Please chance me for Brown University, USC, Stanford, and Columbia.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm from Oregon</p>

<p>Acedemics:
Unweighted GPA: 3.78 (All IB courses every year. Straight A's junior year; I just did badly freshman year.)
Freshman Year: 3.5 Sophomore Year: 3.84 Junior Year: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.23
Class Rank: 52/430 (A bunch of people who are in no IB classes are higher than me. Really not fair, but there's nothing I can do about it.)
SAT: Reading: 740 Math: 720 Writing: 770
Schedule for Senior year: HL IB English, HL IB World Topics, HL IB Biology, IB Math Studies II, IB Physics, Human Biology, IB Spanish, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band
Bilingual: English, Conversational Spanish (pretty rough though)
Planning to major in Biology and perhaps minor in music.
Brown is my #1 choice.</p>

<p>ECs:
Piano Lessons: 1999-2011, Two Recitals Every Year
Saxophone Lessons: 2005-2011
Marching Band: 2007-2010
Basketball Band: 2006-2011
Advanced Jazz Band: 2007-2011
Wind Ensemble: 2008-2011
Symphony: 2008-2011
Oregon Summer Music Camp: 2007-2008
Was in Two Musicals: Music Man Jr. as Winthrop, and The Wizard of Oz as The Cowardly Lion
Tech Help for Alma Mater Middle School, 2009-2011
Key Club Participant: 2007-8, 2009-2011
Out Reach Club Participant: 2009-2011
Face AIDS Participant: 2009-2011
Literary Club Participant: 2008-2009
National Honor Society: 2010-2011
Tennis: 2010-2011
Little League Baseball Coach: 2008-2011
Summer Olympics in Beijing China. Performed for Youth Delegates of the world, and then celebrated the summer games with them.
Wind Ensemble to Hawaii to play in Band Fhestival. Bands from all around the world. Must be invited to attend.
Saxophone Section Leader; Organized parties for the section and helped teach the students how to better play the saxophone.
CAS Hours for IB Diploma: 50 Community Service hours, 50 Creative hours, 50 Active Hours
Lots more volunteer hours through other clubs. CAS is separate from everything else. </p>

<p>Honors and Awards:
2007 Band Trivia Champion
2007 Marching Band, Festival of Lights Parade, 1st Place
2008 All-City High School Honor Band (3rd Chair)
2008 Wind Ensemble, Districts, 2nd Place
2008 Wind Ensemble, State Champions
2008 Jazz Band Rookie of the Year Award
2008 Honor Roll
2008 Oregon Summer Music Camp (1st Chair)
2008 Oregon Summer Music Camp, All Star Jazz Band (Lead Alto)
2008 Wind Ensemble, Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
2009 All-State High School Honor Band (1st Chair)
2009 All-Northwest High School Honor Band (1st Music)
2009 All-City High School Honor Band (1st Chair)
2009 Alto Saxophone, Districts 2nd Place
2009 Vernon L. Wiscarson Concerto Competition, 2nd Place
2009 Oregon Jazz Festival, Fantastic Soloist Award for Soprano Saxophone
2009 Wind Ensemble District Champions
<strong><em>2009 Alto Saxophone State Champion</em></strong>
2009 Wind Ensemble, State Championships, 3rd Place
2009 Band MVP Award
2009 Honor Roll
2009 Marching Band, Alto Saxophone Section Leader
2009 Chosen to Play for Entertainment at Patrons of Note Meeting for the Oregon Symphony
2009 Marching Band, Bands of the Northwest, Competition in Grants Pass, OR, 1st Place
2009 Marching Band, Festival of Lights Parade, 1st Parade
2010 All-State High School Wind Symphony (1st Chair)
2010 All-City High School Honor Band (1st Chair)
2010 Alto Saxophone District Champion
2010 Vernon L. Wiscarson Concerto Competition, 3rd Place
2010 Wind Ensemble Hawaii
2010 Wind Ensemble Districts, 3rd Place
<strong><em>2010 Alto Saxophone State Champion</em></strong>
2010 Wind Ensemble State Championships, 5th Place
2010 Honor Roll</p>

