<p>Please chance me for Penn and other ivies, and georgetown!! I'm desperate to know if I have a shot!</p>
<p>White Male
Catholic School California
GPA UW- 3.83<br>
GPA W- 4.5
Class Rank 2</p>
<p>ACT- 32
SAT- Awaiting Results</p>
<p>AP World History-5
AP US History-5
AP Chemistry- 5
AP English Language- 4</p>
<p>Senior Schedule
AP Physics
AP English
AP Gov/AP Econ
AP Calculus
Spanish 3
Religion</p>
<p>Extra Curriculars</p>
<p>Varsity Golf in one of the toughest golf leauges in the nation(all four years)
Freelance Writer for Newspaper(9)
Editor in Chief of Newspaper(10-12)
Key Club(10-12)
-Treasurer(11)
-President(12)
National Honor Society(11-12)
-Vice President(12)
Chemistry Tutor
Honor Roll(9-12)</p>
<p>Summer
(I spend my summers in Door County, Wisconsin refered to as the cape cod of the Midwest)
Sailing Instructor over the summer at a fairly large sailing camp in Wisconson
Very Active in racing sailboats
-In flying scot midwesterns I got 10th out of 45 boats overall and 1st in the junior division
-Won countless series races during a summer racing league
Taught myself to windsurf and started a business teaching windsurfing with the ultimate goal of popularizing windsurfing so that I could expand the business to renting and selling windsurfers when I am in college
Wrote a how to sail blog and how to windsurf blog complete with videos
-made some money off that</p>
<p>Any essay ideas? - Im a pretty good writer</p>
<p>When applying to colleges, I always think of it as drawing a picture of yourself based on your activities, background, and schooling. From the picture above, I see a white male from an upper-class family who spends his summers sailing and windsurfing at the ‘cape cod equivalent’ and his free time golfing, who gets reasonably good grades but is never #1, and who has no particular academic focus. Usually, someone who has this drawing will try to expand it by community service - acknowledging that you are privileged and don’t have to work in your spare time, and choosing to use your free time to help others. I don’t know whether you didn’t do any service or you just forgot to list it - it doesn’t matter, because either way it wasn’t a passion. You would have never forgotten to put sailing on your resume. The biggest problem with this picture is that it is a common one, and everyone who has ever come in ahead of you in anything is applying to the same set of schools. </p>
<p>Now, that’s the harsh reality portion of this answer over. Here’s the good news. You are a smart kid - good. Your passion of sailing and windsurfing is clear - again, good. So now, you use your essays to break out of the picture that you have so carefully drawn. If you choose to talk about sailing - and your passion alone would make it a good topic - then use it as a metaphor. Its pretty corny, but if you do it well, you might just get away with it. Talk about the blogging - how you taught yourself, and loved it so much you wanted to teach others. Talk about your ambitions, your wildest hopes and dreams. Once you have talked about your passions, talk about why they make you passionate about Penn. </p>
<p>I will warn you that there is no windsurfing, whatsoever, at Penn. Also, do not use the term ‘cape cod of the midwest’ anywhere in your essay. Trust me, your upper-class-white-catholic-male-who-sails-and-golfs status is clear enough already. Also, you might want to think about where you want to go with your life beyond college - business? Communications?</p>
<p>Finally, as for other Ivys/Georgetown-level schools? I would recommend applying ED wherever you go. Take a look at Cornell and Johns Hopkins, and other near-Ivys such as BU.</p>