Yet another Asian going for HYPSM. *I chance back*

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys, thanks for reading this :D Kinda new here, looks like an awesome place, so hopefully I can post more around here. I'm only a junior right now, but I want to get some opinions on how I'm doing so far/what I should change.
Stuff in brackets [] means what I will <em>hopefully</em> have at the end of this year.
If you could chance what I have now and the bracketed stuff, I will be ever so grateful (and chance back ;D )
Thanks!</p>

<p>DEMOGRAPHICS:
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Chinese (second gen)
Location: Northern California
High School: Public with about 500 in my class pretty decent, one of top in area
HS graduating year : 2013 (junior right now)
Class Rank: School only ranks in deciles, so officially top 10%, possibly top 1% , highest gpa in my class as far as i know so like (1/450 around?), but our school doesn't have official "ranks")
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>

<p>ACADEMICS:
GPA - Unweighted: 4.00 [4.00]
GPA - Weighted: 4.57 [4.702]
note: only unweighted classes I have taken and will take are either music or required classes such as Eng 10 H (unweighted for some reason :( )</p>

<p>10th--
World Civ (highest at our school): A+
Chem AP: A
Calc AB AP : A+
English 10 Honors (unweighted) : A
Music Theory AP: A
Spanish 4 Honors: A-
Concert Band : A</p>

<p>[11th]--
Physics AP: [A]
Calculus BC AP: [A]
Spanish 5 AP: [A]
Bio AP: [A]
American Lit Honors (comp lang not offered): [A]
Symphonic Band (audition group) : [A]</p>

<p>City college
US history 311: [A]</p>

<p>Test scores:
SAT I: M(710), CR(670), W(690) Essay(8) Total: 2070 NOTE THIS WAS TAKEN IN 7TH GRADE, WILL RETAKE IN OCTOBER 1.
[M(770), CR 770, W(770) Essay (11) Total:2330]</p>

<p>SAT II: Math II(800) Chem(770) [Physics(800) Bio(800)]</p>

<p>APs:
sophomore: Chem (5), World History (5), Calc AB(5), Music Theory(5: 5 non-aural, 4 aural)</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULARS:
Piano: Guild Auditions State Member 2 years, Winner Baroque Festival 2010
Clarinet: NorthBay Honor Band 2nd chair 2010, admitted into our school's symphonic band this year (a very good award-winning band). Not super great at clarinet, I would say I'm average/ above average, not super good but decent.
Tutor: Chess coach, I've coached a K-3 State Champion. 2 years so far.
Debate: Made it to regional semi-finals in Parliamentary. Record was about 50/50 last year.
CHESS: 2010 USCF, ranked top 60 in nation for my age, CA state champ in 8th grade (guess you know who I am now -.- ). Chess is my passion, I teach chess, I play chess, I learn chess-- trying to expand our school's chess club this year. Hopefully I can get [2200 USCF] which means I will be a Master, I'm an Expert right now.
Roller Hockey: Member of 2nd place NARCH team last year, member of JV for 3 years (since 8th grade), was asst. captain last year. Our team got 1st all years except last, when we got 2nd. Hopefully [Varsity] this year.
MATH COMPETITIONS: AMC 10 score this year 126, AMIE score 2 (lol). Member of our region's ARML team for 2 years so far, team captain and team high score (5) in 2011. Winner of Stanford Math Tournament at (my city); same test as one at Stanford, but at a different site (this was the first year they've tried this). [Hopefully 120+ on AMC12 this year, 10+ on AMIE. I'm actually training this year compared to last year lol :D ]</p>

<p>LEADERSHIP:
Chess Club: President in Sophomore and Junior, [hopefully senior]
Math team: A team [captain this year/ senior]
Mu Alpha Theta: Secretary [President next year]
Csf, NHS, Key Club: member
Foreign Language Tutors: [co-president / VP this year]
SAT tutors: [co-president/ VP this year]
Chinese Club: [co-president next year]</p>

<p>COMMUNITY SERVICE:
Various community services since 9th grade ~100 hours (service clubs, local chinese school, chess tournaments)
[Local Elementary school's chess club, 2 hr/ week until senior, starting in about 1 month]</p>

<p>WORK EXPERIENCE:
Chess Coach (paid, $10-15/ hr), maybe 50 hrs taught so far [100-200 hrs by senior]
[Kumon Grader next summer/ senior year]</p>

<p>HONORS & AWARDS:
Nor-cal ARML team captain, high scorer
NSL Chemistry silver individualist
Local Schools Math competition 2nd place team
AP Scholar with Honor
Asst. Captain JV Roller Hockey
AMIE qualifier, site high score for AIME and AMC10
Stanford Math Tournament site winner
[hopes for this year: continue my meager successes and ramp up my chess skills as well as community outreach. I won't do as many NHS/CSF projects, but instead use chess club's community outreach (hosting tournaments, teaching kids chess) as my main community service source]</p>

<p>additional information/hook?:
-around 100k income, so pretty well off. </p>

<p>Just your average Asian aiming for the stars...
hope I don't burn up on reentry :)</p>

<p>Colleges:</p>

<p>Stanford (EA)
Princeton
Harvard
MIT
Caltech
Cornell
Brown
Columbia
UCB
UCLA
UCSD
UCD</p>

