My chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am a junior (will be a senior next week actually), and I have no relatives here in the US to help me with college apps and such so I am leeching off of others and trying to get as much help as possible. So this is what I have:</p>

<p>I am an Indian (from India) male living in the Silicon Valley. Lived in US for 7 years and English is my primary language.</p>

<p>About my school:
Lynbrook High School in San Jose CA. Rated top 177th school in the US. Tough school. Majority population is Asian (Chinese..), 2nd majority is White, us Indians are somewhere lower. Oh and California's Guvernator's budget cuts really hurt our schools. </p>

<p>GPA: 3.933 UW, 4.29 W (10-11th only).</p>

<p>My classes in High school (it's in a semester system) (and no +s or -s)</p>

<p>Freshman:</p>

<p>PE - B, B
Lit - A, A
Art I - A, A
Oral Composition (Speech and Debate) - A, A
French I - A, A
Geometry Enriched (higher than normal, not honors or AP) - B, A
Biology - A, A</p>

<p>Sophomore:</p>

<p>Algebra 2/ Trig - A, A
Chemistry Honors - A, A
PE 10 - B, B
World Lit - A , A
French II - A, A
Law/Accounting - A, A
World History - A, A</p>

<p>Junior: (parantheses means guesses for this semester)</p>

<p>French III - A, (A)
AP Computer Science - A, (A)
American Lit - A, (A)
Pre-Calculus Honors - A, (A)
AP US History - B, (hard to say.. very close b/w B and A)
AP Chemistry - A, (A)</p>

<p>What I plan for Senior year:</p>

<p>AP Government/Economics
AP Calculus BC
Contemp Lit
French IV Honors
Physics Honors</p>

<p>What I took in my local community college-
Intro to Comp Programming in C – A
Intermediate Problem Solving in C – A
Data Structures (C) – A
Advanced C Programming – B
Intro to Java Programming – A</p>

<p>Testing scores:</p>

<p>SAT I: 1950 · Math: 640 · Verbal: 670 · Writing: 640 Essay: 9 (I will take it in Oct)
SAT II: Chem: 700 · Math IIC: this saturday (will take Chem again this sat also)</p>

<p>AP Comp Sci, AP US History, AP Chem. I'm superstitious so I don't guess what I got.</p>

<p>Extra Curricular really really kills me. I'm really afraid. You'll see why.</p>

<p>My ECs:</p>

<p>Almost nothing. Look-</p>

<p>COUNTY LIBRARY, CUPERTINO Volunteer Summer 04
Helped administer a youth reading program for the summer.</p>

<p>STARR TUTORING Volunteer 04-05
Helped tutor students in Computer Science.</p>

<p>LYNBROOK SPEECH AND DEBATE 9th grade
National Forensic League- Merit 60 points</p>

<p>LYNBROOK ROBOTICS 11th grade (did nothing. Boring club)</p>

<p>The problem is that these clubs just don't interest me and I get freaked out by some volunteer oppurtunities that arise (mainly hospitals.. I have a mortal doctorphobia (and caninephobia))</p>

<p>Now I want to be a game programmer (don't laugh). Basically my dream is to work at Nintendo with the likes of Miyamoto or at Maxis with Will Wright :o</p>

<p>I have made many websites (all fansites) of which my Harry Potter one is the only one still online but on a hiatus (The Dueling Club will reawaken this summer!). I'm also trying to code a game by myself (well one for my comp sci final project and one just because). I doubt I can put my passion for games on my college app. So yeah..</p>

<p>So basically I need to get into a prestigious college. The ones I know off are:</p>

<p>UC Berk
UC LA
UC San Diego
UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara
Stanford
CalTech
Yale
Harvard
Princeton
UPenn</p>

<p>(someone suggested:
Rice
NYU
John Hopkins)</p>

<p>My intended major will be Computer Science (I'm pretty sure)</p>

<p>So can anyone rate my chances and match my colleges to Match, Reach and Safety (with any level of immersion needed).</p>

<p>I know this is a lot to ask, but thank you!</p>

<p>DISCLAIMER: I read a lot of threads about how people here try to con you by posting fake and/or good scores to make others feel bad. I am not. I'm genuinely asking.</p>

<p>And if I missed anything you want to know ask. I got e-mail notification enabled.</p>

<p>EDIT: My school doesn't do ranks.</p>

2

<p>royrules22:</p>

<p>UCLA: Reach (Engineering)
UCB: Reach (Engineering)
UCSD: Slight Reach (Engineering)
UCSB: Safe Match
UCI: Safe Match
Stanford: Reach
Caltech: Reach</p>

