Rising Junior- Chance me and PLEASE help me build my resume!

<p>Hi, everyone. I am a rising Junior at an average-competitive (very competitive between top ranking students) school who wants to go into Pre-med. I couldn't help but panic when looking at some other fantastic resumes on College Confidential and decided to post. I feel like I have a big hole in my resume due to a lack of awards. If you could suggest competitions for me (preferably STEM, but will gladly accept any suggestions), I would be very grateful. :-j </p>

<p>Summer before Freshman Year-
Biology
Health
(took these classes to advance)</p>

<p>Freshman Year-
Honors Alg II
Adv English (no Honors offered, highest level at my school)
Chemistry
Spanish I
String Orchestra
AJROTC (and another class highly recommended for AJROTC)</p>

<p>Summer-
Biotechnology I (class offered at my school)</p>

<p>Sophomore Year-
AP Euro
AP Chem
Pre-Calc Honors
Honors English
Spanish II
AJROTC</p>

<p>Classes I will be taking Junior Year-
AP English
AP Biology
AP Calc AB
APUSH
AP Stats
AJROTC</p>

<p>Senior year, I will be taking 6~7 AP's</p>

<p>UW GPA- 4.0 (received A's in all courses)
W GPA- 4.32</p>

<p>AP Human Geo (self study)-4
AP Chemistry- 5
AP Euro- 4
SAT2 Chemistry- 780 (may retake..?)
SAT 2 Math level 2- 800</p>

<p>Ethnicity- Asian American
Income- 30,000~40,000 (on the lower side compared to many other Asians I know, but my parents and I hope colleges will understand as I may mention our economic issues in my essays)
Currently holding a Green Card. I'm an immigrant.</p>

<p>Class rank is not updated but I think I will be around the top 2% in a class of 700 people due to the number of extra courses I have taken.</p>

<p>I know I have great chances in receiving straight A's again as a Junior, so I am not worried about my grades, but my ECs
are what worry me the most.</p>

<p>So far I have done...</p>

<p>School EC's / Awards and Honors
Society of Future Doctors (9,10,11)- Publicist (10), Secretary (11)
Academy of STEM (10,11)- Fundraising Officer (11)
Participated in AMC 10- placed 4th by 2 points-_- This year I'm going to study and will hopefully place into top 3.
received Most Outstanding Violin Player (9)- unfortunately couldn't continue orchestra due to financial and conflicts with schedule
Will probably receive National Merit if I keep studying consistently (SAT practice scores have been around 2100-2250)
(hoping to receive an award from AJROTC this year)</p>

<p>Outside of school EC
A community service ensemble that plays in convalescent homes for the disabled, elderly and homeless
Marathon Youth Team- VP (going to run a marathon this fall; very excited!)
Internships at City of Hope and another well-known research lab (currently doing right now)
A lot of church service events (will not specify)
Around 300~400 hours
And just putting it out, but I tutored in Chemistry and Math the past year for money.</p>

<p>As you can see, my list of awards and honors are not very long and impressive like some awesome students on College Confidential. I hope to make it much more fabulous by next summer with all of your help!
I have consistently heard that most college admissions officers can see through the made-up images of most Asian-American students who have been pushed by their mothers to take SAT prep classes, participate in many EC's they don't feel passionate about, etc. In that sense, I think my greatest strengths are my passion for my EC's and my ability to succeed academically without prep classes and tutors. Do you guys think this will increase my chances for schools?</p>

<p>I would greatly appreciate any thoughts on how I can improve my resume, what I can do this year as a Junior to make myself a worthy candidate for top tier schools and my standing as a candidate as of now. Thanks to all the lovely people who read my LONG post! :x </p>

<p>Your grades and SAT2 scores look great. DON’T RETAKE chemistry 2, you will seem like a total dork trying to retake it when you got a 780.</p>

<p>What is your ultimate goal? Engineering degree or Pre-med/biology? Based upon what you presented above, I think you have a better shot at getting admission to a top Engineering program as a female. Especially by your AMC and math scores.</p>

<p>If you are an aspiring pre-med, then you have some holes that need to be addressed: 1) lack of volunteering experience related to medicine (ie hospital candy striper, etc). 2) No lab/research experience. </p>

<p>To be honest though, you do appear like the typical Asian applicant (many ECs, violin, etc) with a mish-mosh of ECs. Focus more on a single goal (engineering or pre-med), and let that come through in your application. Based upon what you list above, the AdComs will see you as a engineer wanna-be being pushed into pre-med by your parents.</p>

<p>At least you’re passionate… and there’s no need to retake a 780 on a subject test.</p>

<p>Budget, home state please. What suggestions I can give you will take in account that target scores should be in the 2100 range; there are some schools that are reachable from 2100 up, some more where 2100 can render it a match, still others where 2100 makes a school a safety (and a lot more where you’re well past the safety line at 2100 given a 4.0 GPA and the ECs above).</p>

<p>Hello! OP here. Thank you for your suggestions. I forgot to add that I do volunteer at a local hospital every week and I already wrote about how I am interning at labs right now. I may be able to co-author a research paper, but that is uncertain. I have one more question. How important are awards and honors on a college resume? Thank you for your help!</p>

<p>By budget, do you mean like family income? I already posted that. I’m reaching for above a 2300 on my SAT, but thank you for your suggestions! Home state is CA btw. And I won’t retake subject test then :)</p>