please chance me for brown, jhu, stanford, columbia?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>These are the colleges im interested in:
-Brown
-JHU
-Stanford
-Columbia
-U Chicago
+ do you guys have any recommendations? </p>

<p>I'm in the class of '11.</p>

<p>School:
-GPA: 3.86----> should i try to increase this to at least a 3.9?</p>

<p>-As for my classes, my school only offers 3 APs that i can take (calc, stats, spanish) and i plan to take all three. I'm in all of the possible honors classes.
This year i self studied ap bio and ap world history, I'm expecting either 4s or 5s on them. </p>

<p>Scores:
I haven't taken the ACT, SAT or SAT IIs yet but these are my estimated scores
ACT probably a 32+
SAT probably at worst a 2100
SAT II Bio (taking it this saturday) 750+ </p>

<p>Extracurriculars: </p>

<p>Debate:
I was in JV Debate this year, next I'll be in varsity</p>

<p>Speech:
-I got 8th in State this year for Extemp Speaking. Probably will go to Nations next year.
-Done well in many of the tournaments all year long. </p>

<p>Quiz Bowl:
Our A team went to nat'ls this year, next year we will most likely go as well. </p>

<p>Tennis:
Played JV 2nd Singles, next year I'm hoping to be on varsity.</p>

<p>Karate:
-Have a black belt in shotokan karate.</p>

<p>Piano:
-I'm in level 7 of the National Music Certificate Program </p>

<p>Math League:
I wasn't very good this year, but next year I plan on improving my skills significantly.</p>

<p>Volunteering: I volunteer at a local hospital and thus far I have 70 hours. I also tutored a student in math (20 hours), and a few other things that add up to about 130 hours total for freshman and sophomore years.</p>

<p>What should I do to increase my chances??? thanks for your time!</p>

2

<p>“GPA: 3.86----> should i try to increase this to at least a 3.9?”</p>

<p>Yes, you should.</p>

3

<p>I don’t know why more students apply to Rice and smaller colleges like Swarthmore and Wesleyan. Don’t make your premed status so obvious, especially if you are Asian.</p>

4

<p>^ ok, i am asian/indian by the way. So maybe get like an internship in some of my other interests?</p>

5

<p>Skip the hospital volunteering. So cliched and stereotypical. Try something else. Work with disadvantaged or disabled kids, and teach them tennis. Play music for the elderly at senior homes (or VA hospitals). Show them that your passions in music and tennis extend to helping others experience them as well.</p>

6

<p>^ actually, there is an option to play the piano in the hospital… so maybe I could continue to volunteer in the ER of the hospital as well as play the piano there?</p>

7

<p>Totally concur with jameschen!</p>

8

<p>Your GPA is pretty good. Since you’re a rising junior, I’m sure that you wouldn’t have any problem raising it up to 3.9, so go for it if you’d like… </p>

<p>As far as your extracurriculars, they seem pretty good… Just a bit of advice: Think about every activity you do and see if you can make them all or most of them relate to one general theme, i.e. a passion… Idk, e.g. science, literacy, politics, journalism, etc. If you can somehow mold all of them to connect with each other in some way, it’ll show colleges that you’re a strong candidate because you know what you want and like… </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

9

<p>Ya raise up your GPA and shoot for a 2300 SAT.</p>

<p>Also try and concentrate more on specific activities.</p>

10

<p>ok thanks. ANybody else?</p>

11

<p>ok, this is my last time bringing up my post</p>

12

<p>i think ur ECs are very solid, but it might help to have some leadership positions in some various clubs. depending on what you want to pursue in college, you could try looking into a summer internship which would be a nice bonus to your app.</p>

13

<p>thanks. Yeah, i think I will be the captain of the quizbowl team next year so… yeah.</p>

14

<p>volunteering is average, EC is standard. Many people have like 500+ hours of Volunteering. Test scores on the low side for asian applicant to Columbia and U of C. Id suggest ED JHU for a 70%+ chance.</p>

15

<p>so with higher test scores and 500+ hours I will have a better chance?</p>

16

<p>I know this is really hard to do, but I strongly suggest chilling out. If you are doing things in order to get into college you: A. will not enjoy your ECs, B. probably not get into the “top” college who saw right through what you were doing and has little interest in adding in another overachiever without a direction and C. end up at the most prestigious school that accepts you instead of ending up at the school that is the best fit for you.</p>

<p>Without an actual SAT/ACT score, it’s impossible to start chance threads. Unless you took 3 practice tests and have an idea of your “range”, saying you can’t get worse than a 2100 is completely pointless. It’s equally futile to talk about whether or not you will make the varsity tennis or debate team or nationals in speech. Try your best and enjoy those achievements as something other than lines in a resume.</p>

<p>To that end, I respectively ask that people who comment on these threads help the people actually succeed and enjoy their activities, as opposed to gaming the system.</p>

17

<p>Ok, that makes sense about the whole SAT/ACT thing. However, I truly do enjoy all these activities. I love speech/debate and quizbowl and tennis and all the other things I do. I would never want to do something if I didn’t like it.</p>