@sdl0625 UNC in state will not accept anyone with a C in AP Physics and 3 additional Bs, as well as a dip in junior year grades. I’m in NC and speak from experience. I also encouraged OP to apply to NC State. It is a very good school, and would be a match.
@chb088 good to know. All I know is out of state is near impossible.
You’re getting beat up a lot on this thread. I agree with most of what others have posted.
But you still have another 3 months to get your grade up in Physics. Go for after school help, get a tutor, do Khan Academy. Do something. Don’t settle for a C. Even if you can get it up to a B- that will help.
Hmm. Great extracurriculars but I see several grades that are not A. Also, nearly everyone on this forum believes their school is competitive. Is your school consistently ranked that way ( and not by Niche) but by actual stats? That could help you. Your SAT score is very low for the schools you list. Have you put your grades and scores into one of those charts to see where you would rank in terms of accepted students? Also, colleges are looking for good writing and recommendations so that will matter quite a bit. Also, things will pivot based on your chosen major.
2 Bs and a C in core academic subjects as a junior is a problem. Unless you are a recruited athlete, this won’t fly for an elite university. No EC or test score can make up for this.
@sunnygnc In addition to what others have already pointed out, the online languages courses stood out to me. If you are at a competitive hs in NC, there should be plenty of language options within the school. In a competitive demographic such as yours, your application will be compared students who took fours years of all academic subjects, most or all at the highest level offered by the school, and did well in ALL of them (mostly A’s and just one or two B’s here and there).
The nonprofit stuff is becoming somewhat common among my friends in the Indian community here in NJ. Every time
we go to a dance recital of a kid, we are asked to donate to the charity the kid founded, in lieu of a gift. The “foreign government” is usually the Indian state the student’s parents are from and they have a lot of highly placed connections there. The level of your involvement leads me to infer that, and the well resourced adcoms at the elites would also think that. I would be more impressed if your Chinese language skills were used to do something in a small village in China. .
I suspect the online lang was to allow room for all those para vocational classes. (I’m calling them that.) I’m not sure why OP made those choices.
I agree so many kids are somehow involved with charity to the family home country (or any 3rd world country.) The issue is often that the lure of “founding” a non profit, making numbers, leads them to ignore local needs. I do mean primary needs, not just tutoring stem this, stem that, stem club donations, etc. OP even structured the activities summary like a job resume. Where’s the real kid behind all this, the kid with varied interests and willingness to step outside the stem zone? Only dance?
With the B and C stem grades, OP needs a plan B.
“Founder and Executive Director of a 501c3 nonprofit
-Started a nonprofit sophomore year
- Mission: provide quality STEM education to financially disadvantaged public school students of several Indian villages
- donates 5-10k USD worth of materials like laptops, lego kits, robotics kits, K’NEX kits and other tehcnology to every school inducted. I worked with several education professionals to create a 4-year online curriculum so the teachers I train and hire in India can make use of the equipment donated.The curriculum has taught kids who have never seen a computer before how to turn one on, use the internet safely, build and program a LEGO Robot, build a nanosatellite with a ground tracking system, and much more. I also track and monitor student progress online so I know my teachers are doing their jobs.
- Status: 3000+ students served, 14 people (mostly women) employed, 8 schools inducted, $100,000+ materials donated
- I recently made a proposal for 50-50 cost sharing to the State Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, India and they said they will cover 70% of the cost (millions of USD for 1300 schools) instead and want me to induct 1,300 schools ASAP. I already made plans for another 50 or so schools to be inducted by the end of 2019.
-Hours Spent: I stopped counting after I hit 1,000 sophomore year itself
-Planning on hiring regional directors soon so I’m not as overworked.”
Not trying to be cynical, but I read stuff like this and roll my eyes. A sophomore is what, 14-15 years old? Founder and Executive Director? 3,000+ students? 1,300 schools? Millions of USD? Hiring regional directors? You know that 1,000 hours is 25 forty-hour work weeks, right?
Actually when I read info on kids work with non-profits and other community activities, I always look for humbleness and charity. If they are doing things because they enjoy helping others, to me, that is more impressive than large numbers of things ( # and memberships). My kids have done various small things since they were tots. The things never really change and we don’t talk about them out of respect for the people we help. You could ask my kids and they would give you examples of how they touched someone but they would be very reluctant as we consider this to be something you just do. As a parent I could probably give you fifty examples of things we’ve done ( and not one time only). I feel bad for people who believe that charity is a check box.
