Chance me, a rising junior!

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Rising Junior here. Just looking for opinions/analysis of my course load, ECs, and ultimate educational goals, in terms of chances to schools listed below.

Gender: Male
Ethnicity: mixed - African American & Caucasian
Income: <$50,000
State: California
Weighted GPA: 4.0
Current UC GPA: GRD 10, 4.0
Rank: 1/150
School type: small public, 600 students, uncompetitive (majority of seniors attend CC thereafter, or close CSUs), but someone got admitted to Berkeley two years ago, which is revolutionary for us!
Planned College Major: Sociology
SAT/ACT: will take PSAT in Oct, as a junior. I plan to take SAT/ACT in spring of 2019 - praying, hoping, wishing for the best possible math score, as I am bound to perform terribly. (SEE NOTE BELOW)

Note: two family deaths coupled with a huge move from the inner city into an outlying suburb caused my middle school grades to drop immensely, especially my knowledge in the subject of mathematics. This caused a trickle down into the course selection for my 9th grade year. Instead of placing in “Math 1,” I was placed in “Math 1A,” which takes one semester of Math 1 and bundles it up into a year (2 semesters) in itself. It’s very slow, and I am basically during Freshman algebra . Just having completed sophomore year, I have finished “Math 1B” with an A, and I have tried to ask my academic counselor if I could just take Math 2 over the summer, but she said that the school does not allow for that. Taking Integrated Math 1A and 1B can be difficult to advance by taking community college math courses in geometry or intermediate algebra, since they distribute the algebra and geometry across the integrated math courses. Because of this, I will have to take the SAT and ACT the end of 11th grade, and then again on the last 12th grade test dates, in order to minimize my missing math when taking them.

AP/Honors Classes:
APs aren’t offered to freshmen/sophomores at my school, but this summer I will be taking a dual enrollment course on Health Education through the local CC. Will be involved in AP courses junior and senior year. There are no honors courses at my school.

Junior Year Classes (signed up for):
AP English Lang + Comp.
AP United States History
Sociology Dual Enrollment Course through CC
Psychology Dual Enrollment Course through CC
Math 2 (yes, as a junior, I know :confused: )
Chemistry
AVID 11
Spanish 2

Senior Year (planned):
AP English Literature
AP Bio
AP World History
Government (required course, but I might concurrently self-study for the AP Comparative Gov. & Pol. Exam)
Spanish 3 (possibly AP Spanish, depending on how well I do in Spanish 2 and if it is viable to skip Spanish 3, lol.)
AVID 12
Math 3

ECs + awards:

  • Volunteer at local church food bank - I am the organizer of essentially leading a squadron of Baby Boom volunteers into the task of feeding the homeless in my city! It is a beautiful opportunity, and I genuinely love not only organizing it, but helping out the the less-fortunate citizens of my city.
  • Church Youth Leader - pretty self-explanatory.
  • Bonsai business - also a beautiful endeavor I have took upon myself this summer of 2018: growing, selling, and distributing self-grown, self-pruned Bonsai Trees. Right now my “business” (a word that makes me feel extravagant yet undeniably poor at the end of the day, lol) consists of me and my mum. We are considering taking the task to platforms like Etsy + local artisan shops around the area, but a lot has to happen for that to be done.
  • co-founder of my school’s Black Student Union - relatively small (~7 members), but very impactful to AA representation at my high school.
  • Helped to start a an event around Haircuts for the Homeless in my city.
  • I am heavily involved in park cleanups around my city.
  • This is an EC that is very personal yet worth noting: babysitting my little sister while mom works long shifts to support fam. during the weekdays and summer.
  • I am going to try and start up my school’s first NHS chapter in August.
  • JV Honor Block & Varsity Honor Block since fresho year.
  • Organized (with the help of others) a rally (peaceful) in our community about school safety + giving the youth a voice, especially w/ regards to gun violence and safety.
  • Spirit of AVID award freshman and sophomore year.

Note: I carry no major national awards to brag about. Just local recognition. I have very little leadership positions and, simply put, I do the ECs I love and engage in only the clubs that interest me rather than add up to a large quota.

Hooks: I will be the first in family to attend college, URM (biracial), one-parent household

Note about hooks: A lot of unfortunate circumstances in my life have prevented me from doing a lot of things; many opportunities have been lost. In my family, we can’t exactly be so focused on college and future higher education when the rent is due the coming week. And this hurts, because when talking with my mother about college, she gets emotional and worrisome about the entire topic in general, every fear stemming in regards to… yup, $$$ :confused:
Do colleges look into hooks?

Schools of interest:
SAFETY: CSU Sac & UC Merced
MATCH: UC Davis

REACH: UC Berkeley
DREAM (but ultimately impossible for many reasons):Stanford, Princeton, UChicago

2

You are going to be competitive. Prep well for your standardized tests. Also fight to get into the higher math class as is being discussed in your other thread.

3

Hey there, I’m also a rising junior here as well!

Please excuse my grammar, I should be working on my math homework (ironic ik) due tomorrow, but oh well.

First of all, I commend you for deciding to take the initiative of aiming high when it comes to higher education, especially when you’ve overcome a lot (I hope everything is well). From what I’ve noticed so far, top colleges usually analyze both, the courses your school offers, and the courses other competitive students in your school are taking. In regards to your EC’s, all that matters is that you enjoy what you do and are able to convey your genuine passion through essays (you don’t want them to think you’re a resume padder! gasp!). So far, you’re pretty good when it comes to leadership: co-founded a club, church youth leader, helped start an event, possible NHS chapter founder, etc.

Yes, colleges/uni take hooks into consideration.

You are a competitive applicant, definitely more qualified than me (i’ve fallen head over heels in love with Stanford -.- their amazing financial aids, campus, and quirky traditions have me drooling)

Anything is possible. You surely have the work ethic, drive, and ambition! Wherever you do end up, it will all fall into place, goodluck!

Catch me stalking the Stanford results threads lol.

4

You seem like you are doing great. Think about applying to the Questbridge College Prep Scholars program: https://www.questbridge.org/high-school-students/college-prep-scholars

Math-wise, get started now with Khan Academy math to supplement your school math and make sure everything is solid; https://www.khanacademy.org/math and when you have a bit more under your belt, do the Khan Academy SAT prep as well https://www.khanacademy.org/sat You don’t need anything past Geometry to do well on the SAT, so just focus on mastery and getting comfortable with the format of standardized testing and you should do fine.

In general, while the CA public system does a great job of providing an “affordable” education, it isn’t loan-free or financial-strain free for low-income students. A strong student like you can often obtain a fully-funded, debt-free education by looking farther afield, at private colleges and universities that meet full need, or public U’s with guaranteed merit aid. Questbridge is one way to get to the coveted “full ride,” but not the only way. You can get LOTS of advice here on how to get a great education without the kind of financial strain your mother is losing sleep about. Keep doing what you’re doing and you will have terrific opportunities.

5

You are young and there is still plenty of high school still to go. I would agree that your “dream” schools are high reaches. However, at this point I would not call them “impossible”. Work hard for the next couple of years and see how you are doing.