Not an affirmation topic, please chance a worried junior

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am currently a junior in Highschool, and I have no idea where I want to go to college. Nor am I really sure what I want to do in my life. However, the few places I have looked at I am not sure if I am being a realist about, so feel free to tell me if I am out of my league, or make some suggestions. This is not an affirmation topic. And I will chance back to anyone who wants me to!</p>

<p>State: Washington
Income: $70-$90,000
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: Male
School type: I guess a competitive public, we always send the most kids to UW Seattle
First generation college student</p>

<p>Career paths: I am interested in a path that could lead me down to the medical field, pre-med, biology, etc. Also, I’m equally interested in business. I have a small interest in law though, but it is on a much smaller scale than business or med.
Degree options: B.S., M.B.A, or B.A. obviously, but if I can I want to duel-major or duel-degree, not sure if I have to be selected or this or apply though. </p>

<p>Schools applying to (subject to change)
UW Seattle (honors college?)
U Penn (dual degree/major)
Cornell (School of Human Ecology and Hotel Administration [in no order])
Brown PLME
CMC (specifically the 5 year program with Claremont Graduate University)
Stanford- early decision
Washington and Lee University
WASU Honors College (I didn't want to be a prick whom only applies to one state school and other "highly selective" schools, plus they sent me a waiver saying "you're a highly qualified candidate, we'll waiver the app. fee for you).</p>

<p>Highschool Academics</p>

<p>IB Diploma Candidate</p>

<p>Freshmen: Japanese 100, PE/Life fitness, Physical Science, English, Math core 100, and Social Studies. 3.05 and 3.15 GPA respectively
*during summer I took the equivalent to freshmen “Honors Math core 2”, but crammed into a month)</p>

<p>Sophmore: Beginning Marketing, Math core 200, Pre-IB English, Japanese 200, Pre-IB chemistry, Pre-IB World History. 2nd semester same courses, but switch Pre-IB chemistry to Pre-IB Biology. 3.23 and 4.00 GPA
*during summer I took “Intro to chemistry”, “Beginning Photography”, and “elements of pre-calculus” at a local community college, earning A equivelent grades in them</p>

<p>Junior: IB Philosophy, IB History of the Americas, IB Biology I, IB English, Advanced Marketing, Japanese 400, Math core 300
*during fall I took “intro to organic chem/biochem”, “Advanced Photography”, and “Pre-calc I”
*During winter I took General inorganic chem II/lecture and Pre-calc II
*During Spring I took General inorganic chem. III/lecture</p>

<p>Senior: IB Calculus, IB Biology II, IB Senior English, Retail Marketing, IB Senior History, IB Theory of Knowledge, Japanese 400. I predict a 4.00 for the year, but not indefinite.
Final unweighted GPA I predict a 3.7-3.91.
I don’t know how my school does unweighted, but I know they don’t give us one as sophomores. Though, I am sure I will be in the top decile of my class.</p>

<p>Test scores
ACT: Math (30), Science (30), English (36), Writing (12), Reading (36). Composite: 34, I don’t think I’ll retake
PSAT: 230 (80 writing, 80 reading, 70 math)
SAT: 2250 (800 writing, 800 reading, 650 math). I don't think I'll retake it</p>

<p>I haven't taken any SAT IIs yet, and I'll take a while to choose which ones</p>

<p>Leadership/Extra Curriculars</p>

<p>Medical Club/HOSA
10th Grade- co-founded with a friend, Co-President
11th Grade- Co-President
12th Grade- Co-President</p>

<p>JSA
10th grade- Public Relations officer
11th Grade- Secretary
12th Grade- President</p>

<p>Key Club
10th Grade- Fundraiser
11th Grade- Fundraiser
12th Grade- President</p>

<p>DECA
12th- Vice President</p>

<p>Japanese National Honor Society
12th grade- President</p>

<p>Work Experience
10/20/07-04/23/08: Ostroms, Cashier
4/30/09-Present: Jamba Juice, cashier/juicer
09/1/09-06/11/10: Student Store, Manager (non-paid job, we sell food, clothing, etc to kids during lunch)</p>

<p>Volunteer
Key Club- expected 150 hours by senior year (50 hours each year from soph-senior)
Hospital- 1000ish hours by senior year</p>

<p>Awards
Freshmen: Honor Roll, Japanese Award
Sophmore: National Honor Society, Japanese National Honor Society, Key-club member of the year award, Reflections Honorary participant award (literature)
Junior: NHS, JNHS, Key-club member of the year award, 2nd place at DECA regionals, 1st place at DECA state, 1st place at DECA nationals, Reflections State award (lit)
Senior: TBA (I predict the first 3 though)</p>

