my chances?

<p>ok, so im a rising senior in a private school in cleveland, OH. I am syrian-filipino, so maybe i can work the race system because my gut feeling is that that doesnt really count as straight up asian [unless middle easterners are hugely overrepresented in college... thats a new one for me]. amirite?</p>

<h1>im probably forgetting stuff, but here i go.</h1>

<p>GPA, unweighted: 3.89. my school doesn't rank, and weights very weakly. Cum Laude [top 10% of the class]</p>

<p>Standardized test scores: 2370 SAT [Math: 800, CR: 790, Writing: 780]. only taken once.
SAT 2's: Math2, Chem, Physics: 800.
AP's: BC Calc, Physics B, Physics C, Chem - 5</p>

<h2>English Lit, US History - 4</h2>

<p>Courses taken:</p>

<p>Frosh - AP Calc BC, Bio honors, Spanish 2 honors, all the other prereqs.</p>

<p>Soph - AP Physics B, multivariable calculus @ Stanford EPGY, Sp. 3 honors, all the other prereqs.</p>

<p>Soph-Junior summer: Chem honors @ Equinox @ Case western.</p>

<p>Junior: AP Chem, AP Physics C, AP US History, AP English Lit, Linear Algebra @ local university, Differential Equations (at school), spanish civilization (not AP because of course conflicts, but it was probably 10x more fun), salsa dancing!</p>

<p>Senior [registration is done] [my school offers very few APs for senior year because they want ppl to explore their passions instead] - 2 courses at Case Western to be decided later [Post secondary students are last priority], AP Bio, 4 different english/history electives that sounded interesting, salsa dancing II! a few independent studies on random stuff i like like postmodernism and quantum physics --no language though.--</p>

<p>Summer stuff:</p>

<p>Frosh-Soph summer - National Debate Forum @ Boston [summer camp, 2 weeks, very well accredited]</p>

<p>Soph-Junior summer - Chem class @ Equinox, and nanotech internship @ Case [not a very good project though. i spent the vast majority of my time reading up on the subject, so i don't have a good lab writeup to say for it.]</p>

<h2>Junior-Senior summer - Nationals for debate @ Birmingham [see later], and research at the Veterans Association hospital in Cleveland about genetics and sleep apnea.</h2>

<h2> Extracurrics and other random stuff:</h2>

<p>Major things (and other things i thought of while i thought of the major things): </p>

<p>Semifinals in US Physics Team 11th grade (top 150 in nation)</p>

<p>Lincoln Douglas Debate - 10th/11th - state qualifier. 11th - NFL national qualifier (not the football league. thank you very much). Broke to elim rounds, so top 72 in the nation. top 2 in district, so i debated on TV and NPR yay! i won most local tournaments i went to, placed in the top 5 for a few state ones [but not states. :(] and travelled nationally a few times, but not much success there [apart from nationals]. i'll probably be a captain next year.</p>

<p>Started MATE Underwater remotely operated vehicles robotics club thing with a friend. we built a robot on our own, it was completely analog since im not too great with programming. it was unfortunate at hte actual contest in norhtern michigan. our ballast tank leaked and the bot sunk like a rock even though all systems were go. oh well, how about next year? we had no school support, no mentor, but now the school is asking us for help to make their robotics program not suck, and we might get corporate support next year if our school fails us again.</p>

<p>Layout editor for school newspaper, 10th grade. Managing editor, 11th grade [its an ambiguous title, but basically im renovating the paper and the labor structure (writers are so goddamn flaky.)]</p>

<p>Made the website for my school's new pilot program, the writing center internship program, by learning Flash independently and then doing it. Making the website for my dad's research practice with Dreamweaver and some CSS magic.</p>

<p>Mu Alpha Theta (math honors club) president, 12th grade</p>

<p>copresident of Model EU, a yearly school-wide event founded by a senior last year where we assign countries and do a simulated EU sesh. we get speakers, too. it has gotten some attention nationwide now, and other schools might start emulating it.</p>

