Newbie needs chancing!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I will be a junior this year and wondering what about my chances and what to improve on...any input is really appreciated!</p>

<p>Asian Female - Ohio
Public Suburban High School</p>

<p>Class: 2009
GPA: 4.7185
Rank: 1 or 2, my counselor won't disclose, out of 350ish</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>PSAT (Sophomore): 213 (74 CR 73 M 66 W) Eek, I hope to bring this up to 230+ this year
SAT IIs:
Math IIC 800
US History 790
Still waiting on APs...=(
Aiming for 2300+ on SAT</p>

<p>"Transcript"
At our school, honors and APs use a different grading scale than regular. 5 points instead of 4...to put it simply, I got all the H's and A's I could have...</p>

<p>Freshman
Honors English 9
Honors Science 9
Honors Biology
Honors World Studies
Honors Algebra II
Orchestra (Honors)
Health
Gym
Art Foundations
French I</p>

<p>Sophomore
Honors English 10
Honors Precalc
Honors Chemistry
AP American History
Orchestra (Honors)
Science Research Methods I and II
French II
Gym</p>

<p>Junior (Anticipated)
Honors American Literature
AP Calculus
AP Psychology
Honors Physics
Sciences Research Methods III
Honors French III</p>

<p>Scheduling conflicts prevented AP Chem and Orchestra...should I switch French and AP Psych for these?</p>

<p>Senior (Anticipated)
AP Chemistry
AP Composition & Literature
AP Government
Post-secondary Calculus BC (possible)
Science Research Methods IV
Honors French IV
Orchestra (possible)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Ballet - 11 years - Company member at Toledo Ballet School, a fair prestigious school in the area. I've danced numerous roles in The Nutcracker, a Toledo tradition, and a couple other ballets. I've also done some outreach programs, teaching little kids about the arts.</p>

<p>Speech and Debate - 2 years - Lincoln-Douglas debate; Debate was something I picked up because I wanted to work on my public-speaking skills, but I've grown to really love it. I've placed at a couple of local tournaments but haven't gone to Districts because of limited spots for competition and really amazing teammates. I hope to step it up this year and hopefully qualify for States</p>

<p>Science Research / Science Olympiad - 2 years -
Placed at SO States, won several Regional events.
Superior Rating at both District and State Science Day (Science Fair) and Sponsored Awards:
American Chemical Society Chemical Sciences Award
Governor's Award for Excellence in Biotechnology (District and State)
National Honor Society for Women in Chemistry Promethium Chapter Special Award
Some college scholarships...I'm looking into entering ISEF fair, but our region doesn't sponsor it...</p>

<p>Orchestra - 5 years - Private lessons, School Orchestra, Toledo Junior Youth Orchestra (Principal Viola) , OMEA District I Honors Orchestra (Principal Viola), Toledo International Youth Orchestra (Principal Viola) (Recently played in China and Canada, and Europe in the spring!), Toledo Youth Orchestra, Regional Orchestra</p>

<p>Art - 5 years - I used to take private art lessons, but my teacher moved, I took art in school Freshman year, but had to drop it because of scheduling/ GPA conflicts. I did get entered into some art shows:
District Congressional Art Show
Sylvania Chamber of Commerce Show (1st Place)
Sylvania Youth Art Festival
Sylvania Deck the Walls
Chinese Association of Greater Toledo Art & Cultural Exhibit
Hopefully, I can do more with art next year...</p>

<p>Math - Mathcounts in Junior High! lol. My sister and I placed 1 & 2 at Regionals, a pretty big human interest story around here...I placed Top 20 at States in 8th grade. Anyway, Iplaced at some Math contests, GTCTM, OCTM, AMC. Hopefully I'll qualify for AIME this year.</p>

<p>Other:
French Club
Placed at regional Foreign Language competition
Interact (volunteer organization, about 150 hours)
Committee Head for Dance for A Chance (annual fundraiser for needy cause)
Art Club
new Student Senate commissioner this year...</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Sylvania Youth Conservation Corps
Young Artists at Work (program to improve city through art)</p>

<p>Here's the thing. Our school conductor is absolutely terrible and I really wanted to take AP Psych... Is Orchestra something I'm really going to need for College Apps? Membership in school orchestra is required for some of the youth groups, as well as private lessons. Should I keep at it?</p>

<p>I'm thinking Law or Business but still undecided...</p>

<p>Schools I'm Looking at:
Harvard
UPenn
Yale
Columbia
Stanford
MIT
Duke
UChicago
U of M
Northwestern</p>

<p>Chance me? Any input or advice is really appreciated!</p>

2

<p>"Science Research / Science Olympiad - 2 years -"</p>

<p>Research != Science Olympiad. I don't see any special or prestigious awards, so I'd say reject by HYSM, but a decent shot at the rest.</p>

3

<p>I'd say why bother chancing yourself when the most important year of high school is still ahead of you...</p>

4

<p>i agree with stupidkid. but at least you have all of the extremely crucial junior year to hopefully get some really prestigious awards! also, i think you should take more ap classes, that is, if your school provides a lot of them.</p>

<p>besides that, i say you have a good shot. but still, a majority of your chances depends on junior year.</p>

5

<p>hahaha I love these posts. Drive yourself crazy!</p>

<p>I think you fit the Harvard admit profile quite well, if the school interests you. Most Harvard students don't necessarily have perfect grades and scores, but rather, they do a few activities that are important to them and do them well, on top of academics. That's not necessarily saying that you'll get in, but it's saying you have a good shot.</p>

<p>Is dance something you want to continue into college? I ask because some of the schools you mention (MIT, UChicago) have weaker EC opportunities outside of Model UN/Debate/Academic team fare. You might want to consider a school where you can keep up EC involvement or you are in a community where students devote as much time to schoolwork as they do to their interests. At Chicago, your schoolwork is your extracurricular interest, for the most part.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the advice! And what awards are consider prestigious? Siemens and Intel for science...anything else?</p>

7

<p>Would your private viola teacher be cool with you still taking lessons if you dropped orchestra? Some colleges like to see that you stick with something for all 4 years, and you already dropped art. If your teacher will still keep you, you might be able to get away witih saying you played viola for all 4 years of high school.</p>