blue_star_cadet

Applying to top schools, but GPA is weak and I'm Asian! I had sort of an unconventional high school career (switched from a 'gifted' private school after 10th grade to a nationally ranked public high school, right into an extremely difficult junior year) and play that sort of 'atypical Asian' - I'm not math/science oriented at all. There is an advantage there, as sort of a 'different' Asian kid (the whole application is kind of weird-looking) but I think my GPA is weak for most of these schools and that's going to hurt. Clearly, I really, really want to pull Dartmouth. This was crossposted in the Chances forum but I wanted more opinions - if I didn't think I could get in, I wouldn't be applying.

Thoughts? Advice, comments, anything! Thank you for chancing!

School Type: Public, competitive - 1st in state of Ohio, 69th Newsweek, 50th US News
Location: Ohio (Midwest)
Race/Gender: Chinese-American male (first-gen, born in Australia)
Prospective Major: Journalism, econ, history, political science
Unweighted GPA: 3.77 (one C freshman year, a semester C junior year)
Weighted GPA: 4.18/4.54
Class rank: 27 of 172

Applications:
* ED: Dartmouth College
* EA: U Chicago
* RD: Brown, Columbia, Emory, Wesleyan, Georgetown, Yale, Vanderbilt, Swarthmore, USC (this will be trimmed)

Testing
* SAT I: 2280 (750M, 800CR, 730W/10 Essay)
* SAT II: 750 Lit, 800 US History, 790 World History
* ACT: 30
* AP Exams: 5 (World History, US History, European History, Human Geography), 4
(Microeconomics, Macroeconomics), taking Bio, English Lit, US Gov and Stats

Extracurricular Info
* Student Government (9-10, 12): Representative grades 9 & 12. Student Body President grade 10. Ineligible for election grade 11 (new student.)
* Film Club (9-10, 12): Founder and curator at both schools, founded club at new school grade 12.
* Tutoring (11-12): Tutored middle school kids after school.
* E-Team (11): Volunteered at a major children's hospital with disabled children.
* Drama (8-10): Student theatre and improvisational comedy grades 8-10.
* Fencing (8-10): Team captain grade 10.
* Newspaper (8, 11-12): I know, I know! But I was a editor and staff writer for the HS paper in grade 8. Staff writer grade 11-12.
* School literary magazine (11-12): Staff Writer grades 11-12.
* Backup camera operator (12): Backup camera operator for football games.

Employment

* No employment.
Awards
* Nancy Mullane Memorial Essay (11): awarded to best English essay written by a high school junior (School award)
* National Honor Society (11-12)
* National French Exam (French III), 18th in state (11)
* AP Scholar with Distinction (11)
* National Merit Commended (11)

Summer Programs

* CTD @ Northwestern - Creative Writing Honors, 2007
* TiP @ Chapman - Reel Filmmaking, 2008
* Summer Honors Institute @ University of Cincinnati - Law, Language and Society
* Summer@Brown - International Financial Markets & Investments

Essays/Recs

* My Chicago short response is individualistic and talks about Gabriele D'Annunzio and David Bowie, haven't yet written specific essay. Common App essay is about food and cooking and how it reflects culture (East/West, individualism vs. collectivism, etc.) Recs should be strong - APUSH teacher, English teacher and my former fencing coach.

johnwesley

Not bad. I'd probably vote for you, although, I often wonder if actual applications ever reflect the same flavor of some of these CC "chance me" posts? Make sure you substitute Wesleyan for Dartmouth when you fill out the actual app.

calgal

Go you have any safety schools? Every school you list is either match or reach.

(z)

Haha, seriously. You can't apply ED to both.