<p>I'm a fairly ordinary California Indian (from India) senior in high school. Come from upper middle class family. Here are my stats:</p>
<p>GPA: 4.31 UW / 3.97 W (most likely top 10%)</p>
<p>SAT: 2110 first time and 2130 second time (760 math / 740 english / 630 reading)</p>
<p>SAT II: 800 math II and 780 bio M</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
3 years of high school tennis
2 years of band
~175 hours of volunteering
Member of Youth Action Council (2 years)
NHS Club member (2 years)
CSF Club member (2 years)
UNICEF Club member (4 years)
Science Alliance Club (3 years)
Tech Club Secretary (1 year)
Participated in SCU SEEDS program
iOS game developer (working on game with friends and hope to publish asap)
small internship at startup tech company</p>
<p>Some Questions:
*On my mom's side, I am first generation to go to college (but I am guessing this doesn't count because my dad went to college in India).
*Are these OK extracurriculars?
*Does getting a bad ACT(25-28) score negate my OK sat score?
*Its been a year since I've taken the SAT but should I take it again?
*How do I convince my parents to let me go out of state?</p>
<p>Colleges I want to apply to:
Carnegie Mellon University (kind of a dream school)
UC Berkeley
UC Los Angeles
UC San Diego
Georgia Tech
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
Cal Poly</p>
<p>Your stats are strong enough that CMU is a match (congrats you might end up your dream school)!</p>
<p>*On my mom’s side, I am first generation to go to college (but I am guessing this doesn’t count because my dad went to college in India).
No, you will probably not be considered first generation. Read the official definition of first generation on the application to confirm this, but probably no.</p>
<p>*Are these OK extracurriculars?
Yes</p>
<p>*Does getting a bad ACT(25-28) score negate my OK sat score?
Just don’t submit your ACT score, your SAT score is stronger. Schools let you choose what tests you submit as long as you have at least the ACT or the SAT with two subject tests (the policy might be slightly different at some schools).</p>
<p>*Its been a year since I’ve taken the SAT but should I take it again?
I would, you could probably get it up to a 2200 which would make you a stronger applicant.</p>
<p>*How do I convince my parents to let me go out of state?
So I have had to deal with this because of distance and financial reasons…
Depends on the reason they want you to stay in-state. If it is a distance thing talk about how there are more options on the East coast and together create a radius in the distance from home that you can go (mine is 10 hours driving distance, but since you want CMU I would push for a 6 hour plane ride). If it is financial reasons make some sort of compromise/s. Figure out what will need to happen so that your parents are not worrying. The compromises in my family were that I would pay for the application fee for out of state schools, I am only looking at schools that meet 100 percent of demonstrated financial need and if I got into two similar schools with one being in-state I would pick that one (that being said if I got into one top LAC but not any other top 10 LACs or something along those lines the super competitive one would win). Really it depends on your families reasons, talk to them and try and find a solution.</p>
<p>Thank you for the quick response but I’m still not too confident. I’m a guy, and from what I’ve been reading on this forum, it is a lot harder for guys to get into top engineering programs. Do I still have a decent chance even though I am a guy? Also, what are my chances at Berkeley? That is the school my parents want me to go to the most and seeing that is relatively inexpensive and a top tier engineering college, it is the place I would most likely attend if I were admitted.</p>