<p>Also, anyone have any other recommendations on colleges and what I can do to increase my chances! </p>

<p>I'll try to chance back, but I'm new here so my advice not be the best >:D I'll do my best though, thanks for reading guys!</p>

2

<p>I would say you have a great chance everywhere you’re applying in general, and I think particularly Cornell, Stanford, and Princeton. Of course the process is really arbitrary but if you apply to all of most of them, I’m almost 100% sure you’ll get into at least a couple. If you can write great essays as well you’ll really really stand out. Scores and grades are perfect. The schools are all high target maximum. Good luck!
chance me back please! (northwestern one)</p>

3

<p>You’re an Asian male from California with pretty asian activities which is probably the main weakness. As long as you succeed in what you do (like with chess) you should have no problem getting into a top college.</p>

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<p>I agree with dblazer. Just make sure you continue to do activities that make you stand out from the crowd. I think you have as good as a chance as anybody.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1199598-chance-terrible-gpa-good-act-cool-life-story.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1199598-chance-terrible-gpa-good-act-cool-life-story.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>i don’t see you getting in anywhere… </p>

<p>“Spanish 4 Honors: A-” is going to weigh you down… schools only like to see As and A+s</p>

6

<p>Can’t figure out how to edit main thread :
just a small update: 229 PSAT in sophomore, hoping for 230+ this year.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the comments! Care leaving comments for the UC’s though? (target/ safety maybe?)</p>

7

<p>I just want to see your college essay, what you’ll write in it. (curiosity)
Those schools have been known to not accept near perfect students for bs reasons it seems. But that rarely happens. (like you’d have to be extremely unlucky and your essay…) GL
You’ll get into at least one of them or something’s cracked.</p>

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<p>I’m only a junior this year and it seems that half of my teachers LOVE my essays and the other half hates it. Same with SAT prep classes, half the graders LOVE them (11 and 12s) and the other half say its complete bs (8-9). My essay won’t be the strongest, but I’m working on it-- in my essay, my main focus will be my dedication and passion to things I love, mainly chess and math. I’ll expand on how I don’t just play chess; I volunteer for and host tournaments, I teach kids, I do outreach events, and actively learn it. For math, I’ll show my dedication and how I learned that dedication pays off.
What are my chances for Cal/ UCLA?</p>

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<p>meh… you look like a lot of the other students out there, your application is bleeding PICK ME PICK ME PICK ME out of anything… that’s probably the main thing that I’m going to say… although your essay may make you stand out. It’s all in the method of presenting yourself, I guess…</p>

<p>BTW you might know me, I’m on the ARML Bay Area A2 team and made semifinals this year… I had writing on my lower leg if that’s any indication of who I am.</p>

<p>And sorry to pop your bubble, but I find it extremely difficult to make 10 points on the AIME, especially with a 8 point jump within one year – it just ain’t gonna happen unless if you can max out your AMC 10 score or get somewhere like a 135 on the AMC 12. You’re probably going to make somewhere like 6-7 points at the max, probably somewhere like 5. Although feel free to prove me wrong =)</p>

<p>Making CalTech? you’re not ensured a place in
UCLA? probably make it in</p>

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<p>@ngyhnr I was actually on SFBA B1 lol… basically NorCal ARML :\
Thanks for opinion, thing is I’ve improved dramatically in competitive math last year, I have no idea how-- basically no studying. From sucking at math (1 at ARML, like 100 on AMC10) to AIME qualifier, team highscore, SMT winner in like 6 months. Now that I’m training (AoPs classes, printouts, some actual stuff) I feel that I can do way better this year. Not to mention, AIME was hard this year. On 2002-2009 AIME’s I practiced on, I got 5-11. Many kids in my region (including one that got 10 last year) got bad this year, highest I know in my region was a 5. Many got 2 like me. Thanks for your opinions guys, if you want me to chance back just say so!</p>

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<p>Very good stats. If you get what you are aiming for I have no doubt that you will be accepted to those schools. Have you thought of Tufts or Amherst?</p>

12

<p>Not really, don’t know much about them :
I’m open to advice though, any suggestions on any other colleges/ what I should do besides raise SAT scores?</p>

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<p>you will have an awesome chance so long as you change your essay topic ASAP. You need to come up with some out-of-the-box essay topic - something that shows that you will be able to creative and still write intelligently.</p>

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<p>I just made that up off the top of my head tbh XD
I just started my junior year, so haven’t thought about essay much, but that was my initial thought: dedication/ passion to things I do.</p>

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<p>770 in each subject is a 2310? Also, how come you only improved by 240 points in 3 years? While 2310 is a good score for a sophomore, it seems like you could do better since you already got a 2070 in 7th grade.
Anyway, come back after junior year to get the most accurate chances. Right now your chances seem as good as most anyone.</p>

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<p>truthfully your probably in at all, then HYPSM, truthfully its a lottery youll probably get into at least 1 or 2 of them though!</p>

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<p>please let us under excelling kids get into davis! hahahah, i feel like you’re already in all the UC’s. the other schools are difficult for me to tell.</p>

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<p>What about Cal and UCLA?</p>

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<p>bump D:
ill chance back</p>

20

<p>SoCalStudent3 - Please tell me you aren’t serious.
(Why don’t quotes work…?)</p>