What are my chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi people! This will be my first post, but I've been lurking around CC for about a year now.</p>

<p>My junior year hasn't ended yet, but I'm wondering how I'm shaping up for college admissions into the top 25 and LACs such as Pomona, Amherst and Williams. This is the list I've made for myself, but I want outside opinion:</p>

<p>Reach:
Yale (my dream school, my one and only love, but I know it's bound to end in failure XD)
Columbia
UPenn
Brown
Dartmouth
UC Berkeley
Competitive:
UCLA, USC
JHU
Pomona
UChic
Williams
Safety (or safer):
UCI, UCSD
BU
BC
NYU</p>

<p>Do you have any suggestions for colleges? I'm looking into only NoCal and New England, and the Windy City because of UChic. (Example: I won't look into Rice even though it's a great school, because it's in Texas. Texas is hot, hot, hot!)</p>

<hr>

<p>Ethnicity: Korean (ouch)
Residence: CA (double ouch)</p>

<p>UW Total GPA: 3.81
W Total GPA: 4.44
-had a sharp upward trend after a small dip in sophomore year. Straight A's junior year.</p>

<p>Rank: Not sure. Decile system. Probably in the top 15% out of a class of 600+, I'm hoping to make it to top 10%
HS: Ultra-competitive public magnet that sends ridiculous amounts of students to Berkeley, HYPS, MIT and CalTech. (I don't know where I fit in in there.)</p>

<p>SAT: 2300 (770M, 780CR, 750W)
[b>SAT2: 800 Korean (hahaha); 740 Bio E (freshman year); will be taking USH and Literature</p>

<p>APs (so far):
European Hist - 5
CompSci A - 4
USH - predicting 5
Eng Lang - predicting 5
Art: Drawing - not sure.</p>

<p>Junior Year Schedule:
AP Eng Lang
APUSH
Spanish 3 IBSL
Physics
Precalc
IB Business
AP Art</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule:
AP Eng Lit
AP Bio
AP Calc AB
AP Government
AP Macroeconomics
AP Spanish 4
School Newspaper
Internship - will be doing a summer internship at a local CalState in Dept. of Psychology. Studying cognitive aging.</p>

<p>Classes at local junior college (summer before 10th and 11th):
-Life Drawing
-Art History</p>

<p>Clubs:
-Art Club 9~12 - Secretary, Treasurer, President-elect
-Amnesty International 9~12 - Publicity, President-elect
-MUN 10~12 - Member
-Asian Club 11~12 - Member
-School Newspaper 12 - Cartoonist! :D We're a rare breed, yes we are.
-I don't know if I'll be in NHS. There's a chance. NHS is only open to seniors.</p>

<p>Extracurrics and community service:
-Formal art training (10~12) - this year I think I've averaged around 18~25 hours of art per week, not counting school.
-I played the haegum, which is a Korean instrument like the erhu, from 4th grade to 8th grade in Korea. But when I moved to California, I could no longer take lessons because there was no teacher in the area. I've tried self-teaching myself the haegum during my time here. Progress has been slow, but I'm getting there.
-Children's Tutoring
-Library Assistant
-Peer Language Tutoring
-Mural Painting
-And probably a few other things that I can't remember off the top of my head.
-I'm hoping to start a community-scale "club" this summer. I don't want to give the exact details, but it has stuff to do with using FB, Twitter and other internet trends in a healthy, intellectual manner.</p>

<p>Awards and Honors:
-No national awards, sadly.
-either National Merit Semifinalist or Commended. I got my score right on the borderline and I don't know if I'll make it or not.
-Dept Award in Science
-Dept Award in Spanish
-several MUN Conference Awards (Best Delegate, Outstanding, etc.)
-School art show featured artist
-Silver Key Scholastic
-artwork featured in local museum/art hall
-CM5 Piano (Yes, yes, I know, I fail!)</p>

<p>Recs and Essays:
I'm not sure, obviously, because I haven't started writing them or gotten any of them yet. Hopefully they'll be nice!</p>

<p>Intended Major:
I'll probably be applying as one of the following: Linguistics, Art History, East Asian History, Int'l Relations</p>

<p>Something to note:
I lived in Korea for nearly my entire life before I moved to California the summer before 9th grade.</p>

