Yay! Ayudame! What are my chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hiya.
I'm a Chinese American living in Georgia. I go to a public school that is (I believe) in the top five schools in my state. Before, I was pretty confident about my chances to some of these schools, but after junior year (which totally got everything out of control), I'm not so sure.<br>
Could you guys please tell me some of my chances and what you think of my profile?</p>

<p>SAT (best scores) Math - 740, CR - 680, Writing - 710, Composite - 2100/2130
ACT (best scores) English - 35, Math - 33, Reading - 29, Science - 29
SAT II: Math I - 740, World History - 760, Biology (going to take), Math II (going to take)
GPA 98.71 (weighted)
Ranking 13 out of about 485-500</p>

<p>ECs
- Academic Quiz Bowl (Representative 9, 10; Secretary 11; Co Captain 10, 11; Freshman Coach 11)
9th - JV State Champions
10th - JV State 2nd, National Qualified
11th - UGA Bulldawg Brawl Champions, National Qualified
- Newspaper (Staff Writer 11; Advertisements Manager 11; Opinions Editor 12)
- Class Council (Vice President 10; Representative 11-12)
- Orchestra (President and Treasurer of Lower Orchestra 9; Chairperson of Higher Orchestra's Leadership Council 10-12)
9th - 2nd at ASTA Convention Competition
10th - Featured orchestra at ASTA Convention
- Fencing Team (Co-Captain 12)
9th - 3rd at Youth Epee Competition, 2nd at Division Qualifiers
11th - 1st GHFL's Womens Team Cup, ranked 5th in the GHFL for women's epee.
- Beta Club (10-12)
- Spanish Club (9, 11, 12)</p>

<p>Community Service
- Hosea Williams Feed the Hungry and the Homeless
- Public Library
- ESOL and Spanish tutor</p>

<p>Awards
- Superiors for the National Spanish Composition Contest and the METRO Foreign Language Competition
- AP Biology Student of the Year
- UGA Merit Award
- Some service awards</p>

<p>Summer Activities
2004: Summer school for PE to get my credit done
2005: University of Chicago Graham School for Creative Writing, worked at my mom's friend's mortgage company
2006: Summer Economics Institute, interned at HJ Russell Company (they are one of the biggest minority run companies in the Southeast and they built places like the Georgia Dome, etc.)</p>

<p>Now here's the problem...
I've always gotten straight A's in high school (with the exception of once in middle school when I took Algebra and it carried over and I got a B) and taken all the honors and AP classes available to me. From freshman year to the end of sophomore year, I had steadily increased my GPA. Then in junior year, it kind of came crashing down. I took 4 AP classes (Lang, Bio, Calc AB, and USH) and got 2 Bs (86 in US and 88 in Lang) in my first semester and my As were like low 90s, except for Spanish. Then in junior year, I improved a little bit. I got all As except for in one class (Lang 88), but it still dropped my GPA. </p>

<p>Do I still have a chance at these schools? And do you think I should take my SAT again or my ACT again if I had to choose one?
- Northwestern (should I apply ED because it is my dream school)
- University of Chicago
- UNC Chapel Hill
- University of Michigan Ann Arbor
- NYU (for Stern)
- UCSD (for biomed)
- Rice
- Emory
- GA Tech
- Carnegie Mellon</p>

<p>and a possible hook... (I know it sounds ridiculous but...) - I'm a burn victim (I have a burn that stretches from my mid-thigh to my knee on my leg) and I'm competing in the Miss Chinatown Atlanta pageant. Triumph against adversity... yeah yeah.</p>

2

<p>I'm fairly certain you are in at GA Tech, but I am no expert on the matter.</p>

<p>... wouldn't someone who was a Spanish tutor and a member of Spanish club for 3 years know that the correct way to say "help me" in Spanish is "ayúdeme" ? ;)</p>

3

<p>^ Haha, yes, I would know that there's an accent on the u. However, I'm at work and I can not/do not know how to put accents with this computer. Thanks for the comment!</p>

<p>More comments would be lovely =]</p>

4

<p>Te ayudo.</p>

<p>What's your best single-sitting ACT composite? </p>

<p>Apply to Northwestern ED only if you are 100% certain that it's the place for you. Debe ser tu primera opci</p>

5

<p>Gracias Nathan para tu ayuda! Estoy una poca loca sobre las universidades. Yeah, I'm not quite sure I should apply to Northwestern ED or apply to some of the other schools EA because my family is kind of in a weird situation. And my standardized tests are making me unsure about everything.
I got a 31 both times I took the ACT (yeah, I wasn't very happy about that).</p>

6

<p>De nada.</p>

<p>As far as EA - it's really the same as RD but you get to know earlier. There's no commitment involved. The applicant pool is a little better early, but if you would be a good candidate for RD, they will just defer you. </p>

<p>What exactly do you want to study? I could suggest some safeties that would fit you best.</p>

7

<p>As far as the schools you have, I think they are all matches to maybe slight reaches. Frankly I think if you apply to Northwestern RD, you'll prolly get it anyway.. just ask yourself out of any school is this where you really want to go? and i really see emory and unc as almost a match not a reach...and your standardized test scores are great especially for NW, Emory, UNC, and almost all the other skools. you have a pretty awesome future ahead of you, good luck though</p>

8

<p>Nathan: Yeah! I'd love to know. I'm interested in either biomedical engineering (or any other bioengineering) or business.</p>

<p>nmehta: Thank you for the positive feedback!</p>

<p>BTW, I think I'm going to take the ACT and the SAT again in the fall.</p>

9

<p>A list of safeties you should investigate:</p>

<p>Southern Methodist University - Dallas Texas - Cox School of Business is top 20-30; they have an Electrical Engineering with Specialization in Biomedical program; every major has enough elective time built in to be able to double major in four years; Engineering 4+1 accelerated masters program; more internships than students to fill them. They also have an engineering management major. Plus Dallas is awesome. 6,000 undergrads</p>

<p>Clemson University - Clemson SC - Bioengineering, Biosystems Engineering, 15,000 undergrads. It's rural, though, and all your other picks were more urban. </p>

<p>On second thought, Georgia Tech (in-state) is probably a safety for you. </p>

<p>University of Texas - Austin has excellent programs in engineering and in business, but it's larger than your picks and it's not quite a safety. 50,000 total students; I'd say about 35,000 are undergrads but don't quote me on that.</p>

<p>Trinity University - San Antonio Texas - small (like Rice) liberal arts college identified by the Fiske Guide to Colleges as being strong in engineering and business. 2,500 undergrads. More of a match school. I don't know if they have bioengineering.</p>

<p>California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo - definetely a safety, plus good academic rep for engineering. Biomedical engineering is offered. BS in Business Administration. SLO has great weather and isn't quite as expensive as San Diego.</p>

10

<p>comoseva:</p>

<p>UCSD: Slight Reach (Engineering, out of state)</p>

11

<p>Thanks flopsy and Nathan!
I've changed my college list a little bit so can you guys tell me what you think?
- Northwestern
- University of Michigan Ann Arbor
- NYU (for Stern)
- UCSD (for biomed)
- Emory
- GA Tech
- Carnegie Mellon
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- University of Texas Austin</p>

<p>Oh yes, and I found out today that I'm an AP Scholar with Distinction. Yay.
Thank you for the feedback!</p>

12

<p>I think you'll be accepted to all.</p>

13

<p>^ Wow, you sound very positive.</p>