Again, I don’t want to gang up on the student, but I will offer one additional suggestion:
I certainly hope that this dovetails with what is listed on Form 990.
I feel sorry for these kids who are told that they have to do this or that to get into competitive colleges- and that only certain colleges will do. They are trying to win a race chosen and created by the adults. So they are told ‘show passion!’ ‘take initiative’ ‘contribute to the community’.
And even then it shifts- at first service trips were a plus but now they just say ‘privilege’. Starting a club used to be good, until everybody had one, then it was starting a charity. Now that one is getting too ‘common’ and too ‘privileged’. It’s an arms race: word gets out that X looks good to adcoms, and students- and their parents race to do it better/faster/bigger.
They have to be worried about every homework, every quiz, in every subject (at the most advanced level, ofc) for 3 years- as they build an EC portfolio (team sport / performance art / community service / leadership / etc, etc) and OH YES navigate being 14,15,16. No bumps, no missteps- or no “elite” college.
OP, I’m sorry that people (including me) have been bursting your bubble. I know that it can seem that there is only one “right” answer - to get the best college name on the back window of your parent’s car- but honestly: it’s a con. You can get a superb education, chock-a-block with more opportunities than you could ever take advantage of, at genuinely hundreds of colleges. MOST alums from the ‘elite’ colleges go on to have careers that you could get from any of those hundreds. You are smart and hardworking and whatever the roulette wheel of college admissions brings you, it will be all right- because you will make it all right,
Here endeth the rant!
OP, if you’re still here… have heart.
Some of the feedback has been harsh. You might feel hurt or defensive because people are misunderstanding or misinterpreting the situation. Here’s the good part, though - this is a fantastic test of how strangers might view your app. You now know what a stranger or AO might think if you were to submit an app with those descriptions. If people are misinterpreting things, you have the chance to re-word and make sure strangers understand you better. Or, if any of the negative feedback is based in reality, you now know how strangers will view certain things and have time to change direction or expand your work.
Much of this probably isn’t what you wanted to hear but in some ways maybe it’s exactly what you needed to hear. Had you waited and turned in apps it would have been too late to make any changes. Now you know some of the potential feedback and fallout, and can avoid it.
You sound like a hard working, intelligent great candidate. Good luck.
@sunnygnc I have a slightly sideways view of this. You have a list of schools that are on the most part going to be academically a lot more challenging than your high school, even if you are already at a challenging high school. Do you want to go to a school that is going to require a huge focus on academics? This will take away from your EC efforts.
I went to an academically very challenging university. I had to drop ECs that were available there and which I would have wanted to do but for which I just did not have time. If you do the same, then do it intentionally.
I do agree with other comments that you probably want to put a bit more focus right now on academics.
@TheBigChef Bet coffee that this one has family connections and plenty of help. Kind of like the kid with lots of high level research or internship experience, then you see one of the parents ran that lab or program. Or the kid who raises lots of money…from connections. Cynical? Yes. But that’s often how it rolls.
Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with help. But imo, you can read a lot into how a kid presents himself. That includes how he asks questions, whether those should have been answered by a close look at what the colleges say and show. Does he get what the college IS impressed by, what really shows drives, etc, etc, and what “shows” the college he’s likely to explore on campus, rather than just pursue the pre-set interests. Top colleges aren’t looking for the self designated CEO of some venture or founder of some anything club. Nor “passions.” They ARE looking for the thinking behind the choices, the range of them, the awareness of other opps around a kid. And more.
I have taken Mandarin 1, 2, 3, and 4. I took 1 and 2 in middle school and received HS credit for them. I took English 1 in 8th grade so there is no more English to take at my school. I also took bio in middle school for HS credit. I also only asked about my reach schools I do have a list of match and safety schools. Also, looks like I’m getting a B in physics 
@skieurope I took English 1 in 8th grade and my school ran out of English for me. What do I do?
Really, there are no other English courses to take? Even back in the dark ages, my HS had many, many options - science fiction, Shakespeare, creative writing, etc.
I’m with @MaineLonghorn . The “extremely competitive” HS has no English electives? There are no DE opportunities? There are no online electives?