What are my chances at UCLA, Pomona (Early), and Rice (Early)?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi. So first off, I'm so sorry this is quite long. I just want to know what you guys think, as most of you are so accomplished it is actually astonishing to me. If I'm setting my sights too high, I want to be brought back to reality. I plan on majoring in Biology. Depending on the school, I'll minor either in Italian/Romance languages or music. Now if you still want to read this and help me out after seeing how long it is... GO! By the way, you rock.</p>

<p>GPA: UW 4.0
Classes: Basically, we don't have honors. We have advanced, which the school doesn't weight (only offered for freshman and sophomore english and freshman history). Also, we aren't allowed to take AP sciences, math, or english until junior year (unless you can somehow be in Calc as a sophomore)
Freshman
English 1-2 Advanced: A/A
Modern World History Advanced (1 semester): A
Geometry: A/A
Biology: A/A
Italian 1-2: A+/A+
Symphonic Band: A/A
PE: B/B
Health (1 semester): A</p>

<p>Sophomore
English 3-4 Advanced: A/A
AP European History: A/A+ (5 on AP test)
Algebra II: A+/A
Chemistry: A/A
Italian 3-4: A/A
Advanced Band: A/A
PE: A-/A</p>

<p>Junior (expecting 4 or 5 on the 3 tests)
AP Lang. and Comp.: A
AP US History: A
Precalculus: A
AP Biology: A
Italian 5-6: A+
Advanced Band: A</p>

<p>Senior prospective schedule:
AP Lit.
AP Gov/ AP econ. (each a semester)
AP Calc AB
AP Physics
AP Italian
Advanced Band</p>

<p>Test Scores:
ACT: 33 (as a sophomore, hoping for a 34 this June)
SAT II: Bio (M): 750 Math II: hoping for 730+ (taking in June)
AP tests notated above</p>

<p>EC activities: (not in any order, but I think there is a main focus?) *** denotes leadership position
1. Italian Club President (11,12)-- secretary in 9 and 10 ***</p>

<ol>
<li><p>American Cancer Society Club President (12)-- just elected, served as VP in 11 and member in 9 and 10 **</p></li>
<li><p>Event Chair of Relay for Life (elected to lead committee of students for planning our community's Relay for Life which typically raises $80,000, this is basically the top position) (12) In 10 and 11 I was the head of the Entertainment committee. This takes nearly 60 hours of planning on my part for the event, and after the event I lead the committee in other activities (for example, raising money for a student at my school suffering from cancer whose family is having a hard time financing health expenses and a stable living situation for the student's siblings) *</p></li>
<li><p>Volunteer for many many hours at an organization in the urban area near me that houses cancer patients (children)-- I work on the living conditions for these patients and their families by making holiday cards, painting, cleaning, organizing, making the place a nice place for the brave kids! I also tutor the patient's siblings.</p></li>
<li><p>Intern and volunteer at my local hospital's cancer center</p></li>
<li><p>Piano for 11 years, some awards from my conservatory</p></li>
<li><p>Flute and Piccolo which I play in my school's band (first chair), my region's orchestra (first chair), my school's musicals, competitions (with some awards), and my region's honor band, and a flute "choir" of mostly professional flautists</p></li>
<li><p>Mental Health Awareness Club President and Founder (11,12)-- founded after personal encounter, support group for those suffering from depression, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, etc., or those whose family or friends are suffering from those illnesses *</p></li>
<li><p>Varsity Tennis (9,10,11,12)- elected Captain next year **</p></li>
<li><p>Hopefully participating in a research program this summer, whether it be a paid program or research with a professor</p></li>
<li><p>Robotics team member (though, no leadership position)</p></li>
<li><p>possibly next year's band president, though I don't know yet.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Work experience.. I worked at a sales associate at Nordstrom for 10 and 11, a tennis camp counselor for 9,10, 11. (not very important, I probably won't even include these) These jobs took place all year.
Actually, it is probably relevant, and I totally forgot to include that I teacher flute and piano to elementary school/ middle school students. I charge very little to nothing because most of my students cannot afford to pay a teacher.</p>

<p>Recommendations: Planning on getting these from my language and english teachers. However, I'm planning on studying biology. Should I also get one from my biology teacher? They should be very good, really. I'm very involved in the classroom and in helping my peers, which they recognize.</p>

<p>Other:
I live in California (a wealthy area, too)
Bilingual (can speak, read, write other language)-- I study with a teacher to perfect these skills and am at a high school level in the language
Mom is legacy @ USC
Both parents with Bachelor's, Dad has Master's
Struggled with depression, though I don't want to talk about this much, only in reference to the club I founded and am president of! :)
I took a human biology class at a local community college, receiving an A. I will take an anatomy class this summer if I'm not accepted into a formal research program.</p>

