<p>First, I would like to apologize for the length of this thread. I understand that many of you don't have the time, and I especially appreciate those of you who give the required amount of time to this post and help me out. I am a rising senior, and a very, very nervous applicant. This is pretty much everything I've amounted to in 4 years of HS. This is both for reassurance and for help in weeding out the schools that I have no chance at or will not be a good fit at. Thank you for anyone who takes the time reading all of this and I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate your help in this grueling process. Any advice would be greatly appreciated (especially about if I should attach a resume and what's not important to add) </p>
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<p>I switched school districts, and states, between my 8th and 9th grade year. It was a tough move, but the new district I went into was a ridiculously easy and uncompetitive one -- thus, I had a 4.0 GPA with no problems. Then, we moved again and back to my old state, Ohio, but to a ridiculously competitive to the point of insanity school -- and my unweighted GPA dropped. and dropped. and dropped.Yes, my school is recognized as an extremely tough public high school by colleges (and boasts itself to be #1 in the state...though that's surely debatable). I'm not sure if that's enough. Furthermore, the students themselves are insanely competitive. For example, my opponent TP'd my house because I won the presidency for MUN. Y'know, insane and unhealthy competition. I'm not a cookie cutter asian, and I'm not sure how much that will hurt me. </p>
<p>GPA - so far, 3.72 UW, 4.10 W - barely top 10%
After senior year starts up, hopefully somewhere closer to 3.77 UW 4.26 W</p>
<p>Freshman Year:
Honors English - A
Honors Biology - A
Honors Environmental Science - A
Honors Geometry- A
Spanish 1 - A
Phys Ed - A
Art 1 - A
Honors Wold History - A</p>
<p>Sophomore Year:
Honors English - A
Honors Chemistry - A
AP Biology - B
Algebra 2 - A
Spanish 2 - B
AP US History- A
Public Speaking - A
Debate - A</p>
<p>Outside of School -
Discover Hopkins - JHU: Preventative Medicine and Health in the 21st Century - Pass</p>
<p>Junior Year :
Psychology- A
AP Economics - A
AP English Language - A
AP Chemistry- B
Honors Physics - CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Spanish 3 - B
Precalculus - A</p>
<p>Senior Year Schedule:
AP Calc BC
AP Euro
AP Statistics
AP English Literature
AP Government
Spanish 4</p>
<p>One of my recommendations will be from my AP Euro teacher who is also in charge of Mock Trial and Model UN, both of which I am an officer in. My other one will most likely be from my AP Calc BC teacher who was also my algebra 2 teacher. He took an immense amount of interest in me when I moved here and gave me some of the best advice of my hs career; and I've thanked him for it and he's fully aware of how much he's impacted my growth as a student. </p>
<p>PSAT scores:
216 - Junior (78 on CR, highest in school) Commended at least, semifinalist probably-- meaning finalist probably. </p>
<p>AP Scores -
Biology: 5
US History - 4
AP English - 5?4?
AP Macro Econ - ???
AP Micro Econ - ????
AP Chem - 4?5?</p>
<p>SAT 2 Scores -
Biology M - 750
US History - 740
English Lit- 710 ( retaking)
Chemistry - 690
Math II- 740 ( retaking) </p>
<p>SATs - 2190 superscored; retaking- I'm capable of 2250; but it depends on how well I concentrate during the test date. </p>
<p>EC's :
Speech & Debate 2007-Present
Elected Vice President 2009- Present
Original Oratory Competitor 2007- Present
State level competitor 2008, 2009
North Coast District – National Qualifier Tournament Finalist 2009
Original Oratory/ Original Interpretation Captain 2008-2009
National Forensic League – Distinction Degree
Highest NFL Points in my school </p>
<p>Model United Nations 2007-Present
Elected President 2009- Present
Elected Vice President 2008- 2009
Regular Delegate at CCWAMUN conference 2007-Present
- Represented Panama, Australia & Namibia
Spearheaded _____ High School’s 1st Out-Of-State conference 2009
Awarded Superior Delegation
-Highest honors; Both Spring & Fall Conferences 2008
Chairwoman – CCWAMUN Spring Conference 2009
youngest chairperson at conference, youngest chairperson from my school ever</p>
<p>Mock Trial 2007-Present
Competed as a Lawyer 2007-Present
Awarded Best Attorney- District Level 2008, 2009
Awarded Best Attorney - Regional Level 2009
Elected Team Captain 2008-2009
Elected Club Officer- Historian 2009- Present</p>
<p>NHS 2009-Present
- Active Member, Inducted junior year-- should get in a lot of volunteer work for that </p>
<p>Drama Club 2007-Present
-participated in two school productions so far, and hoping to participate in a third this fall</p>
<p>Freshman Photography Club 2006-2007
- Elected Vice President 2007
- 1st place School Wide Contest Winner 2007
( is this even worth putting on the app?) </p>
<p>Volunteer Work
Cleveland Clinic Foundation 2008
- Researched at the Biomedical Engineering Dept.
