Started late and with little opportunity. Will trying my best be enough?

Applying to College
1

To preface this, here are my stats currently and over the past two years: Freshman 4.0 GPA (UW), Sophomore 4.0 GPA (UW), Junior 4.0 GPA (UW, not final). For some background info, I am a first generation immigrant and Vietnamese (which I think is an underrepresented Asian minority), my family is kind of poor (we make under 30,000 a year), and I have strong passion in writing and engineering. For EC’s I started my school’s first STEM related club in sophomore year.

Now please bear with me because this is gonna be a really really long post. I think at first glance, the GPAs look impressive. However, my high school is very low ranked and I truly believe you could breeze through this high school if you just turned in your work. I’ve done some snooping and lurking on forums and I was pretty shocked at how competitive other high schools were, and it has definitely heightened my concerns and insecurities. As an example, when I took the PSAT in October for my sophomore year, I got an 1120 despite the elusive 4.0 GPA. Things also took an odd turn during sophomore year. As I was realizing my ambitions at that time, Covid hit, so then I stayed at home and a couple of weird things happened. Until earlier this year, I’ve always got through school with the A+ student mentality and never thought about ECs or ambitions for college. And to be honest, I don’t know where the sudden urge to go to a T20 came from, but I just know I’m really determined to make it to a T20. During the quarantine period from March to June, I constantly thought things over in my head until I wasn’t in a great mental state anymore. As a result I flunked the June ACT and got a 25. Once school started again I began outlining a plan to get into a good school and hopefully a T20.

I started studying for the PSAT a month before the testing date and I was really determined to become a national merit scholar, however, I doubt I studied enough to make the required substantial improvement in my score. After that, since I have a really strong passion in writing (though im not very good) I wanted to enter a young writers competition. Once completing a rough draft I showed my english teacher my work and she pointed out some flaws with it, so then with her help I tried my best to sharpen the final draft, but im also doubtful of it getting a top 3 position. Lastly im planning to self study AP Physics 1 and ace the exam. I thought this was pretty reasonable as im taking Physics at my high school but we are going at an incredibly boring pace so I figured I might as well learn the “big boy” stuff. Yet when I asked on reddit a lot of people told me that the AP Physics firstly does not really matter to colleges, and secondly is one of the hardest AP exams. This definitely did not deter me, and in fact, it actually motivated me to study even harder, but I know I’m gonna have to put in a lot of time for it. Oh, and one last final goal before senior year is to attend a summer program. I’m really aiming for CMU’s SAMS or Cornell’s summer program, however I heavily doubt my math skills are proficient enough, so I’m going to do a bit more research to see which ones I would have a better chance of attending (and enjoy)

So nowadays, I try my best to study for the upcoming spring ACT and SAT, my AP tests, schoolwork, and some personal projects and research because I’m so far behind everybody else who’s planning on going to a T20. Furthermore me and my friends are also working on a project to enter into a business and technology competition under our STEM club, so I’m working hard on that too. Now I’ll be honest here, I don’t do all of these things everyday. I try my best to, but I’ve fallen into a detrimental loop of staying up late to keep up with school and studying (trying to maintain consistency), then I go to sleep and wake up early plus tired the next day. For this last week it’s been hard keeping focus in class, but I’m planning on taking a break to recover my stamina. All that being said I want to ask you guys that, if I follow through with this “plan” (meaning hopefully I meet all my goals), will this give me a reasonable chance of being considered for acceptance in a Top 20 university? And lastly, I want to apologize for this wall of text!

2

Okay, I totally get the difference between child of poor Vietnamese immigrants attending a low-ranked school, and child of well-established, educated professional Asian immigrants, attending school in one of the best public districts in the country, or prep school. I’m hoping that the colleges will see that too - I think they will, since you’ll be first gen and first to college.

Now, a top 20 school is a fine ambition. But you are going to have to do a lot for yourself, since your school does not offer it for you. Also, you might be better off at your state flagship U, because you just might not be prepared for the very high academic level and competition at a top 20 school.

The best way to prove to a college that your 4.0 at a low-ranked public high school, where you maxed out all they had for you, has prepared you for college, is to get a high standardized test score. You can do that with organized self-study.

I don’t know about the SAT, but I suspect that unless you have been an obsessive, voracious reader, you don’t have the same level of English as someone who was raised by two English professors. I imagine that Vietnamese was the first language in the house for you, and that you probably entered kgtn speaking only Vietnamese. For this reason, I would recommend that you focus on the ACT. The English on the ACT is easier - it’s the test that overseas Asians prep for - so it might be better for you. The way to prep for the ACT is to print out the many legally available, in-the-public-domain tests that can be found on the internet. This is NOT cheating. These are tests that the ACT legally released, that can be legally disseminated. You can print a first one off of the ACT website, and many more off the internet. Just google ACT practice tests, and you should be able to find a list of them, with a little hunting. You can also buy a copy of The Official Guide to the ACT (an older copy is cheaper, and fine). It will have 5 practice tests and explanations. You should also get both books of The Best ACT Math Book Ever (1 and 2), and Erica Meltzer’s ACT English and Reading books. Read the first two reviews on Amazon (from Vince Kotchian and Brooke Hanson, both pro tutors). https://www.amazon.com/Official-ACT-Prep-Guide-2020/dp/1119685761/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2ZFAFF95LIIPJ&dchild=1&keywords=the+official+act+prep+guide+2020-2021&qid=1604539472&sprefix=the+official+act+pre%2Caps%2C187&sr=8-3

They will tell you what you need to do to prepare as cheaply as possible. For the science section, you just need to do a lot of practice tests, because it’s all about interpreting data, not about knowledge of science.

If you start in on this now, and do two sections every day, you will be very well-prepared for a spring ACT test. A high score on the ACT will tell the colleges that despite the limited opportunity you’ve had in your low-ranked high school, that you are ready for college level work.

Otherwise, I would say just keep up with what you are doing. You’re way ahead of those who are trying to make up for poor grades in early high school.

3

This is incredibly insightful, so thank you! From my years growing up, I’ve mostly picked up English through the internet, from classmates, and from various books, so you’re absolutely right that its not as sharp as a very well privileged kid. I’ll be trying my best by bolstering it through writing, reading, and through Erica Meltzer’s English book, which I conveniently have. And about the books, I recently purchased two prep books around a month ago for self-studying, one being the Erica Meltzer book and the other being College Panda’s SAT math, which from what I’ve seen in online reviews and forums is that it is one of the best prep books for those weak about math. I realize that the problems on the SAT and ACT are structured a bit differently from each other, but I figured if I just studied standardized testing in general that I should be able to get a good grasp in both areas. I am truly determined to ace my tests in the spring, and I hope all of this studying will pay off.

Lastly, I am very much considering my state’s public university. Oklahoma offers Oklahoma’s Promise, which offers scholarships to OK’s flagships if I meet their requirements (an income of less than 55,000). So again, thank you! I really appreciate it.