Quadrilingual Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>North African male at extremely competitive Seattle-area public school.
4.14 Weighted, class rank is unknown (my school ranks, I just don’t know)</p>

<p>I am fluent in four languages: English, Arabic, French, and Spanish.</p>

<p>SAT I:
National Merit Commended, SATs expected 2100+ (took june test)</p>

<p>SAT II:
740 Spanish 700 US History 690 Biology-E (will probably retake)</p>

<p>AP:
I will probably be in the top 3 or 4 or of my class in terms of number of AP classes taken, (out of a class of 350). Also, I will be the only student in recent memory at my school to have taken both AP Spanish and French Lit.</p>

<p>13 AP’s by graduation, 15 tests (took Euro and French Lang w/o the classes)
French Lang: 5
French Lit: 5
English Lang: 5
English Lit: 5*
World History: 5
Spanish Lang: 5*
Spanish Lit
US History
Biology
Photography
Calc AB
Chemistry
US Government (not sure if this is the official name)
Comparative Gov (not sure if this is the official name)
Macro-Econ (maybe)</p>

<p>*Practice scores</p>

<p>Achievements, etc.</p>

<p>NEWSPAPER</p>

<p>Chief Copy Editor and Political Columnist<br>
 A 2006 Gold Crown publication, as designated by the Colombia Scholastic Press Association.
 Chief Copy Editor (2006-07)
 News Editor and Copy Editor (2005-06)
 Political Columnist (2005-06)
 Attendee, JEA/NSPA Journalism Conference in Seattle (April 2005)
 Assistant Opinion Editor and Political Columnist (2004-05)</p>

<p>DEBATE</p>

<p>I would list my debate awards here, but they are too long and won’t mean much to you unless you do debate. Needless to say, I have three tournament titles, am ranked the 3rd returning debater on the west coast (according to NDR, an unofficial but extremely comprehensive ranking. again, for you debaters out there, I too am not a big fan of NDR but hey, if my ranking sounds good whatever)</p>

<p>President
 Treasurer (2003-04)
 Vice President (2004-05)
 Co-President (2005-06)
 Revived the debate program, turning my school into a regional powerhouse—the #1 ranked team in Washington state, with two debaters in the Varsity top five.
 Increased membership from 3-5 to 15 -20 competitors.
 Taught new students how to debate, spending at least 2 hours at twice-weekly meetings teaching and drilling new students.
 My novices have consistently appeared in late elimination rounds, including finals, at various tournaments in both JV and novice divisions.
 Wrote and submitted a PTSA grant for to hire a coach, arguing the critical value of debate in intellectual development. The PTSA committee, which usually does not distribute funds for contracted services (coaching) granted us $750 (March 2006).
 Spearheaded the creation of a team web-site, involving a blog for results and designing a tournament sign-up interface.
 Attendee, Victory Briefs Debate Institute at UCLA, Summer 2004 (Intermediate Varsity), Summer 2005 (Advanced Varsity).</p>

<p>DECA</p>

<p>Competing in the Financial Analysis Decision Making Event:
 Placed in the Top 10 at the International Conference (Dallas, Texas) [over 13,000 total attendees/competitors from across North America]
 Washington State Champion
 Washington National Qualifier
 Regional Champion (Area IV)
 State Qualifier (Area IV)
 Superior Test Score Award (Area IV)</p>

<p>Arabic Independent Study:</p>

<p>I have been studying arabic on the weekends since 1st grade, since 9th grade i’ve been spending 6 hours a week (4 with tutor, 2 homework) studying at grade level, supplemented with some advanced college-level textbooks (I think they are Georgetown U. Press, message me if you want the complete citation)</p>

<p>PHOTOGRAPHY:</p>

<p>My work has been displayed at the largest shopping mall in the region this year and two years ago.</p>

<p>INTERNSHIP (last summer, will be going back this summer and doing even better stuff)
Library of Alexandria (<a href=“http://www.bibalex.org%5B/url%5D”>www.bibalex.org</a>) - A UNESCO cultural institution
Alexandria, Egypt</p>

