Suggest Colleges for a motivated, hard-working kid

College Search & Selection
1

<p>GPA: 4.033
UW GPA: 3.98
Class Rank: Top 1%</p>

<p>Test Scores:</p>

<p>ACT: 32 Composite (35E, 33M, 28R, 32S)
SAT II: Chemistry 770, Math 2: 740
AP US History: 4, Chemistry: 5, Macroecon: 5, US Gov: 5</p>

<p>AP Courses: AP US History, AP Chemistry, AP Macroeconomics, AP Chemistry - Junior yr.
Senior yr: AP English, AP Biology, AP Physics C, AP Calculus AB, AP Psychology</p>

<p>Worked Blood Pressure and Blood glucose checks at Community health faires (Red Cross)
Volunteering at Hospital (100-150 hrs)
Summer Research Program, very prestigious (about 300 hours)
Shadowed IM doctor, Anesthesiologist (>25 hrs)
Taught Sunday School Classes (150-200 hrs)</p>

<p>Paid Work at hospice, office assistant (800-1000 hrs) (22 hrs/week) (junior year)
Paid Work in Hospital Lab Senior Year (20 hrs/ week) (senior year)
Worked at a mall (40 hrs/week for 3 months) (summer before junior year)</p>

<p>Founder and President of Chess Club
Vice President of National Honor Society
Big Brothers and Sisters program (set up programs with little kids to get them interested in science)
Student Council Representative (9th,10th)
Yearbook Editor (9th)</p>

<p>Very low income (20K-25K)
Asian American</p>

<p>Major: Pre-med (sciences-something along that line)
School: where i will have the most opportunities to make myself a better person and get accepted to medical school.</p>

<p>Please, help me out....thank you.</p>

2

<p>There are a <em>lot</em> of places that match your stats and your desire to “make yourself a better person and get accepted to medical school.” If you’re looking for something small and in an urban setting in the South, Rhodes would be perfect. If you’re looking for something large and in a rural setting in the Midwest (for example), we wouldn’t even be part of the conversation.</p>

3

<p>^I am looking for an urban setting…fairly big school. No LAC. </p>

<p>So a big, diverse, and somewhat highly ranked school (Top 30 or so) like Duke, WUSTL, Michigan etc…</p>

<p>what else is there?</p>

4

<p>What about Columbia? It’s highly ranked, diverse, and urban.</p>

5

<p>is Columbia within my reach?</p>

6

<p>I don’t see much thats not within your reach. You have an exceptional amount of volunteering.</p>

<p>Apply to anywhere you like, hope for the best. You’ll get a full ride to practically any top 15 schools (and elite LAC’s) due to parental income. Other elite privates will offer great financial packages.</p>

7

<p>MIT, Penn, Columbia, UChicago, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Emory, Vanderbilt, Cal, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, USC.</p>

<p>I hope most of those are urban enough.</p>

8

<p>should i retake ACTs?</p>

9

<p>Cornell is not urban but next to a small city. They had a recent infusion of $400 million into biomedical sciences including a new bio building.</p>

10

<p>I think you should retake Math II and take an SAT II in a humanities. Your ACT’s are fine, but you may want to retake for scholarship purposes in-state.</p>

<p>Below are the meet-need schools that fit your criteria. I’m not sure that you can get into most of these schools, though. Your extracurricular activities are not really up to par, and your statistics are average compared to many your competitors (especially the Asiany ones lol). </p>

<p>So here is my list for you:
Harvard/MIT (choose one)
UPenn
Columbia
Vanderbilt
Emory
Johns Hopkins
WUSTL
Georgetown
Boston College
Rice</p>

<p>Other colleges to consider:
The rest of the colleges from this list: [CSLF</a> : IF : Colleges That Meet Financial Aid Need](<a href=“http://www.cslf.com/investinyourfuture/payingforcollege/collegesthatmeetneed.htm]CSLF”>http://www.cslf.com/investinyourfuture/payingforcollege/collegesthatmeetneed.htm). This may include LAC’s or schools in more suburban areas.</p>

<p>Be sure to apply in-state for a chance to win some scholarships.</p>

11

<p>^What should i do to make my ECs up to par??</p>

<p>is it because i havent won national stuff etc etc.?</p>

12

<p>Ignore that post, your EC are very solid. Extensive work experience and volunteering/research.
Work experience is always impressive to college, and adcoms understand that it takes a lot of time and personal commitment (often taking away time for other activities).</p>

<p>You can also consider Duke university. We have a very large Asian population. The city is a not so glorious middle sized city, but the RDU area is pretty cool.</p>

13

<p>chicago and columbia.</p>

14

<p>If you are into pre-med, Boston College has an excellent pre-medical program.</p>

15

<p>UNC-Chapel Hill and UVA could be great for you as well!</p>

16

<p>“…you should retake Math II…Your ACT’s are fine…”</p>

<p>I must respectfully disagree. I think that top colleges would be much more worried about a 28 on the reading section of the ACT than a 740 vs. 750+ on the Math II test (especially if you already have a 33 on the math portion of the ACT).</p>

<p>If you have time, though, I would agree with the poster above in that you might consider taking an additional (unrelated) SAT II, such as Literature or one of the history tests.</p>

<p>As for a potential fit, I think I would personally recommend Emory University.</p>

17

<p>“Your extracurricular activities are not really up to par…”</p>

<p>I must also disagree here, and with greater force.</p>

<p>Nearly three hundred hours of community service, three hundred hours of formalized research, over 1400 hundred hours of paid work experience (plus 20 hours a week more throughout senior year), and numerous leadership positions make an excellent, if not superb, list of extracurriculars.</p>

18

<p>I think i will retake the ACTs then…but the problem is its 50$ and i have so many other expenses.</p>

<p>I have taken ACTs 5 times already (30-32 scores) so I dont know if I want to take it again. But, wittywonka, you are sort of convincing. I think I can increase my reading but I dont want to decrease in other sections.</p>

19

<p>RICE and Duke for the win. After already spending two days as Rice student during orientation week, it is quite obvious why we are ranked #1 for Best Quality of Life by Princeton Review.</p>

20

<p>I would also strongly consider Emory, UPenn, and Columbia.</p>