<p>Hey, first post on this forum so I just like to start out with some personal info. to get a feel of whatever situation I’m in.</p>
<p>I’m Korean-American junior in high school, my father passed away when I was five. Our family moved a bunch - LA, WA, Philly, NJ… We settled in SoCal. My older brother (by 4 years) didn’t graduate - he went from an California essay contest winning kid to a troublemaker after the incident with my father. So I decided I was the last hope to make my mom happy, she works really, really hard in whatever job she can find.</p>
<p>Freshman year:
Everything went bad here. I did fine the first quarter - straight A’s. But my mom found new work in Los Angeles - only 70 miles away. I adapted poorly - the school was a dump, they didn’t have Biology textbooks, the teachers smoked and cursed like no other. I finished with a 3.6UW GPA, a C in biology and a B in PE (i don’t know how, i never failed a trial, i never talked either.)</p>
<p>Sophomore year:
Everything was fine in the beginning - straight A’s. I took Korean I instead of Spanish II, since I needed to learn more Korean. Then we had to move back to our old town… I had to take Spanish 2.1 because they didn’t have Korean. The back and forth moving messed me up pretty bad, it was hard saying bye to friends and making new ones. I took AP European History - but I got a 2 on the exam. The teacher basically taught nothing because he was retiring after 30 years. I finished with a 3.6 UW GPA.</p>
<p>Junior year:
My current year, didn’t move. Doing great. I’m taking two APs: US History and English Comp. And one honors - math analysis. The bad thing is I’m taking Spanish II now, my third year of spanish - not looking to go to spanish 3 either. (Next year = 5 APs) My GPA is 4.2 weighted, I just took the SAT and I’m eager to see the score, and taking the ACT this saturday. I can actually do community service now that I’m not busy moving - but bad thing is I only got 25 hours. The low grades from freshman/sophomore years rejected my chance of getting honor chord this year, upsetting.</p>
<p>QUestions:</p>
<li><p>How many hours community service should I have by Junior year/Senior year? (Does it matter what years you did the service, or is it just cumulative?)</p></li>
<li><p>My only extra curriculars are: Board member of engineering club (likely to be leader next year), key club, piano. I am also helping build a solar boat (16ft) for a competition soon. I’m thinking of helping at a library or a hospital for more hours/ECs, but so far is this sufficient or do I need to do way more? (suggestions on what to do?)</p></li>
<li><p>I plan to apply to UCLA, USC, Caltech (i wish!), cal poly pomona, Berkley, and UCI. However I feel my slip ups in my first two years and “OK” junior year will just get me into UCR or something. And being asian doesn’t help 
… Thoughts?</p></li>
<li><p>When should I retake the SAT? I just took one few weeks ago. Do I retake the ACT? How many SAT Subjects do I take? </p></li>
<li><p>I got mail from USC saying I would be strong for their student body and a tour of their campus or something. It gave me a code for their website that I entered and it said “Thanks! We will send you more e-mails/mail about blah blah blah”. Few weeks later I still get no reply. Same mail from Boston University saying according to my PSAT score I would be strong for their college ect. Should I look into these, or are these letters just a waste of time?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for any help, sorry for the long read…</p>