<p> Participant, Forum for Egyptian Democracy
 Digitized (scanned and OCRed) the official UNESCO history of the Library (English and French)
 Debuted the Library Special Collections programme, creating the first Special Collection to be placed on the Library website as an example for all those interested in creating their own special collection (mine documented the evolution of High School Lincoln-Douglas debate websites).
 International School for Information Science (ISIS) web site
- Edited the English version of the web site prior to publishing
- Translated into French
 Assisted in the curricular development of a Technical Writing course destined to become a requirement for 800 Library staff members.
 Edited, translated and wrote portions of the script for a promotional video regarding the Gamal Abdel Nasser Collection and the Description d’Egypte DVD, the first digital publication of the French body of research on Egypt dating from Napoleon’s campaign.</p>

<p>So there you have it (I am also taking up rowing, but that’s another story)</p>

<p>I’m looking at (semi-ordered):</p>

<li>University of Cambridge (UK) - both grandparents received BA, MA, PhD from here</li>
<li>Harvard (Early?) - dad received MA and PhD from here, and retired prof will write me a rec</li>
<li>University of Chicago</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>Georgetown</li>
<li>UPenn Huntsman</li>
<li>UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles, UC Santa Barbara </li>
<li>McGill</li>
<li>University of Washington</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Boston College - mom received PhD from here, worked as a researcher here for 20 years</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>NYU Stern</li>
<li>Middlebury</li>
</ol>

<p>So go ahead, rate my chances and add any recommendations you may have.</p>

2

<p>ramses88:</p>

<p>UCB/UCLA: Slight Reach (out of state)
UCSB: Safe Match (out of state)</p>

3

<p>you have an excellent shot at just about any university you want to attend, except for cambridge i'm not sure what their requirements are and how admission works for them.</p>

<p>but if you really want to go to harvard you should do the early decision to get the max out of your legacy status.</p>

4

<p>since you are so strong, if you can improve you SAT a bit I think that ll make you invincible</p>

5

<p>For Harvard - If your SAT reasoning is above a 2160, you'll be in a great place. You'll definitely want to retake the Subject Tests in October though...try and get 2 others above a 720. I'm guessing if you study for US History and Bio and retake, you'll be alright...but just in case, take a third one. Perhaps Math IIC?</p>

<p>Colleges love people with cultural experience -- it makes their campus more worldly! This includes Harvard. So if you emphasize this and the 4 languages you speak in your application, I'm sure it will help you out a great deal.</p>

<p>On your app, list ALL of your debate awards, regardless of how "lengthy" it seems. Even if they don't understand any of it, the sheer size of the list will probably tell the adcoms "Wow, we've got somebody who is serious about debate and politics!"</p>

<p>Internship to Alexandria makes you even more awesome.</p>

<p>So yeah, I'd say you have a fair shot at Harvard. Nothing is garuanteed, but you definitely have a lot working for you. And even if you don't get in there, you'll certainly be admitted to at least one of the other places mentioned before. But, you don't have any safeties on there besides UCSB and University of Washington...UC Davis would make an excellent safety, and I would reccommend applying there too, since it's only another $70 and a check mark on the application.</p>

<p>All that being said...you might want to size down your list a lot. Why are you applying to places like Princeton, Middlebury, and Cornell, when they all have totally different cultures from Harvard, Georgetown, and even Boston College? You don't need to apply to so many reaches and matches, so I would strongly suggest sizing down your list a bit just by considering what you want from a college, both academically and socially.</p>

<p>OH, and find out your Unweighted GPA and your Class Rank, as both of those are serious factors in admissions. You want your UW GPA to be AT LEAST a 3.7 and Class Rank in the top 15% to have a shot at many of the places you listed, although there are always exceptions.</p>

6

<p>Impossible to say without rank and actual SATs. All we know is that you have good 9not national level great) ECs. A 2100 would be too low for many of your schools which makes us really need to know class rank. As you have highly educated parents and go to a competitive school, much will be expected of you. Harvard, even as a legacy, will expect you to be top 5%. And I thought H doesn't give legacy status to kids of grad school graduates. Huntsman with a 2100 is a looooong shot. Middlebury level schools should be matches with a 2100.</p>

