When I grow up, I want to be a ping pong researcher. Will JHU accept me? :o

Colleges & Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
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<p>Kidding. But I do like doing both research and playing ping pong :) (Applying for Chem Engineering/Undecided Engineering)</p>

<p>Background: I got to a pretty competitive high school in CT. We send 3-4 kids to HYPSM and 8-9 more to other Ivies. and like 10 more to JHU, Carnegie Mellon, UVA, Notredame, UChicago, and Georgetown)
-Senior
-Race: Indian</p>

<p>Grades: Our school has a weighted scale, we don't calculate unweighted. I have a 4.504 **weighted and my class rank is **20/538 (top 3.7%). GPA of valedictorian is 4.74 (who apparently according to him is guaranteed at Stanford or Harvard which in my opinion is bs)
-I have taken the most rigorous curriculum out of anyone in my grade (will graduate with 9 APs, 2 college courses and 13 AP exam scores)
-My freshman grades had** 3 B's and 4 A's<a href="All%20honors">/B</a>
-Sophomore: 2 B's and 5 A's<a href="2%20APs%20and%20rest%20honors">/B</a>
-Junior: **1 B and 6As<a href="4%20APs%20and%20rest%20honors">/B</a>
-Senior: All As<a href="3%20APs%20and%202%20college%20courses">/B</a>
Upward trend for sure.</p>

<p>Took Quantitative Analysis (Advanced Chemistry course, Sophomore/Junior course in College, met 9 hours a week, 5.0 Credit course).
Took Multivariable Calc (met 4 hours a week).</p>

<p>ACT Scores:
33 Superscore. 12 essay.
I did not get back my November score but I am expecting 34 superscore (lowest is 33), but I feel there is more room for improvment. I will be taking it for the last time in December aiming for a 34/35</p>

<p>Subject tests:
Chem: 780
Math 2: 800
Bio M: 710 (Not sending)</p>

<p>AP Scores:
Sophomore: 4 Bio, 4 Stat
Junior: 5 calc BC, 5 calc AB subscore, 5 chem, 5 lang and comp, 3 history
Senior: lit-?, physics B-? physics C- mag?, physics C-mech-?, compsci-?, pysch-?, spanish lang-?</p>

<p>Extracirrcular- Won't be too elaborate here, but I consider by far the strongest part of my app.
-Table Tennis, spent around 1800+ hours training in 4 yeras of high school. Average 12 hours a week, HUGE time commitment practicing toward this. #2 junior in state, #43 for my age in USA, won several awards at national and state tournaments. Founder of table tennis club at school. Went to international tournament and my team got 2nd in Division 10. Head of TT at JHU said I would be able to make A team.
-Math Team (9,10,11,12)- B team 9th and 10th, A team 11th and 12th. Awarded 3rd highest scoring Junior in Division. Qualified for CSAML (state team) and NEAML (new Englands). We, our A team, got 3rd in State and 14th in New Englands :( Our best players were at science bowl nationals >.<
-Science Quiz Bowl (9,10,11,12)- C team 9+10, B team captain in 11, A team captain in 12. Huge time commitment, our school is usually the state champs. (Also I was part of my schools chemistry olympiad team, we got #1 in state)
-300+ hours of research at 2 different universities<a href="1%20year%20of%20research%20in%20analytical%20chem%20and%20the%20second%20year%20in%20Inorganic%20chem/material%20science%20engineering">/B</a>. My research will be getting published in a couple of months with my name listed as a Co-author.
-Chess club(9,10,11,12)**- Vice President, 4th place and 5th place for district tournament, co captain of team at tournament</p>

<p>Volunteer- 200 hours + (proctored at MathCounts local and state competition, tutored middle school student each week for 3 years, taught chess to kids at local library during summer, helped kids conduct science experiments in summer at local library, helped at cultural events)</p>

<p>Job<a href="I%20just%20turned%2016%20like%20a%20couple%20weeks%20ago%20so%20I%20could%20not%20work%20anywhere">/B</a>: I was slected as a High School Campus Leader for *********</p>

<p>Hopefully you can see I picked a couple of things and went really deep into each one of those rather than doing a lot of things with not much depth</p>

<p>Honor Socieities: Foreign Language, Science, NHS and NSHSS...the usual.</p>

<p>Recommendations: One from AP Chem teacher which is very strong, he talked about my research (since he has a PhD), and appointed as Sci Bowl Captain
One from AP Calc teacher: Strong, have known for 6+ years, knows my math capabilities and how i do at competitions
-ONE Additional one from the Professor I did research with, also the professor of the Quantitative Analysis class. Very strong</p>

<p>Basically I chose these people because they knew me in and outside of school and were able to talk about my character in a personal way because I have known them for so long.</p>

<p>Essay: Well-written, talked about table tennis and how it influenced and guided my life</p>

<p>JHU supplement: Strong (Loved the topic.): Talked about research, chem olympiad experience, college courses about chem and math, why I was attracted to engineering, the science and math compeitions and how they influenced me.</p>

