<p>Hey guys, I just wanted to see if any of you recommended any colleges and admission chances for me. I'm kind of undecided basically on where I really should apply to and put my effort into instead of applying somewhere I have no chance of being accepted.</p>
<p>Criteria?</p>
<p>current asian junior at a Washington public school
from a middle class family
first two years of high school were in an Oregon public school</p>
<p>GRADES
3.917 unweighted cumulative GPA
40/503 class rank</p>
<p>3 B's so far:
1 in Health freshman year (don't ask)
2/3 trimesters of AP US History sophomore year</p>
<p>3/6 AP classes currently</p>
<p>ACTIVITIES
cross country jv (2 years) - most inspirational
swimming jv (2 years) - stopped due to change in schools and state
Key Club (3 years) - historian last year, vice president next year
Diversity Committee (2 years) - secretary this year, possible vice president</p>
<p>TESTING</p>
<p>610 critical reading
660 writing
700 math
(trying to work on these)</p>
<p>640 on sat u.s. history subject test</p>
<p>4 on AP US History exam</p>
<p>VOLUNTEERING WORK</p>
<p>I haven't done any continuous, regular volunteering. Usually my volunteering is through Key Club. I recently moved right before junior year so adjusting to the change has been difficult and it's been a slow process. I am going to start volunteering at the hospital this summer and through my senior year.</p>
<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated! And I am Asian, meaning my parents are Asian, meaning prestigious school to them is the Ivy League, Stanford, and that's about it. So if there's even any chance I could get into a school with that caliber, please do so and tell me! Even though my chances are probably meager.</p>
<p>Your Academic Index (you can find more on this here:) </p>
<p><a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/academic_index.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeconfidential.com/academic_index.htm</a></p>
<p>is 195--meaning you will have better stats than 22% of the students that apply to the Ivy leagues schools, and worse stats than 78% of those that apply. This means your odds of acceptance to any of these schools and/or Stanford is slim to none.</p>
<p>However, your chance of getting into other good schools is possible if you do well on your SAT II tests and if you can get more leadership/academic achievement/volunteering extracurriculars into your application. This means you should start working on this immediately--starting with this summer. Get a job, do volunteer work, start figuring out what kind of service clubs you can get involved in that is related to your interests and you do that.</p>
<p>Then you might have a chance at getting into really good schools like Ohio State, NYU, and even John Hopkins (although you will also need to improve your SAT critical reading score by about 70 points to get into John Hopkins).</p>
<p>P.S. Many Asian parents (and Indian parents) as a group seem to think that only "Ivy league" schools are acceptable. Only in time do they realize that there are hundreds, if not thousands of schools that can provide a positive college experience, and can lead to productive careers. With your current stats, you can get into many in the top 35 to 75 range--and if you improve as I've described above, you may get into the top 20 to 35 range also--although the Ivies (which are all top 15 schools) are really unlikely.</p>
<p>I should also add that putting too much pressure on children--as is done by some parents--leads to disfunctional children in some cases--and is even partly responsible for kids feeling isolated and sometimes committing violent acts. So talk to your parents and get them to understand that not getting into an Ivy isn't so bad. Explain that you are a good kid and will do your best and be successful whereever you go to college.</p>
<p>If they don't believe you--send them to college confidential. The other parents on here will set them straight.</p>
<p>Best of success.</p>
<p>your gpa/rank alone reveal massive grade inflation, but when gpa is compared to your SATs it reveals even more massive grade inflation... if you want to prove to colleges that you are really really smart then youre going to have to pull up the SAT/SAT2 scores</p>
<p>Even if I did send them here to have them read what you wrote, my parents aren't budging people. I try to explain to them the amount of college choices I have, but they do not budge. You can try as much as you can, but they won't.</p>
