ttan

As mentioned above, my top four choices are Stanford, UPenn, Claremont McKenna, and Yale.

To hopefully make things more organized, I'll split everything into Strengths and Weaknesses.

I am planning to major in Business and maybe even double major with Mechanical Sciences.

(also take into consideration that I'm 100% Chinese)

STRENGTHS:

Leadership
DECA State President (of about 10.4k members)
WHSTTL (Washington High School Table Tennis League) Director of Promotion & Website Creator/Manager
Founder and President of my school's Table Tennis Club
Founder and President of my school's Key Club
Treasurer of my school's FBLA
Treasurer of my school's Cycling Club
Student Accountant for my school's Student Store

Other Clubs
Amnesty International
LINK Crew (helps out Freshmen)
NHS

Music
Principal Cellist of my school's Symphony Orchestra
2nd Chair of my school's Chamber Ensemble
Most Improved Musician of the Year
Performed at Carnegie Hall
Principal Cellist of Zhenlun Li Youth Cello Ensemble

Sports
Swimming-State Finalist all 3 years of high school
Team Captain
Past member of #1 Nationally Ranked Relay (back in Middle School, so not
really that applicable)
Recognized as Athlete of the Week in Local Newspaper every year

Awards
National History Day-4th Place Senior Group Documentary
FBLA-2nd Place in WA Entrepreneurship
DECA-7th Place in WA Business Plan, 11th Place Internet Marketing

Community Service
Cello Perfomer for community events and elder homes (>30 performances a year)
NHS & Key Club
Sound System Technician & Take Down for my Church
>300 hours Community Service

Work Experience
Summer Job-Wu Construction (summer of 10th Grade)
Intern for this coming summer (Business Week & Hawkes Law Firm)

Camps
Business Week-Accounting Career Pathway & Advanced Business Week
ACAP (Accounting Career Awareness Program)

Weaknesses

GPA-3.91
(All Honors/AP classes possible; this year I was in AP Calc, APUSH, and AP
Lit)

SAT-2100
740 Math, 740 Writing, 620 Reading (I'm really bad at Critical Reading...)

SAT IIs-Haven't taken them yet, taking Math II & US History in June. Another
in October

I'm not sure where this would fall, but I waived a language at my school to take more Business classes. (Got "A" on the HSK, which is pretty much a harder version of the SAT II Chinese)

Other Considerations
Legacy at Yale (Great-Grandfather)


Just a side note: I have cousins at Stanford, Yale, Columbia, and Berkeley, but from what I've heard I don't really measure up that well to them...(all had high 2300 SATs but less ECs)

bay-area

State president is super impressive. You have a good chance because I've seen schools like Stanford and Penn take average stat students with outstanding ECs

ttan

Thanks!

I'm just nervous about those SATs...I can do Writing and Math but for some reason I just can't crank out the reading.

I was thinking of writing my main common app essay on being an Asian swimmer (there are VERY few, if any, at state) and my short answer on my experience as State President so far (what I've learned about leadership and how I've improved as a person)

Hopefully this year they're seeking someone crazy about ECs...

ttan

Forgot to add:

Completed Two Year Accounting Program at my school (College level course)
WSCPA Student Member (Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants)
Awarded Most Outstanding Swimmer at my school
Volunteer at Swim Meets-Timing, setting up & cleaning up

jhchen

I can't say you'd get in for sure but you have a really good shot at even UPenn and Stanford.

innervisions

You have great EC's, there's no question. You have a lot of involvement and it does not come off as "laundry list" for whatever reason - you seem to enjoy what you do. That will put you in contention at most of these schools.

You do have to blow a place like Yale or Stanford away, however. Now a 3.91 is nothing to sneeze at, depending where you're going to school, what the grading system is there, and the rigor of your schedule. However, you do need some evidence of your academic prowess, and unfortunately, this need is heightened by the fact that you are a chinese male.

Yale - High Reach (~15%)
Stanford - High Reach (~20%)
UPenn - Reach (~35%)
Claremont McKenna - Realistic (~60%)

This can be raised by great recs/essays, higher SATs/II's, and a particularly high class rank.

explode

raise your critical reading score...
and otherwise I think you have a pretty strong profile. you seem like you really care about your ECs.

tjan91

EC's are amazing

jcll2002

is that gpa UW or weighted?

robileez

Agree with above comments. You sound like a great student. CMK is a safety, UPenn a match and Yale and Stanford are, as for everyone, reaches.

ttan

GPA is unweighted. My school only goes on 4.0 scale.

ttan

Is there anything you guys think I should try to get in over the summer that might make me stand out more?

So far, I've got 5 weeks of summer planned (DECA State Officer Camps, 2 weeks; Interning at Business Week, 1 week; Vacation, 1 week), but I want to do more. I'm for sure starting my college apps over the summer (seeing if I can complete the majority of them by the end of summer), but I feel that I still have some time that I can use to do something.

Two things I considered are - Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans (help reconstruction efforts) and interning at a Law Firm and learning about Accounting.

What have you guys done for your summer? I'm open to any ideas =)

jcll2002

unweighted = you have a great shot at all of them.

robileez

Play more table tennis or just swim for fun. Read a Pulitzer Prize winning book, enjoy the WA summer, run a 5K, spend time with your parents and friends...you are so far ahead of the game you should relax a bit!

Truthfully, getting your essays done is the smartest move you can make. You have everything else covered.

Also, I'm not sure you should rule out Stanford. I'd say you need to expand you list, maybe one more reach, two more matches and one or two more safeties.

Best of luck to you.

brillar

Claremont Mckenna would LOVE your leadership. They're super super super big on that. If you write a good essay, I think they would love to have you.

And the best time to do an essay is when you feel like it. Good ideas just... show up sometimes. Think about them before you go to bed late at night. I'll bet they'll come easier then than if you set apart a week to write one. My best essays just showed up in my head and I wrote them out quickly and then edited the grammar but didn't touch much of the content. Sometimes they can make better ones than if you were to work for weeks on one...