Please Chance me for HPSC& U of Chicago

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Name: Kevin Chu
From: Fujian, Southern China
Years in the US: 6.5yrs</p>

<p>Background info:
Parents are illiterate. Dad works in a take-out restaurant. Mom works as a nail technician.
Older sister attends Columbia College.<br>
Went to Cornell University for sophomore summer, and Stanford University of junior summer. </p>

<p>E.C.s:</p>

<p>Chinese Club, Founder and President 9/2008-present
Doubled the membership of the club to become one of the largest student-organized club in the school. Facilitated and initiated the first annual Career Day in school. Secured attendance of seven professionals: two investment bankers, news paper editor, lawyer, engineer, doctor, and marketing consultant</p>

<p>Leader’s Club, President (2009), Member (2007, 2008, 20 9/2007-present<br>
Promote and enhance the personal growth and social skills of young people in order to develop leaders who will be a positive force in their communities</p>

<p>Student Government, NEST+m, Grade Representative 9/2009-6/2010
Presidential candidate. Fundraised more than $3,500 by organizing a school dance and monthly social</p>

<p>Minds Matter, Mentee 9/2008-present
Dedicate four hours every week on preparation for standardized tests and discussions on world issues with other academically-motivated students. Engage in college visits and apply to prestigious summer programs at universities</p>

<p>Ping Pong Team, assistant coach 4/2009-present
Competed against more than 40 teams in the city and won the citywide championship in 2009. Coach ping pong to inexperienced middle school students</p>

<p>VOLUNTEER WORK</p>

<p>Chinese American Planning Council, Core Volunteer, 200 hours of community service 7/2008-present
Organized annual Walkathon for Seniors, with attendance of more than 1,200 people. Organized East Asian Culture Festival with attendance of more than 700 people. Fundraised more than $8,000 in two weeks for Walkathon for Seniors</p>

<p>Essays will be fabulous, literally. For the common app ones, I talked about my work experience at a take-out restaurant, my father's influence on me, and attached my resume for additional information. They are going to explain everything that I had been through, and elaborate on my background info. </p>

<p>Two character recommendation letters: extremely good. One of them is from a mentor of Two years-> She attended Harvard U.. The other one is from Stanford instructor, in which he states that I am better than 99% of the HS students he ever taught.<br>
For teachers recommendation letter, one is from AP Mandarin teacher who knows me personally. The other one is from AP World History. Both of them are just going to be as good as the character recommendation letters. </p>

<p>GPA Curve (weighted):
9th: 86+, 88+
10th: 95+, 96+
11th: 91+, 94+
12th: expecting 100+
I took the MOST rigorous classes in the school.</p>

<p>SAT scores are the only factors that can turn me down.
M+W+R=1800, 740+600+460
SATII MATH II: 770
SATII US HISTORY: 550
AP Mandarin: 5
AP Calc BC: 4</p>

2

<p>Please chance me!!</p>

3

<p>Everything until the end…was amazing. Your ECs really showed dedication toward the Asian American community and your essays and recommendations from your mentor and professor are probably stellar. However, you’re applying to HYP and U of Chicago and for most other CC’ers with 2200-2300 will probably still be reaches. Since you really highlighted your background in your essays and only having lived 6.5yrs in US, I think you’ll be a match for U of Chicago if you can raise 200-300 points. But, your situation is not unique as alot of other students might come from even more humbling backgrounds and less English education. Your best bet is to either retake the SAT or ACT and expand your choices to lower tier ivies or UCs.</p>

<p>Since neither I nor many of the other CC’er have been accepted to an Ivy, your sister will probably provide a more accurate prediction. If she had similar Stats and was accepted to Columbia, I don’t see why your chances should be lower. </p>

<pre><code>I really hope you can get accepted to your ideal school because we practically share identical backgrounds (Fujian, restaurant, first-gen)! haha
</code></pre>

4

<p>Colleges, especially the elite ones you’re aiming for, really like cultural stuff, so that will help you a lot in your apps if you can stress your commitment.</p>

5

<p>I don’t see why you be rejected. Your stats are amazing and flabbergasting.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1040510-please-chance-me.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1040510-please-chance-me.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>You shouldn’t post your name. See if you can get a moderator to take it down.</p>

7

<p>I dont understand how you can get 460 for CR if you can write legibly and form competent sentences like you did in your first post…are you sure thats not a typo?</p>