<p>Other information
Reischauer Scholar
My poetry has been published by our school literary magainze, and in national anthologies of Highschool students
I attended “Business Week”, “Advanced Business Week”, and “Healthcare Week”, at colleges during the summer
National Hispanic Scholar (???)
National Merit qualifier (???)</p>

<p>Reccomendations: I have some people lined up
Essay: I have no clue what the prompt will be, so I can't say. But generally I have been a strong writer, so I think I can write a legit essay.</p>

<p>Other notes: During my freshmen year my grades were a combination of not realizing the ramifications it would have on my future, as well as just a nonchalant feeling about school. I got a C+ first semester, and some B-s. And in my sophmore year I did well in all of my classes, except for Pre-IB freaking chemistry where I got a D (I took the class because I wanted to pursue IB bio, and it was required. Otherwise I could have taken IB Physics and taken a normal-class as a soph).</p>

<p>My poor chemistry grade prompted me to do something on my own about it. Part of me wanted to retake the class at my school to "change" the grade on my GPA, but that would have made me ineligable to do IB Diploma. Instead, I took classes at a community college, and did well there.</p>

<p>In addition, my original IB-diploma plan had me going core-2 math, core-3 math, and then IB Math studies, an IB "math lite", like AP stats. It would essentially be "IB pre-calc lite", what the normal IB-diploma kid at my school would take as a junior (IB pre-calc that is). I really wanted to get Calculus in my highschool career, so I took pre-calc at the same community college, and got tutored by my teacher and my advanced math friends. And I have officially taken a requirement test to get into IB Calc, and passed!</p>

2

<p>You’ve got strong stats that should get you into some great schools with your Hispanic hook. But I think your math score and poor chem grade will probably make PLME impossible. That plus the fact that Stanford is a crap shoot and gets many applications from qualified Hispanic candidates, I think you should add some other top schools slightly less competitive than Stanford and Brown PLME. Maybe Wash U St. Louis, JHU and any mid tier ivy or top LAC.</p>

3

<p>Your courseload is impressive! And your scores are great - they put you right in that competitive pool. Your ECs are great too. What are DECA and JSA? I’ve never heard of them.
UW Seattle (honors college?) - not familiar, sorry
U Penn (dual degree/major) - mid-reach
Cornell (School of Human Ecology and Hotel Administration [in no order]) - same as penn
Brown PLME - reach
CMC (specifically the 5 year program with Claremont Graduate University) - not familiar
Stanford- early decision - I assume this is your first choice? you’ll have a btter chance applying ED. Good luck!
Washington and Lee University - safety/low match?
WASU Honors College (I didn’t want to be a prick whom only applies to one state school and other “highly selective” schools, plus they sent me a waiver saying "you’re a highly qualified candidate, we’ll waiver the app. fee for you). - safety going by what you say.</p>

<p>thanks for chancing me, and good luck!</p>

4

<p>stats like that and instate? you’re in for sure at UW.</p>

5

<p>I guess I always knew that in the back of my head, both things you mentioned. Sadly I’ve never really been a math or science person, even though I try so hard and do my best and yet still pale in comparison to kids who barely try. IB Calculus next year should be an interesting experience to say the least. But, do you think if I took the Bio M, Chemistry, and Math SAT subject tests, and do well in those, it can augment me a bit?</p>

<p>I know that Stanford, along with plenty of the schools on my list (except for WASU and UW) are longshots for anyone, and if you get in it just means you got a bit luckier. I was only interested in Stanford to take classes at the grad schools though. WUSTL I hear gives little need-based aid. And Johns Hopkins I am just not that interested in, due to a number of factors.</p>

<p>As for some other schools, I like schools which have pre-professional classes (Washington and Lee), joint degree programs (CMC), duel major/duel degree (Brown PLME, U Penn, maybe some others offer it on my list and off), allow you to take courses at other schools (Stanford at it’s grad schools, UPenn with the quaker consortium, CMC and the Claremont consortium), and in Cornell’s case, they offer some very specific courses which interest me. I am a bit interested in WUSTL because they offer this, but I have heard their need-based financial aid is a bit on the lesser side. And Swarthmore I am also interested in, so if A) I chose it over all else, or B) I didn’t get into Upenn, I could still take classes there through Swarthmore. </p>

<p>And Dartmouth and Columbia, as well as some other top LAC don’t offer the undergrad majors I’m really interested in.</p>

6

<p>And verbosley, no problem. JSA is Junior Statesmen of America, a debate club of a sort. And DECA is a marketing association of students (doesn’t stand for anything, haha). I like to think of it like FBLA, but alot better :stuck_out_tongue: but to each his/her own.</p>

7

<p>^ Ah, interesting! it’s also pretty cool that you are taking Japanese. I wish they offered it here. :)</p>

8

<p>I think you have great chances. They are, in my opinion, a bit better than the above posters have indicated.</p>