Chance me + Reverse Chance me T20/30

Chance Me / Match Me
1

So I know I am only in 9th grade right now, but all I am asking for is the most probable university options for me, especially if I continue with the trend I am on. Here’s my background:

-Attend Online Charter School

-African-American female

-GPA: 4.0 (straight A’s)

-In all honors courses at the moment, except for US History (could have taken AP, but sorry I’m not willing to pretend to be dedicated to something just for the sake of being dedicated to it. Especially when I genuinely want to spend my time on things that my heart is in. I’d rather just study “history” on my own and am much more enriched)

-SAT: taking it in May, have not taken Algebra II yet, but will do my best, planning to get at least a 650 in all subject areas, and will improve the next time I take it. My final SAT score should be at least a 1460-1500 or above.

Intended major: Computer Science/Software Engineering

Current Accomplishments:

-Member of Computer Science Club (I tried my best to increase club membership and meeting attendance but we don’t allow “club ads” in our newspaper and it’s not like I can put up posters or anything like that…the most we’ve had is 2-3 people in a meeting at a time). However, I did take a stand and start giving my club advisor some ideas for fun activities we could do during the meetings that would make it more enriching for those who do join. So far we’ve learned about arduino programming (club advisor’s idea) and played coding puzzles on CodeinGame.

-I’m an editor and writer for my HS newspaper (I don’t think there is technically a “editor and chief” position, as we have a team of editors for both the MS and HS papers, and the club advisors have the final word on what submissions are accepted. The team edits all the submissions, formats the layout, we setup communication between teams, and give input on deadlines and such things. I’ve published artwork and written work such as interviews, short stories, and essays and also acted as a mentor to the Middle School Editing team and helped them learn the ins and outs of editing and formatting.

-I’m a self taught pianist. I can read sheet music and play songs such as Fur Elise and Minuet in G Major BWV 114. My “keyboard”, if you could even call it that, is not of very good quality but I plant on upgrading this year. I am a late-elementary, early-intermediate player level 2/3.

-I’m a self published author. I am currently working on an anthology of short stories I am going to publish on the Amazon Kindle Store at the end of National Novel Writing Month April/July 2019. I’ve already been published on Inkitt, TeenInk, and DEV Community (won cash reward for participating in #shecoded).

-I’m a self-taught game and software developer (as you can see I really like learning on my own xD which is something I will probably write about for college apps essay–I don’t know). I have participated in various game development competitions (called gamejams). So far I have only done demos, but will certainly have uploaded full games/apps to app store/game jams way before I graduate.

-This summer I will be starting college classes at my local community college. I am graduating a year early, so I am trying to earn enough credits to test out for first and second year classes at university. I will apply as a freshman, test out of the classes I have already taken, and graduate college in two years since I would have earned enough credits to mostly skip those first two years of classes. That’s the plan anyway.

Okay so this is the stuff I have already done. These next bullet points are my future plans. They only go as far as next march/april so I will probably find more competitions and activities for the rest of 2020…but everyone needs a break once in a while!

Grade 10 Courses:
-AP Physics (planning on 4/5)
-AP United States Gov. or AP Psychology instead, if my school offers it (planning on 4/5)
-AP Computer Science (planning on 4/5)
-Honors English 10
-Honors Algebra 2
-Spanish 2

Grade 12 Courses: (This is just a draft, some of these may be substituted for dual enrollment or community college classes)

-AP Chemistry
-AP Lit/Lang and Composition
-Honors Pre-calc (will be taking full-blown calculus in community college or as part of my course plan as a CS major)
-AP Macro/MicroEconomics
-AP Spanish Language

Activities

• SAP CoE High School Summer Orientation Week
• ACT-SO (hope to either win (1st/2nd place) or be an honorable mention in at least 2-3 competitions) 
• Coded By Kids 
    ◦ Register for their workshops and participate in Ctrl+Shift Competition
• Founder and President of school's Speech and Debate Club (I want to hold annual in person mock trials)
• NHS/SNHS 
    ◦ Teen volunteer for TechGirlz (I have already participated in their workshops as well, but their cutoff for who can attend is 9th graders so :/)
• Tech Internship
• Published In the following Newspapers/Magazines:
    ◦ Narrative Magazine 
    ◦ Totem Head 
    ◦ The Atlantic 
    ◦ Daily Science Fiction
    ◦ New York Times (Student Editorial Contest + Submit Opinion Essays)
    ◦ The Washington Post (Op-Ed)
    ◦ Basically anyone worth it with open calls for submissions,but I won't go overboard because I like to do other things too
• Scholastic Writing + Art Competition 2020 (hoping for gold/silver medal, or honorable mention at the least)

Things I will have hopefully accomplished by the time I graduate:

-TeenInk: I currently hold a bronze badge (close to getting silver) and am hoping to attain a platinum/diamond badge by senior year. Badges are based on how many of your submissions are approved by TeenInk editors; platinum and diamond are above the gold badge. The best badge you can get is Elite, which is 100+ submissions approved, platinum is 20, and diamond is 50. By that time I’ll probably have been published to their actual magazine and/or will have gotten Editor’s Choice and a few of my submissions.

