway! And Iām debating doing a double major and a minor (biology/psychology/music, respectively), although that probably is quite impossible.</p>
<p>@WhartonnotHYPS I totally understand, but itās just so hard to just pick one thing! I will definitely try my best - this summer, Iāve been investing most of my time in my research, which Iām hoping (fingers crossed!) will redeem me at Siemens and STS this fall. </p>
<p>Iām taking the Chem test only because some schools require it, which I found out unfortunately early this year. So, Iām taking AP Chem online this summer as a last minute effort! Is 740 considered a good SAT subject score? I mean, considering Iām really not good at Literature I was pretty surprised at it, but would it be good enough to submit to colleges?</p>
Well, you know it isnāt because what is 2310, like 98th percentile. Still 99th? Whatever, I know that you know that means that almost everyone else didnāt do as well as you.</p>
<p>
Itās good to know yourself and what motivates you. However, I can only encourage you to look at it very differently, should you end up in such an environment. You should revel in the chance to be around so many very intelligent people, and how much you can learn from them. Being challenged is almost always much better than just gliding along. But in any case, you will actually be challenged at pretty much all the schools you are considering. There are always very smart people at any school, they just wonāt be as uniformly present throughout the school the less selective the school is. And if you truly believe you can succeed as a model, you donāt have to be in NYC. Certainly there are opportunities in Chicago, LA, and other cities. I am no expert, but it seems to me the competition in NYC might make it extremely hard for a full time student to be successful in that area.</p>
<p>Finally, as you say your mother is simply incorrect. Wildly successful people graduate from many schools, including fairly āordinaryā state schools. Of course Steve Jobs didnāt graduate at all, but attended Reed for a relatively short time. Gates went to Harvard but dropped out. Warren Buffet went to Nebraska undergrad (although he did get an Ivy MBA). And to answer your question, usually a great student is great at any school, but for med school in particular, it is definitely better to have a high GPA from a good school than a lesser GPA at a super selective school. Although Harvard is famous for having an A- average overall. Not sure about UPenn. So your implied, presumptive correlation between selectivity of the school and the difficulty in getting a high GPA is a false premise. Many would argue that being around smart people makes you smarter. It certainly made me work harder than when I took summer courses at a far less competitive school.</p>
<p>@fallenchemist I mean, when you state it like that, it is a pretty good score! But thereās always someone above you, and I guess Iām worrying too much about that. And what you bring up is a very true fact that I neglected to consider: the opportunity to be around so many very intelligent people. Also, youāve hit all top three modeling markets in the US! Actually, all of the colleges Iām considering are within a 50 mile radius of a large modeling market in the US (comprised of the top three along with Boston, Philly, Miami, and Atlanta). This really limits a large part of possible colleges in my search, but it is such a large part of my life that I want to expand upon that I felt it essential to include in selecting where I want to go.</p>
<p>I guess my biggest fear with attending an elite college would be the difficulty of the classes, and whether or not I can continue to thrive in them. I have no doubt that I will continue to do my best (and then some) in every class, but Iām just worried that my best wonāt be enough to really set me apart for medical school. Which is why Iām seriously considering a BS/MD program, where itās nice to relax, knowing youāve pretty much got a spot in medical school waiting for you!</p>
<p>Upenn- 90% chance u will get in
MIT- no chance :\ sry it is tough
north western-100% chance u will get in.</p>
<p>but as far as your financial situation goās, Rutgers is still a very good college. My aunt became an anesthesiologist from Robert wood Johnson in Rutgers, my other aunt became an accountant from there. My dad became a computer programmer in there. My mom became a law office worker from there. And all my family members that went to Rutgers said," I couldāve gotten the same degree in an ivy league, but the difference is the price."</p>
<p>Unless u want to be a millionaire lawyer from an ivy.</p>
<p>@Brandon108 Yargh! Iāve received a bit of heat regarding that specific word choice. So it isnāt the best word in this instance, but I am thinking of retaking it! Hey, you can always improve, right?</p>
<p>Where are you from ? Iām from Mongolia. And getting 2310 seems very very very tough for me. Still studying. OMG. Yes you can improve but your score is nearly perfect ! I envy 2310 Youāre getting into a top university for sure.</p>
<p>@Brandon108 Wow, Mongolia! Iām from the Midwest US! Are you native English speaker? If not, please keep that in mind! A large part of the SAT is reading comprehension, which may be really tricky for non English speakers. They do take that in account too, so donāt worry about it! :)</p>
<p>@jtyats1114 Thanks! I actually donāt have much of an interest in going to MIT, UPenn is where itās at for me! So thatās good news to hear! I actually havenāt considered Rutgers before, but I definitely will now. Iāve heard of its reputation as being the āIvy League school without the cost,ā so Iām surprised I actually didnāt include it on my list before!</p>
My town/city has a population of 109k, which I consider to be a city, whilst others in metropolitan areas may consider it to be a town. I know of five 2400s from my city personally (not all from my year, see), and probably twelve? 2390s (also not all from my year). Word spreads when you get good scores - also, proud mothers can do a lot as well! While this is a far cry from 2400s thriving happily <em>with</em> abandon in one area, it has affected the local viewpoint (among the local Chinese population, specifically) to view high scores as a sort of normal occurrence. Thus, my 2310 is āpitifulā in comparison, and also something that my family tends to avoid mentioning in conversations, although I concur that pitiful may be too strong of a word in this case.</p>
Youāre getting into a top university for sure.</p>