swoop

I should be studying for AP US right now but anyways here it goes.

I am Indian (this plays a part later on) and I attend a public school in California (a renowned school near Monta Vista/ Palo Alto). My father went to MIT so I have some pressure to go there but I would rather stay here in California. I am very strong in Math and Sciences but I have a lot of interest in International Relations and Economics; my dream as of now is to be a part of the United Nations!

I am basically looking at the following schools in order of preference (not necessarily difficulty/selectivity):

Stanford
MIT
Harvard
Princeton
London School of Economics
Yale
Columbia
University of Chicago
(UC Berkeley)
(UC LA)



now for the "stats":

PSAT: 205
I got owned but somehow I still got National Merit, cutoff was 200 so not too proud about it.

SAT: 2160 / 1440 W: 720 R: 640 M: 800
SAT: 2300 / 1510 W: 790 R: 710 M: 800

SAT II:
Chemistry (June 07): 770
Math II C (June 07): 800
Chinese w/ listening (Nov 07): 690 -> 10th percentile

Biology E (June 08): TBA
US History (June 08): TBA
Chinese w/ Listening (Nov 08): TBA [aiming for 750+]

AP:
US History: TBA
Biology: TBA
Physics B: TBA
Calculus BC: TBA

GPA (including freshman year): 4.48
GPA (without freshman year): 4.73
GPA (unweighted): 3.95

Honors classes I have taken:
Algebra 2 Honors
Chemistry Honors
Trigonometry/ Precalculus Honors (rather than alg 2/ trig)

Current Schedule:
Biology AP
Calculus BC AP
US History AP
Physics B AP
Chinese 4 Honors
Tutor for ELD (english language development) class
English 11 Honors


Next years:
Econ/Gov (taking it over summer at community college)
Mulitvariable Calculus / Physics C: EM/M
Chemistry AP
European History AP
Statistics AP
Chinese 6 AP (Lang)
English Language AP


Extracurriculars:
President of Interact -> Area Rep, District Officer
-raised 8K from our school to build a school in ghana this year
- hopefully going to go to Ghana to help build the school this summer!!!
President of Model United Nations
-hosted a conference at my school in addition to attending Stanford & Berkeley MUN
President of Mandarin Club
-organizing a trip to go the China next year with some other schools
Junior Varsity Tennis :/
-Team Captain
WASC Student Representative
- the most useless organization I have ever been in
ASB School Site Council
Tutor Outside of school for free and pay (I prefer free though)
Link Crew Commissioner
-organized the entire freshman initiation/orientation
Safety and Improvemnt Commissioner
- use 200K to rebuild/improve beauty of our campus
Head Traffic Commissioner
-regulate the traffic every day, pretty fun actually
learning Arabic, Farsi, and Swahili on my own
know how to speak Hindi from birth
I can write/read Simplified and Traditional Chinese (traditional looks better though :P)
Last summer I spent a few weeks in Chile and lived with a host family while helping them renovate their home.


Hobbies:
I love playing piano but I haven't won any awards or anything like that but I have played in a concert for an Indian band. (yeee!)

I love drawing, which had an influence on my decision to learn Chinese and Arabic.

I have more interest in the politics of other nations than in that of the U.S. (which leads into my whole UN thing)


In my opinion my main weaknesses are that I have no awards and maybe I have more weaknesses. I am not too stressed about going into college but I would definitely prefer going to a private school.

supereagle10

You have an impressive profile. No need to be worried

sak09

Yeah, you're pretty impressive. I was going to say MIT is a reach, but then I saw that you have a legacy, so you're fine.

swoop

wow thanks for the encouragement... If you read this, please "chance" me!!

I myself have no idea where I stand but I believe in myself.. Also, could you guys please give me suggestions for my essays (like topics)?

Thank you!

krmelk89

you do have a very impressive profile, and i would say you have a good chance at any of those schools. However, make sure to balance those out with safeties. there was a girl at my school last year who was similar to you with a 4.0uw GPA and 35 on ACT. she got 7 rejections (top schools) in one day. Just remember that nothing is certain, and you should plan to apply to other schools as well.

swoop

yes definitely.. thank you for the advice!

I will probably apply to UC SD (my dad taught there) , and UCSC

computergeek173

you do have a nice profile there... but I'm actually going to chance.

@sak: MIT doesn't really consider legacy at all, from what I've seen.

Stanford - High Match/>>Low Reach<< (they like to see direction in ec's more)
MIT - Reach
Harvard - Reach
Princeton - Reach
London School of Economics - not sure...
Yale - Reach
Columbia - High Match
University of Chicago - Match
(UC Berkeley) - Match
(UC LA) - Low Match

IMO (I could be wrong)
good luck in your endeavours!

I.M.Handsome

wow you are talking **** about me, when the onlything you have over me is your gpa, I have crap like Link Crew, but its called SMAC at my school, I am executive of that, I am the district Treasurer of FBLA, I am the City representitive of Leadership Initiatives, so please, the point is, the half of the things you mentioned are useless. I don't see anything you have to brag about either

tmi

Let's be nice!

swoop

I didn't say i have more than you.. I have nothing compared to you, but the difference is that I spend a considerable amount of time on fewer things

also, last time i checked, unless you have awards and national/state recognition for what you have done, you need a benchmark GPA and SAT score for some time of consideration.. I could be totally wrong about this though..

NewEngSocSciMan

LSE and other English schools are highly dependent upon AP or IB scores, because those are the closest equivalents to the A-Levels. If you score 5s on the majority of your AP exams, you stand a chance.

swoop

that seems good for me except i might have gotten a 4 on US History.. today didn't go as well as i had planned :/

swoop

@ IM handsome: the fact that even you feel Link Crew is "crap" shows that you aren't dedicated to what you do..

I know it isn't the biggest achievement, but helping freshman is something I am passionate about