Will I get into my dream school?!

<p>Hey! I'm going to be a senior in the fall and I am currently working on my applications. I am new to CC, so if you need any more information, please let me know. Any suggestions as to how I cam improve my chances would be appreciated. I also included everything I could think of in here, so some of them might be repeated, or may not be too important. I would really grateful if you could chance me for Duke</p>

<p>I posted this a while ago o this forum but I didnt get any responses so I'm gonna try again haha -.-</p>

<p>GENDER: Female
ETHNICITY: Asian Indian
INTENDED MAJOR: Engineering or Applied Mathematics
SCHOOL TYPE: Private/Magnet
LANGUAGES SPOKEN: Fluent in English and Hindi, I know a little Spanish</p>

<p>SAT I: Total-2240. Math-740. Critical Reading-750. Writing-750. Essay-8
ACT: Total-31. Math-36. English-35. Reading-30. Science-25. Essay-11
SAT II: Math Level 2: 800
Chemistry: 750
(I am planning to take English this fall)
UNWEIGHTED GPA (out of 4.0): 3.6
WEIGHTED GPA 4.2
RANK (percentile if rank is unavailable): neither % nor rank is available
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Calculus BC (5)
AP Chemistry (4)</p>

<p>(i went to a public school 9-10 grade and switched to a private magnet school to be in the Engineering Magnet Program for 11-12 grade)</p>

<p>FRESHMAN YEAR COURSE LOAD
Honors Coordinated Science 1
Honors English 1
Honors Global Perspectives
Dance Tech 1
Spanish 1
Honors Algebra 2</p>

<p>SOPHOMORE YEAR COURSE LOAD
Honors Coordinated Science 2
Honors English 2
Honors Pre Calculus
Honors Chemistry
Spanish 2
U.S. History</p>

<p>Spanish 3 (completed at local community college)</p>

<p>JUNIOR YEAR COURSE LOAD
Engineering Physics 1
AP/IB English HL1
Show Choir
AP/IB Spanish SL1
Honors Physics
AP Calculus AB/BC
AP Chemistry</p>

<p>SENIOR YEAR COURSE LOAD
Engineering Physics 2
AP/IB English HL2
AP Physics C
AP Economics
AP Statistics
Differential Equations
(Deciding between AP Music Theory and AP Psychology)</p>

<p>AWARDS AND CERTIFICATES (Grade level in parenthesis)
- Certificate of Merit Level VI, Branch Honors, Music Teacher Association of California (11)
- High Honor Roll Certificate, Fairmont Preparatory Academy (11)
- Division Recognition Award from Center for Global Leaders Essay Competition from among 5000 participants. (10)
- Certificate of Merit Level V, Branch Honors, Music Teacher Association of California (10)
- Commendation at Branch Honors Recital (10).
- Magna, Cum Laude University High School (9)
- Honor Roll Certificate, American Mathematics Contest 8 (8)
- President's Award for Educational Excellence (8)
- Academic Merit Award, University of California, Irvine (6)</p>

<p>MUSIC AND ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT (Grade level in parenthesis)
- Part of school show choir group at Disney Competition 2011, 1st Place(11)
- 2011 All State Honor Choir, American Choral Directors Association, California(11)
- Part of Hawaii Music Festival , Show Choir Group, Excellent Rating(11)
- High School Honor Choir, Southern California Vocal Association(10,11)
- Invited by United Federation of Indo Americans of California to sing at their 63rd India Independence Day celebrations (10)
- Invited to sing at 63rd Indian Association of Inland Empire Anniversary of India's Independence Day (10)
- 2010 Convention Honors, LA, Music Teacher's Association of California (10)
- Branch Honors Recital, Music Teacher Association of California (10)
- Invited to dance and sing at United Federation of Indo Americans in California (9)
- First place Annual Raas Garba and Dance Competition 2009 (9,10)
- second and third places, two consecutive years (group) at IYANA 3rd and 4th ANNUAL Youth Convention (9,10)
- Dance performance-High School Show Case (9,10)
- Donald Bren Honors Concerts, IUSD (6,7,8)</p>

<p>SUMMER PROGRAMS:
Summer'11 Internship at Boeing, Phantom Works
Summer'10 All Girls All Math Camp, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Summer'10 42nd Annual High School Honor Institute, University of Colorado
Summer'09 Microsoft DigiGirlz Summer Camp, Microsoft</p>

<p>LEADERSHIP:
Vice President (11 – present), Light up the World
President and Founder (11-present), Free the Slaves. I started the first high school chapter of this organization in the nation.
Publicity Manager (10), Indian Student Association
Publicity Manager (12), UNICEF</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULARS:
Music: Hindustani Classical Vocal (4-present)
Western Classical Music (5-present)
Honor Choir (5,6,7,11)
Musical Theater (7,8)
Dance (9-present)
Sports: JV volleyball (11)
Volunteer: Discovery Science Center (10-present)
Homeless Shelter (9-present)
Clubs: Free the Slaves (9-present)
UNICEF (11-present)
Light up the World (11-present)
Indian Student Association (10)
Educational: NASA Interdisciplinary National Science Project Incorporating Research and Education Experience
Our school team of four students including me, was one of the 2 teams nationwide that was chosen to attend the 13th Annual United Nations Students' Conference on Human Rights at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Mars Desert Research Station: my proposal to conduct some experiments at the Research Station was accepted by a research team from Georgia Tech that will be conducting these experiments.</p>

<p>Come on guys. This is my second attempt to get answers for the same question :(</p>

<p>Once again. Bump.</p>

<p>From a quick glance through your list of accomplishments, it looks like you have a great chance. But, getting into a place like Duke requires luck as well, especially since they get increasingly selective each year. My word of advice is to focus on the extracurriculars/awards that are most important to you (no more than 3-4). A laundry list like you presented here would cause admissions officers to wonder if you were actually devoted to all the activities that you said you were; there is only so much time in the day, especially with tough coursework. I know it is hard, but you will have to pick and choose… there is only a few slots on the common app to list activities and honors.</p>

<p>Alright thanks (:
But for the awards ad stuff, a lot of them are connected to each other (mostly singing and academics) so it’s pretty focused right? So should I still shorten it?</p>

<p>I would list the 5-6 most important ones. Colleges don’t like to see a laundry list; a laundry list raises an eyebrow if some of the awards are made up.</p>

<p>Ohh okay thanks!</p>

<p>Oh I should add that I’m in the top 15% (possibly 10%)of my class. I go to a pretty competitive private school</p>

<p>Looks good. Damn you have a long list of leadership and EC …lol.</p>

<p>lmao sorry I didn’t know which ones were important so I just put everything I could think of :P</p>

<p>I have a laundry list of debate awards because I tend to win often. Should I just put the most prestigious ones?</p>