3

<p>bump. Any more? And what should I do now to help me more (besides do really good on the SATs)? I am trying my best to get a job somewhere this summer (hopefully something computer science related)</p>

4

<p>It is good that you took those computer-related classes at college, it will show that is something you actually you want to do in life. I'm a Paki-American, didn't your parents say that you should become a doctor or engineer. Anyway, you need to raise your SAT scores for some of those schools like CAltech and Stanford and at the others you have a pretty good chance, but where are the EC's? Do some project with computer programming, or make your own game or something</p>

5

<p>It is good that you took those computer-related classes at college, it will show that is something you actually you want to do in life. I'm a Paki-American, didn't your parents say that you should become a doctor or engineer. Anyway, you need to raise your SAT scores for some of those schools like CAltech and Stanford and at the others you have a pretty good chance, but where are the EC's? Do some project with computer programming, or make your own game or something</p>

<p>Nah my parents are pretty chill. They are happy as long as I do what I like. I will not become a doctor anyway so my parents figure it eaiser to save their breath. As for ECs that's what kills me like I said before. Let's just say that I'm not the type of people who play sports, and the clubs in my schools are split into these categories: volunteer (at hospitals and such), speech and debate/robotics type, and junk clubs. The junk clubs are the ones which the administration sign when they're drunk and cancel when they are sober. Examples are Ping-Pong, Atari club, Poker club etc. </p>

<p>The other problems I have with the clubs are that either they die quicky, or I hate. I joined a bunch of clubs in my freshman year and a bunch of them failed real quickly. And some others (like speech and debate or more fondly known as LSD) were bore-fests for me. I couldn't stand it. I used to fall asleep at meetings.</p>

<p>Than the volunteer clubs. They either teach students (which I do), or volunteer at hospitals, clinics and stuff like that (senior clinics, etc.) and read my original post to see my views on hospitals. </p>

<p>So the ECs boil down to what I can do by myself. I'm trying to get a job (my mom won't let me do any store position or clerical position thing), I will continue computer classes at my local college, and I will continue coding stuff. But it's about limited to that. Hopefully next year I'll be able to do something good in some club but I can't say for sure.</p>

<p>Oh and I heard that UCs are more concerened with your acads and not ECs that much? True or False?</p>

6

<p>"So basically I need to get into a prestigious college. "</p>

<p>Wouldn't it be better to attend a college that would give you a great education and the best start in your career? Applying to the UC's makes sense as you are in-state. But instead of looking at places like Harvard (that are almost impossible to get into) think about schools such as UI-Champaign-Urbana, GA-Tech and RPI. They are all pretty highly ranked, and you would be a good candidate.</p>

7

<p>"I'm also trying to code a game by myself (well one for my comp sci final project and one just because). I doubt I can put my passion for games on my college app."</p>

<p>Actually, that's what I did...and I got into Stanford and Caltech :D</p>

<p>See my website for some games...
Asteroids is always a fun project to code...I'm gonna fix my code over the summer and re-release my game in Java</p>

<p>Also consider Harvey Mudd (You'll definitely need to pull up your SAT scores though...that's pretty low by Asian standards, and since you don't have something distinctively "non-Asian" to compensate for it, you'll have trouble competing with your own kind)</p>

<p>P.S. Pikachu, Ness, Peach, and Sheik can all obliterate Roy lol</p>

8

<p>"Oh and I heard that UCs are more concerened with your acads and not ECs that much? True or False?"</p>

<p>Up to about UCSD level, you can get in solely based on academics (that means that if you have 4000 SAT block and 4.0UW/really high W, you can get in even if you never once did anything else)
Higher than that, and you'll need at least <em>some</em> ECs to get in (you can get academic ECs if you don't like clubs...Olympiads and research projects come to mind...)</p>

9

<p>What's your website URL tanonev? I'm making a Turn Based Strat game in Java for Comp Sci (networked) akin to Advance Wars. I know I need to pull up my SATs (I had a bad day on the test day. Chem I didn't study as I was cramming for APs). </p>

<p>Jigglipuff, Roy and Falco pwn you.</p>

10

<p>What is up with PE?</p>

11

<p>Meh. I'm not athletic if you can't figure that out. My freshman year I was actually very slow so it's mainly my fault. In my sophomore year I wasn't that bad but I had bad blood with the coach.</p>