8

<p>@rundmc, Thank you so much for your comment! I have taken SAT for three times, but no matter how much I tried, CR score did not improve. IDK what is the reason, but I am going to ask my doctor if I have ADD. =[. As I mentioned above, SAT is the only factor that those colleges can reject me, and hopefully they wont do that. I just emailed the board of director in Asian American Community at Harvard to ask about the SAT thingy, and see if she can give me some connections. =) YAYA FUJIANESE ROCK!!! My sister told me, out of all the ppl she knows from CC, only 3 (including her) are FJs.</p>

<p>@saints2009, thank you for commenting on my post. yea I emphasized on my background info a lot. Almost every essay is tie back to it. </p>

<p>@yayoiii. thank you for your response. GUESS WHAT, WHAT YOU WROTE IS WHAT MY SISTER TELL ME ALL THE TIME, but I am really not sure… my SAT score is just way too low. =[</p>

<p>@hahalolk, =) thank you for your advise. I was aware of this, and everything above is true except my name. I can PM you my real name if you want to know. =]</p>

<p>@WaterWorks, thank you for replying to my post. Noooo, its not a typo, I only received 460 =[ I know, its really sad.</p>

9

<p>The weak freshmen grades and downward trend Junior year are offsetting; that, coupled with cripplingly low test scores and unimpressive extracurriculars (they sound incredibility exaggerated/padded) means that HYPSC and Chicago are all going to be big reaches. Hopefully schools will be a little sympathetic towards your plight.</p>

10

<p>billabongboy - What do you mean by ECs that sound “exaggerated” or “padded”? Personally I think the ECs are a little weak (compared to some ofthe internationals on this forum), and the grades and test scores are iffy.</p>

11

<p>your biggest issues are that your asian not me bro just the way it works and your awefull reading score that might keep you out of the these schools sorry chance me backhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1041167-chance-me-i-will-chance-you-back.html</p>

12

<p>That’s pretty much what I meant; people with weak ECs tend to exaggerate them anyway.</p>

13

<p>@billabongboy9828, thank you for your comment, but i DID NOT EXAGGERATE any of my ECs. What i wrote is what exactly happened. I agree with you that my freshman year & junior year grade and the was offsetting, but as for 9th grade GPA, I explained the reason it was low in my essay. For junior year, the main reason that it went down was AP Physics, which 90% of the class failed. I hope the admission officers can see that. =( And yes, I am trying to focus a lot on my background info. </p>

<p>@CoffeeEnthusiast, thank you for responding. I do not want to sound defensive or anything, but compare to the other international ECs that other students have, it is most likely that they have the resources from their parents. </p>

<p>@ticorico, thank you for replying. =[ YES, I HATE TO BE AN ASIAN</p>

14

<p>I think it might be a bit stalker-ish for me to post again but I really wanted to see what other people had to say since cause I’m like in the same/worse situation. If your chances are improbable then mine is like 0%. Anyways, despite what people said about your “weak” ECs, I think that they’re relatively strong compared to some other aspiring ive-leaguers. Did you enter the NYTimes scholarship? It seems to me that if you get it then pretty much you can go to NYU or Columbia without much obstacle. Also, I was wondering if you could give some advices on fund-raising for clubs and charities-3,500 was pretty impressive.</p>

15

<p>@rundmc. Selling lollipops is the best way to fund-raise. We ordered 1000 of them for 300 something dollars, then we sold them for 1 dollar each. In my school, ms+hs=1000+ ppl. It took us about 1.5 weeks to sell everything. Because my advisor has been in the school for 3 years, so she knows that she can do it multiple times w/ breaks in between. We did it before xmas–> that one didnt turn out well, we had some leftovers, valentine’s day–> this one was a huge success, and the last one was right before final. ++ we also do monthly social,->doesnt make money, but it encourages ppl to attend student government events. ++ dances: in school students=5 dollars, guest=10 dollars, we usually make 400 dollars. Barbecue also makes lots of money. </p>

<p>@everyone else, some of my ECs are international & national as well. Leaders Club=worldwide, Minds Matter=national, CPC=national. My mentor knows somebody from the Princeton admission office, and shes the one who reads the essays. Would that help?</p>

16

<p>@rundmc: i did apply for NYTimes, semifinalist decision comes out tomorrow.</p>

17

<p>Thank you so much for the info on fundraising. I think I might try the lollipop fundraiser because I remember selling a bunch of lollipops in elementary school for student council but I bought most of what I sold. I don’t know why but our school have only been selling chocolate bars so lollipops would be a good change. Yay for the awesome idea!</p>

<p>Good luck! Hope you win NYTimes scholarship!!!</p>