Rising High School Junior - Chances (So far) & Advice

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
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<p>I know I'm a bit early to be asking whether I have any chances of getting accepted to Stanford, but I also started this thread to get any advice you all can possibly give me. Basically...Stanford is my dream college, always wanted to go there, yada yada, you've heard the drill. This is pretty long, but I'm desperate for advice. I'm grateful to anyone who replies.</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Asian
*first generation college student, parents don't even have high school degrees
*immigrated to US from China when I was 4-5 years old</p>

<p>Languages - Fluent: English, Mandarin, Fouzhounese (Chinese dialect)
Adequate: Cantonese, Spanish (still learning)
Learning: Korean, Japanese
** I plan on possibly majoring in Asian studies or international relations, which explains all the languages. I just love languages :) I'm very interested especially in the humanities field.</p>

<p>Freshman year GPA: 3.9 (I know Stanford doesn't really look at freshman year, but just for the record.)
Sophomore year GPA: 3.9
Junior year schedule: (All my classes are basically honors since I go to an IB school)
AP English & Composition
AP US History
Anatomy
Pre-Cal
Spanish 3
AP Psychology
IB Theory of Knowledge
Creative Writing//School Literary/Arts Magazine Staff
Teacher/office aid (I really need a free period, you'll see why in a minute).</p>

<p>Senior year schedule:
AP/IB Biology
AP Calculus
IB English
IB History of the Americas
AP Spanish
IB Geography
AP Government
possibles: IB Discrete HL, AP Physics</p>

<p>I took the ACT for the first time this summer, and received a 29. I know...not good, but I plan on taking it as many times as I can to raise it as much as possible. No SAT scores yet...will take both SAT I and SAT II's soon.</p>

<p>I'm an IB candidate and attend an "elite public high school" according to Newsweek magazine. It's one of the top-rated high schools in the United States. Like any other IB student, I'm basically forced to perfect time management skills, what with how much work we have to do.</p>

<p>My first two years of high school, I didn't really participate in EC's other than Science Club and Spanish Club, but I do have a legit reason. I work at my parent's restaurant everyday after school until about 10-11 pm so I rarely have time to do anything, much less have free time. Honestly, I barely have enough time to do schoolwork considering it IS IB and there's a crapload of homework ALL the time. In conclusion, I work about 45+ hours a week and will continue to do so until I go off to college, unfortunately. It isn't really a choice for me or my parents; I have to do it. I'm pretty much contributing to earning our family's income; it's just the way our cirumstances are. I know I sound like I'm exaggerating, but it's the truth. I also manage a lot of the things that need to be done at the restaurant because my parents are limited in speaking English, so I'm knowledgeable about business. So you can see how much responsibility is put on me as a result of my parents' lack of understanding English :/ The next two years will be absolute pain. However, I'm trying to do something about my list of EC's so starting junior year, here it is:</p>

<p>-Student Council: Junior Class President
-National Honor Society (tutoring involved)
-National Spanish Honor Society
-National English Honor Society
-Scholar's Bowl
-Habitat for Humanity officer
-Spanish Club officer
-Choir (since the 6th grade) - Singing is a passion of mine.
-tons of community service hours because of IB's CAS program
-teaching myself piano...no time for lessons so I have to go with what time I have. Like I said, I love music but was never able to get a formal music education (other than choir in school) due to family time and money issues.</p>

<p>Some awards I can think of at the moment (not that impressive though):
Super Scholar (in the top 100 scorers in the county for PSAT, sophomore year)
freshman - English & Biology Top Student awards
sophomore - English & Spanish Top Student awards
~ expecting some more for junior year :)</p>

<p>What I'm Asking: How do you think I'm doing as of now and what can I do to improve my chances of getting accepted? What are things I should emphasize, or leave out?</p>

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<p>Nutshell: Grades are fine, EC's are fine, ACT is not good.</p>

<p>Look, don't kill yourself doing every possible EC you can get your hands on. It's clear that you think you have have the same range of EC's everybody else does/will, but that's just not true. If you are truly working over 40 hours a week, that's certainly an extenuating circumstance and no reasonable person could expect you to have the breadth of EC's that some of the other candidates will.</p>

<p>Now, how you frame your job in your application will be important, but there's no sense in worrying about that right now, so stay focused on what's important. Don't sacrifice grades for participation in EC's. Amazing grades may not singlehandedly get you in, but bad grades will make you a nonstarter, so they're priority number one.</p>

<p>Priority number two is helping out your family. Enough said, really.</p>

<p>Priority number three is everything else. As you've described them here, a lot of your current EC's seem like fluff. I know you've said you're trying to turn that around, but do it carefully. What clubs or groups are you thinking of joining? Are you on the track for any leadership positions? If I'm reading you correctly, you've already got a huge leadership position with what you do at your parent's restaurant, so don't underestimate that when you're putting your application together.</p>

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<p>If you were one of the top 100 PSAT scorers in the country, why would you take the ACT?</p>

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<p>ducketgold, thanks for all that. i'll keep what you've said in mind.</p>

<p>johno12345, ...I believe you misread. it says "county," not "country." unfortunately. and anyway, it would just be National Merit if i were in the top 100 scorers of the country.</p>