7

<p>If anything at all keeps you out it will be your SAT and SATII scores. Use the summer to study for a subject test. If you can manage an 760-800 on one subject, and you get 720s or so on the CR and math, you (should) be in for almost all.</p>

<p>ps- I don't think being north african will get you anything. Schools will see you as Arabic.</p>

8

<p>Yay McGill!</p>

9

<p>does this candidate get any sort of URM status or special consideration given his minority background (i.e. can being a north african help him)?</p>

10

<p>URM is determined by race not region of origin....ie there would be a difference between black north african, "arab" north african, etc. Of course some see north african as a ethnic group but I don't want to assume anything. However the international background might change things - some colleges differentiate between first generation and immigrant "URM's" and otherwise I think...ie lets say a south asian applying to say carleton college who just came here in 10th grade vs. a south asian who had grandparents who came here. Not sure how many colleges are doing that though. One thing is for sure though, having all of those EC's and being an international would be viewed as adding to the diversity of the campus.</p>

11

<p>NERDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1</p>

<p>Do u have any time for friends/social life....well, i guess that wouldnt be a problem anyway....wow...i would kill myself if i did all the things that u do</p>

12

<p>lol you may have just killed your membership bud</p>

13

<p>"Do u have any time for friends/social life....well, i guess that wouldnt be a problem anyway....wow...i would kill myself if i did all the things that u do"
all i'm going to say is... you'd be very surprised.</p>

<p>so just to clarify, my unweighted is going to be between a 3.6 and a 3.7 by the time I apply (this is a realistic projection.)</p>

<p>in terms of my background, I was born in Boston. ethnically, I am mixed arab and nubian, meaning I am in a slightly hazy gray area when it comes to URM status. </p>

<p>I completely agree with the people who think that my academics are not outstanding on their own, but I think i am a pretty interesting test case as to how much EC's actually matter and how much academics actually matter, so thats why any and all input is appreciated. Basically I'm trying to sell myself as the "worldly scholar" who is "well-rounded" and will grow strongly into a specific niche.</p>

<p>Finally, I do plan on listing my debate awards and stuff, I just didnt want to list them out here for you guys. Also, I put all those colleges out to hear suggestions as to which i should take off that list-- so feel free to comment on that list as well.</p>

14

<p>There is no mystery as to how much ECs count at the very top colleges, just a lot of people who haven't done their homework. Without an EC that makes you a prodigy (Harvard turned down an olympic medalist with in range stats this year), ECs don't even matter if you don't get over the GPA and SAT hump. Half of the class at every top school is made up of recruited athletes, URMs, development candidates, legacies, the few real prodigies and kids of the famous. The other half needs to make up for their below average (on the whole) scores. As far as the worldly scholar bit, I go to school with many, many people who speak multiple languages and truly are worldly scholars in that they have studied on several continents. Many got into ivies. All had supporting stats.</p>

15

<p>chill out, I'm not saying I'm better than people who have great academics, and I personally don't think I have much of a shot at ivies-- I'm asking an honest question, not claiming to be superior. </p>

<p>out of curiosity, where do you go to school?</p>

16

<p>I go to a very, very competitive school in Andover MA.</p>

17

<p>
[Quote]

Harvard turned down an olympic medalist with in range stats this year

[/Quote]
</p>

<p>Schools tend to do this just to say they do it.</p>

18

<p>obviously it's competitive enough for you to have amassed 2450 posts on a website about college admissions in your spare time. </p>

<p>(i know philips andover is an extremely competitive school, but that doesnt mean you get to be arrogant)</p>

19

<p>I was arrogant before I got here. But seriously, the "worldly scholar" approach from a guy in Seattle defines arrogance.</p>

20

<p>yeah, i mean, seattle is just a backwater hickville. it's not like anything or anyone of global implications ever came out of here. </p>

<p>wait...</p>