Please chance me too!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>My Stats -- </p>

<p>Ethnicity: Asian
Sex: Female
State: CA
Grad Year: 2009
Major: Computer Science! (and if I can get it, a double major in politics...)
School: Very, very competitive. Public, asian majority.<br>
Courseload: A few honors/2APs so far. I'm taking 6 AP's this year though so..
GPA*-
UW: 3.680 W: 4.09? UC: 3.9<br>
Rank: Our school doesn't rank, but I'm definitely not in the top 10%-30%, based on GPA alone. </p>

<p>*So an explanation for my GPA. I've basically gotten 1-2 B's out of 7 classes every semester 9-10th grade, but last year, I got a C in physics H both semesters, with only 5 classes. It doesn't matter that both were 79%. I realize that this looks incredibly bad for me, especially for computer science, but there's really nothing I can do about it now. I'm hoping for a high (780+) score on SAT2 Physics, but even then I'm not sure if it's enough. I had a particularly hard teacher for that class, and my grades were about the class average...</p>

<p>AP/Honors Classes Taken:</p>

<p>-AP Calculus BC (5)
-AP Chinese (5)
-Honors Physics
-Honors Pre-Calculus
-Honors Chemistry</p>

<p>Senior Year Courses:
-AP Government
-AP Economics
-AP Statistics
-AP Computer Science
-AP Biology
-AP English
-ROP Graphic Design</p>

<p>Another note here: I'm aiming for all A's for at least first semester, although I'm okay with a B or two. I know it looks like a ridiculous workload, but all these classes together are easier than physics honors alone. </p>

<p>Standardized Tests:</p>

<p>SAT: M - 740; CR - 730; W - 710; Total - 2180
SAT IIs: MathII - 720 (retaking in October), ChineseLang - 790. (Also taking Physics and Literature in Oct.)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<ul>
<li>Jv-Varsity Badminton 3 Years </li>
<li>Co-Founder & Secretary of school Role-Play club</li>
<li>Active (7 Semester) member of CSF (~100 hours)</li>
<li>One year of competition for DECA (business club), placed top 8 at norCal, did not place, but went to state.</li>
<li>Two summers of volunteering at the government Veteran's hospital (Approx. 180 hours)</li>
</ul>

<p>Other:</p>

<p>-Accepted to/spent summer of 2008 at COSMOS at UCSC for video game programming. (I heard that writing about this for UC applications helps my chances a lot?)</p>

<p>-My hobbies are reading/writing/drawing. I publish my writing to online sites such as livejournal/fictionpress.net. I sell art for virtual currency on gaiaonline.com. (This is probably extremely irrelevant though.)</p>

<p>Colleges I Want to Apply to:</p>

<p>-UCLA (first choice)
-UCSD
-UCB
-UCSB
-UCI
-Carnegie Mellon
-Cornell
-USC
-Northwestern University
-Stanford (hahaha...sigh)
-MIT</p>

<p>So before I get flamed, I understand that half my list of schools are probably ridiculous goals, but that's why I'm here right? I want honest opinions about my chances for all these schools before I decide to apply/not apply. Also, I'm really just interested in schools that are good at computer science, and these are the ones I've found. If anyone could recommend other matches for me, I'd really appreciate it. My parents don't believe in paying for public schools out of state, so I'm mostly looking for instate publics' and out of state privates'. Thank you in advance!</p>

2

<p>I don't see Stanford or MIT happening for you. In at all UC's and good chances everywhere else though.</p>

3

<p>Thank you! I didn't think I had a chance at either of those schools either, but I guess I was looking for someone else to confirm it. </p>

<p>I'm also looking for a little bit more feedback from some of the other schools, mainly: UCLA, UCB, UCSD, Cornell, and CMU. Anyone? :]</p>

4

<p>Bring
Up
My
Post
~</p>

5

<p>I'm going to be honest with you...getting into good colleges is hard for Asians. :( But I will say that if you have a poor grade in physics but you do really well on the SAT II Physics, colleges will look at the SAT II score because that's standardized.</p>

<p>...someone said it:
Stanford
MIT</p>

<p>Reaches:
Carnegie Mellon (computer science is particularly hard to get in here, you have to apply separately)
UC-Berkeley</p>

<p>Maybe?:
Northwestern
Cornell</p>

<p>Matches/Safeties:
UCLA (good chance if you apply early)
UCSD
UCSB
UCI
USC</p>

<p>Even though you said you didn't really want public out-of-state colleges, I will recommend UWashington though. They have a really good computer science program (better than the ones I put in your match/safety section), and you have a great shot of getting in. Good luck! :)</p>

6

<p>Thanks! Does anyone agree/disagree with ^?</p>

<p>And are there any other schools that could be good matches for me?</p>

7

<p>How many FEMALES are interested in computer programming though? Something tells me MIT or Stanford might like you and it really depends on your essays. I'm not saying you have a definite or even a strong chance, but it doesn't seem completely out of the picture. It'd be a miracle but not a completely unlikely one. Reach - apply, what's the worse that can happen? A thin envelope? A no?</p>

<p>Explain the role playing club a little more?</p>

8

<p>Haha somehow I doubt my gender actually makes that much of a difference. People want skill/results right? I don't know. </p>

<p>Um, so the role play club was basically something two of my friends and myself established in the beginning of our sophmore year at school. There are a couple of different aspects to it, and we have about twenty or so members that are fairly active overall. Since each club is required to do one large schoolwide activity every semester to stay active, we've done a couple of fundraisers and tournaments of sorts with varying degrees of success. </p>

<p>The club is comprised of three main parts:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Forum roleplays. We have our own forum, and we organize one major role play every year. Members are free to create other role plays in subforums, but the large roleplay is generally the one we get the most participation in. As club officers, half of us participate in order to progress the story line, and the other half of us moderate as game masters.</p></li>
<li><p>Board games/Video game rpgs. We use the funds collected from membership fees and club day sales to purchase various role playing games, including Settlers of Catan, Dungeons and Dragons, Mr. X, Munchkin, etc, and we always bring in one or two to every meeting for people to play. For video games, we mostly just discuss them (since lunch isn't really enough time to actually set up and play anything), although our club hosts socials outside of school in which we actually can play games. </p></li>
<li><p>LARPS, or (literate active role play simulations). We conned this term ourselves. These are kind of just fun pick your own adventure things, in which each member or particpant themselves pretends to become a fictional character of their own creation and they verbally respond cooperatively to situations created or narrated by the game master. These are kind of just fun things we came up with last year in order to get people more involved with the club. They were kind of successful. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>This year we're interested in adding a anime convention to our club activities, as cosplaying is another form of role-playing. </p>

<p>One interesting thing to note about this club is that, we have more female members than males, as the club founders are all female.</p>