<p>What more would I need to do to improve my competitiveness (aka my EC, etc.)?
I'm aiming for at least the Top 30 national university, although I wouldn't mind Oxford or Cambridge (I know. Wishful thinking.)</p>
<ul>
<li>Asian male (possibly disadvantageous)</li>
<li>Rising junior, I'm going to become a doctor.</li>
<li>Very rigorous public school (13 to Stanford, 20 to UC Berkeley)</li>
<li>Bilingual in South Korean and English, elementary Japanese</li>
<li>2 or 3 Bs and 1 C+ (in advanced biology) freshman year, but all As except for 1 B+ sophomore year (big improvement) Planning to work hard to get all As junior and senior year, so I'll have a 4 point something weighted GPA</li>
<li>Department award for excellence in Animation Using Virtual Worlds</li>
<li>2 APs junior year + mostly honors, all APs senior year</li>
<li>2150~2320 range in SAT diags so far.</li>
<li>No instruments....Very elementary guitar. Was in choir during freshman year</li>
<li>Nominated Team Captain of badminton frosh year but replaced due to age/lack of experience</li>
<li>Haven't joined team again sophomore year but will join again for junior and senior year</li>
<li>150+ hours volunteer in local veterans' hospital, planning to continue until graduation</li>
<li>Takes 40 minute train ride to San Francisco once or twice a week (soup kitchen volunteer) + buy food for beggars b/c I'm passionate about helping those in need.</li>
<li>Red Cross volunteer + possibly Founder and President of Red Cross Club</li>
<li>CPR/First Aid/Emergency treatment certified for both pediatrics and adults</li>
<li>East Villagers (philanthropy NGO) intern</li>
<li>Founder and CEO of startup study website for school to use, which I hope and have reason to believe will become very big.</li>
<li>Participation in Model United Nations, DECA (business club), and HOSA (medical club)</li>
<li>Planning to found and lead 2 or 3 clubs within next two years</li>
</ul>
<p>P.S. A lot of the things I mentioned are prospective and yet to happen, but please assume that I have already done them as they are either set and scheduled (only waiting to happen) or are certain to occur.</p>
<p>If you are a rising senior, it’s too late to pad, enhance, or otherwise improve your EC’s. Admissions officers can smell the desperation when students suddenly add a bunch of new activities their senior year. So if you are a rising senior, what you have now is as good as it gets.</p>
Admissions Officers understand that students taking a rigorous course schedule must spend 3 to 4 hours a night on homework. That leaves about 20 hours a week to devote to extracurricular activities and college’s prefer students who have made a commitment to their EC’s and spend 3-6 hours each week on several activities, rather than students who have a laundry list of activities that they spend one or two hours a week on.</p>
<p>Looking over your EC’s, my advice would be to edit your list down to 4 or 5 activities that you most care about and delete the rest. You do not have to list every activity you ever did.</p>
<p>No college has ever based a decision on hoped-for or expected credentials. Once you know your GPA and SAT/ACT scores, people will be able to give you some guidance.</p>
<p>Please do not project grades. From the grades you currently have, those schools will be a reach for you. Don’t say ‘I’m gonna get a 4.0 for the next few years’. That’s easier said than done. Also, that C in bio is gonna really hurt you if you say that you are planning on going to a top school to become a doctor. Is there any specific reason you want to go to a top 30 ranked national university? They are very distinct and different schools. I think you should look past prestige and generate a list that has more than the Ivies, Stanford, and MIT</p>
<p>Well, most people want the prestige primarily to show it off to other people, but I think the prestige and brand name is just a tool and resource that open doors to more opportunities. I’m going to have access to many more opportunities and paths in life if I am able to use the prestige of my university as well as my competence. The C+ in bio was during freshman year (and I’ve heard that colleges such as UC Berkeley, etc. do not count freshman grades into calculation/consideration). </p>
<p>The UC are a small part of the top 30 schools. Most are privates who who will see everything and have students who have a majority of students why have never had less than a 4.0 for all 4 years. Prestige will only get you so far. You will get a job based on the internships you get. If you want to prepare yourself for getting jobs, look at ‘top schools job recruit from’. You’d be surprised to find out that most of those top schools are public schools like Penn State and the University of Florida and NOT Yale and Harvard. </p>
<p>Hahhaha thanks for the advice. Just for the record, nowhere in my post did I ever mention any Ivies like Harvard or Yale. I am perfectly satisfied with top public schools (and not necessarily all private). I want to become a doctor, so I’ll be looking primarily into clinical experience and internships related to medicine and/or research. So the top schools job recruit form won’t exactly help me as much as other resources, although I do appreciate your help. </p>