SPRI2010

Hey everyone! I'm kind of going into premature panic mode here so I would be eternally grateful to the kind souls who offer me some feedback.

Personal Stats:
- Ethnicity: Asian (Indian) female
- State: South Carolina
- High School: Relatively competitive; sends a lot of grads to top schools
- IB Diploma Candidate
- 4.0 GPA = 3.962/SC UGP GPA: 5.063
- Rank: 11 out of 179 (top 6% I think?)

Test Scores
- Highest SAT: M = 690, CR = 740, W = 800 (superscore = 2230, but scores are weirdly distributed: will that hurt me?)
- SAT II's: Took Bio M and Lit this month
- APs: So far, World History 5, CompSci A 4, Stats 4, US History 5, Psych 5, BC Calc 3 (ouch), and English Lit 4.
- IBs: So far, French SL 6 and Psych SL 6.

Courses
- Senior year APs = Bio, Chem, and Physics (the science trinity, woohoo.) Will have taken 10 APs by the end of senior year
- Senior year IBs = Biology HL, Chem HL, English HL, Math Studies SL. Will have taken 6 IBs by the end of senior year.

Awards/Honors
-National Honor Society/Interact Club Member for two years (President for one year)
-AP Scholar with Distinction
- National French Contest National Qualifier (6th)
- Multiple Placings at Clemson Declamation (basically like a state international poetry recitation contest. Not very well known, but I've placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in French, Japanese, and Chinese multiple times and I go every year. How important are regional contests like these?)
- National Merit Commendation
- Regional Science and Engineering Fair Participant/Winner (2nd Place: Biological Sciences)

Extra-Curriculars
-- I have been training in South Indian Classical (Carnatic) music for 11 years. I participated in the International Carnatic Music Festival in 2002, I perrformed at the TANA (Telugu Association of North America) convention in 2009, and I have performed at various concerts and functions throughout my singing career. *This probably means absolutely nothing to most of you, but in the Indian community, it's a pretty big achievement. Do you think that will count for something in the admissions process?
-- Varsity Tennis Team for three years, played Number 2 doubles. (Couldn't participate senior year due to a knee injury)
-- National Honor Society/Interact Club Member, inducted in 2008. Elected President in 2009.
-- National Forensic League (3 years): Nothing too special, Order of Distinction
-- Academic Team member
-- Tiger Ambassador (about 30 students chosen as volunteers to represent the school during orientations and such)

Not sure what you call these...
- Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics Summer Program for Research Interns at Clemson University: a six-week research program that I was selected for last summer; I did some genetic research on bitter melon with a mentor professor and published a poster on my findings.
-- LeadAmerica Medicine and Healthcare Conference (Summer '08)
-- South Carolina Youth in Government (I've been to about 6 conferences)

Volunteer Activities
-- National Honor Society/Interact-sponsored activities
-- Volunteer at Solaris Hospice Center
-- Volunteer at Doctor’s Care Clinic (mostly just administrative work)

Miscellaneous
-- Though I was born in the United States, my first language was Telugu and I recently enlisted the help of my parents in learning how to read and write in Telugu. I am also studying Mandarin Chinese.
-- I'm really active in Indian cultural activities like choreographing Indian dances for many functions and events and singing Indian classical music.


Thank you so much!

2468

ur in standing for any top school.
do u really want to go to duke? if so, go ahead.
if not....there are plenty of uhhh-mazing schools tha will accept u.

be sure when applying ED>

Stanford102

I agree, you have great potential to get into Harvard or some of the top Ivies. You have to really think about if you want to be binded to Duke, there are some schools that would fit you better (like H) that fit your personality shown through ECs better

eatsalot

I don't think that could be said. Just as there are no typical Duke students, there are not typical Harvard students, no typical Columbia students, no typical Stanford students. Only requirement is that you must be smart. Very smart.

Make sure you apply to a school ED only if you truly want to go there. (If you decide to go Duke though, great! )

SPRI2010

Sorry for getting back to you guys so late! Thank you soo much for the feedback! I did some thinking and I'm not applying ED; I think it's the right choice. I agree with you, eatsalot, that there is no guaranteeing factor when it comes to Ivy Leagues, but thank you all anyway! I really want to go to Duke, though, so we'll just see what happens.