These forums are discouraging...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Okay, so I am a Korean-American male residing in Southern California. My family is lower middle class (~30,000). My high school has a not-so-good history (my sophomore year, I think like 3 out of 600 to HSYP; last year, 1 went to Brown, 3 went to Berkeley).</p>

<p>SAT: 800 M, 800 V, 760 W (first time; not retaking)
SAT II: Just took Math II, US History, Physics; should be great Math II and US History, Physics somewhere in the 700s (I hope)
GPA: 3.98 UW 4.58 W Rank 3 out of 770 (based on W)</p>

<p>APs:
Junior Year (school starts APs in Junior Year)-
Calc BC, Physics B, Chem, English Lang, US History (all 5s)</p>

<p>Senior Year Workload-
Gov, English Lit, Stats, French, Possibly Micro (school has only Honors Econ; teacher told me we could probably take Micro)</p>

<p>Teacher Recs: Probably very nice (1 from the guy I'm co-teaching for, 1 from my AcaDeca teacher who I play basketball with afterschool all the time; I wish I could get one from my 10th grade Chem teacher because I'm very close with her but it's 10th grade :( )</p>

<p>Essay: I will try my best, but we'll see :(</p>

<p>Awards:
AP Scholar with Distinction (hooray for one year :( )
National Merit Semifinalist (2340 the weekend after SATs :( )
Science Olympiad medals (10 regional, 1 state)
AcaDeca medals (1 county)</p>

<p>EC:
3 years Science Olympiad, current President
2 years Academic Decathlon, current VP
2 years NHS member; 3 years CSF member; 2 years Key Club (these alone should somewhat boost my volunteer hours if I choose :D)
AP Statistics Club - Officer
Co-teacher (Basically a Peer Tutor that teaches lessons as well; first one to co-teach Calculus ever)</p>

<p>Volunteer:
~100 hrs helping handicapped people at my dad's job (basically old-folk's home cept on a tour bus)
~100 hrs tutoring Korean immigrants; teaching them English and helping them out with schoolwork</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Tutoring for a school program</p>

<p>Schools:
HYPS, MIT, any other recommendations?</p>

<p>I'm looking to go into PoliSci/Econ/IR with a focus on IR (obviously). I know my ECs are extremely weak, but that's the beauty of having protective parents who refuse to give you a ride anywhere. I have top academics at my school, no matter what my rank says. I lack athletics, because I have/had severe asthma (Emergency Room bad from elementary school to middle school; cleared up a little after I moved in middle school :P ). Also, I quit Violin and Piano after middle school due to financial concerns (parent unemployed + only that one parent working = sacrifices). Basically, I'm wondering about my chances because everyone at my school thinks I'm some sort of academic genius and can get in anywhere but from my realistic point of view, there's no way that's going to happen.</p>

2

<p>Forgot to put Link Crew. Also, does Church Youth Group Leader count as EC?</p>

3

<p>Apply to Pomona/Harvey Mudd, Franklin Olin, and Coopers Union and then figure out your safe match/safety. I suggest someplace like UCSD for engineering would be a safe match for you--and maybe Cal Poly SLO since money is a concern and this is fairly close and relatively cheap.</p>

<p>It's unlikely you will get Franklin Olin or Coopers Union because of the ungodly competition, but if you do, both of these pay full tuition and housing for all four years of your schooling--and you certainly have a shot at these with your stats.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

4

<p>Your numbers are great, but the ECs are unimpressive at schools like HYPSM. The only chance you have is with a REALLY good essay. Without it, I don't think you can compete with the thousands of students who have more solid ECs.</p>

5

<p>Ya, I know my ECs are what's lacking. I'm also not too good at writing essays, but I'll pick my brain clean thinking of good ideas. Any suggestions for safeties?</p>

6

<p>your stats are so much better than mine! dont worry man!
oh nice SATs btw :)</p>

7

<p>I dunno. Yeah your ECs are weak but you are so smart I would find it that you wouldn't get into at least 1 of the super elite. And I applaud you for not seeking to raise the SAT another 40 pts.</p>

8

<p>Actually, financial issues played a key role in me not taking the SATs again (also forced me to take my SAT IIs in October after I worked a bit in the summer). I'm really hoping my stats are enough for at least one of the big names.</p>

9

<p>Ok so here's a list I came up with after some research:</p>

<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
MIT
UPenn
Columbia
Chicago
Tufts? Johns Hopkins? Georgetown? (IR)
UC Berkeley, LA, SD (safeties)
Cornell
Washington U</p>

<p>Any opinions on reaches and whatnot?</p>

10

<p>Berkeley and UCLA a safety? I wouldn't think so. UCSD is a safety -- you're an ELC student. But the other two, I'd say a match -- strong GPA/rank, strong scores, average ECs and honors/awards (the ELC admit rate is in the 50s, anyway).</p>

<p>Harvard: reach
Yale: reach
Princeton: reach
Stanford: reach
MIT: reach
UPenn: good shot (perhaps a match)
Columbia: good shot
Chicago: match (if your essays are great)
Tufts: match - safe match
Johns Hopkins: match
Georgetown (IR): match
Cornell: match
Washington U: slight reach - match</p>

<p>Your ECs show little passion/focus, so the tippy top schools are going to be especially difficult. Sure, your scores are stellar, but so are those of many students, especially Asian Americans; the rest of your app is somewhat average for many of these schools. WUStL might be more difficult that I estimated above since, supposedly, they aren't need-blind (so being a low-income student hurts your chances).</p>

11

<p>For UCLA and Berkeley, I just went by the seniors who were accepted from my high school last year. Basically, they weren't the smartest or most outgoing people in the world. I dunno about little passion and focus; I mean, I decided against a science or math major but I'm still acting as president of Science Olympiad rather than joining MUN (same day, conflicting meetings), but I guess if you view it that way, the colleges would as well :(</p>