please (Harvard, Stanford, Duke, Vandy , ?)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey, thanks in advance for your feedback!</p>

<p>I go to a magnet school, ranked 22 in the country by Newsweek</p>

<p>GPA: 4.775 w 4.000 uw</p>

<p>Rank: 1 / 90</p>

<p>ACT: 34</p>

<p>Critical Reading: 700
Math: 710
Writing: 780
(Will retake)</p>

<p>Chem: 780 (will take Math I and II)</p>

<p>Junior Schedule:
AP Psych
AP Chem
Chem Research
AP Language
AP Calc AB
AP US History
+ 2 college courses at UF (Honors Seminar on Medical Neurosci & Lab research)</p>

<p>Senior Schedule:
AP Calc BC
AP Physics C
AP Bio
AP Lit
AP Computers A
Multimedia (mandatory)</p>

<p>ECs:
Big Brothers Big Sisters (President)
School Newspaper
National Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society
Speech and Debate Honor Society (Degree of Honor)
Math Honor Society /Mu Alpha Theta</p>

<p>Awards and stuff: </p>

<p>National Merit (Commended)
Intel ISEF finalist – The Inhibitory Effects of Taste on Pain (Medicine & Health)
Designed and raced model hydrogen fuel cell car
1st in state competition – qualified by interview to rep. US at internationals
International Youth Fuel Cell Competition:
1st place performance in fork-lift competition
1st place engineering
2nd place Quiz Bowl
3rd place vehicle race
Exhibitor at several expos on renewable energy/conservation</p>

<p>Summer programs:
2 summers at Duke TiP ~ courses on neuroscience and astrobiology
University of Florida SSTP-CPET
High school / college credit
Research w/ mentor on Taste and Pain (7 weeks 200+ lab hours)</p>

<p>Volunteering: 100 hours Big Brothers Big Sisters
100 hours as teacher assistant at local science center summer program</p>

<p>I plan to major in biomedical engineering, and eventually attend Med school.</p>

<p>These are the colleges I am planning to apply to:</p>

<p>Stanford
Harvard
Duke
Vanderbilt (can/will only attend with 75% tuition)
Johns Hopkins BME
University of Florida (in-state)</p>

<p>Any suggestions?</p>

<p>thanksss</p>

2

<p>Its a crap-shoot for everybody.
Raise your SAT scores, and you got a shot.</p>

3

<p>S,H,D are crap-shoots
JHU is likely
(this is only based n my knowldege)</p>

4

<p>You're in at University of Florida, but I'm guessing that's your safety anyway. I'm betting you'll get into JHU and Vandy, but those are both slight reaches. Stanford and Harvard are reaches for everyone, their admissions are really a crapshoot. Duke falls somewhere between JHU and Harvard - it's a reach, but a realistic one, I'd say. Good luck!</p>

5

<p>Stanford REACH
Harvard REACH
Duke IN
Vanderbilt IN
Johns Hopkins IN
University of Florida IN</p>

6

<p>thanks.
What is lacking in my app, besides higher SAT? Will raising it really improve my chances esp for Duke...I know Harvard/Stanford are always a "crap-shoot".</p>

7

<p>I'm a firm believer in scores=check points to just see if the scores correlate to the rest of the application (APs, GPA etc).</p>

<p>Work on the essay. Make it unique and stand out. Highlight your best PERSONAL parts (NOT achievements) while still conveying a sense of accompishment and potential. That's the thing that'll make/break you. </p>

<p>Eh, but I'm in the same boat as you are - rising senior vying for the few top spots - so you should take my advice with a grain of salt. How much can a ickly 17 year old really know anyways? ;)</p>

8

<p>Isn't ISEF finalist considered a hook?</p>

9

<p>There are over 1,500 ISEF finalists, though, so it's not that much of a hook. As long as you do some viable research and are able to attend the thing, you can easily be a finalist.</p>

10

<p>you are a finalist by getting to internationals, so all you have to do is attend...you might not even have to do that?</p>

11

<p>I beg to differ sumzup. LISEF (Long Island Science and Engineering Fair) is held in NY to get into ISEF. Our school had 15+ kids who moved on to second round of LISEF but didn't get ISEF. FYI, our school had 6 semi-finalists and 2 finalists in INTEL. One of the finalist INTEL project got 3rd overall in her category at LISEF. So no, its not easy to be ISEF finalist if you are in NY.</p>

12

<p>ha Florida is hard too. Now some of those other states were a joke (sorry)...</p>