Well, Here's My Story.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<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, but to a ridiculously competitive to the point of insanity school -- and my unweighted GPA dropped to a 3.8. If you notice, the two classes that had prerequisites from my old school were the two classes that I dropped in. This is still pretty good, but my classes for my next year (my junior year) are even harder so I have to work twice as hard to even maintain this GPA. Yes, my school is recognized as a tough public high school by colleges. Also, I'm piled high with extra curriculars and volunteering, though I play no sports. Tell me what you think. </p>

<p>Oh, also, I live in Ohio. </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 :
AP Comp Sci - ?
AP Economics - ?
AP English Language - ?
AP Chemistry- ?
Honors Physics - ?
Spanish 3 - ?
Precalculus - ?</p>

<p>PSAT scores:
172 Freshman
207 Sophomore
? - Junior </p>

<p>AP Scores -
Biology: 5
US History - 4</p>

<p>SAT 2 Scores -
Biology M - 750
US History - 740 </p>

<p>EC's :
Model UN - Superior Delegate,Vice President
Speech & Debate - State Level Original Orator
Mock Trial - "Best Lawyer" award at Districts
Premed Society
Amnesty International
Drama Club - 1-2 plays every school year
Guitar- on and off through high school, pastime activity </p>

<p>Summer Internship at Cleveland Clinic in Biomedical Engineering Department, presenting data to Science Fairs across the board, hoping to get some scholarships there. </p>

<p>Schools I'm Looking at -
UMich
Brown
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UC San Diego
UC SanFran
Johns Hopkins University
OSU
Cornell
Columbia
Duke
UNC Chapel Hill
Wash U @ St. Louis
Stanford (!)
UPenn
Northwestern
Darthmouth
Boston University </p>

<p>I was to be a Premed, majoring in Biomedical Engineering or Cognitive Neuroscience.</p>

2

<p>Just for additional help-
here's the tentative senior year schedule:
AP Calculus
AP English Literature
AP Physics
AP Statistics
AP European History
AP Government
Spanish 4 </p>

<p>Also, I can hope to make nationals this year in speech and become an officer next year. </p>

<p>....
I hope.</p>

3

<p>bump! :(((((((</p>

4

<p>wow you're very on top of things .. not even into junior year and already getting chances. Well, the reason many people have responded is that:
-You have no SAT/ACT score, although I assume it will be very high due to your PSAT score of 207 as a Soph. Try to go for National Merit Finalist (if you don't know what that is, you have to do well on your PSAT, usually around a 215 or 218).
-Your junior year is very influential in the admissions process. While you have good grades (2 B's will not kill you by the way ...), your junior year grades are heavily used for guessing if you can get in or not to a college. Try to keep your grades up and I'm sure you'll have a shot at all of those schools.</p>

5

<p>thank you very much, rob22. Yeah, I'm a little early (...or a lot), but I know I'm not going to have much time junior year. Thanks again!</p>

6

<p>Nice that you are getting a jump on things!</p>

<p>I just wanted to mention a couple of things about the UCs you have on your list - UCSF is a graduate-only campus. There are no undergraduate programs there, but keep it in mind for your graduate studies.</p>

<p>From your post, it appears you will be out-of-state for the other UC campuses. The UCs are currently about $45,000/year for out of state students, and OOSers are generally only eligible for Federal aid.</p>

<p>Keep up the planning ahead, and good luck!</p>

7

<p>Yes -- but I have a feeling that financial aid isn't going to be coming at me since my sister is only 7 and our family income is just a bit over a the general range that gets a lot of aid. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be loaning a lot and crossing my fingers for scholarships. :/</p>

8

<p>Be sure to get some universities on your list that have a history of offering large merit scholarships to students with your qualifications, then. (Check out stickied threads at the top of the Financial Aid discussion forum.) The UCs generally reserve merit aid for in-state students, so they would be very expensive for you.</p>

<p>Also, financial aid doesn't have a sudden cut-off if you are a "bit above the range" that generally gets aid (I am not sure what range you mean, by the way). Unless your EFC turns out to be over $45,000 (have your parents start doing the FAFSA calculators now to get an idea), you would very likely be eligible for university grants (free money) at private universities that you would not receive at the UCs.</p>

<p>On the UC acceptance discussion forums this year, there were so many OOS who had their happiness over acceptance turned into despair when they found they would not be receiving grants or scholarships from the UC.</p>

<p>Taking out $180,000 in loans would not be a good idea. Ask about your situation on the financial aid forum - they give lots of good advice.</p>

9

<p>Those are all really good ideas; I'll have my parents look into the FAFSA calculator, too. I'm really quite uninformed about the financial aspect of college.</p>

10

<p>Haha! Starlight, you are WAY ahead of your classmates! You would not believe how many first think about financial aid AFTER they are accepted and find out they can't afford their choices. You are going to have it all figured out and have a great list of coleges as you start your senior year and the application process.</p>

11

<p>Thanks :D </p>

<p>Yeah, I have a friend at Stanford and his parents are doing their best to help him pay. He's working the summers and his dad recently quit his job, so they're going through some hard times. I really don't want to put my parents in a situation that would make them give up their own happiness in order to pay for my schooling -- planning ahead seems to be the best way to avoid that.</p>

12

<p>Yeah... you're fine.</p>

13

<p>How many safety schools should one have?
I have a friend who got denied in every school he was predicted to get accepted into except his two safeties. Of course, he was an international applicant, but still -- is it better to be safe than sorry and pay a bit more (money and effort) for extra applications ?</p>

14

<p>If you make sure your safeties are "financial" safeties as well as admit safeties, then you need only 2 or 3.</p>

<p>(A financial safety is a school you KNOW can afford to attend.)</p>