<p>Qualified to AIME 11th grade, Ohio Math invitational 11th grade.<br>
USAMTS bronze, 10th grade, with 3 commended solutions (didnt turn one monthly problem set in. oops.)</p>

<p>TEAM+S math and science team contest, 1st place team in the state [10th grade], 2nd in the state and something like 17th nationally [11th grade].</p>

<p>Physicsbowl - top 5 in my school, and us 5 placed first in our three state region [11th grade]</p>

<p>Model UN [10th grade] - 2nd in the Cleveland one [i thought it was BS so i never came back. haha]</p>

<p>Oh, and i'm starting a philosophy club next year with a friend of mine. lets see how that goes.</p>

<hr>

<h2> random other (personality?) tidbits:</h2>

<p>i like making electronic music. i taught myself how to use Reason over the Frosh summer because it sounded fun. i won a small online contest last march for a techno song i made [newgrounds.com. yup. haha]. my stuff is at p4c.newgrounds.com, though ive been largely inactive for a while now :[. some of my tracks have been played on dj sets though [at homecoming! and one of my classmates is a legit dj so he played it in chicago and NYC], which is nice :)</p>

<p>i play the piano @ the Cleveland Institute of Music, i have been since like the 2nd grade or so. but i've never taken it terribly seriously, so im probably not as advanced as i should be, but ive played a few sonatas and i still do it. fun stuff!</p>

<p>community service? i basically did the minimum for the requirements at a soup kitchen. its not really that i dont care about it, but a) i have other commitments, and b) it invariably loses to them since it wasnt particularly inspiring. i did see an article in the news about this one voluntary housing coach guy that seemed tight, so i might contact the guy and see what exactly he does.</p>

<p>sports? i did track 9th and 10th grade but i wasnt very good [probably because i didnt care very much about it so i didnt bother to get into good shape preseason], so i bailed out. if i was going to do a sport i genuinely liked, debate killed those aspirations haha.</p>

<hr>

<p>so the way i see it, i think im reasonably diverse. i have some national awards too, which is nice. i dont have completely straight A's [each year has 2 or 3 A-'s] but i'm not a GPA freak and i think i make up for it by basically doing what i'm interested in, like debate//philosophy//that kind of stuff, and science//physics//research. </p>

<p>i plan on being a science guy--what type is kind of vague right now, except that i feel like an applied science/engineering person, specifically in biological or whatever alternative energy research might be a part of (mechanical [wind!!]? chemical [solar!!]? nuclear [fusion!?!]?). but i keep my doors open. who knows, maybe i'll have a change of heart and become a sushi rolling master or something.</p>

<p>i'm not just looking at Harvard--other top choices are MIT, Stanford, Brown, Princeton, Yale, Duke, and WashU. i've been to all these places but when the time comes to choose more selectively [if i have choices], then ill live in the dorms and do the works. yeah, i know being happy is important, and ive got a feel for these places. Boston is a sweet city [my bro goes to MIT right now so i drop by all the time, not to mention camp was there], and i do want to go there haha.</p>

<p>I would say you have a good chance. But I cannot say that you have a very good chance because no one applying to Harvard has that. Maybe those brutally superb applicants who receive likely letters do (but they are few).</p>

<p>The only advice I want to give to you is that you take your time with your essays and you should be fine. Apply to more places and chances are that you will be admitted to a great university.</p>

<p>What matters now is that you try and make yourself stand out in every way possible. There will be many more with similar credentials as you, a very rigorous curriculum, very high SAT scores, good grades, many extra curriculars and so on. You will have to stand out in your essays.</p>

<p>cool. ill be honest and simple about it. hopefully that’ll do me well.</p>

<p>You should worry about absolutely nothing besides your essays and how you put together your application. The rest is fantastic and could not be much more different in terms of getting better.</p>

<p>You should maybe have someone helping you with your application to boost your chances. And remember, don’t try to “package” your application. :)</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>