chances/importance of SAT II's

Colleges & Universities Stanford University
1

<p>hey i’m a korean female from the DC area in Virginia.
my current GPA is 4.0 (3.96, which rounds to 4.0?)
9th grade: 3.8
World History[honors], Biology[honors], Geometry[honors], English [honors],advanced orchestra, japanese I
10th grade: 4.0
World History [honors], Chemistry [honors], English [honors], Algebra II [honors], advanced orchestra, japanese II
11th grade: 4.1 (switched schools)
IB Physics I, IB Math SL I(precalculus honors, IB Biology SL, AP US History, latin I (didn’t offer japanese at my new school), advanced orchestra
i will be taking AP Government, AP LIterature, IB Math HL I (AP Calculus BC), latin II, advanced orchestra, and two college courses at the local college (George Mason) and those two courses will most likely be Animal Biology and some kind of modern history/modern literature</p>

<p>extra curriculars
violin since i was 9 years old
horseback riding since i was 9 years old
piano since i was 5
volunteer work for animal rescue groups, few hours a week
volunteer work for Northern Virginia Therapeutic Riding</p>

<p>academic recognitions
received letters from Virginia House of Delegates and House of Represenatives (or something) for my grades in 10th grade
name was listed in the washington post, korea times
most likely commended/semifinalist(?) for National Merit Scholarship</p>

<p>others:
senior regional orchestra 2005
junior district orhcestra 2002, junior district orchestra coprincipal 2004
school orchestra section leader
will be attending the Cornell Summer College Veterinary Medicine Program summer 2006
very possible internship/work experience at local veterinary clinic</p>

<p>stats:
i haven’t taken the SAT yet, i’m taking it in june, but i’m aiming for 2200-2300
i’m taking SAT II Biology and US History this saturday, hoping for at least 700 in each
PSAT scores from october were 690M, 680CR, 650W i’ll most likely be commended for the national merit thing (I was top 3%)</p>

<p>*question: how important are my scores in the SAT II’s for ADMISSION into stanford? i know they count for class placement, but i’ve been getting mixed feedback on the importance of them on actually getting into Stanford</p>

<p>other schools i’m looking into:
brown
cornell
georgetown
harvard
yale
william and mary
northwestern
university of chicago
upenn</p>

2

<p>SAT IIs are important, and most uberelites want them in the 90+ percentiles. They are one of the best standardized indicators they have of the quality of your high school. As for chances, realize that it’s Stanford, and they have a reputation for a somewhat random admissions scheme given an applicant pool that is self-selectively strong and mostly homogenous. You’re not going to get a likely letter, but you’re not necessarily out of the door.</p>

3

<p>anyone else have a comment?</p>

4

<p>if you were going to be commended, i think you would have gotten a letter already. I don’t think 2030 will get you commended on the PSATs. Anyways, I’ve heard that they are somewhat important, and are used to complement your SAT I score, so… do well. Good luck, we are on the same boat, hah!</p>

5

<p>“my current GPA is 4.0 (3.96, which rounds to 4.0?)”</p>

<p>lol, that one is funny.</p>

<p>And yes, all SATs are pretty important. Low SATs will take away any chance of admittance, but high SATs will not garauntee you a spot</p>

<p>Btw, to be honest, your stats are not that great. If you can get a 2200+ SAT though, then there’ll probably a good chance that you get into at least one or two of those schools you listed</p>

<p>What is your unweighted gpa btw? I had assumed that all those gpas you listed were unweighted, but how the heck did you get that 4.1? If those are weighted gpas, then sorry - you’re probably out of the running for good</p>

6

<p>Are you from TJ?</p>

<p>If so, your GPA is low. Perhaps cripplingly so, I’m not sure.</p>

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<p>no i’m not from TJ. i’m from Robinson. and as for my GPA, only two of my classes were +.5 on my GPA, although i’m taking 4 IB/AP classes. my unweighted GPA for 10th and 11th grade both years is 4.0
my GPA for this year WEIGHTED is 4.14 (adding up 4.0’s in 5 classes, then 4.5’s in my other 2, and i divided that by 7 since i have 7 classes whcih gives me a 4.14 if i’m doing it correctly.)
9th grade is 3.8…had a bit of a rough year.
and i took the PSAT in october 2005 and when i got the score back it said i qualified for the scholarship competition so i’m just guessing i got commended, it’s nothing definite yet.</p>

8

<p>They don’t really look at 9th grade grades anyway, so it hardly matters. It could affect your rank though which could be an issue… but probably won’t, especially since the switching schools makes things tricky (and rank sorta meaningless). Your stats aren’t low. At all. They don’t really exist yet, at least the part that could be lower. I highly recommend signing up for SAT II exams in June if it’s still possible so you can retake them as needed. Or were you planning on taking the SAT I then? </p>

<p>I would guess that SAT II exams carry more weight in some ways than SAT I exams. In either case they just complete the picture. If you say you are strong in physics and your teacher says you are strong in physics and you get an A in physics but you get a 500 on the SAT II… it seems that something is wrong. But the above is true but instead you get a 750, for example, and a 5 on the AP, then it seems you probably are good at physics. They should just confirm what is already clear from the application.</p>

9

<p>203 should get you NM Commended, no problem. Although Commended doesn’t really help you much in the admission process.</p>

<p>Also, just so you know, you’ll need better achievements in your ECs than “been doing it since I was 5”. Schools are largely not impressed by how long you’ve been pursuing an activity, but moreso by what you’ve achieved in it (ie, what kind of awards or recognition you’ve won), or what significance the activity has to you.</p>

<p>Tetra: You like to use the word “cripplingly”, don’t you</p>

10

<p>I used it twice, in the same context. Sometimes a word comes along that so perfectly sums up what I’m trying to say that I’ll inadventently reuse it. Sorry.</p>

11

<p>That’s ok, it’s a pretty cool word</p>