<p>My choices right now (because I do not work therefore currently I will not pay for the majority of my tuition) are to either go to UW (which for me is probably a safety or a good match I would think), Stanford, an Ivy League, or to go to a school of my choice as long as it ends up being the same cost as UW in-state tuition. Seeing as how I'd much rather go to a smaller private school, the UW in-state tuition compared to any other school out of state or private is a very big gap. Scholarships would help, but it'd have to be a lot of scholarships and a lot of aid.</p>
<p>And yes, it's a lot of pressure. But usually the pressure I get is from myself, and I would never do something like commit a violent act to relieve that pressure. That's not the type of person I am. But I understand why you said what you said.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Let me clarify my remarks here--I did not mean to imply this was applicable to only Asians and Indans. This kind of pressure is something that a lot of parents put on their children, regardless of ethnic background--and is not limited to these groups. Please excuse me for not being clearer in my original remarks (this stuff happens when one writes at one of clock in the morning).</p>
<p>As far as your choices, I wish you well at the schools you mentioned. It sounds like you are considering good ones.</p>
<p>Lastly, I should not have discussed the pressure you might feel--other than to let you know that there are others who are on here who can help you if you felt isolated. Obviously, that is not the case, and I'm glad that kind of pressure is not what you meant.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you--and good luck with your applications (and with your ECs and any retakes of the SATs).</p>
<p>bumppppppppppppppp</p>
<p>bump..... sorry folks!</p>
<p>i'd just like to get some real advice here.</p>
<p>i would really like to find some good medium colleges
i.e. not ivy league, but not uwashington</p>
<p>rice university? what's my chance there?
or bowdoin? uchicago (probably slim if at all)?
carnegie mellon? reed? scripps?</p>
<p>or do you recommend any good match schools?
that aren't hugely big, under 10,000 ideally
and can give good financial aid?</p>
<p>Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall, Layfayette - all in Pennsylvania are all options and you might receive merit aid. There have been several threads listing schools that offer good merit aid - you could get some ideas there, and then check the school website for particulars to see if you might qualify. A friend's son received a Marquis scholarship to Layfayette with numbers similar to yours although he had stronger ECs. Is there anyway you could boost your ECs this summer by volunteering? Talk to your parents, school counselor, parent's friends, etc for ideas.</p>
<p>I'd go for UCLA and UCB, although you are an out of state student your GPA is extremley high. You do need to work on your SAT's, but that is not something that summer work can't do. Good luck</p>
<p>UCLA - IN
UCB - Reach</p>
<p>Try to get at least 700 on the rest of the SAT II's you're taking; as for SAT I, you'll certainly be able to raise them.</p>
<p>Reed and Scripps are likely. I think you would fit in well at Scripps, but I don't know about Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>I agree that Dickinson and Whitman might be options as well!</p>
<p>Hey I'm from Washington too (: And Asian, so I know what it feels like to have that pressure from parents.</p>
<p>Have you considered Whitman? And it seems like you'd have a pretty good chance at UC schools as well. </p>
<p>A lot of your chances ride on what happens junior year, I would say work on developing a focus on what you want to concentrate on and pursue those during the summer. Aiming for a varsity sport next year would also be a good idea.</p>
<p>Where in Washington? SW? Or Bellevue? Where most of the Asians are..... ahah</p>
<p>I've looked at Whitman, and I somewhat like it, but somewhat don't. I'm still not sure yet. If I go to college, I would really like to go out-of-state, or where it's at least 8 hours away from where I live. And I'm really, really, really not a big fan of Washington. I don't like Seattle, and I don't like the city in which I live. I'm applying to UW for the only reason that it's my backup and it's probably a likely chance I will get in (if my brother can get in, then I should be no problem....). But I do not want to go there, deathly.</p>
<p>Since you're Asian, I'm sure you know what it feels like. We're crazy basically. It's more of our parents being crazy though.</p>
<p>I don't know for sure what I'm doing this summer - I'm going to start volunteering at the hospital in the summer through senior year though. My friend just asked me yesterday if I wanted to go to Costa Rica this summer to volunteer -- random, but she asked me. But money is a predicament, and I'm not sure how much my parents are willing to invest in going to Costa Rica, although I would go in a second if I could.</p>