<hr>

<p>I think that's about it.</p>

<p>Thank you very much! :)</p>

<p>-muffincat</p>

2

<p>You definitely have a shot! :slight_smile: I’m thinking you’re in to the competitive and semi-safeties. The Ivies are reaches for everyone, but you have a good chance.</p>

3

<p>Oh… I don’t know if this is anything big, but I’m also self-teaching myself Farsi. I’m proud of that, but the only problem is that there isn’t a way to take a standardized test to prove your language abilities. For example, I know there’s a national test for Latin and Spanish and Japanese, but there isn’t anything for Farsi. Would I be able to include this activity somewhere in my college app?</p>

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<p>I’d say you have a good chance at everything but the Ivies. (Still apply, though - Ivies are reaches for everyone.)</p>

<p>As far as self-teaching languages, I’ve been in that boat with three different ones. There’s really no way to incorporate that on its own in to a college app unless you write an essay about it. I would suggest that once you become somewhat proficient, you gather a group of people who would be interested in learning that particular language and start offering a beginner’s course in it in the school library once a week or something like that. It’s worked well for me, and it’s a great way to show your leadership abilities and your passion for languages in a college app.</p>

5

<p>JustMae - Thank you!</p>

<p>Jessica93 -Thank you! I’ll definitely keep your advice in mind.</p>

<p>Any other people? :D</p>

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<p>You would definitely be competitive at the ivies, and everything else is a match in my humble opinion. Very impressive resume overall. The essays are where it’s at, make em count ;)</p>

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<p>I’d say you have a fantastic shot at BU and NYU, especially the former. You seem very on par with Brown, too. Any of the other schools would just be me guessing, haha.</p>

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<p>deposition - thank you!</p>

<p>rebeccar - thank you! Just wondering, what makes you say that I’m on par for Brown?</p>

<p>How important are SAT2s in the college admissions process? Personally I don’t see it as a vastly important factor and I’d be content with mid-700s. Is that just me?</p>

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<p>bump bump bump.</p>

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<p>My school sends a good amount of people to Brown every year, and they generally had around your stats. Obviously nowhere close to a guarantee, but based on what I’ve seen I’d say you have a good chance.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Generally unwise advice. </p>

<p>OP, what’s your rank? Your GPA is a little low, but I imagine at a competitive high school your rank is still up there.</p>

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<p>glassesarechic - I think I mentioned in my post that our school doesn’t rank, but goes by the decile system. Our school doesn’t reveal our ranking to us until the fall of senior year for some reason, so all I can give you is a guess. Right now, I’m guessing that I’m around the top 15%. Hopefully by next year I’ll be at the top decile. But yes, our school is very competitive. (I think it was ranked within the top 30 public high schools a few years ago, but I haven’t checked in a while.)</p>

<p>Also, why is the aforementioned advice unwise?</p>

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<p>bump bump!</p>

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<p>bumpity? bump bump!</p>

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<p>Yale 7%
Columbia 12%
UPenn 15%
Brown 30%
Dartmouth 30%
UC Berkeley 75%</p>

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<p>RoughAnswer - Thank you! But… where did the percentages come from?</p>

<p>I just realized, I forgot Stanford on my list, but i doubt it’ll make a difference. XD</p>

<p>Looking at the replies given to me, would it be safe to say that I have a good chance at UCLA and Cal, and a small chance at Dartmouth and Brown?</p>

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<p>In at BU.
I’d also second your chance at Brown. They like art. Try to send a portfolio.</p>

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<p>djdopeslap - Definitely! I forgot to put that in my original post. One question kind of worries me, though. Colleges say not to give them too much info, and if my portfolio isn’t good enough in their eyes, will that actually decrease my chances? Or will the worst be that they’ll just put my portfolio aside?</p>

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<p>I worried about that too, and I was absolutely clueless about how to put together a portfolio. According to the chair of the department of visual art, a portfolio rarely if ever negatively affects an applicant. My art teacher was absolutely apathetic, so I had art teachers at other high schools and a director at a local museum give me constructive criticism on my portfolio and help me assemble the prints.</p>

<p>I would pm NapoleonInRags. He (she?) is an art student at Brown and will most likely be more than happy to give you advice on everything portfolio related.</p>

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<p>Thank you very much for your advice, djdopeslap! :D</p>