<p>About me: Junior, 15 years old, asian
Location: Northville, MI (upper-middle class)
School: Pretty competive HS, pretty good (I don't know rank)
HS GPA: 3.6-3.7 unweighted (we don't have weighted GPA, and our GPA system is messed up. A- = 3.67, B+ = 3.33, but the GPA I wrote down is the one I'll have according to U of M's GPA scale, my normal GPA is about the same anyways though)
Workload:
Junior Year:
One of the hardest workloads possible, 2 APs (taking AP Euro + AP Bio now), 3 Honors, and rest are all normal/harder academic courses. No blowoffs or elective classes.
Sophomore Year:
One of the hardest workloads possible, 1 AP (AP Psych - 4), 2 Honors, rest all normal/harder academic courses. Just one blowoff (gym).
In summary, I'm taking the hardest classes possible. I plan on taking 4-5 APs next year too and rest honors or something.
SAT/ACT Scores:
2000+ SAT, 30+ ACT (that's would I should score)
Extracurriculars:
FIRST Robotics (9-10) - Did pretty good at regionals (top 5 in two of them), won a bunch of rewards
Varisty Tennis (10-12) - Playing 1 doubles, or 1-4 singles, depends if we stack lol. Won division/conference, third at regionals. Hopefully we'll do better this year and next.
Quiz Bowl (9-11) - Didn't do good, not bad either though
Science Olympia (11-12) - Got a couple of rewards, can't remember which right now
German Club (9-11) - Nothing special here either
I'm getting a job, and getting some more extracurriculars to make this section look nicer though.
National Honors Society (10-12)</p>
<p>Big List of Possible Schools:
University of Michigan (it's instate, and my dad is alumni, so those two things should help)
Carnegie Mellon (my aunt went there, don't know if that helps)
University of Pennsylvania
Columbia University
University of California - Berkeley
Dartmouth College
Northwestern University
University of Virginia
University of Chicago
NYU
University of North Carolina
University of Texas
University of Southern California
I know alot of them are reach or unlikely with my GPA but let's see what you guys have to say. Feel free to shoot me down :P</p>
<p>Mostly intrested in U of M since it'll be cheap since it's instate and public. I'm intrested in business or computer science, so if anyone could suggest some other good schools that I could get into with my stats, and some safety schools, that would be nice.</p>
<p>I'm getting 700-800 Math, 600-700 on both CR and Writing. Oh, and for ACT I'm getting high 30's on science + math, but doing badly on reading/writing, only getting like high 20's :/</p>
<p>Well, our school doesn't weigh anything, and lots of people have higher GPA's then me (good thing we don't have ranks anymore). Not to mention, like...100% of the asians I know have 4.0 UW. :P</p>
<p>Um, I don't know if we're both seeing the same thing...</p>
<p>I'm Asian too, and I don't see any of my Asian friends dying if they don't get an A. </p>
<p>A 3.7 is FINE. I will keep spreading it around CC until people get it....it's okay not to have a perfect GPA! Even if you're...<em>GASP!</em> dun dun dun...ASIAN!</p>
<p>Do you have any idea as to where your GPA puts you in class rank? Its hard to tell where you stand by just GPA - it really depends on how much grade inflation there is at you school. </p>
<p>At this point, your list is probably a little top-heavy. CMU school of CS and Columbia are the most difficult. UVA and UNC are extremely conpetitive out of state - and a high GPA is important to both of these. Its fine to have some reaches on your list - but you need some solid matches. U of Rochester or Case would be schools in the category (assuming you do as well as you hope on the SAT's). UMich should be ok. Of the remaining schools, USC, NW and UChicago would fall somewhere in the reasonalbe reach / reachy match category. Remember that your junior year grades your most important marks - a rising trend will will likely help you. </p>
<p>Concentrating on your existing EC's (especially the robotics) is probably better than joining a passle more. One more is ok if its a really good one - but not at the expense of your grades. Tennis is heathful and fun as well as being potentially useful in admissions, so that's a keeper!</p>
<p>And Kriegz, gym is required, and there are only 2 honors courses avaliable at our school as a sophmore, and your not even allowed to take AP unless you have special permission from your teacher/counselor. And most kids take the easy version of classes. For example, we have Chemistry, and then General Chemistry, most kids will take general chemistry. However, we have no honors chemistry. </p>
<p>And our "class rank" was so off, that they destroyed it this year. This is due to the fact, you can take like 7 electives and get A's in all of them, and end up with a 4.0 UW, and thus be ranked #1. I'm guessing that I would rank at least around top 10%. I would concentrate more on Robotics, but we no longer have a team. Alot of the FIRST teams no longer have sponsors, becuase either GM or Ford (don't remember which), withdrew all support. Delphi is now bankrupt (so I don't think they are sponsoring anyone anymore). I think our team has about one week to raise 20,000$. We are currently in negotiations with some companies, but in all honesty, I don't think we'll get enough money. Thanks for the advice though :)</p>
<p>"We are currently in negotiations with some companies, but in all honesty, I don't think we'll get enough money."</p>
<p>That seriously sucks - I very sorry to hear this. If you don't get funding, make sure it gets mentioned in your app.</p>
<p>If you are within the top 10% even with the unweighted ranking that's good - but Columbia/CMU CS are still longshots - applying is fine as long as you are aware of the odds.</p>