<p>Please be honest, but don't be afraid to be brutal. Sorry that it's long, just wanted to be thorough. Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>Planning to apply to:
*Single Choice Early Action: Yale
*Regular Decision: Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Northwestern, Stanford, UPenn, UC Berkeley, Davis, LA
*Intended major: Environmental Engineering
*Might be a legacy at Cornell and Stanford. My older brother is attending Cornell (class of '11) and my cousin graduated from Stanford. Not sure what their legacy policies are though.</p>
<p>*School Type: Public, mid-sized, rather competitive
My school typically sends 2 students to ivy leagues each year, but this year one's going to Yale, another's going to UPenn, and two are going to Princeton
*Location: California, San Francisco Bay Area
*Race/Gender: Asian male<br>
*GPA: 3.96 unweighted/4.5 weighted (at the end of 1st semester senior year)
Highest GPA possible at my school without taking more than one foreign language would be 4.74 unweighted, to get the sense of AP's and honors offered here
*Rising senior
Class doesn't rank, but I'm pretty sure I'm in the top 10%</p>
<p>Background:
*First generation to be born in US
*Parents did not finish high school, but not sure if I count as first generation to go to college since my older brother is in college currently
*Comes from poor family - income ~$20,000 a year, family of 4
*Parents often worked all day and usually couldnt afford a baby sitter, so my brother and I had to care for ourselves
*Had to translate for parents and such because they can't speak very much English, help out in general
*House foreclosed right before 10th grade - helped with NACA application in attempt to gain back house and attended meetings with parents about it
Father lost job ~6 months after foreclosure, not sure whether to put on resume</p>
<p>SAT I total score: 2230
*Math: 730 CR: 740 Writing: 760</p>
<p>SAT II scores:
*Math Level II: 800 (will this make up for the SAT I math score?)
*Bio: 800
*Chem: 800
*French: 690
I will try the ACT to see if I do better on it, but if not, then I'll retake French</p>
<p>AP Tests:
*Chemistry: 5
*Bio: 5
*Calc BC: 5
*English Language: 4</p>
<p>Extracurricular Info
9th: no extracurriculars, was too lazy -_-
10th: planned to to start ec's, but because of the foreclosure, didn't really have much time or money to invest in them
11th:
*Leo's Club - High school Lion's Club, community service:
About 100 hours community service in 11th grade (110 total with Earth Team)
*Math Club - no need for explanation I'm assuming, only a regular member, not a mathlete competitor
*Earth Team - environmental advocation and community service club:
Not many events organized by this one, so about 10 hours
*Track Team
Only JV, but got 4th and 6th place at our league's final meet, if it's worth noting
*Science Club - also presides over my school's Science Bowl team (which is a very successful endeavor at my school):
*Science Bowl Team 2 member (if this makes a difference and should be put on my application, our team 1 got 2nd place at our regional competition and 1st for the last 4 years)
*Geocaching club - recreational club, GPS aided "treasure hunting" activity
Treasurer
*Teacher's Assistant for my 10th grade AP Chemistry Teacher:
Leadership position, graded papers, but mostly helped teach regular chemistry class by teaching various topics in small groups and giving lectures in front of entire class</p>
<p>Summer:
*Taught two students one year below me at the same school precalculus so that they will be able to skip one level in math by taking a placement test (Algebra II Honors to AP Calculus BC):
About 40 hours total
*Internship at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from August to end of September</p>
<p>12th Grade:
(Mostly planned, but elections for officer positions in clubs have already been held so I know what leadership positions I'll have)
*Chemistry Club:
Tutor students in chemistry for about an hour each week
*Earth Team
*Robotics Club
*French Club
*Cross Country:
Probably will be in JV
*Leo's Club:
Secretary, probably same amount of community service as last year
*Geocaching Club:
Treasurer
*Math Club:
Mathlete competitor
*Science Club:
President
*Science Bowl Team 1 (For regular decision, we will probably get 1st place at our regional competition in February because we've won the past 4 years and the only team that beat us last year was comprised of only seniors who won't be on their team this year)</p>
<p>Recommendation Letters:
*French teacher: Great letter, have had for 3 years, fond of me, especially because she also taught my brother
*AP Chemistry teacher: Great letter, had for AP Chem 10th grade, TA 11th grade, science club 11-12th grade as she is the faculty advisor for it</p>
<p>The two above will write letters for most of my schools but for Columbia, since I'm applying for engineering, I will replace the letter from my french teacher with one from my math teacher: decent letter, have known for 3 years</p>
<p>Also, any info on what I should/should not put on my application would be really helpful.</p>