Please Chance? NW, USC, BU, etc.

<p>Hello there! I'm a rising senior, applying to Northwestern, USC, BU, and NYU as a viola major, and Harvard and Columbia through their double-degree/exchange programs.</p>

<p>I'm a male Filipino from New York, but I'm on a scholarship to an arts boarding school in Michigan that I began attending this past year, also as a viola major. My first high school was a rather poor-performing school, but they did have about 5 or so people in every class going to Ivies out of around maybe 500. There were a lot of drop-outs in every grade that weren't supplanted by transfers into the school, so we sort of had attrition where the freshmen class was perhaps 600 and the seniors were around 500.</p>

<p>SAT I: 2130 (770 CR, 640 Math, 720 Writing) which will hopefully increase when I take it again in November.
Unweighted GPA: Around 3.9 at my first high school, where I was 8/548. 3.6 at this high school, due to a rough first semester (3.41), but my second semester GPA was about a 3.8. They don't do ranking at this school because of the widely varying difficulty of all the classes. Every class I took was either an Honors or AP course at my first high school, and supposedly at my current one they're all at an Honors or AP level. However, they do feel more like legitimate college courses. I think my GPA for this school will be about a 3.7 considering the first semester grades of next year.
SAT IIs: 800 Bio E, 740 in Lit - Lit was self-studied.
APs: 5 on AP Music Theory, 4 on Bio, took AP Lit, Lang, Chem, and Stats - expecting a 5 on all except Chem, which may be a 4. All of them except for Music Theory and Stats were self-studied.</p>

<p>Senior courseload: Perhaps a little bit on the "easy" side academically - I'll have 4 credits each of math, science, and English, but 3 and a half in SS/history.</p>

<p>ECs:
Orchestra (obviously), 9th-10th grade - I was a violinist in my school orchestra, and I led some sectionals. Rehearsals were every school day. I also formed a string quintet which performed at a concert. Every year, we did a side-by-side concert with the Long Island Philharmonic, and one of the violists actually recruited me into her studio at Mannes Prep.
GSA treasurer, 9th-10th grade - I'm a little bit hesitant to include this, because it doesn't speak much to me, given that it's not a leadership role at first glance.
Violin/viola tutor, 9th-10th grade - This was a pretty weird thing. I sort of walked around giving lessons to other students when I could, and I have no clue how many hours I spent doing it. Whenever I come back home for vacation, I do the same thing. It's a lot of "audition-prep" type of stuff.
Youth orchestra and chorus, 10th grade - Was a violinist and a vocalist. Maybe about 4-5 hours a week, combined?
Mannes Prep, 10th grade - Every Saturday, I went into the city and basically went through a conservatory curriculum - a private lesson on viola, ear-training, music theory, chamber music, etc. </p>

<p>Orchestra, 11th grade - No-brainer here. Played a large solo in our yearly ballet production, if that helps.
Chamber music, 11th grade - Was in a string quartet and trio.
Acapella group, 11th grade - Not much to say about this one, either - I arranged a couple songs, but we never performed my arrangements. Was cool, though.
Student newspaper, 11th grade - I wrote an article every month for the student newspaper and did a slight bit of editing, too. They were pretty well thought-out pieces - one was about how selective colleges would give low-income students great FA (Harvard), and how other places would give high-achieving students a lot of merit aid (UAla), and another was a refutation of the common saying that classical music is dying.
Hall assistant, 11th grade - Made door decorations for my residents, sat on desk duty, etc.
"Call Center", 11th grade, 2nd semester - I actually called former donors on my high school's behalf and requested them to donate again, which was very, very awkward, especially because this was the first year (and semester) of the program. Altogether, we raised somewhere around 2-3k that semester, which was cool.
Online lessons, 11th grade - I gave/currently give lessons to other low-income students via Skype, whether on viola or violin. Some of them are actually planning on auditioning for music schools, which is cool!</p>

<p>In 12th grade, I'm likely keeping my student newspaper, acapella, and lesson gigs, and I'll also be tutoring kids in music theory. And of course, I'll be in orchestra and chamber music.</p>

<p>Honors:
Likely National Merit Commended
Anthony Quinn Scholarship winner (National scholarship that provides up to 3k to a summer arts program that I specify, although I received a 2k scholarship that I ended up declining.)
QuestBridge College Prep scholar, invited to Northwestern, possibly a Match Finalist next year
Possibly AP Scholar with Distinction
Fellowships to the National Symphony Orchestra's summer institute and the National Music Festival. I'm the youngest one ever admitted thus far to NMF.
Silver Key and Honorable Mention from National Art and Writing Awards in poetry.
Maybe (??) having poetry published in PolyphonyHS.</p>

<p>In 12th grade I'm going the competition route - a couple competitions like Stulberg and Fischoff, YoungArts, NAWA, etc. I started playing viola in 10th grade, and began writing poetry only this year, so I'm still looking for my style.</p>

<p>I'm a low-income, first-gen college student. I've got a single mother and a brother who's about to start going to an arts college as well. I speak English and I'm learning how to speak Tagalog fluently - ideally I'll be able to converse well by the end of the summer. I'm also a younger student - was skipped a grade - will they look at my achievements in light of that?</p>

<p>I don’t know if I’m allowed to bump this, but it’s about to fall to the second page without so much as a message, so…
Also, forgot to mention that I did theatre, both in and outside school, in 10th grade, although I’m not allowed to audition for any here at my school.</p>

<p>Bump, I suppose. Anyone here?</p>

<p>Bump again.</p>