**Silver Medal High School** Doomed for schools? **SCARED**

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Colleges I'm applying to:</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd
Cornell
NYU
Rice University
Northeastern
MIT
Carnegie Mellon
Mid-Top UC's</p>

<p>-Unweighted GPA (4-point scale):
3.53</p>

<p>-Weighted GPA (5-point scale) -- don't use your school's weighting system
4.0</p>

<p>-UC GPA (if you're applying to UCs) -- see this:</p>

<p>3.77 (I think?)</p>

<p>-# of AP/IB/honors courses
Alg 2 Trig Honors
Bio Honors
English 1 Honors
Math Analysis/Calc Honors( Calc AB)
Chemistry H
AP Euro
Eng 2 Honors
Comp Sci AP
Calc BC AP
APUSH
English 3 Honors/IB
Ap Rhetoric
APES
Math HL/IB
AP Statistics
Ap Economics/Civics</p>

<p>-class rank/size
250/754</p>

<p>-SAT/ACT scores -- </p>

<p>2010 SAT 1
31 ACT Composite Score</p>

<p>35 Math on ACT
32 English
28 Reading
29 Science</p>

<p>-SAT II scores</p>

<p>760 Math 2C
630 US History
630 Literature</p>

<p>-AP scores, past and planned exams (only if they're going on the application)
5-Calc AB
4- AP Euro</p>

<p>(Not sure about junior year AP scores yet. Will call collegeboard ASAP.</p>

<p>-ECs --
1. Piano- Started when I was 6 years old. 11 years. Won the Glendale Platinum Mcgaughey Award.(First place in entire competition)
x3 Southwestern Youth Music Festival 1st place
x3 Southwestern Youth Music Festival 2nd place.
MTAC 1st Place Scholarship Competition</p>

<p>Piano Panel Honors 2 Completed</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Bamboo Flute- Started during Freshman year. Continued every week. Played at some concerts and soloed at some public events.
Official Level 10 completed.</p></li>
<li><p>Badminton-Nothing special here. Just for fun</p></li>
</ol>

<p>-short explanation on recs/essays
Talked about my perspective on the world.
My main essay is talking about my struggles of balancing piano and other activities and how I hated it and began to slowly embrace it.</p>

<p>-additional information
No Financial Aid needed( if that helps)</p>

2

<p>I forgot to add I have over 250+ Hours of Community service with Tzu Chi organization for recycling and senior centers and some small activities like relay for life.</p>

<p>Also I’m not entirely positive for my GPA since I have no clue what my senior 1st semester grades will be like.</p>

3

<p>Bump please</p>

4

<p>i had a similar GPA as you but slightly higher test scores and I was admitted to all of the UCs except berkeley and UCLA (i was an out of state student, which made admissions significantly easier). i was rejected by cornell. i had pretty horrible ECs though, and not a very challenging courseload. UCs emphasize GPA the most, so im not sure about your chances at berkeley or UCLA.</p>

5

<p>I wish you could give me a direct answer to my question…</p>

6

<p>Based on your thread:</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd - med reach
Cornell - med reach/maybe high
NYU - high match
Rice University - med reach
Northeastern - match
MIT - very high reach
Carnegie Mellon - med reach</p>

<p>Get your ACT up and some of these med reaches will become high matches easily.</p>

7

<p>Harvey Mudd- unlikely
Cornell- slim chance
NYU- decent chance
Rice University- slim chance
Northeastern- in
MIT- no
Carnegie Mellon- possible, but unlikely</p>

<p>your GPA and test scores are holding you back</p>

8

<p>Going to a USNWR Silver Medal school is hardly a deficit, even at top schools. They are still significantly better than most inner city schools. Your high school will not keep you out of any university.</p>

<p>However, your class rank will be hard to overcome in your app (unless there’s a special situation with unweighted grades and grade inflation in regular classes). ACT is fine for UC’s but a bit low for others. Your piano EC’s seem to be the standout point of your application, and they will probably help your chances across the board. I would suggest changing your essay topic to something that accentuates the positives of your musical experiences. Abstain from mentioning negative experiences because persevering in a HOBBY you don’t like isn’t impressive, and hints of strict parenting that yields dispassionate youth.</p>

<p>Bring up the class rank and and get another 700+ SAT II score, and retake the ACT for 32+ single sitting. This should increase your chances at all colleges, but with the class rank as it is, there are no guarantees (for anyone, for that matter). MIT and Harvey Mudd are far reaches, but who knows; your application may strike a chord with the admissions crew.</p>

9

<p>Do you think I have a chance at some school that is deemed “appropriate” by asian parents?</p>