<p>Gracias por tu ayuda.</p>

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<p>Sounds like you have great chances. The ping pong is very unique :slight_smile: in that you went really far with it! Early decision or regular decision?</p>

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<p>^Anouchi: Isn’t my GPA a problem? I mean even though my school doesn’t calculated unweighted, I did it (not sure if I did it correctly) and got a 3.75 average by the time I apply to college (including senior year first semester). </p>

<p>And nope, RD. So many schools with fabulous engineering and research programs, it’s hard to pick just one :p</p>

<p>Yeah, a lot of people have told me that the table tennis thing is unique.</p>

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<p>Do not stress the GPA conversion. Chances are they wont calculate it. Top 4% of the class speaks highly of you…as does the rigorous course load. And if you write essays as well as you write questions you are in great shape!</p>

<p>Good luck. You will be a success where ever you land.</p>

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<p>As dadwonders mentioned, your rank vouches for your rigorous competition and your course listing suggest a very intense curriculum. Everything is considered in perspective. Since you have more time to do so as an RD applicant, I suggest retaking the ACT or taking the SAT (solely because you have time to do so. Your scores are excellent, but it wouldn’t hurt for a point or two more; however small of an influence a point or two will make, you still want to put your best foot in the door :slight_smile: ) Please understand that I’m not suggesting that a 33/36 isn’t adequate, I am just encouraging you to make the most of your time available. Good Luck!</p>

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<p>are you applying Early? If you are I think you are pretty much in.</p>

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<p>UPDATE: I just got my ACT Scores back today: 34 Composite, 12 essay.</p>

<p>36 math
33 English
32 Reading
34 Science
12 essay</p>

<p>Did this increase my chances?</p>

<p>Also, I am retaking for a 35/36 in December which I definitely think is possible to get. </p>

<p>And I am applying regular</p>

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<p>I don’t think 1 or 2 points on the ACT will make much of a difference. Stop wasting your time with it.</p>

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<p>^Hmmm, okay. Well 1 or 2 points on the ACT is from 60-120 points, which is a huge difference.</p>

<p>The only time I would feel that I would be wasting my time with the ACT is if I were studying day and night. However, I just plan to start doing some practice 2 days before the test and listening to some Moonlight Sonata the day before. But thanks for the reply!</p>

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<p>34 ACT is around 2250 on the SAT, which is more than enough for all universities, even HYPS. You’re in at JHU, though. I can see no reason why they wouldn’t accept you. Did you apply ED? 'Cause I’d hate to be in competition with you! :x In any case, good luck in all of your applications. You’re gonna be great in college :)</p>

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<p>Well my unweighted GPA is like 3.73, although our valedictorians is 3.9something, so I guess no one has a 4.0 in our grade.</p>

<p>I just feel that is kinda low because top colleges have 3.8 as their average.</p>

<p>And no, I’m applying RD. Good luck, though.</p>

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<p>GPA doesn’t really matter if your school deflates them. Everything is taken into perspective and I think this applies especially at JHU because its undergrads’ grades are pretty deflated too. Since your rank is awesome, GPA only becomes a secondary factor. You could be the valedictorian at a kick-ass high school but only have 2.5 GPA, but does that mean you’re not qualified for top universities?</p>

<p>Btw, the average GPA for JHU’s like… 3.7 UW</p>

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<p>^Really?! JHU’s UW average GPA is a 3.7?</p>

<p>Hmm, I was worried it’d be much higher. Ok, well that’s good news. I guess I really didn’t need to make this thread.</p>

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<p>I think it’s 3.8, but that’s not a big big difference I suppose and like Redemption said, it doesn’t matter much at all. What matters is the classes you took in high school.</p>

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<p>No, Redemption is correct. I just found it on their website, it’s 3.68.</p>

<p>[U-CAN:&lt;/a&gt; Johns Hopkins University](<a href=“http://members.ucan-network.org/jhu]U-CAN:”>http://members.ucan-network.org/jhu)</p>

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<p>I see, thanks for the update! </p>

<p>I did find this if you want more specific GPA ranges (though collegeboard hasn’t updated their admission rates…). This also suggests a GPA average of 3.7ish entering into Hopkins.</p>

<p>“47% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher
30% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
17% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
5% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
1% had h.s. GPA between 2.5 and 2.99”</p>

<p>[College</a> Search - Johns Hopkins University - Hopkins - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>

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<p>Lol, glad to be of service. Anouchi, even though average GPA’s most likely gonna skyrocket, it can’t go up that much. If you look at the CDS for 2007-2009, you’ll find that 2009’s average high school GPA is actually quite low. I’m guessing 2010’s isn’t much higher.</p>

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<p>That isn’t the average for college students, it’s some kind of calculated high school GPA (I think JHU strips out certain courses in their calculation).</p>

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<p>^Hmm. Really? Well I think I am worrying too much about a number. I’ll just apply and see how it turns out.</p>

<p>Thanks for the help guys</p>

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<p>Haha, good point WongTongTong, there’s nothing we can do now anyway lol</p>