<p>I think my essays will be pretty bomb (sorry for the colloquialism, I just love that word ;)). I'm a fairly good writer so that will definitely be to my advantage.</p>

<p>IF I LEFT ANYTHING OUT, or you have questions, let me know!</p>

<p>Some important questions:
1. Should I submit a music supplement?
2. What are my strengths and weaknesses?
3. Which EC activities are strongest and should be included in the 10 activities.</p>

2

<p>Hi there, and thanks for the chance! :slight_smile: And wow. Your GPA and scores are great (also, unless math isn’t a strong suit for you, I’d say aim for at least a 750 on Math II since in general, most people do very well on that test). And you have a ton of great ECs! I think you have a wonderful shot at UCLA (quite literally, I know at least 50 people who were far less qualified than you and got in), and as for Pomona and Rice, you can only apply to one early since they both have binding Early Decision programs, but I’d say they’re both matches for you (maybe Pomona’s a high match, but you’re certainly qualified). </p>

<p>Now to answer your questions:

  1. I’m a pianist and decided to submit a music supplement, and I personally believe that it gave my application a boost. The thing about these supplements is that unless they reflect an EXCEPTIONAL level of talent (not just “proficient”), they won’t help you and if your supplement is mediocre, it may actually hurt you. However, seeing as your music achievements (especially in the flute!) do seem to indicate an exemplary level of ability, I’d say pick your strongest repertoire pieces and send in a supplement! :slight_smile: Really, just go with your gut as to whether you think your recordings are good enough.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Your strengths are kind of widespread. As I said, your GPA is great, your scores are solid, and your ECs are varied and suggest a very high level of involvement and commitment. As for weaknesses, (I almost hate to say this since they’re so fantastic but…) your ECs seem a bit generic - a lot of applicants to schools with competitive admissions will have similar extracurricular activities to you. You can easily overcome this, however, in your essays by showing your level of passion and a unique personal/learning experience that you and only you would have gained with your involvement.</p></li>
<li><p>This is going to sound super cliche, but honestly, put the 10 ECs that mean the most to you. (This will require some introspection, however.) What I did with my own ECs was to rank them in order of “impressiveness” (i.e., difficulty to attain) and then rank them in order of how much passion and personal commitment/involvement I had with respect to each one (including how much time I spend on each and whether I planned to pursue it in college/life), and the nice thing was that the two lists lined up pretty well! Which makes sense, because you’d achieve more in a particular EC area the more invested you are in it. It’s going to require some thinking on your part, but you can’t pass off the task of picking your “strongest” ECs to a collection of anonymous users on a website. I understand that you want to paint yourself in the best and most impressive-looking light to admissions (as a current HS senior, I completely get it), but you don’t need to shortchange or skew your personal passions to look appealing. To tell you the truth, with the descriptions you’ve offered in your post about each activity, they ALL seem strong; it’s really up to you to decide which ones are most important to you.</p></li>
</ol>

3

<p>@ultrachromatic Thanks for the suggestion with the Math SATII. That is all great to hear!!

  1. Just wondering, what piece did you play? I want to know, approximately, the level that the adcoms are expecting :slight_smile:
  2. Thanks :slight_smile: That’s a great tip!
  3. Haha I knew that was coming, but your method seems effective so I’ll definitely do it that way.</p>

<p>THANK YOU FOR A LOVELY ANSWER you are so helpful.</p>

4

<p>@bu2015jr Aww no problem! :slight_smile: </p>

<p>As for the music supplement: I sent a number of different pieces to different colleges (since a lot had different requirements), but I played some easier pieces and some more difficult ones. Here’s a (I think complete) list of the pieces I sent to any of my colleges:

  1. Allegro Assai from Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 12 (not particularly difficult, but I played it at a pretty high speed)
  2. Bach Prelude and Fugue No. 10 (his Preludes and Fugues are easy to play, but difficult to play well. If you ever decide to apply to Princeton RD, they’ll ask you to include one of Bach’s Preludes and Fugues in your supplement)
  3. The first movement of Haydn’s Sonata XVI Hob. 37 (again, not a very difficult piece, just requires some technical skill; again, I played this one at a very high speed and again, this was to fulfill one of Princeton’s supplement requirements, lol)
  4. Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (a bit daunting, I’ll admit, but once you get the fingering down it’s just about speed, since the dynamics come naturally)
  5. The 3rd movement of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (overall, this concerto is considered to be one of the most difficult pieces in a contemporary repertoire; learning and perfecting just the third movement took me almost two years!)
    You seem like a really talented musician, so I’m sure you could handle these! If you want, PM me and I’ll try to upload the audio files of me performing so you can hear what they sound like :)</p>

