Long time lurker, first time poster (Looking at MIT, Stanford, etc.)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys, I've been reading College Confidential for a long time (too long perhaps!). Now that my junior year is almost over, how do my chances for acceptance into a good college as an Asian male from Texas sound (looking specifically at MIT/Stanford)? Are there any things I can do to boost my chances for acceptance?</p>

<p>SAT:
1st time 2210 (710/770/730 CR/M/W)
2nd time 2400 (800/800/800) (first ever in my school)
Planning on taking Chemistry and Math II subject tests this Saturday and expecting high 700s-800s on them.</p>

<p>AP:
9th: Human Geography: 5 (total fluke!)
10th:
Computer Science A: 5
World History: 5
11th (expected):
US History: 4-5
Physics B: 4-5
Statistics: 5
Chemistry: 4-5
English Lang: 5
Expecting National AP Scholar</p>

<p>GPA:
No idea. Our school doesn't give us our 4.0 scale GPA until we get our final transcripts in the fall. I had a 110/100 weighted GPA as of last year though and will have an estimated 114 weighted this year. I've never had a B as a semester grade, so there's that.</p>

<p>Rank:
5/715 as of last year. Expected to remain the same or drop slightly.</p>

<p>Schedule next year:
AP US Government/Macroeconomics (both are semester classes)
Physics C
AP Biology
AP English Lit
AP Japanese (I'm Chinese)
AP Calculus BC
AP Psychology/PE (Our school requires 1.5 credits of PE and I'm missing .5)</p>

<p>ECs:
Microsoft and Oracle certified
Expected National Merit Finalist
Junior Class Officer (webmaster) (essentially Prom Committee, which was unexpectedly fun)
NHS Treasurer
Various UIL/TMSCA* Individual and Team awards at the Invitational, District and Regional levels (Math/Science/Computer Science/Calculator Applications)
Church webmaster
Various piano and violin awards, up to national level for piano
Stuff I did over my summers (Comp Sci lessons at UTSA, IT Internship, upcoming research project)
SAT Tutoring (creating a club next year)
*UIL is a Texas-wide series of competitions for academics, athletics and fine arts</p>

<p>I'm not sure what I'm going to write about in my essay. I was thinking about writing about how I overcame my parents' racism toward Japanese people by learning the language and getting involved with Vocaloid, but I think that might be too controversial. Also, my school's GPA system is pretty ridiculous (1.29 multiplier for AP classes!!!), but our scores are sent unweighted to colleges. I took two Pre-AP classes this year, since I wanted to keep learning Japanese, causing my GPA to suffer relative to my peers. Our current valedictorian has several Bs and even a few Cs, but because of the sheer number of AP classes he took, he gets a higher GPA than I can possibly attain.</p>

<p>I'm worried mainly about my extracurriculars, since the ones I'm heavily involved in take up most of my time (Being in UIL and a Class Officer made this year ridiculously hectic). Do you guys have any suggestions of what I should do this summer and senior year?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>Though your academics are good, unless there’s something I’m missing, you don’t look to be very competitive for schools like Stanford/MIT. MIT especially, being an Asian Male, you almost need exceptional math talent shown w/o hooks. On the same token, ECs aren’t exceptional w/ not-clearly-demonstrated leadership and not a whole lot of achievement to tout (piano stuff is good, but overdone by Asians, you know?).</p>

<p>So as of now, have a productive summer w/ all your internships, see if you can co-publish your research and/or aim for competitions like Siemens and Intel to tag on some awards. Also see if you can secure more leadership positions in your activities. And of course, work on those essays.</p>

3

<p>Solid chances.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll keep them in mind.</p>

5

<p>Everything is set, except need more math/science ECs that are truly exceptional.</p>

6

<p>Agree with ^. Especially since you’re going into math / science. Try local math competitions or science fairs.</p>