Chance an unoptimistic Junior

Raedne
Thu, 14 May 2009 01:10:48 +0000

I am very uncertain of my chances of admission to most of the schools on my list. I’ve switched high schools twice (I’ve been to three)… I am interested in foreign languages, history, philosophy and biology/medicine and will probably base my major off of those.

Male
Arab American (Egyptian)
California

Rank (Current High School) 11/972 (This was last semester, probably closer to #1 this semester due to weighted GPA.)
GPA
Weighted: 4.3
Unweighted: 3.9

SAT
2080 (Planning to retake in fall)
SAT IIs and ACT will be taken in June

Courses/AP
Scores:
World History: 5

Currently taking:
AP Biology
AP Chemistry
AP English Composition
AP Spanish
AP US History
Pre-Calculus

I have taken/am taking 6 AP classes, planning to take ~5 senior year for a total of 11.
I might take courses at a community college.

I just finished taking the AP tests and I am confident that I got a 5 on all tests except Spanish (Probably got a 3 or maybe less :).

Extra-Curricular Activities (Honest, not much, but I am not extremely passionate about any of these)
40 hours working at a children’s hospital’s cafeteria.
Chess Club for 2 years and next
Junior Statesmen of America this year and next

About
Parent’s divorced, both of them are physicians. I’ve lived in both the Middle East and North America and traveled relatively extensively.
I play the oud (Middle Eastern stringed instrument).
I ride my bike to school and back (2 miles one way).
Trilingual: English, Spanish, Arabic (I’ll try to learn French or another Romance language over the summer… I think being a polyglot is the greatest thing going for me right now.)
Financial aid will most probably not be a problem.

Schools that I will apply to:
Johns Hopkins (Early Decision)
Cornell (proximity to my family, highly doubt that I will get into this school :<)
UC Berkeley

Safeties:
RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic in upstate NY)
UC San Diego

I got College Search letters from Princeton, UChicago, UPenn, Duke and Columbia, but judging by other people’s applications on this forum I’m not sure if I should even bother… Does anybody think I have a chance at these schools?

Thanks for reading/replying.