-Piano: I want to be either advanced intermediate to early-advanced level 4/5 by the time I graduate. I’m not sure about performing or doing competitions. I am genuinely not motivated to do a competition just so I can say that a won “this” award and was ranked number 1/2/3. I like playing the piano because it is fun to me, not so I can be good enough to enter some competition. I don’t know if this is going to be a problem.

Okay so I think that was everything…so far. I know it seems like a lot but most of these things will most likely be accomplished by march/april of next year, except for the TeenInk badge and piano skill, of course. But afterwards I still will have an ample amount of time to do even more stuff!

Say, I did all of these things (which I will), and got a 1460-1500 SAT score, do you think I deserve to go to a Top 20/30 institution? I feel bad because everyone who goes to T20/30 has all these international and national accolades that demonstrate that they are capable. They own a business or invented some super cool new tech. Do you guys think that my activities demonstrate I’m capable enough–dedicated enough–to go to a T20/T30? I think so. But the admissions officers might disagree :/. I don’t want to do what everyone else is doing just so I can get in. Don’t my experiences count too?

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This is so very much the wrong question. It’s not a judgement on you, as a person.

Put aside the whole idea of T20/T30, b/c that is not actually a real thing: T20/30 LAC? National University? Also, some of the best CompSci programs are not at the fanciest names

Instead go back to your list of things that you are planning to do to “demonstrate” what you are capable of- and notice that you will “finish” almost all of them in the next year. But you, as a growing developing person, should be growing and developing in the areas that are truly interesting to you. Instead of collecting merit badges, focus on figuring out which activities really speak to you and continue to focus on how you can do more to grow and develop in them. Balance breadth with depth.

I am not a fan of taking APs just to take APs, but there are other reasons than ‘pretending to be dedicated’ for you to take an AP. Does your school have a guidance counselor? If so, s/he will have to check a box on your application that ask if you have taken the ‘most rigorous’ course load available to you. Have you talked to your GC, to let them know that you are looking to apply to highly competitive schools? Do you know if your GC can tick that box?
Another reason that it might be in your interests to take some APs: online schools do not necessarily have a reputation as being the most rigorous (speaking in general; yours might). If it doesn’t, an AP course with a good AP score can demonstrate that you are working at the level that highly selective schools expect.

This is factually not true*, and it is even less true of students in grade 9. What they do have is strong grades in rigorous classes, essays that convey who they are, and ECs that speak to the kind of student that the individual school is looking for.

*first hand knowledge of this

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Thank you so much for your reply! You’ve really helped me!! I talk to my GC a lot and she knows that I always try my best and challenge myself to the nth degree in my classes, so she’ll definitely put a check mark on that. She also knows about my plan for community college, and how I’ll most likely transfer to Drexel afterwards. I am also taking a College Readiness class in 12th grade, so we’ll be able to discuss that stuff in even more depth then.

Most of the activities I chose I found out about from other people (classmates, friends/family). Then I picked out the ones I genuinely wanted to do because I think they will be fun and enhance my coding skills/experience. But if I wasn’t gonna be a software dev, I’d totally be a writer/journalist. That’s why I like publishing and newspaper management so much. However, I was kind of getting overwhelmed and you just lifted the weights off my shoulders! I keep feeling like I have to add more stuff, but after reading your reply, I’m back to actually being happy with where I’m at.

I totally get what you’re saying about the APs. APUSH was just an exception for me, though. Personally, I really didn’t feel like I would have been enriched taking the class, and that’s my number one priority when it comes to choosing classes. With the College Board having like 38 APs, coupled with community college classes, I’m sure I’ll be able to have a rigorous course load; taking classes I’m truly interested/enriched by, in the future.

In your reply to me talking about national accolades:
“This is factually not true*, and it is even less true of students in grade 9. What they do have is strong grades in rigorous classes, essays that convey who they are, and ECs that speak to the kind of student that the individual school is looking for.”

You really cleared the air here! Thanks again!