Am I being a realist? Generic chance topic

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>I am currently a junior in Highschool, and I have no idea where I want to go to college. Nor am I really sure what I want to do in my life. However, the few places I have looked at I am not sure if I am being a realist about, so feel free to tell me if I am out of my league, or make some suggestions. This is not an affirmation topic.</p>

<p>Here is some “about me” for colleges.
I prefer warmer weather to colder weather, but I am not against or new to cold and rain.
I love college-consortiums
I want a social scene, but at the same time I enjoy having a serene and tranquil place where I can sleep and work
I like going to the beach, not quite a huge fan of snow-sports though.
I don’t care how homogenous or diverse the student population is
I prefer people who don’t direct their political views onto others, so I’m fine with liberals and conservatives until they try to change my moderate views
I am an agnostic, but I respect religious people until they try to fault my beliefs
I love scenic beauty on a campus
I want a city where there is some stuff to do, but it doesn’t have to be like Boston or New York. Though, I wouldn’t mind having a nearby city of the sort, or at least a bigger more metropolitan area
I WILL be applying for financial aid
The total undergraduate class size doesn’t matter too much to me, but I do think I’d prefer small classes
I don’t like preppy/snobbish/elitist people regardless of what school they go to, but I can live with them</p>

<p>State: Washington
Income: $70-$90,000
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: Male
School type: I guess a competitive public, we always send the most kids to UW Seattle
First generation college student</p>

<p>Career paths: I am interested in a path that could lead me down to the medical field, pre-med, biology, etc. Also, I’m equally interested in business.
Degree options: B.S. or a B.A. obviously, but if I can I want to duel-major or duel-degree, not sure if I have to be selected or this or apply though.</p>

<p>Schools applying to (subject to change)
UW Seattle (honors college?)
WASU (honors college)
WUSTL- early decision
U Penn
Brown
Rice
Carleton
Pomona or CMC (one of these, not both)</p>

<p>Highschool Academics</p>

<p>Freshmen: Japanese 100, PE/Life fitness, Physical Science, English, Math core 100, and Social Studies. 3.05 and 3.15 GPA respectively
*during summer I took the equivalent to freshmen “Honors Math core 2”, but crammed into a month)
Sophmore: Beginning Marketing, Math core 200, Pre-IB English, Japanese 200, Pre-IB chemistry, Pre-IB World History. 2nd semester same courses, but switch Pre-IB chemistry to Pre-IB Biology. 3.23 and 4.00 GPA
*during summer I took “Intro to chemistry”, “Beginning Photography”, and “elements of pre-calculus” at a local community college, earning A-equivelent grades in them</p>

<p>Junior: IB Philosophy, IB History of the Americas, IB Biology I, IB English, Advanced Marketing, Japanese 400, Math core 300
*during fall I took “intro to organic chem./biochem”, “Advanced Photography”, and “Pre-calc I”
*During winter I took General inorganic chem II/lecture and Pre-calc II
*During Spring I took General inorganic chem. III/lecture, and Calc I</p>

<p>Senior: IB Calculus, IB Biology II, IB Senior English, Retail Marketing, IB Senior History, IB Theory of Knowledge, Japanese 500. I predict a 4.00 for the year, but not indefinite.
Final unweighted GPA I predict a 3.7-3.91. I don’t know how my school does unweighted, but I know they don’t give us one as sophomores. Though, I am sure I will be in the top decile of my class.</p>

<p>Test scores
ACT: Math (30), Science (30), English (36), Writing (12), Reading (36). Composite: 34, I don’t think I’ll retake
PSAT: 230
SAT: 2250</p>

<p>Leadership/Extra Curriculars</p>

<p>Medical Club/HOSA
10th Grade- co-founded with a friend, Co-President
11th Grade- Vice President
12th Grade- Vice President</p>

<p>JSA
10th grade- Director
11th Grade- Vice President
12th Grade- President</p>

<p>Key Club
10th Grade- Fundraiser
11th Grade- Fundraiser
12th Grade- President</p>

