I am a rising Junior in Oregon and wanted to get some insight into my college chances for the schools I plan to apply to (will be listed at the bottom).
STATS:
New SAT: 1550 (R/W: 780 Math: 770)
ACT: N/A
GPA Unweighted: 4.0/4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.25-4.5 (will likely be higher after completion of junior year)
Class Rank: 1/186
Class Percentile: Top 10%
Race: Multi/Bi-Racial (two or more races)
AP Classes: Currently I have only taken AP Human Geography and AP European History, but I plan to take AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Physics C, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, and AP English Language. My current AP average is a 4. (I hope/expect to be an AP Scholar with Distinction by the end of my Junior year).
SAT SUBJECT TESTING: I plan to take SAT Math II, SAT Physics, and SAT Literature (hoping/expecting at least 750+ on each test)
Sports:
Varsity athlete (sophomore, junior, and expected senior years) in soccer
Varsity athlete (all 4 years) in tennis, co-captain for sophomore year
Member of highly selective club soccer team since age 13
Invited to the Oregon Premier Select soccer group
Invited to high level tennis group at University of Portland
Awards:
Received many personal gold awards in journalism and writing from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association
Received gold and silver keys in writing (journalism and literary) and photography from Scholastic Key Awards
Editor-in-Chief of a student produced Magazine that was awarded "Best Single Issue Magazine" in the Northwest by the Northwest Scholastic Press Association
Received Superior and Excellent awards in personal journalism from the Northwest Scholastic Press Association
-Selected as the Oregon representative to the prestigious JCAMP journalism conference in Detroit, MI (2018).
Extracurriculars:
Editor-in-chief and 3 (will be 4) year member of school's magazine that has won the most prestigious scholastic journalism award in the nation for 5 straight years
JCAMP Oregon representative for 2018, in Detroit, Michigan
More than 700+ hours as a research intern at well known and prestigious university research hospital investigating Acute Myeloid Leukemia treatments and doing molecular cancer biology, working in a laboratory and culturing human cell lines, and doing bio-statics with large data sets to examine treatment efficacy trends (using PRISM). Gained knowledge on drug impact on cell lines, apoptosis, gene expression changes and cell signaling. (worked throughout the 2018 summer, plan to extend the internship throughout high school career).
200+ hours as a research intern at local state college doing statistical analysis and data coding, entering, and cleaning on an NIH funded study about the welfare system. Wrote syntax and ran descriptive analyses using SPSS software, summarized findings from data analyses in a written report presented to research team.
Founded a non-profit (still to be launched) with established progams and workshops to teach young kids about rape culture, sexual assault, healthy relationships and consent.
President of the club at high school affiliated with the non-profit focused on teaching about rape culture, sexual assault, healthy relationships and consent.
Member of the Asian American Youth Organization in Oregon
Member of the Asian American Alliance club at high school
Co-Founder of a non-profit dedicated to collecting and distributing soccer equipment to children in impoverished areas. Past service locations include: Havana, Cuba. Delhi, India. Mumbai, India. Rural Mexico. (Future locations expected: Kenya, Vietnam)
Member and leader of school's Investment Club
PROSPECTIVE:
Plans to join the high school's National Championship Winning Constitution Team (team has won state championships almost every year, traveled to Washington, D.C to compete in the national championships and has taken 1st place nationally 3 times {including most recently in 2018})
COLLEGE LIST:
Harvard
Yale
University of Chicago
Stanford
Columbia
University of Pennsylvania
New York University
Georgetown
Emory University
University of Oregon Honors
The GPA and rank is great. However, it may be too early to make an accurate prediction, considering that you haven’t taken many AP classes and subject tests. Keep up the good work though and you’ll have a shot!
I’m pretty split in terms of majors. I’d be interested in looking at the political science/law route, but am also very interested in biomedical research/pre med. Also, I only put down the schools that I am most interested in/I thought would be the tougher schools of the ones I’m applying to. I have a couple more meets/safeties in mind. Thanks!
@emorynavy Wouldn’t Emory or Georgetown be more of a possible meet? I think my test scores and GPA/rank put me in the 75th+ percentile, right? Of course that isn’t the only consideration for college admissions officers.
@ndullith
Depends, you didn’t say which races/ ethnicities you were mixed with, or what you decided to put on the Common App.
However your stats are 75th% for both schools (however barely for the SAT). What really stands out is your class rank so maybe its a High Match, but no more than that simply due to very low acceptance rates for RD.
So, if I understand this correctly, you are the president of a club that is affiliated with a non-profit that you are planning to launch that already has established programs and workshops to teach “young kids” about an important but very sensitive topic, yes? I admire the many ways that teenagers can take on difficult topics, and I don’t think that qualifications are the be-all and end-all, but what expertise do you have in this field? there is a lot of information, and there are a lot of programs, of widely varying quality: the ‘first, do no harm’ dictum applies.
I’m also trying to reconcile your time. In 2 years, from ~14-~16, you have picked up 900+ hours of high-level research, been Editor-in-Chief of a student magazine (as a sophomore), won multiple awards for both literary and journalistic writing, been a 2-sport varsity athlete, founded one non-profit, and are about to launch a second with a very ambitious scope, all while keeping up a 4.0 GPA.
I agree with the post above. How do you maintain all of that??? Something doesn’t quite feel right. No offense, but people have a tendency to overexaggerate their ECs. I’m not saying you’re one of these people, but just keep that in mind while you’re applying to colleges. Admission officers aren’t stupid; they know when an applicant is overstating themselves to look like a target. Just sayin’
@collegemom3717@RocketMan1256 I see what you’re saying. The thing is, I’m being honest - everything that I’ve put down there are actual accomplishments/ECs of mine. But I understand that showing too much could seem a bit Iike I’m over overstating. Should I take off some of these activities when I put together my application? I guess I was thinking that since everything up there is true, it would show through and colleges would be able to see that. But if it seems over exaggerated, maybe I should negate some things from the resume?
True is true, and you should of course get credit for what is true. However, you might ask your GC or other adult who knows you and your activities better to help evaluate your ECs and order/present them optimally.
For example, to have been in a position to do that level of research at 14/15 is very unusual- my guess is that there is a connection in there somewhere. Maybe your Mom is a researcher & you have helped out in the lab / listened to her talking about her research / etc for years & your summer work has been a natural outgrowth of that. In that scenario, your work is genuine, but your access & readiness for the work have a context. I know enough ‘prestigious’ research facilities to know that interns under 18 are uncommon, and almost never under 16 -unless it’s either a Doogie Howser situation, or a connection (or both)
And I am genuinely concerned about your plan to develop and run workshops for “young kids” (6? 10? 12yo?) on such sensitive topics. At 16 (with your time allocated in so many directions already, and no indication of experience in either the field or managing groups of ‘young kids’) it is hard to see you having the skills, expertise or knowledge of best practice to lead a group of ‘young kids’ through such training. If you are doing it in conjunction with, say, a national program then that should be explicit. Fwiw, if that is the case not mentioning it- making it look as though you are 100% the creator & implementer- is the sort of over-egging that @RocketMan1256 was indicating.
You’re going to be teaching kids about rape? Just saying, maybe not a good thing to teach 7 year olds…honestly that program should probably be taught to at least people going into high school
In terms of research, will you be published and/or submitted into a conference?