<p>Okay, one more thing: You asked in your original post whether the fact that you want to major in the sciences but want recs from an English and language teacher is a bad idea. I’m going to speak from personal experience here and say no. Quite a few of my higher-level awards are science-y, and I fully intend to continue doing research and have a science as a second major in college, but both of my recommendation letters were from humanities teachers (English and History). It didn’t hurt me and I don’t think it’ll really hurt you, because what colleges really want out of a teacher rec is someone who knows you well and can speak to your character in their personal experience - the subject matter really is secondary. However, the difference between me and you is that I put Bio as a second-choice major and Public Policy (or something similar) as my first choice. Therefore, what I suggest you should do (and what I did too) just to be safe is to either get a third/supplemental rec from a biology teacher if you think you can get one that’s just as great from him/her, or from your research mentor if you get accepted into a lab or research program (this is what I did) - or you can even request one from your anatomy class teacher! Using one of those above options as a supplemental rec helps you cover your bases. :D</p>

5

<p>ddammmmnnnn ballin with that 4.0 UW. that looks amazing for any school so you already have an edge on most applicants. 9 AP’s also show a solid class rigor. Test Scores are pretty good, although a 34 would probably make UCLA and pomona pretty solid matches. Don’t know too much about rice tho. EC’s also show well-roundedness! good luck</p>

6

<p>@ultrachromatic Haha yeah I will NOT get into Princeton, so… anyways I’m thinking of playing one of the movements from Beethoven’s Pathetique. Do you think this is advanced enough to include? I’m very musical, so it’d be great, I think! Or on flute I could play Chaminade’s Concertino (served as a final at the Paris Conservatory so I’m sure that’s advanced enough)</p>

<p>Yeah I’d love to hear recordings that’d be great :slight_smile: I can send one of me too for your comments.</p>

<p>That’s a great idea for the recs. I’m planning on getting English and Language, but also my AP bio teacher (who was also my Chem teacher) and he likes me a lot so that’ll be great.</p>

<p>@coolkat123 Thanks :slight_smile: I hope it is. Yes I’m going for a 34 but I am SO bad at the Reading section.</p>

7

<p>@bu2015jr Glad the recs issue’s resolved :slight_smile: And I’ll try and PM you sometime in the next week with recordings!</p>

<p>Beethoven’s Pathetique is my favorite Sonata of his <3 I think it’s underrated. As long as you have the dynamics and technique down (especially with keeping time and the tremolos) and you can play it well at tempo, I think it’s a great choice! As for the flute, I was a flautist for a few years before I decided to focus my energies on the piano and I’ve heard the Concertino but never came close to being able to pull it off. It’s definitely advanced enough haha :slight_smile: I say go for it!</p>

8

<p>Sounds good! :)</p>

<p>I love it so much! I’m just debating which movement… I really think the 3rd is most beautiful and I can play it most expressively… so I think I might go for that? All 3 are way too long, and I don’t want to overwhelm!</p>

<p>Could I submit both flute and piano or do you recommend sticking to one?</p>

<p>@ultrachromatic</p>

9

<p>@bu2015jr The 3rd is definitely my favorite! (Since you seem to have a decent idea of which colleges you want to apply to, I suggest you look on each of their websites for their supplement instructions. A lot of colleges have certain time limits [they aren’t exact though; you can go a few minutes over] and preferences for music supplements.) And as long as you stick with their guidelines, if you’re both a high-caliber pianist AND flautist, I don’t see why you couldn’t send both! ^_^</p>

<p>(Oh, also. I’m still a high school senior, so just know that everything I’ve been telling you is based on either my own opinions on what works, my own experiences based on what worked for me, or the experiences of people I know based on what worked for them, so just take my advice with a grain of salt - it’s always a good idea to get a second opinion. Just fyi :D)</p>

10

<p>I looked to see if Rice had anything about music supplements, but really didn’t find anything… I’ll look harder haha! Yeah that sounds like a great idea. Do I submit these through the Common App??</p>

<p>Of course :slight_smile: Thanks! </p>

<p>@ultrachromatic</p>

11

<p>@bu2015jr I just chatted up a friend who applied to Rice and also happens to be a gifted violinist, and he said that when he called admissions to ask about a music supplement, the woman on the phone said that unless he intended to major in music he shouldn’t bother sending one. I didn’t apply to Rice, so I don’t know if they let you double major in Bio and Music (I don’t see why not, except that they’re in separate schools), but if you do intend to major in Music, then instead of submitting a supplement you’d have to request an audition - I think they have an audition request form online somewhere. If you’re not planning to major in Music, however, I don’t think you can send one to Rice. </p>

<p>For Pomona and other schools, however, yes, you generally do submit supplements via the Common App; the Common App gets linked to a website called SlideRoom for each college that lets you submit a supplement, if you indicate on the app that you wish to submit one for that particular college. :slight_smile: If a college isn’t linked to SlideRoom or doesn’t ask on the Common App if you want to submit a supplement, make sure you check its website or Google it before you assume it doesn’t accept them (learn from my almost-mistakes LOL).</p>