<p>I guess you can already guess what I'm going to talk about. I am having trouble selecting colleges for the Regular Decision. You see, I have a high-end academic profile with 4.0 GPA, 2300 SAT and three 800s on the SAT 2; I also have one national chemistry prize. Yet, my extracurricular is almost nonexistent (besides my activities with the science club). So do I have a shot at those top colleges? I believe there are some of you guys out there who are in the same situation as I am...</p>
<p>It’s about quality, not quantity which you seem to have. </p>
<p>I’m presuming you dedicate a lot time to your science ECs and the fact that you won a national award(assuming its USACO or w/e the chem competition is called) puts you in a better place that someone with zero awards and 100 ECs. </p>
<p>What do you do in your free time? You can’t have spent all your time on school work/SAT to get those scores. Whatever else you do counts as extracurricular.</p>
<p>Depends. How was the rigor of your schedule? How many AP/IB classes did you take? Is that your weighted GPA? What do you want to major in? What SAT II tests were those? What did you do in science club, officer?
Hey, who knows, you might have a shot. But that’s the most that anyone can tell you. I would say a bit on the less maybe, because top 20 tend to look at apps holistically. But that’s me, personally. You definitely have better academics than I do.
But do some research. Apply to schools that YOU want to go to, not colleges just for the prestige. You can go to an Ivy and still be unhappy there, I’m sure.</p>
<p>@zobroward no, that’s bad advice… colleges see right through that community service is just like any EC. OP does not need to add anything. You should only do ECs that you truly want to, not to impress colleges.</p>
<p>OP you’re fine.</p>
<p>and let me reiterate… community service being needed on an application is a myth. It is treated just like any other EC.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! My dream was once MIT; which is pretty obvious for a science nerd like me. But then I discovered that I am still not fully qualified for MIT, so I am moving away to those not-too-technical schools. However, my problem is, all those schools seem to (really) value social activities; yet 99% of my activities are science-oriented. Am I screwed? ( I am a senior anyway, so yeah, I can’t really change anything now)</p>
<p>You have a shot at those top colleges. Stress your activities with the science club. You appear to be overthinking the EC dimension of your application. Stress the positive and think positive.</p>