<p>I find myself in a peculiar situation and I was just looking to see what other people thought of my case. Feel free to add any advice. I am going to keep this simple and not overload b/c that would be irrelevent to my questions.</p>
<p>First off, I moved my during my junior to senior year from San Diego, CA to Boston, MA. Here's the rest:</p>
<p>Hispanic male, born in London
GPA- 4.4 out of 4.0
Rank- 3 out of 800
High school- in San Diego (suburban, school population 3200), in Boston (urban/suburban, school population 2400)
SAT I- math (690), verbal (630) --> 1320
SAT II- Math IIC (700), Writing (670), Spanish (740), Biology- M (740)</p>
<p>AP Classes- European History (5), Biology (5), Environmental Science (5), Art History (5), Spanish (5), Calculus AB (4), US History (4), Physics C Mechanics (3)
Consistently challenged myself academically- took 3 APs sophmore year, 5 junior year, and 3 senior year (Calculus BC, Statistics, and Psychology).</p>
<p>ECs/ Awards
- 3 year debate team member (won numerous local, state, and national awards) --> this has been my primary extracurricular during hs sucking up about 35 hours weekly, 52 weeks of the year (I went to summer debate institute to prepare and study for the upcoming debate year at places such as Stanford and Univ of San Diego).
- competitive oratorical speaker (won local, state, and national awards)
- founded a student to student mentoring program for at risk elementary kids
- won numerous local essay competitions
- one of 6 finalists (from 153 applicants) to become the next student member on the CA State Board of Education
- National Hispanic Scholar, AP Scholar</p>
<p>I dont have specific can I get in questions, but I have general questions about my candidacy to top tier schools (Ivies, Duke, UoChicago)</p>
<p>1) How heavily are SAT scores weighted? I am curious because I am just not a good SAT test taker. I admit my scores are so and way below the average for most of the top tier schools (Ivies, etc.). But, I honestly feel along with teachers that my SAT scores aren't a good indication of my caliber as a student (they contradict with my AP scores and transcript). How much of a negative effect might my scores have? Or is it not a big effect bc the strength of my transcript can compensate for a little bit.</p>
<p>2) What leeway do I get because I moved between my junior to senior year of high school? It isn't like I am failing school, but I have adapted quite well and suceeded well at my new high school. Would this be a benefit to my app (my counselor has told me she thinks I have adapted really well and will note this in her statement)?</p>
<p>3) What other leeway do Hispanic kids get? I mean its not like my parents are the stereotypical migrant worker, etc. My parents are educated and smart. Just curious if race really does a play an issue even though we'd all like to believe we are equally applying.</p>
<p>4) Rate my strengths and weaknesses as an admissions committee might do. </p>
<p>I appreciate any and all advice.</p>