of the Lerner Institute of Research; approximately 300 hours 2008
- Presented Data to Northeaster Ohio Science
& Engineering Fair 2009
- Awarded 3rd place in Human Medical Engineering category 2009
- Awarded Special Awards and $200 prizes from: 2009
Cleveland Clinic - Dept of Biomedical Engineering
Cleveland Clinic - Dept of Pathobiology
Stratford Commons – Senior Care Community 2007- Present
Union County Library 2007-2008
Barack Obama Rally - Akron; 2008 </p>
<p>Interning at a World Wide Law firm this summer. (Jones Day)
Chairwoman at 40th Orissa Society of the Americas : Led a seminar about connecting the youth and the older members of the Oriya society and how we can work together to become a stronger community as well as help Orissa (it's a state in India) as a whole </p>
<p>Languages
Fluent in: English, Oriya, Hindi
Experienced in: Spanish</p>
<p>Interests
Acoustic Guitar 2006-Present
- Two Years of Lessons
Classical Piano 2002-Present
-Four Years of Lessons
Prose/Poetry-
- Published “An Ellipsis,” a short poem, in prestigious and nationally recognized
school literary magazine, Images 2009; another one became a semifinalist (maybe finalist later) in a Famous Poets competition: It's also getting published and is getting recorded into an audio book; and another poem in two other anthologies, one of which recognized it as a poem of "high merit" </p>
<h2>I'm working my arse off on my essays. I'm a fairly talented writer, but everything is going into these essays. I'm pretty sure my commonapp one is going to be about my life in a series of speeches, and how I was pushed into it at the age of 6 in front of my elementary school in India; and detailing how my accent changes slightly with every major speech and every major move from my 8th grade commencement speech, my Student Council Vice President Speech in front of a camera, etc etc and then finally coming to High School where I spend almost every saturday in a suit, giving round upon round of memorized 10 minute speeches that I write myself yadda yadda. Or something like that. It should be good if not better, especially since we have some lady at our school work with our essays and stuff. </h2>
<p>I want to go to law school eventually. For undergrad, I would like to major in economics/international relations or get a bachelors in business. </p>
<p>These are schools that I would die for:
Columbia (ED), Brown, Dartmouth, Upenn<br>
and just because I need closure from my old dream school that I blew the chance for:
Stanford </p>
<p>These are schools I'd be okay at:
Cornell, UMich Ross, UCB, UCLA, Tufts, JHU, NYU Stern<br>
I'm scared that the classes are way too big, or everyone is way too intensely competitive like my current school</p>
<p>These are schools I'm concerned about the "fit":
I'm liberal and not at all preppy. I get along with most everyone but hate homogeneous crowds or being in an ostracized minority. I'm Indian but hardly fit the stereotype (just look at my science grades :( ) . I'd appreciate a school with a great music scene and lots of things to do both on campus and off campus. </p>
<p>USC, UVA, Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, Georgetown </p>
<p>Other Schools I still need to research:</p>
<h2>Amherst, Williams, WUSTL</h2>
<p>ANY advice will be appreciated. In short, I'm an Indian kid with so-so grades and a good amount of leadership/involvement. I've tried to make the best out of what I've been offered and though I haven't taken every the traditional AP hungry path that is typical of the asians at my school, I have taken really important classes such as Public Speaking, Debate, Psychology and others that have shaped how I think rather than how much I can cram into my brain.... while still managing to take the "hardest available courseload"</p>
?</p>