Going to get Letter of Rec. from Mayor, possibly Congressmen.</p>
<p>Extracirriculars:
-Track (3 years) - Varsity Letter
-Cross Country (3 years) - Captain, Varsity, Prestigous Coach’s Award for Leadership and excellence on the team, 1 per year
-Mayors Youth Advisory Board (2 years) - Co-Chair, going to Washington DC for a National Conference on it
-Uganda Club (3 years) - Organized fast for malaria, Prez next year
raised $20,000 this year for our Sister School
Diversity Club - went to Diversity Summit, VP next year
Freshman Treasurer
Varsity Ultimate Frisbee - starting defender, captain next year
FCA - Prez this year and next year. Founder last year</p>
<p>Running - 17:32 5k PR. I could run for Pomona, Whitman, Amherst?</p>
<p>Volunteer Work:
190 Hours at Beaverton Library helping Children
40 Hours working at Senior Center
IB Executive Committee, organized/made advertising
campaign for IB Iron Chef fundraiser
Student Staff Action Council</p>
<p>Internship: Internship w/ Congressman or EPA</p>
<p>Hobbies: Photography, Cooking</p>
<p>Hook: Planning an event w/ a local running company owner to give 100 pairs of shoes to lower income children in Portland who cannot afford shoes. By end of Senior year i want to give 250 pairs of shoes through donations of corporations etc</p>
<ul>
<li>Getting a $5,000 regional grant for Recycling in my school</li>
</ul>
<p>ACT: 30
SAT II: took US History 660 (not going to submit)
APUSH Test: 4</p>
<ul>
<li>Have gotten 4 offers to write letters of rec. should be excellent.
Essays will be solid… I’m starting in the summer </li>
</ul>
<p>You certainly have a shot - Oregon is good fro diversity. Just remember, there are no interviews at Amherst, so your essays are critical. Work on them with all you have. Amherst is a reach fro everyone. Good luck!</p>
<p>I think you'd have a good shot. My guess is that Amherst and the others on your list wouldn't really care about the letters of rec from the mayor or your congressman, unless they really have something substantive to say. Amherst wants applicants who are interesting and have something to offer besides just smarts. You look like the kind of well rounded young person with a great background that Amherst would be delighted to have. Smart, good athlete, involved in causes, with a social conscience. You might want to retake the ACT (my daughter, who is there now, took it twice and went up a point or two the second time); statistically you're a tad below the median in that area. But you've accomplished a ton and I think you have a lot to offer. The geography helps, too. Good luck.</p>
<p>17:32 and you're on varsity? lucky lol (runner 4 jv for my team)</p>
<p>i think ud be able to run for amherst theyre division III, their slowest miler runs 4:50, but i see on their results from indoor track that their slowest 5k is 16:16. if ur better at longer distances you might be better at 8ks.</p>
<p>I lettered this season, but our team isn't too great :/</p>
<p>depends on the team i suppose :) It's kind of strange...I love XC and I'm ok at it and then Track I don't enjoy as much but i'm hoping for sub 4:30 1500 this year and maybe sub 4:20 next year depending on how things go...so i feel like I'm better at track. Who knows!</p>
<p>yea xc is the shizzzz 10x better than track (we're in the division with Shenendehowa, the national champions so it's really competitive and we get our butts kicked at every invy) , im hoping 4:50 for the 1600 this outdoor season which seems like it would be good enough to run for most D3 schools. with the conversion from 1500 to 1600 we have the exact same goals :)</p>
<p>our xc team next year wants to go 1-5 under 16...im hoping for 17:15 lol (would put me at like #1 jv)</p>
<p>Haha, when I first read it I thought someone got shot at Amherst, and I was wondering if there was some kind of hidden drug ring going on or something. Funny.</p>
<p>Oh Shoot! Your XC Team must be good! Our goal is to get 1-7 under 17:30 so we can go to state...</p>
<p>I understand about having an amazing team to compete against...we have Jesuit from Portland Oregon, they haven't lost an XC Race in around 5-6 years (in metro) and has won state i think like 16 times or something?</p>
<p>our section in NY has like 5 of the top ranked teams in NY, so even with 1-5 under 16 we wont go to states (despite being ranked 9th in ny) its pretty weird, they only take like 3 from each section.</p>
<p>MusicNerdish - I go to Southridge, heard of it?</p>
<p>Metfan - that system isn't too great...our girls team would have gone to state, but they take 2 teams...and the teams they took were 1st and 2nd in state...that sucks!</p>
<p>You're only a slight reach for Amherst and Swarthmore. Keep it up. Try to improve your time by a minute or something, I know it's hard but if you pull it off it's well worth it.</p>
<p>Don't let anyone dissuade you from applying to Amherst b/c you describe yourself as Middle-class. Along with Harvard, they're leading a discussion among other elite LAC's and unis to understand how to increase their 14% representation of middle-class kids on campus. Be sure you know what you mean when you say "middle-class" however, in terms of parents' income. Lots of parents claim to be middle-class with low six-digit incomes, so check that out before laying claim to the label.</p>
<p>Look at recent CC threads using search-word "Middle-Class" and "Amherst," including one that I began a few weeks ago (click on my screen name, then click the "search all posts by..." function). </p>
<p>Amherst only reads 2 core academic subject teachers' letters of reference, I think, but I could be wrong. </p>
<p>Bring up any standardized test scores as you can, and don't drop EC's. </p>
<p>Get ready to write essays that show your personality and way of thinking to their Admissions Committee.</p>
(not going to submit)