<p>DECA
11th Grade- VP of community Service
12th Grade- Vice President</p>

<p>Japanese National Honor Society
12th grade- President</p>

<p>Work Experience
10/20/07-04/23/08: Ostroms, Cashier
4/30/09-Present: Jamba Juice, cashier/juicer
09/1/09-06/11/10: Student Store, Manager (Not a paid job, but it falls under job not volunteer, we sell food, clothing, etc to kids during lunch)</p>

<p>Volunteer
Key Club- expected 150 hours by senior year (50 hours each year from soph-senior)
Hospital- 1000ish hours by senior year</p>

<p>Awards
Freshmen: Honor Roll, Japanese Award
Sophmore: National Honor Society, Japanese National Honor Society, Key-club member of the year award, 5th place at FBLA regionals
Junior: NHS, JNHS, Key-club member of the year award, 2nd place at DECA regionals, 1st place at DECA state, 1st place at DECA nationals
Senior: TBA (I predict the first 3 though)</p>

<p>Other information
Reischauer Scholar
My poetry has been published by our school literary magainze, and in national anthologies of Highschool students
I attended “Business Week”, “Advanced Business Week”, and “Healthcare Week”, at colleges during the summer
Hispanic Scholar?
National Merit?</p>

<p>Reccomendations: I have some people lined up
Essay: I have no clue what the prompt will be, so I can’t say. </p>

<p>Other note: I am not giving myself an excuse, but during my freshmen year I did slack off alot. I got a C+ first semester, and then a few B-s 2nd. And in my sophmore year I did well in all of my classes, except for Pre-IB freaking chemistry where I got a D, otherwise I got all A’s, A-s, and a B+.</p>

2

<p>I have no idea about Honors Colleges at public Us, but you look like a match for nearly all of these. Brown is tough for anyone, though.</p>

3

<p>I think you’re race combined with your impressive test scores are going to get you into a lot of good schools. I think you need to raise your GPA though. That is the only thing holding you back at this point.</p>

4

<p>Thanks, but keep in mind my GPA is out of 4.00. I don’t know how my school does weighted GPA, but I think it runs from Junior-senior year. But if you did mean my UW GPA was a bit low, may I ask why? I know a 3.91/4.00 isn’t perfect, but I don’t really consider it bad.</p>

5

<p>Oh and I forgot to mention (since my school is an IB school instead of an AP school (we only have 2, and we are getting a couple more next year) that, if it wasn’t apparant, I am an IB diploma candidate.</p>

<p>Also, I hate doing this since A) it makes me seem like they weren’t important to me, and B) It makes me seem elitist like “Oh, here’s some more stuff I did”. Plus, it probably won’t make too much of a difference, but I do love poetry, so I figured what the heck.</p>

<p>Junior Awards- Reflections state award in Poetry/literature</p>

6

<p>You have very good chances everywhere.</p>

7

<p>Also, since you’re hispanic your chances of getting in are greatly improved. I know a hispanic kid who took pretty much the same classes as you except lacking the leadership. However, he was very passionate about drama and had a 4.0. He will be attending Princeton this fall.</p>

<p>My only suggestion to you is to be like the Princeton kid and focus on a passion. From what you listed it sounds like you are a very determined, put-together kid. However, it seems like you’re trying to do “too much” just to impress colleges. </p>

<p>I know a kid who had a 4.0, 5’s on all his AP tests, great leadership and EC’s just like you. However, he put all of it on his app and got rejected from Yale.</p>

<p>I know another girl who had a 4.0, fewer AP classes but extremely strong and focused in the arena of history. She got accepted into Yale.</p>

<p>The moral of the story is to note your strongest points rather than say all you did because that’s actually more beneficial. If you don’t believe me verify it.</p>

8

<p>I definetly understand where you are coming from, so thank you. But in the end, I don’t think I’d sacrifice what I enjoy doing in an effort to get into a college, kind of the reverse of people doing what they’d want to do to get into college. Unless you are saying pick a couple things to put on my app, then I get what you mean, but I thought 4 clubs was a decent number. So in otherwords, “show passion for business”, “show passion for medicine”, etc.</p>