Rising Junior- Right direction for top colleges?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello CC'ers. If you wouldn't mind (and if possible) could you tell me if these colleges are in my reach? Also, pointers, tips, areas of improvement, where I should go from here, would be extremely helpful. Thanks!</p>

<p>Harvard
University of Pennsylvania
Yale
MIT
Duke
UNC-Chapel Hill</p>

<p>Personal:
Grade: Rising 11th
Race: Pacific Islander
Gender: Male</p>

<p>School:
Size: 2200 kids in the largest district of the state. One of the better public schools in the area</p>

<p>New School:
Next year I will be attending a selective public residential high school. They have a lot of opportunities for research and such there. Any tips on what I should do there?</p>

<p>Academics:
Rank: 1/600
GPA: 4.00 unweighted / 5.125 weighted
AP Gov- 5
AP Bio- 5
AP Chem- 5
AP Env- 5
SAT II Bio- 800
SAT II Chem- 800
SAT II Math 2- 800</p>

<p>Extracurricular:</p>

<p>Sports:
Wrestling- 2 years so far. Did outside wrestling club for 3 months post-season at UNC Chapel Hill.</p>

<p>Job:
-Intern at a non-profit education organization. They promote education through use of computational modeling/science. (2 years)
-As an intern: Web development (several languages: MySQL, PHP, jquery, javascript, etc.)
-Random tutoring for science or math</p>

<p>Volunteering:
Volunteering at many different places. 60 hours freshman, 120 hours sophomore.</p>

<p>Clubs:
Various clubs: Math, Debate, Science Olympiad, Key Club (largest club in school consisting of 500 kids).
Treasurer for Key Club- freshman year
Vice President for Key Club- sophomore year</p>

<p>Science Olympiad:
Top 5 in regionals for elevated bridge, biology
Top 10 in states for elevated bridge, biology</p>

<p>Thanks! I feel like I may be forgetting some things but I think this is a pretty good rundown. I'll answer any questions if you have them.</p>

2

<p>You seem on the right patch. Your academics are all superb and up to par with other future applicants. You seem to have a focus on the Sciences and Mathematics which is great but you might come of as another generic highly academic applicant. Maybe try pursuing in other ECs (as well as Science) like the Arts and the Wrestling is great too. All those schools are reaches no matter what stats you have. You should take your SATs/ACTs. When applying make yourself come out in your essays. Right now you seem a little lifeless. Not to say your Credentials aren’t amazing but they seem a little generic and I’m sure there are a lot of people with similar credentials.</p>

<p>Good Luck</p>

3

<p>Keep the rank, score 2100+ on the SAT or 32+ on ACT and you’re golden. All those schools would be likely acceptances in my opinion if you can do that. Try and find one super unique EC and you’re set. You seem to lack leadership positions, but that is your only downfall imo.</p>

4

<p>Oooops. I knew I forgot something. I took the SAT’s at the end of sophomore year and got a 2180 (770 math, 700 reading, 700 writing). Sorry about that.</p>

<p>Thanks guys. One thing I was worried about was definitely my extracurriculars. I haven’t passionately pursued anything outside of school so far. After writing this, my scores and lack of ec’s really did make me seem lifeless :p. Thanks for the input!</p>

5

<p>770 math 700 reading and 700 writing does not make 2180… are you sure you didn’t make these scores up as you were going…</p>

6

<p>yeahhhh… partially. i just remembered the total score and remembered what i could about the individuals. sorry about that</p>

7

<p>How does your school calculate GPAs? How is your GPA over 5.0 weighted?</p>

<p>As far as I’m concerned the most a GPA can increase via weighting due to IB/AP is 1 point.</p>

<p>Therefore in IB/AP:</p>

<p>A = 5.0
B = 4.0
C = 3.0
D = 2.0
F = 1.0</p>

<p>Just wondering how you got 5.125</p>

8

<p>For my school, A’s for AP classes count as 6.0 credits and A’s for Honors classes count for 5.0. All other classes get a 4.0 credit for A’s.</p>