Chances Please? I'm freaking out

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>here’s my stats profile:
Student:</p>

<p>User Name: alienwithane
Gender: F
High School: Public
High School Type: sends many grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.89
GPA - Weighted: 4.17
Class Rank: top 25%
Class Size: 399</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 770
SAT I Critical Reading: 780
SAT I Writing: 780</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Significant Extracurriculars: Debate Club, National Honors Society, Gay-Straight Alliance
Athletic Status - list sport and your level: JV Softball, Club Soccer
Volunteer/Service Work: Tutored 2nd and 3rd graders in reading 3 hours a week freshman and sophomore year
tutor high school students through national honors society
College Summer programs: Stanford EPGY-Intro to Engineering</p>

<p>Colleges of Interest:</p>

<p>College: Stanford University, Choice #: 1, ED/EA: Yes, Athlete: No, Legacy: No, Status: Will Apply
I’m also interested in other top colleges (harvard, yale, columbia, johns hopkins, uc berkeley), especially ones with good engineering programs</p>

<p>Desired College Characteristics:</p>

<p>Location type: Urban, Small City
Size: Medium (5,000 - 10,000), Large (10,000 - 18,000), Very Large (Over 18,000)</p>

<p>Area: East Coast, West Coast, Midwest
Importance of cost: Secondary</p>

<p>Also, I’m ranked 96/399 (my school is pretty competitive), I’ve taken 5 AP Classes and plan to take 4 more next year (my school only offers a total of 13 AP classes), and I’ve scored a 5 on the AP European History Test and plan to get 4’s or 5’s on AP US History, AP Calculus AB, and AP English Language and (hopefully) a 3 or 4 on AP Japanese
I am also involved in my school’s orchestra (although i’m not very good)
I have a few other questions:
I’m a girl interested in engineering, will that help my chances?
How much will my low class ranking affect my chances?
Is there any way I can strengthen my extracurriculars? Is it worth it to join a few more clubs senior year (i’m genuinely interested in them, but i don’t want to seem like i’m only joining them to get into college)?
I’m a year young for my grade, should I emphasize that in my application (will it serve as an advantage because it shows i’m smart, or will it be bad because i’ll seem too young)?
Also, what should I write about for my essay? Potential topics include: dad getting laid off/starting his own business and how it affected me, being questioned about my hispanic ethnicity because I don’t look like I’m Mexican, being a “nerd” in high school (hiding high grades/test scores to get people to like me), how important diversity is to me (how joining the softball team allowed me to meet kids who i never would have interacted with before)
sorry there’s so much…</p>

2

<p>oh, and my weighted gpa is only factoring in ap’s (not honors classes) and i took 3 honors classes freshman year, 2 honors classes sophomore year, 1 honors class this year, and 1 honors class next year. the only classes i haven’t taken honors are my language, orchestra, and science (my school doesn’t do honors science freshman and sophomore year).
and also, the only b’s i have gotten were all received the first semester of my freshman year, since then i have had straight a’s. will that change my chances?</p>

3

<p>Great GPA/SAT scores. Also you seemed to have passed many AP exams. I think your chances are better than good. I can only speak for Berkeley though, because my brother goes there. I believe he had a 4.0 + community service. You definitely want to look into community service right now because that will be EXTREMELY helpful on your application. As for your essay, I think you could focus on your father being laid off. However, do incorporate your experiences on the softball team. Schools love athletes. Good luck.</p>

4

<p>Harvard, Yale, Stanford, will be crapshoots for just about anyone. You look good for JHU and Berkeley though. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/904119-chance-nervous-junior.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/904119-chance-nervous-junior.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>That rank might hurt you but your school seems extremely competitive based off of your rank/SAT score.</p>