2

<p>Being outside the top 10% is going to hurt you a lot at all of those schools. I’d say high reaches for Brown/Stanford/Columbia and a low reach/match for USC.</p>

<p>Also I suggest grouping all of the Band EC’s as one, and picking your more significant awards to write down.</p>

3

<p>Alright, thanks man.</p>

4

<p>I think you definitely have a shot - it’s just all in how you present yourself. You’ve clearly accomplished a lot in your high school career, but seriously - just focus on the important stuff. Right now it’s really overwhelming.</p>

5

<p>alright. good advice. so, Sneezy, should i keep all the little things on the band stuff, or just the main things like “state champion” and “district champion” and stuff like that?</p>

6

<p>Well, I do a lot of music stuff as well - I just put a separate section on my application for like “musical achievement” and just listed the more significant ensembles I’ve been in and how long I’ve been playing with them. You might want to do that, just to separate it from honor roll and any other academic honors you might get?</p>

<p>But yeah. Try to condense it as much as possible - they won’t want to read through a laundry list of bands, and right now some of your more major honors are buried underneath other stuff.</p>

7

<p>Yeah, definitely. Thanks for the advice man.</p>

8

<p>bump…</p>

9

<p>Yay someone from Oregon!
You have some impressive awards! This is kinda too late, but it would be easy to identify you by these awards. Just remember it’s an internet forum. </p>

<p>Brown, Stanford, and Columbia are always reach schools. You have good chances, but you do have a lower class rank which may hurt you. However, your have taken a rigorous schedule, so that is a plus! SAT scores are good as well. USC is a high match.</p>

<p>I would make sure the colleges see more of you than just music and the IB program. Highlight the awards/ensembles that are most important to you. Are you going to focus on music in your essay?
Also, I don’t see too much leadership on your resume. Leadership in ECs is often very important to top colleges. While your music awards make up for some of it, try to get a leadership position next year in Key Club or another organization if you want to.<br>
Good luck!</p>

10

<p>What if I were to make a club? A club for community service, perhaps? Would that look very good?</p>

11

<p>What I’ve learned from CC is that EVERYBODY starts a club for community service for prestige and everybody gains 0 prestige from it. So I would advise against that.</p>

12

<p>Then if i were to start a club, what would be a good subject to go into with it? A sports club?</p>

13

<p>Definitely have a match! I’d say Brown, Stanford and Columbia are low reaches, given your unbridled dedication to music. USC I would venture to say IN. Your GPA is high and if your classes were difficult all four years, as they seem to be, then I’m not sure it would really foil your chances tremendously. </p>

<p>Good luck! </p>

<p>Chance me please!
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/860949-ill-chance-you-back-weird-case.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/860949-ill-chance-you-back-weird-case.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

14

<p>How about something like Amnesty International?</p>

<p>You have a solid shot at all those schools, I mean they’re all matches or high matches, and I don’t think that being out of the 10% would hurt you much, don’t universities know how competitive a school is? Maybe you can explain somehow that there are kids who take less rigorous courses who rank higher than you.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/861355-below-average-gpa-average-ecs-chance-some-average-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/861355-below-average-gpa-average-ecs-chance-some-average-schools.html&lt;/a&gt; – I would like chances please, and of course I would return the favor =)</p>

15

<p>holy crap you have a ton of awards</p>

16

<p>Awesome!! Thanks.</p>

17

<p>Thanks guys! Any advice to become a more competitive applicant is much appreciated. I will most likely be Early Decision-ing (not a word but oh well) to Brown. Will that help me there even more?</p>

18

<p>are you a junior?</p>

19

<p>Yes, I’m a junior. For my stats I was predicting what my stats will be. I won’t let myself not get a 4.0 this year, and i have taken four practice SAT’s and seem to score around that area consistently.</p>

20

<p>you’ll get into at least one if not all of those.</p>