Moodrets

My previous thread tanked (I blame the uninteresting title) so rather than bump it, I'll post a new one with a more catchy title, and so ideally not have to bump this one as much!




1st generation Russian immigrant; Born in Russia then came over, still fluent/literate in Russian, Dual Citizenship

Sex: Male

Middle Middle Class income bracket (widowed parent, 60k b4 taxes, large family)

School: Very prestigious college prep, locally known to be far more difficult compared to surrounding public schools

Cumulative UW/W GPA: 3.885/4.332 (should go up come senior year to a 3.9/4.4 or so)(Low because Sophmore/Freshman year didn't off m/any AP classes)
Most recent GPA:4.0/4.7

Intended Major: BioChem, Pre-med, off to projected General/Orthopedic surgery in Med School
Interests: Very much into reading (lit and philosophy, w/ occasional science thrown in), hiking, Biology, Number theory, math, animals, etc. etc. etc.

Course Load: Fairly Challenging; heavy emphasis on science

APs taken:
Chem - 4
US - 5
Engl Lang - 5
Euro - 4
Art (Drawing) - 3
Bio - 5
Calc AB - 5

APs next year (projected 5s on all actual classes, mebbe a 4 on econ if I slack):
Calc BC
Micro/Macro Econ (self study)
Enviro (Self Study)
Psych
Lit
Physics B

Class Rank/Size: School doesn't rank but counselor says I'm def in top 5%, probably higher - Placement test taken at beginning of school year to get in had me at the top 5, w/ no higher brackets); Approx 240 students in grad class, 1200 total in school

PSAT: 220, expecting to be a NM finalist

-SAT I - 1 sitting
CR:800
M:800
W:710 (11, 67 subscores)

-SAT II scores - Taking Math 2, Bio, and some other one in Oct; math and Bio should be 800s, or pretty close

-ECs (Bah, humbug!) --
-Hospital Volunteering [10-12] (200+ hours now, will be 300+ come app time
-Tutoring underprivileged inner city elementary school students [10] (40 hours)
-St. Vincent De Paul Volunteering [11] (50 hours)
-Frivolous clubs (NHS, NAHS, Environmental club, and a couple others - No leadership positions in them -- eck)
-I should be a leader of two "retreats" come next year, wherein I and a couple of others will take some students north and give a bunch of talks, lead activities, host discussions, and plan everything in general - 1 retreat is 5 days long another is 4)
-Knowledgeable about Russian culture from living there (see summers for more info). Not sure if worth listing but hey, they want diversity, right?

-employment --
-Going to a private school with a $13,000 tuition (I get an 11k scholarship to go there, no worries) requires that I participate in a "Work Study" Program by which I might work some of the tuition (usually about 1k a year) off.
-Summer before 9th grade I did construction and maintenance/repair,
-10th grade I did odds and ends during the year (was a guide during conference nights, for example),
-before 11th I did Maintenance/Repair and worked at a snack bar, and
-before 12th (right now) I will again do maintenance and repair.

Summers -
-Did summer school in the summers before 9th grade (hnrs. bio) and 12th grade (Gov/Econ)
-Went back to Russia for summers before 10th and 11th, where I stayed for ~2 months with my grandparents; Grandpa was cosmonaut, so his connections let me go and scuba dive in their underwater space station training thing and do other fun stuff
-This is in addition to the above work done during summers.

My essay will be impeccable, and my Recs will be very laudatory also...






Regarding colleges, I don't quite know where I want to go yet, so I'll just randomly put out:

HYPS (regard it as a single, indivisible unit)
MIT/CalTech
John Hopkins
Notre Dame
UCLA
Arizona State Honors
Univ. of Arizona Honors
The Flinn Scholarship

Yes, so at this point I'm just testing the waters and seeing what my options are...