12

<p><a href="http://www.csupomona.edu/%7Etknguyen/tkn/andy/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.csupomona.edu/~tknguyen/tkn/andy/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Turn Based Strategy games are ANNOYING to code...I did one for AP US History (I know, wrong class lol) and it took some 10000 lines (but then again, I was using Visual Basic lol)...you can test out what I made, but it's a little buggy...</p>

<p>Jigglypuff? Come on, the only thing that puffball has is good throws...makes no difference if you have long-distance KO power (Pikachu) or high speed (Sheik)</p>

<p>Roy still can't match Marth...Roy is stronger, but Marth is faster, and speed almost always wins over strength</p>

<p>Falco, I'll admit, is pretty good...</p>

<p>BTW...I still can't beat Jigglypuff + Dr. Mario + Mewtwo Lvl 9s team on Final Destination...any suggestions? I can do Marth Lvl 9 x3 on FD & on Temple, and Ice Climbers x3 on FD (surprisingly difficult...only one character stands a chance against 6 characters at once...)</p>

13

<p>roy -
look at the caltech forum for the accepted/rejected/wl'd info, and compare that with some of the other forums of interest to you. If you can improve your SAT's and II's, your profile would look more like a successful caltech applicant than, say, a successful Harvard applicant.</p>

14

<p>Bump. Thanks for all the help guys. Any more?</p>

<p>Oh and tanonev I used Roy all the time. Power slash and Down + B. ;)</p>

15

<p>Am I missing something here? Overrepresented minority at an upper-middle class prestigious school who doesn't take ANY (none of those really count, I must say) real extracurricular activities. I don't see how other posters here have entertained the Original Poster with the idea of CalTech.</p>

<p>You're best best is to go to one of the CalPoly's or UCI, which I think you'll stand to have (1) an excellent chance to get into it; (2) where you will really enjoy yourself.</p>

<p>SUPER REACH-
Stanford
CalTech
Yale
Harvard
Princeton
UPenn
Rice
John Hopkins
MODERATE REACH-
NYU
REACH-
UC Berk
UC LA
UC San Diego
MATCH-
UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara</p>

<p>Best of Luck,
TTG</p>

16

<p>TTG, the reason I'm "entertaining the Original Poster with the idea of CalTech" is because his stats aren't that different from mine, just a little bit weaker...and I got in...</p>

<p>"Oh and tanonev I used Roy all the time. Power slash and Down + B."
So do many people I know. They're pretty good, BUT Down-B is useless against multi-hit attacks and superior grabbing skills...and C-stick smashes, for some reason, are lower priority than running grabs (which in turn are lower priority than standing grabs)
Anyhow, I play aerial...so you may be able to "power slash and Down-B" your way through the beginning of the battle, but once your hits go up to like 40%, both abilities go out the window in favor of aerial attacks, where Roy is actually pretty weak...</p>

<p>It's a shame there's no way we can play against each other...it would be fun :) and I'd like to see if I can put my money where my mouth is...</p>

17

<p>Oh yes, if your game works out well, make sure you mention it on your app...I put one into "the box" on the Caltech app.</p>

18

<p>Well TTG that list is one my college counselor gave me. I only suggested the UCs to her. She did say CalTech and Stanford is a reach though. I added in Yale, Harvard, Princeton and UPenn just because. I had a meeting with her and I had to type up a resume (basically what I posted) and along with other info she had (that for some reason she wouldn't tell me) she suggested that to me. I know I have to pull up my SAT, so now I'll clarify and I'll state that if I get pretty decent SAT scores rate those choices..</p>

<p>And tanonev wait for the Revolution. SSB Online for Launch. ;)</p>

19

<p>You guys really need to join the Super Smash Brothaz on thefacebook. Now.</p>

20

<p>"If" is one of those things that always remain "if's" unless it's done. Even if you improve your SAT's significantly, say equivalent to a 1550 on the old SAT, you still wouldn't make it into either Stanford or CalTech. Tanonev, your SAT score being a just a little bit higher doesn't mean that it puts the Original Poster in range, because you can totally disregard those numbers when you consider the admissions folks' mouth DROPPING when they see a real dearth in extracurricular activities. No RoyRules22, it's not about the numbers- don't sit around and chase the numbers. Ok, even if you make an improvement on some standardized test, it does not mean you will have taken that necessary steps to compete against the best, the brightest, the most consistent and involved students of America that get into Stanford and CalTech. By adding those four schools that you mentioned (ugh, Ivy League- can't you be more selective?), it doesn't help you out all that much. There's more to life than just pretty name schools. Do some research and you'll find it requires a whole lot more than a polished SAT score to get you places. Regards,</p>

<p>TTG</p>