Applying next year--chance me?

<p>Looking to major in econ, bio, or foreign policy. Currently undecided. Applying regular.</p>

<p>Gender: F
Ethnicity: Asian
Location: Southwest
College Class Year: 2013
High School: Public</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA - Unweighted: 3.85
GPA - Weighted: 4.90
Class Rank: top 5% (Currently ranked 8/700, but that will probably change after 2nd semester grades go in)
Course selection: All AP or IB courses. (Tested in 2 IBs (chem and spanish) and 4 APs) Next year will be all AP and IB courses as well.</p>

<p>Scores:
SAT total: 1410/2110
SAT I Math: 680
SAT I Critical Reading: 730
SAT I Writing: 700
ACT-32</p>

<p>Will be retaking SAT and ACT aiming for 1550/2250-2300
ECs
-Speech and Debate (9-12), President/Head Captain (11,12), Policy Captain (10)
-National Spanish Honors Society (9-12), President (12), Publicity Manager (11)
-Key Club (9-12), President (12), Lt Gov (12)
-National Honors Society, Secretary (12) <—considering dropping
-Governor’s Youth Commission(11-12), Chair of a committee and team leader (12)
-Mayor’s Youth Commission, Chair(11-12)(this upcoming year)
-National Youth Council (just chosen to join)
-Independent Volunteer Project
-Science research–For the past year at the state university working with a professor. As a sophomore, independently seeked out a grad student to serve as a mentor (9-12)
-And a myriad of other stuff like MUN, and I played tennis during 9-10 but didn’t my junior year so I don’t think I’m putting that on.</p>

<p>Employment
This summer: Working at a university lab that I’ve been researching in all year.</p>

<p>Honors/Awards
1st place Congressional Speaking- Local Tournament
2nd place Expository Speaking- National Tournament
3rd place Extemporaneous Speaking- National Tournament
And a myriad of semis and finals for local tournaments…
1st place- My school and another school in my district’s science fair (three years now)
2nd place- State science fair (2007)
5th place- Science symposium–also was the state delegate to the National symposium
HOBY delegate
Summer program–1 of 10 US representatives chosen to attend a fully scholarship funded international program by the US State Department
–1 of 9 girls chosen to attend a mountaineering/glacier/leadership program in Seattle
—State delegate to the Congressional Academy program funded by the US Dept. of Education
—Various leadership summits
I’m aiming for more speech and debate awards and getting to ISEF and ITS, etc.</p>

<p>Recs/Essays
I’ve got one good teacher rec for sure, and my counselor actually knows me. I have like 3 good outside of school recs from the ppl I work with. Essays will hopefully be good. I used to love writing when I had time.</p>

<p>Hooks–ECs, and summer programs. Weaknesses: GRADES (I got 4 Bs 1st semester of junior year and will probably get 3 Bs 2nd semester of junior year…they’re in the same classes of chem, and math. Otherwise, before that it was all As)<–How bad will this hurt me?</p>

<p>Thanks for all your help!</p>

<p>How competitive is your high school? I find that where your high school sends its class in past years is really helpful in determining your chances.</p>

<p>your awards seem really cool. i think your grades are fantastic. a whole lot better than mine anyway. Your SATs are okay. If you can improve them all the better. I think you’ll get in…???</p>

<p>thanks! i’ll work on improving my SAT. Our high school is okay on competitiveness. We send ppl to UPenn, Berkeley, Duke, Swarthmore, but not places like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc.</p>

<p>You might consider Reed, teaching bio at a level resulting in the highest percentage of future bio PhDs in the country; see [REED</a> COLLEGE PHD PRODUCTIVITY](<a href=“http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html]REED”>Doctoral Degree Productivity - Institutional Research - Reed College).</p>

<p>I’d say it’s a match; make your essays great and you should be okay.</p>

<p>everything is solid except you need higher test scores. study ur butt off, retake and youll be fine. 27% (and rising) acceptance rate is not too hard to crack</p>