Shad Faraz

all i know is youre not getting into johnS Hopkins coz you cannot spell it. lol even if you did know how to spell it , its rather hard to get in. But you have good scores

Moodrets

Back to the first page!

asian sensation

for some reason the thread title sounds a bit sexual....

sorry for not contributing

limetime

Hahahaha I laughed SOOO hard when I saw the thread name... gratuitous innuendo, anybody?
Then I realized that I just posted on your other chance thread, that this was the thread by the same person. I'll make sure to ctrl+c it and post it here, too.

limetime

From the other thread:
WHOA. IS THAT A 1600 I SPOT IN THERE??????!!! >_<

amazing SAT scores. SAT 2's should be fine, too, and my advice: take Molecular for Bio SAT2 because the curve is better. And colleges like it better than Ecology, too. Shame about the 3 in Studio, it knocks the chances for the "AP Scholar" title but unless you're applying to an art/design school, it shouldn't matter at ALL.

Really, I think you can apply to anything...princeton, yale, you name it. the fact that you have a good GPA and amazing SAT scores is really great. EC's...hm, as long as you're not joining like 16 in your senior year I see no problem, as you have several that shows off the "leadership qualities" they're looking for. Great job on what you have done so far, keep it up, but make sure you hit the beach or relax during the summer!

p.s. dang, you're Russian? I'm so jealous. I love Russian accents.

Moodrets

I think that the AP scholar thing is within my reach, as I need like an average of 4 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams, so I just need to get a couple more 4+s and I'll get it.

[stealthninjabump]

aairzoom34

GPA is great, SATs are great. Both are strong. Also the whole Russian thing is good, and might help you get in to some hard schools because they like to have diverse student bodies. Now with your ECs, I think the maintenance/repair/construction job isn't going to do much for you. Also, being knowledgable about Russian culture is not an EC. And also, idk why you listed your scuba diving in Russia as an EC. I mean, believe me I'd have loved to do that, but it's not an EC. You have strong volunteering ECs, but you need ECs that focus around your interests...which I don't know what they are. You are able to get into HYPS and MIT, but there's no guaranteees. It could go either way with some of those schools. As for the rest, you have a very good shot at getting in.

I'm applying to Wharton, could you chance me?
Applying to Wharton.....is there any chance??

olgita

Yay, fellow Russian. PM me - I got into H and can tell you all about it.

Poseur

Your numbers look great, and your ECs are not lacking at all; your other thread title was a LIE.

Your resume is really impressive overall; it puts you in the running for any school. You also seem to be a good writer, based on your posts in HSL (), sooo... *dramatically* I think you'll wow admissions officers everywhere!

Um. I had a CONSTRUCTIVE reason for posting here, I swear! Oh yeah. Suggestions.

Totally apply to JHU. They get crap sometimes for not paying attention to their premed undergrads, but those are LIES!!! There are tons and tons of research opportunities for everyone, even undergrads, and amazing faculty, and... all that good stuff! And I visited and fell in love with the campus; it's sooo beautiful! All grass and bricks... mmm.

Also, look into Brown (maybe even PLME, the accelerated med program.) I lived there for two weeks this summer, and even though it was a summer program therefore not representative of the actual college blah blah blah, I loved the campus and the general atmosphere. You might like it. (:

On second thought, don't apply to these schools; it'll decrease my odds. ;]

Lu Jinny

Hahahaha, I love your thread title. I rarely laugh out loud at written words, but this did it for me.

You have the best chances anyone could possibly have, as far as I can tell. I wouldn't be surprised if you were accepted everywhere.

Beejay

I'd say you have fairly great odds at making most of the schools you typed up.

Good luck.

Fastfood15

idk if you can just predict a 5 score on CalcBC. that and AP scores don't matter after you get in. you could get all 1s and it wouldn't help us chance you accurately.

Taggart

"russian mail order bride" was the first thing I thought of. >.<

Notre Dame down should be a shoo-in based on SAT + GPA/Rank alone.

CalTech loves to see passion in the field, but your extracurriculars... meh, don't really reflect that? Maybe if you write a really good essay you'd have a good chance. Right now I'd think you have an okay chance for it and MIT.

HPYS is anyone's guess.

And I'd say you could get into Johns Hopkins, if you're not going for biomed.

lilygraces

HYPS - High Reach
MIT/CalTech - High Reach
John Hopkins - Reach
Notre Dame - Match
UCLA - Match/Reach
Arizona State Honors - No idea
Univ. of Arizona Honors - No idea
The Flinn Scholarship - No idea

...Chance me!