Updated - Chance me for Tulane, Cornell, Berklee School of Music, NYU, Carnegie Mellon

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Class of ‘16
school stats
-1st gen Asian
-financial burdens including sister with sever visual disability
-fluent in Japanese and Korean
-Tennessean
-3.70 GPA
scores
-ACT:30
-SUPERSCORE: 32 (taking final one on oct 12)
AWARDS
-violin 15 years
-4 years in the most advanced musical ensemble in the state of Tennessee. 1 year as concert master and 2 years as 2nd violin principal. Students from even KY, MS, and AL come weekly for a 4 hour session
-1 year in MTSBOA orchestra as 1st violin
-1st place in B.E.S.T robotics in TN – team (10th)
-1st place in B.E.S.T robotics in TN – team (11th)
-2nd place in B.E.S.T robotics in southcentral America – team(10th)
-1st place in B.E.S.T robotics in southcentral America – team (11th)
-countless number of chess awards [regional,state,national,and international]
-[2nd place national chess champion in 2007]
-[25th place international chess champion in 2009]
-HOSA state qualifier
CLUBS AND WORK
HOSA (2 years) – gave speech on the relationship between school sports and concussions. Conducted experiment on percentage of people wearing seatbelts after leaving school.
ROBOTICS(3 years) – see above
RESTAURANT(3 YEARS) – 20 hours a week, taking most rigorous classes, learned the value of time management, communication skills, and leadership.
DEBATE CLUB (2YEARS) –
CHESS CLUB (4 YEARS) – 2 years as officer and thought many students on how to improve chess styles
MOCK TRIAL (2 YEARS) - learned the value of thinking quickly and importance of speech.
KUMON INSTRUCTOR (volunteer) – approx. 20 hours
TRACK AND FIELD (2 years) – everyday after school for 1.5 hours and then go to work for another 5 hours and come back at home around 1030
MATH TUTORING(2-3 YEARS) – 1 and only other volunteer that thought many other students about complicated math problems and explaining how certain problems are solved and creating new one to solve for themselves.
NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY (2 years) – volunteered at local historic site (rock castle) during Easter for approx. 5 hours. Volunteered at local church during thanksgiving for approx… 5 hours. Volunteered at WalMart during Christmas week for approx. 5 hours. Learned about the importance of giving back to the community and appreciated at looking at the happy faces of many children.
BETA CLUB OFFICER (1 YEAR) – meticulously documented and organized files that many other students gave to the teacher.
CHURCH (3 YEARS) – played the violin for the church on every Wednesday/Sunday for a total of 6 hours and played during the mass. Played during Christmas week.
DOG WALKING BUSINESS (1 year during highschool, 5 years before that) – walked neighbor’s dog for 1 hour for $5… EVERYDAY had to stop after 9th grade so i can work to support my sister’s medical bills.
TEACHING VIOLIN – teaching violin to 5 students for one hour on top of working at restaurant and currently preparing them to be accepted into one of the most selective musical ensemble in state of TN (MTSBOA).
NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY (1 YEAR) – volunteered for nearly 100+ hours during summer and guided other new volunteers on how to maintain the largest library in state of tennessee.
CHESS – see above
PROGRAMMING – currently learning python and website building.

RECOMMENDATION*
-amazing recommendation from chemistry teacher and hopefully from ap calc teacher.

HOOKS
-racism, bullying, and financial needs has even more motivated me to pursue my goals.

2

What major?

3

biomedical engineering

4

Biomedical engineer At Berklee?

It would seem your strongest hook is your music. Might be your best way in to the schools you want…

5

what about the others .

6

major in biomed and minor in music

7

https://www.berklee.edu/majors
They only have twelve majors. I don’t see BME there. Have you researched these schools at all?

8

Nobody can conceivably “chance” you for Berklee, since admission is heavily based on auditions.

9

Your “hooks” are not hooks. First gen is though. Just be aware of that. Also, I don’t mean to be rude but it seems like you’re overselling yourself in a way that makes your ECs (some of which are really strong!) seem disingenuous. Focus on what you care about and forget the other stuff (barring that in which you have leadership/significant awards)

10

@collegebobcollege like what parts? Because my counselor told us that this is the moment that you need to telll colleges everything that you have done and they call it a “brag” sheet.

http://www.bestinc.org

http://blair.vanderbilt.edu/precollege-adult/NYOP.php

11

Before you message people saying you know they saw your comment, please spell check yourself because I in fact didn’t see it because you spelled my username wrong. The links you gave me are to some of the ECs I think you should highlight (though I will say robotics is huge where I live and I’ve never heard of best, but I digress). Where I think you falter is trying to make your minor ECs sound major, especially since you have 17 and can only list 10 on your application. Yes this is a brag sheet, but colleges mostly want to get a picture of who you are and won’t get that from a laundry list of generic activities in which you have little leadership and little achievement. Your HOSA speech isn’t special when they know there’s many awards you could have won and leadership you could have taken. Your NHS volunteering is standard and trying to make it sound special seems like overcompensation you don’t need. You also don’t need to mention things that ended in 9th grade. Your application is not a place to list “everything you have done” as your counselor says, it’s a place to help adcoms understand who you are and how you will contribute to their campus community. They will get that through an understanding of the things you have spent an extended amount of time and energy on. For me, that’s HOSA, theatre/music, and my Jewish youth group, all of which I have leadership and/or awards in. I will mention some other things on my app, but I’m going to focus on those so adcoms can really get a picture of who I am. For you, I think you should focus on robotics, music, chess, and anything else that is especially important to you. That doesn’t mean you can’t mention other things, but the most important thing is showing who you are, which is really hard to tell from a huge list of activities.