swoop

please please please take some time to read this.. I have been reading others' and leaving posts so hopefully it will turn out to be good karma

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 Commend, 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, Bio, Physics B, Calc BC : TBA (most likely 5's except maybe US History)

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 year's:
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
- used 200K to rebuild/improve beauty of our campus
Head Traffic Commissioner
-regulated the traffic every day, pretty fun actually
I am learning Arabic, Farsi, and Swahili on my own, know 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.

People tell me that I am set for life, other people tell me I have no chance.. you may think i am negligent if I don't know myself but I REALLY need advice..

please tell me whatever you like!

"I am always open to constructive crticism, always." - Ryan from the Office
jk

nj_azn_premed

Your profile is very strong, but I think you need to straighten out your priorities. Is your objective to go into a humanities major (intl relations in your case)? Or, do you want to go into science? Your academic and extracurricular profiles almost depict two entirely different individuals. While your curricular focus is science/math heavy, your out-of-school activities reflect an inclination for humanities-type engagements as well as community service (which, by the way, is your strongsuit). Your college list as well seems to reflect this dichotomy as it contains such schools as MIT and Stanford that will offer you a great technical education, but might not serve you well should you decide to pursue an intl relations major (well maybe not so much Stanford, but MIT most certainly). So, before you apply to colleges, make that decision. Once you have a focus as to your goals, you can present yourself as a worthy candidate for admissions to the multitude of top schools on your list. Depending on the field of study you choose, you will either want to emphasize your science/math courses or your out-of-school humanities activities. All of that said, you have excellent chances at many of the top colleges and you should not worry yourself. And, one final note:

"People tell me that I am set for life, other people tell me I have no chance.. "

This is a fallacious approach to a very serious situation, so I want to ask: Do these people know you as well as you do? Are they going to make your decisions for you? Forget what anyone else may say...do what you think is best for you. Now is the time you have to start making the important decisions in your life. And, because much of what you choose to do or not do now will affect the outcome of your future endeavors, the opinions of your parents, relatives, friends, teachers, etc are virtually negligible. Good luck to you!

swoop

wow.. thank you so much!

that was very helpful and that's what i have been thinking... maybe i should go for a dual major in both fields.

I think choosing this is going to be the hardest decision I make... thanks for the advice!

Elastine

I'll say you got a pretty good chance at the London School of Economics. Your scores seem to be in order, and LSE has tremendous international rep, plus 70% of its students are international so it'll be a very enriching experience. One of their politics and economics course will prolly suit you well.

Elastine

And i think you should substitute either MIT or Stanford(which might not be That useful, with this program at UPenn:

Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business

Im very surprised that this actually is Not on your list.

fauve

You have the stats for those Ivies, but your ECs are not above average for those schools. So you could be part of the 8% accepted, or you could be part of the 92% denied. Use these months to narrow your focus so you can express your goals in your essays, with passion. (And you might want to look for a few more safeties.)

swoop

yeah i hadn't really looked into upenn but thanks for the link!

as for safeties, usually the top 10% in my class get into berkeley and i'm pretty sure i'm more than top 5% but i guess i am a little overconfident. My additional safeties will most likely just be UC's though, since my California perspective believes those are the best public schools..

swoop

and do you guys think economics would suit me better than going straight into polisci since econ can bring my community service/international aspects and math strengths into one thing?

swoop

bump for chances please

Narcissa

I think you should get into at least one of HYPS. But do also have a "true" safety--one where you get accepted a week after you apply or something Umich? idk... MIT probably is harder to get in because you lack Science and Math ECs and many awards...

And in your ECs you seem to have a semi-focus...which really is good enough considering no college would really force you to have a strong focus anyways, we're only in high school...! lol But it does seem like you have passion which will help.

Also I like your ECs...and this is especially funny

I say put that on your app and write that as the description

Begoner

You're an exceptional candidate at all the schools you listed; moreover, your EC activities are quite impressive. It's hard to submit a better profile; however, the most elite schools tend to accept people on a whim, so who knows? Also, as long as you're applying to LSE, have you considered the PPE program at Oxford (you need only submit one application for all UK schools, so there's no additional fee)?

Also, I'd suggest majoring the subject you like most, not the one in which you perform best.

swoop

yeah I am very strong in math in science, but I honestly LOVE learning languages and helping out the international community..

and I never knew that all the UKs can just go together! I will definitely apply to LSE, London Business School, and Oxford now! Thanks!

as for safeties, this might be an overstatement but I am applying to University of Chicago as well.. they have an awesome econ program

and I totally understand the "on a whim" since the chances are almost like throwing all of the apps into the air and randomly catching a few as they fall..

and yeah, WASC is retarded.. I think I trust my teachers enough that i don't need some bulls*** organization from outside telling my school what to do

Narcissa

lol Uchicago is not a safety =P

swoop

sorry! I meant that it will be easier than the others.. I am guessing UCLA is a safety and berkeley is hopefully a match but not like "oh that s*** is easy"

swoop

bump for chancing.. (you know, the "reach/low reach" stuff)